Harley Benton TE-90QM Trans Red

I ordered this on a Friday and it arrived on the following Tuesday. Fantastic delivery time from Thomann.

I was not expecting much from this guitar, because lets face it, it is still cheaper than the equivalent model from Squier or Yamaha. Oh boy was I surprised.

First of all, I should add that this guitar was packaged properly. It came in a box with polystyrene supports for the neck and polystyrene blocks around the edges of the box to make it unmoveable during transit. Better than the Burns guitar I had ordered previously.
Then it was packed, along with a second guitar I had also ordered, into a larger Thomann branded outer box filled with loads of "air filled" plastic padding.

Out of the box, the intonation was a little bit sharp on the twelfth fret and the action was set to about medium height, which is just how I like it. The six adjustable saddles make it easier to set the intonation or drop the action when compared to the standard telecaster setup and the strings still go through the body. This means that you not only get get loads of sustain, but you also get a snazzy looking bridge that does not slice the hand.

The finish on this guitar is flawless, I really mean flawless too. I could not find a thing wrong with it and I was looking really hard. The ivory colored binding is even on both the edge of the body and the "f" holes. There were no dings or discoloration in the finish and the pickups and neck were aligned perfectly. The color is a deep red, and allows the wood of the body to show through very clearly. So clearly, that it initially appears that this body is made from a single piece of wood. Looking at the rear, you can quite clearly see that the grain flows perfectly across the body, with no obvious joins or loss in grain quality. However, looking closely I noticed that the back of the guitar is nearly 6mm of a nice laminate that looks like it is glued to the main body. I can't tell how many pieces make up the main body but the quilted maple top, probably also a laminate, seams to be made from one nice piece of wood.
There is a solid piece of wood running down the center of the guitar which adds weight to the whole setup.

This guitar is heavier than you might think. It weighs slightly more than a Squier Standard Telecaster and as I said before it has a lot of sustain. This may be in part due to the ivory colored set of P90 style Wilkinson pickups, combined with an excellent set of D'addario strings. They provide that true P90 sound, which is a little smoother and louder than single coils. Not quite as hiss free as humbuckers, but still bloody good just the same. Electrics also seem good, operating smoothly and without crackle.
This guitar has only a single volume, a single tone and a three way switch. Very simplified but very useable just the same. It is so nice to find a tone and a volume pot that actually graduate properly across the full range. So many budget guitars come with a volume that is either on or off or a tone that only has two settings. These two controls seem smooth and flawless in operation. The only thing I would change on this setup would be to add indentations, (sunken circles aka PRS), so that the two tone knobs come out at a straight angle.

Now we come to the neck. I haven't ever played a neck this comfortable and I have owned Fenders, Gibsons, Yamahas and Squier guitars over the years. It has a soft "D" profile, with nicely inlaid mother of pearl style dot markers that shine at all angles. It is one piece maple with a satin finish and a rosewood fretboard. The frets appear to be a fraction slimmer than medium jumbo and have no harsh edges or finish problems. The nut is well finished and inlaid and would appear to be made of synthetic bone. The tuners feel like quality units and are set on a headstock that is a fraction larger and more rounded than the other Harley Benton that I purchased, (a TE-40), at the same time. They keep tune well once the strings are stretched in.

This guitar would be good value at three hundred euros, but at only a hundred and seventy five it offers excellent value for money. It is a no nonsense instrument that I would have no problem using as my main guitar and out plays anything I have come across at twice the price. It looks good, has a nice classic tone to it and plays like a dream. Also, having a three year Thomann warranty and excellent customer support means that if you do have any problems with it, they will be dealt with smoothly and efficiently.

It matches my Marshall amplifier perfectly.

Grab one now before Thomann realises what they have and raise the price.

Why did I buy the guitar?
I was looking to get something with P90's. I liked the look of the guitar. The positive reviews and the cheap price sealed the deal.

