Harley Benton TE-90QM HH Trans Blue

I bought this guitar on a whim because I liked the finish and it cost next to nothing.

The construction seems solid, albeit with some minor defects in the painting of the interior and some cracks and chips in the fretboard inlays.

For any serious usage, the pickups would probably need replacing, since they are fairly thin-sounding, and since previous experience with the HB guitars suggests the shielding may not be perfect. One should also be aware that the pickup sets in the red and blue models are completely different, which was not obvious to me when flipping through the list of models.

The factory set-up required very little work to be comfortably playable. I have not noticed any warping or intonation problems since the initial adjustments.

All in all, this is a nice-looking and very cheap guitar but nothing special. However, as a beginner's guitar, or one that you won't cry over if it breaks, it seems like a reasonable choice.

This is my 5th Harley Benton guitar, so I now consider myself a loyal Thomann customer as they have never delivered a bad guitar to me. The TE-90QM was ordered as a Christmas present to myself on the 12th December. After a few days I hadn?t had any progress confirmation and the money hadn?t been taken from my account, so I decided to cancel the order and reorder after the Christmas period as I didn?t want the guitar to be held up and knocking around a warehouse for a week or more over Christmas. Just after I sent the email, I got an email from Thomann that the guitar was actually going through quality control so I phoned Thomann and told them to ignore the cancellation email, (so full marks for the English speaking and helpful staff at Thomann!).

The guitar was received several days before Christmas and thank you Thomann for delivering at the busiest time of the year. My first impressions was of slight bewilderment as my guitar isn?t actually blue as shown on the web site but a deep sea green. You will have to believe me on this as I?m an artist and illustrator and work with colour all day! Although it is not what I expected, it is a very nice colour all the same. In fact I like it more than the blue and it is certainly more unique and it looks great.

First the bad points.
* On inspection there was a small amount, (and hardly noticeable), over-spray in one of the F holes which I removed by very carefully using the finest grade wet and dry paper I had.
* The fret ends were a little sharp so I let the guitar acclimatise for a few days and then lubricated the fretboard, which was a little dry, to help it to expand. That improved it a lot but a few days later I had to gently file some of the fret ends to take off the remaining sharp edges.
* Then I noticed the strings were not centred on the fret board and I originally thought the bridge had been positioned off-centre. However, after asking the question on the Harley Benton forum, it was suggested that the neck screws needed to be loosened and the neck held in position and the screws re-tightened, and a video showing that exact same problem was posted for me to view. So I followed the video and a few minutes later the neck was in perfect alignment. It was commented that this is a very common fault with bolt-on necks but this is the first time I have come across the problem, but you live and learn!
* The strings were a little tarnished with what looked like rust spots on a few areas. When I worked on the frets I loosened the strings and run some wire wool soaked with WD40 along them. Problem solved!

And now the good points.
* The general finish is excellent, allowing for the small imperfections stated above.
It has an amazing top and has nice quality binding around the body and inside the F holes, and is a great looking guitar.
* The strings at the 12th fret were perfectly set at 1.5mm for the high E and 2.00mm for the low E, and the intonation was spot-on for 4 strings, with the other 2 slightly off and easily rectified.
* The Wilkinson pickups are perfect for me, and they have a nice vintage tone, darker than a normal Telecaster but brighter than a Les Paul, and have enough individuality.
* The machine heads are cheapish but work fine and hold tune well but, if I do any modifications, the tuners would be the first thing to be changed.
* The neck is what I would call a shallow D and is very comfortable and has a light varnish. It is also a one piece neck.
* There was no buzzing on any frets at any part of the neck.
* I changed the nut to a bone nut, (as I had one laying around), but the original plastic nut was perfectly fine.
* The truss rod didn?t need any adjustment and the strings were correctly set at a fraction off the frets at the centre of the fret board when capoed on the first fret and the string was held down at the highest fret.
* The hardtail bridge is comfortable with its? rounded edges. And while the guitar is fitted with ?through the body? string ferrules, the bridge will also allow for the strings to be slotted through the bridge?s base if you so wish.
* The combination of the through body strings and the internal centre block gives this guitar quite some sustain.
* The control knobs work smoothly, but as the potentiometers are the small 16mm type, I might eventually change them.

The TE-90QM HH is a budget guitar that exceeds all expectations. For only £155 the build quality is excellent and in my opinion, far outstrips it?s competitors in this price bracket. The bad points I found were easily rectified, and not only would any experienced guitar owner be able to do the same, I know that top branded guitars also need adjustments when received, so this is almost to be expected, particularly at this price point. It would also be a nice guitar to modify!

In conclusion, the TE-90QM HH is well built and plays well. I?m very happy with this guitar and I know many others would be too.