Harley Benton TE-69TL Hot Rod NT Roasted

The good:
Pickups sound decent considering the price tag.
Whole guitar is gorgeous, neck looks insanely good, and feels great too.
Coil split is a welcome feature.
Graphite nut is a nice touch.
Stock strings were actually useable.
Stays in tune better than expected.

The meh:
Frets not rolled nicely, they are a tiny bit sharp - expected.
Tuners are okay, but the one for the low E was a bit loose.
3-ply pickguard is okay, but I would have preferred it all black. The white middle layer just doesn't fit this instrument in my opinion, but this is entirely subjective.

The bad:
Almost as heavy as my TE-52 despite being a Thinline. As said before me, the guitar is only chambered under the pickups and the F-hole. By the way, the F-hole's insides could have been sanded properly, it has bits sticking out - you can only really see it if you look inside, but still.
I had to take it the guitar to a luthier for a full setup, due to an insane amount of fret buzz. This has been partially solved, at least it doesn't buzz through my amp now, but the A string is still noisy. There are a couple of higher frets. The nut is perfect. Bridge needed some adjustment. Action is quite a lot higher that what I like but in order to get it lower the frets would need to be leveled and most probably a new bridge would be needed. For now I can't justify spending an extra 100-150 on a brand new guitar that cost me €219.

Summary:
I would not call this guitar a good deal. I bought my TE-52 for a lot cheaper and it plays way better to this day. Very disappointed initially. Now it grew on me, I like it more and it's truly a joy to look at.

I also have to say that I'm extremely satisfied with the customer service of Thomann, who straight up offered to start an RMA and replace my guitar. It was my own choice to keep it as is.

This is my first Harley Benton. I intended to buy the solid body at first, but then this beauty came out, and it didn't take time to decide to go with it. After receiving the guitar, I found out there was misinformation from HB's youtube video. First, the guitar is not light, it is like a Thinline version of TE-52, which is a notoriously heavy guitar that could be like 5kg. The Thinline version would still be about 3.8 kg, which is still on the heavy side even in the solid body tele category to me. Another misinformation is the bridge pickup, it is a stacked humbucker instead of a single coil, and there is a push/pull button at tone for you to switch from humbucker to single coil. I find out the single coil mode is a little bit too thin for my ear, but it is good for playing some funk when switching to the middle position with a single coil bridge. The build quality is really good on this guitar, I felt like it is as good as the Fender Player Tele I own. No fret issue, the finish has no flaws(my only complaint is the finish inside the f-hole is a bit rough), and the neck is comfortable to play on. Acoustically, this guitar sound loud due to its Thinline body, I think it still sounds different than the normal solid body, and it is definitely worth some boutique pickup upgrades which I plan to do in the future. I would still recommend this guitar to people who want a lighter version of TE-52, or want to try a Thinline with ash body but would not cost too much.

Well, I think the body is just a te-52 with just a hollow f-hole, half roasted neck & a thinline look. The weight in their video review says it’s manageable. It’s the proper word, manageable. Around 3.8 kg?

If you can manage that weight then this one might be for you. Saying all that, I still love it. The guitar I have is properly setup. Whether it’s intentional or not, Thank you Thomann!

Pickups are a bit weak but that’s one for us mod freaks can look up to, with others like fret polishing/levelling, nut & saddle adjustments.

But for now, i’m quite enjoying playing it & not on my work bench tweaking it. I’ve been a fan of Thomann for quite awhile now & patiently waiting for them to release a thinline version. I got my Rosita now & fairly satisfied.

This is my 30th guitar in 30+ years of playing. The cheapest of all yet still a great instrument. Constructed extremely well, neck is straight, fret edges are OK. Of course count with some fret levelling, crowning and polishing. This is a must to avoid buzz with lower action. I had to do the following to get the guitar playing great:

1. fret levelling, crowning and polishing
2. swap tuners for locking
3. swap original bridge saddles with brass compensated. This is a MUST on this guitar to get intonation about 99% correct. With original saddles this is totally impossible (inherent problem of barrel saddles on some TELEs)
4. do a full proper setup

The guitar was OK out of the box, but I want almost perfect intonation and tuning stability with low action that's why all the work was needed. To do this work with a luthier you will end up paying the purchase price of the guitar just because it takes at least 6 hours to do what I have done + proper expensive tools, tuners, saddles...It's not that all the luthiers overcharge, that's just because this guitar is so unbelievably affordable. If you can do all this work yourself and you have the tools than buying the guitar is a no-brainer. If not, consider the extra cost. But in all honesty the guitar is worth double what you pay.

Pickups are good, but not great. Still the typical TELE sound is there. The bridge pickup isn't you standard humbucker, but more of a boosted single coil. It sounds surprisingly good even in split mode. The tuners are kind of OK, but I always prefer locking tuners. The guitar's F-hole adds some airiness to the sound, but nothing remotely like a real hollow body. My guitar weighs 3,6 kg so that's OK with me. My TE-52 showed 5,2 kg on the scale...now that's heavy! Also the reason I sold that guitar. This one is staying...until something better comes along from Harley Benton!

This guitar is amazing! Just getting this out of the way.

Finish wise, the guitar i received is absolutely flawless. The roasted maple neck feels great, the frets were beautifully finished and slightly rounded and the freatboard edges were smooth. There is not a single fret buzz or dead note on the neck.

The body is heavy, but again, very well finished. The colour is dark and very beautiful, the neck joint is down to the milimiter, the pickguard is very well cut, everything just feels high quality.

Unplugged, the guitar jus ressonates like mad, and it has a great tone. The pickups are decent, not amazing, but they do the job well.

The nut is very well cut, and the action and intonation of the guitar were spot on right from the box. This guitar comes with 10's and plays like butter. The tuners work as intended and are pretty smooth.

What more can i say? What a great time to be a guitarrist! A few years ago, you'd pay hundreds if not thousands of euros for a guitar with this quality standards and specs. This is a great guitar, for any price, period. Thomann knocked it out of the park with this one!