Finish:
The back of the guitar looks really nice with the translucent red and the wood grain. Back of the neck has a nice smooth finish.
The binding has black scratches on multiple locations, both on the f-holes and the body. Binding chipped at the neck pocket. The "flame" top looks nothing like it does on the pictures. If I didn't know better I would say it is a sticker/painted pattern, it does not look like a veneer. It just makes the guitar look ugly.

Hardware:
The tuners are already slipping. Tuners loose. The bridge is pretty good for this price point.

Electronics:
The pickups are really noisy for some reason but not as high output as other P90's. Only usable in middle position even if playing with a clean sound. The pot's are crackling. Pots mounted tilted so the buttons have scratched the finish. Pickup selector switch is damaged, needs to be replaced. The 1/4" input socket is somehow not to spec, the lead will stick out about 4mm when fully inserted. The neck pickup and socket loose with screw holes stripped. one neck pickup screw hole not deep enough.

Setup and feel out of the box:
Firs impression out of the box was a lot of fret buzz but relatively high action. Nut needs filing. Intonation was off, but easy to fix. Back of the neck felt nice, fret ends sticking out a lot more then I would expect. Strings rusted.

How does it play after a setup?
Once I started setting up the guitar I quickly found the reason for the high action combined with fret buzz. I can't even describe how uneven the frets are. Checking with a fret rocker and feeler gauges I can find several that are >0.5mm higher/lower then the next fret. Also uneven height from Low string to high string. Some of the frets are loose, but others are seated properly and still messed up. My regular luthier suggested a full refret as the cheapest option. And this is where I put the whole project on hold to think about it.

Conclusion:
So I bought the guitar because of the P90's and the way it looks. The P90's lack the oomph of a traditional P90 and the guitar doesn't look anything like the pictures.
To make the guitar actually playable I would have to pay more then the price of the guitar to a luthier. To make it gig worthy I would also need to swap out the tuners and all of the electronics. And after all of that work it would still be an ugly guitar worth about 100€. Not worth the investment, I'm just gonna cut my losses and try and sell it to anyone willing to buy. But it does get 2 stars, because if you want a thinline T-type with P90's, there isn't anything else out there at this price point. Your next option is a Squier that costs more then double the price of this and has no binding and no flame top.
Maye I got a lemon, or maybe the quality has dropped in the last couple of years, I don't really know. As Ben Gibbard sang: "I hope you have more luck with this then me".

Delivery to the UK in 3 days from order being placed.

Arrived in good condition.

For use in home studio/music room.

Inspection: serial number silk screened on back of headstock, made in Indonesia. No immediate problems noted, everything in good order. No sharp fret ends. However, the edges of the nut were a little rough/sharp, but easily smoothed over.

The book matching of the quilt top is a little off, about 3-5mm misaligned, but that's being picky, only noted on close inspection.
The finishing inside looks good, no paint bald patches. The binding around the f-holes and the body is smooth, no rough edges.

Looking at the back of the body it appears to be a 2 piece, maybe more, but it is hard to tell, the matching is very good. and at a quick glance it looks like a one piece. The Mahogany grain shows through the finish nicely, very even.

Playability - very good. Action a little high but good enough. Intonation spot on. Both pickups function well, switch and pots all working, no looseness, no problems. The neck has a smooth satin finish, very comfortable for my hands.

I've lowered the action to ~3/64 ths / ~1.2 mm @ 17th fret. No fret buzz at all, no choking out. Very good indeed. The bridge has no protruding screws and is very smooth and comfortable when playing. The truss rod works exceptionally well and is very sensitive to adjustments, presumably this is a feature of a dual-action truss rod. The allen key supplied wasn't the correct size, far too small, not sure what the correct size is, but I have many allen keys and the same one I use on my squiers and epiphone seems to work.

Stays in tune well. Machine heads/tuning pegs are smooth in use, no backlash.

In circuit measurement of pickups gave DCR Bridge PU ~10.2K, Neck PU ~7K which tallies well with Roswell specs for these pickups.

The bridge PU has a lot of push, and growls, very mid focused, perfect for a te style guitar, can twang very nicely too. Backing off the pots allows it's more nuanced balanced tones to come through. They're quite bright at full tone rotation, but that's better than being too dull. I would guess that the pots are 500K. Looking into the F-holes the pots appear to be larger than 16mm, possibly 20mm.

The Neck PU is warm and lush, perfect for smooth jazz, but has some twang when needed. There's a good balance between the two, so no adjustments needed to the pickup heights.

Acoustically it is only a little louder than a solid body. Good enough for some quiet practice.

***** for the setup and quality of this guitar. Truly amazing.

I own an American Telecaster 1967 model and an American Stratocaster 1997 model. I had considered buying a Fender 'Thinline' Telecaster for its semi-hollow body and style. I was recommended to the Harley Benton range of guitars and found the TE-90QM Trans Red. I studied numerous reviews and decided to go for it. At £160 compared with what I would have paid for my first choice it appeared worth a gamble. I have to say I am totally impressed with my purchase.
Pros
Delivered with the normal speed and efficiency of Thomann's delivery service it arrived in almost pristine condition. It is a beautifully made instrument and the general finish is superb. The neck is so comfortable to play and no issues with the condition of the fretboard. The 2 Roswell P90S AlNiCo-5 vintage style single coils are excellent and give that sharp brightness coupled with warm mellow low ends.
Cons
There was a small issue with the tone knob which was mounted off centre. It was the plastic fitting inside the chrome knob that was out of alignment. If you take my advice I would recommend purchasing the Fender Stratocaster vintage Ivory Tone & Volume knobs, as they fit perfectly and really look the part matching the Ivory mounts of the P 90's and the Ivory finish of the binding on the body of the guitar.
I also had an issue with the guitar staying in tune. After attempting all the usual remedies I
decided to purchase the Harley Benton Locking Tuners. Again if you take my advice they fit perfectly 10mm is the size of the standard tuners so no drilling or modifying, simply take off the original standard tuners and in no time the new Locking tuners are fitted and they are excellent value well made hardware and the main thing is they work. I now have no tuning issues.
Overall a superb guitar for the most amazing price. I intend purchasing 2 more Hartley Benton guitars on the strength of my very staisfying experience

You can look at all the pictures in the world of this guitar and see all sorts of YouTube videos, but you really don't get an impact of how beautiful and well made this guitar is until you hold one in your hands.
If you're looking for that twangy Telecaster sound, it's there, but you have to work with your equipment a little to get it. The tone qualities of this guitar are wonderful but that's why it was designed the way it was. It has some really strong qualities for blues, jazz or fusion and even some mild acoustic qualities. Will it work for rock or country? Absolutely, with a small amount of work. But lets get into the actual guitar for a minute.
Cons: I would have given this guitar 5 stars if it wasn't for one minor issue. The fret ends are very sharp and protruding. I have a suspicion that the fretboard is very dry and needs some attention. So it's time to do some minor work to get it and those frets back to where they belong. There's some discrepancy as to the wood they used on the fretboard. Because they can't use rosewood anymore, they've gone to an alternative wood. The information on this particular guitar is mixed. In one portion of the description they say they used an exotic wood called Amaranth, but in another portion of the same description they say they use Roseacer. It would be nice to know because Roseacer which is a roasted maple sometimes has tendency to develop small splits, even though it's very rare. Amaranth, which goes under a number of different names depending on what part of the world you live in is a very hard exotic wood that is very stable and would be an excellent choice for a fretboard replacing Rosewood. Those are my only negatives about this gutar.
Pros: I have a number of high end guitars from Gibson, Fender, Martin, Schecter and a half dozen others. This guitar visually is absolutely stunning. When I first took it out of the box I was shocked at the finish of this instrument. The workmanship on the body and the neck is superb. The quilted maple finish may be just a veneer, but it is absolutely beautiful and beyond what I expected. When I first ordered the guitar I wasn't sure about the finish on the neck. I don't like neck finishes that are heavy on lacquer. The neck has a really nice satin finish that you can tell will age beautifully and only get better with time. Out of all of my guitars, no matter what the cost, this guitar has the best neck I have ever played.
Intonation, string height, fret leveling (other than fret ends) were perfect out of the box. All controls seem of good quality and work as they should.
The workmanship (other than the dark paint used inside the "F" holes) I have to say is superb.
If you're on the fence and need a push, I hope this review helps with your decision. The service from Thomann was excellent and I can guarantee you that you will never find an instrument of this quality for the ridiculously low price they are selling it for. Have fun!

After my initial disappointment noted below, I have had it now for several months and am glad I have stuck with it which has brought me back to upgraded my original rating from not very good to genuinely pleased.

Took a bit of time and I did change the P90's from the originals (which weren't actually that bad) to some Bareknuckle - Boot Camp's which changed the overall sound to something that now brings joy to my ears.

Once the neck got "played in" and settled it became a complete pleasure to use and the sounds from it is now are well rounded with lovely lows, smooth, warm mid's and highs all with a great tone in all positions.

Still looks great as well.



It had to happen eventually, I have bought a few Haley Benton's and they have been great looking - well built guitars, unfortunately this one falls short of the mark. I'm not sure why there is so much difference in the quality but I suspect it comes from a different factory than any of the other models I have.

I had never owned a semi hollow bodied guitar nor a guitar with P90's before so I thought I would take the plunge on this unit as it was within my price range.

It is on first looks a very beautiful looking guitar but once you look deeper it quickly becomes apparent that there are some issues.

The main issue for me is the neck. I had to send back the first guitar sent (apart from a few minor issues) the neck wasn't fitted properly and had been "over" tightened which left some screws spinning which I thought may have been the reason I could not tune it properly.

The replacement had the opposite, two of the fixing screws had not even been tightened and were sticking out about 5mm which I gently finished off fitting. Unfortunately this unit also seems to have tuning issues and I am now trying to figure out why (hopefully I wont need to replace the neck).

On both units the fingerboard itself needed a lot of TLC and the frets were in a very poor condition with some sort of built up composite (corrosion) which was extremely difficult to get off.

I also noticed when sorting out the fingerboard that it appears to have been painted or stained black for some reason which kept coming off when cleaning. I found it strange that they had done this as on the sides you can seen it was actually a lovely medium shade of brown with a touch of purple in it which would have looked great on the entire board.

I feel that Harley Benton have missed a real opportunity here to make this an absolute winner of a guitar, which it still could become.
As noted previously it is a lovely looking instrument with a unique design that unfortunately is let down in the manufacturing and QC process.

It’s hard to believe that a guitar as good as this can be purchased for such a low price. Nevertheless, it wasn’t set up when it arrived even though I had paid to have a guitar tech ensure that it was. It didn’t take me long to correct these things at home and in fairness to Thomann, they offered to correct this error. I declined, as it was well within my skill set to sort it out myself. The only reason I had asked to have a tech check it out was because I wanted to improve my chances of getting a decent one, figuring that at the price it must be a bit of a lottery to get a playable guitar. I needn’t have worried. Thomann value for money and build quality being self evident in this case.

Why buy a hollow tele with P90’s? Well, I’ve always loved the sound and flexibility of P90’s and I was curious to hear what they would sound like in this format. At this price, with Thomann’s return policy? Why hesitate?

This is a gorgeous guitar to look at and the fit and finish is extremely good. No flaws evident. The woodwork being of a higher standard that many mainstream models I’ve played over the last sixty years! That’s the benefit of modern C&C manufacturing I guess! Now set up, it plays really well.

As one might expect, there are a few minor negatives. Probably just a one-off but try as I might I couldn’t adjust out pole balance problems on the neck pick-up. Adjusting the pole screw to bring up the gain on the first string just didn’t work! So I cheated and bought a set of Tonerider pickups! I’m sure Thomann would have replaced it if I had asked but I would have ‘specced’ Toneriders if I had been given the choice when I bought it. Problem sorted, it sounds as good as it looks and plays. The pots, switch and socket are predictably low rent but they work well enough for now. A future upgrade possibly but only if they become problematic.

The machine heads (or tuners if you prefer) are better than one might expect and have settled to provide quite stable tuning. A smidge of backlash perhaps but nothing requiring an upgrade at this stage.

Info for the ‘upgraders’ out there; The neck is nicely made, very well finished in a satin coating, no fret sprout on mine and reportedly comfortable if you have medium to large hands. Sadly I have small hands so it feels a little bit fat to me. The truss rod functions perfectly so setting the neck up was very easy. Unfortunately a standard Fender spec replacement neck doesn’t fit this neck socket. The socket is a bit too wide by about 1.5mm so will need shimming if you’re determined to change the neck. Sorry I didn’t get around to checking the socket depth once I noticed the width discrepancy.

So there you are, a great guitar for the money. Eminently playable as is but would probably benefit from slightly more ‘upmarket’ tuners and better electrics. The fitted pickups sound good. I doubt if the balance problem I had is usual so a pick-up upgrade is unlikely to be necessary. I was obviously influenced by personal preference in choosing to upgrade them. Maybe Thomann could consider offering an upgraded version with a standard neck socket, higher quality tuners and better electrics but this guitar is fantastic value for money as is.

Recommended as an alternative choice to the solid body variety of Telecaster in the less than £500 price range.

My rating is based on expectations for a guitar of this price. This guitar arrived at my house in the United States about 2 weeks after I ordered it (including 3 days on back order). It was double-boxed with a lot of bubble wrap. The quality is excellent and the guitar greatly exceeds my expectations of a $180 instrument. The beautiful finish is even across the front and back of the body. The binding is flush with the body and there are no missing areas. The f-holes are also bound. The neck is straight and the fret ends are smooth. The knobs are metal, not inexpensive plastic, and they dial up the volume and tone very smoothly. The output jack is in a jack plate, which is something that some, more expensive, semi-hollows don't have. The Roswell picks are brighter than other P90s, but that's not a criticism. The neck tone is smooth and the bridge can be loud and angry. Both pickups are well set in the body, with no ugly gaps. There are some minor issues. The guitar needs to be set up. That's understandable because it was shipped when the temperature in my area was 10F (-12C) and warmed up to 50F (10C) in two days. There is a small dent on the headstock, that happened early in manufacturing, because it's lacquered over. The tuners are good enough, but a little stiff. None of these takes away from the fact that this guitar is an extraordinary value.

For the price of what you get, just shy of 188 GBP, what an amazing steal.
I was watching the reviews on YouTube and while this is the 'newer' revision (version 2 I believe), it's worth it on pricepoint alone.
I've always wanted a telecaster style guitar, and boy this one does not disappoint!
Beautiful finish, great quality inspection and it really unique as it's semi-hollow to some degree with the F holes.
It looks even better in person, don't let the pictures fool you.
Neck's perfectly fine, great rolled off frets which is a big big plus, clear or satin finish neck so it glides like butter.

The pickups are super fat, and sound similar to my PRS SE with P90's; rolling down the volume gives me a more twangy/stratty sound, and when it's in full it's thiccccccc.

My ONLY complaint is (and this is really nitpicking) that the headstock does not match the body, I really wish it was also red and even if the pricepoint had to be pushed to 199, it'd still buy it in a heartbeat.

If it had the headstock painted red, this would have truly been 11/10, please Thomann make one with a matching headstock!!!