The Harley Benton TE-20 being priced even cheaper than the Squier Bullet range, I expected the same quality issues: many crooked pickguard screws, off-center bridge, “fret sprout” (i.e. protruding sharp fret edges), loose neck pocket, etc.
I felt absolutely certain that it was going to have some issues, so, to avoid having to return the faulty TE-20 and wait for a replacement, I ordered two of them! My plan was to choose the least bad one and return the other. But I was in for a sweet surprise... I opened the first box, inspected the guitar, and was shocked to be unable to find any significant issues. But I thought that I had gotten lucky. Then, I opened the second box and inspected the second guitar with an even more critical eye. To my astonishment, the second one was as well made as the first. Honestly, they were both so good, I had no idea whatsoever which one to keep, so I picked the one that had the nicest wood grain. Sure, I could have gotten extraordinarily lucky and received two exceptions, but if two guitars in a row are this good, Harley Benton must be doing something right.
And I am saying this as a perfectionist who is always highly critical of every minute detail, which the vast majority of people do not even notice: all six tuning machines are in a pretty much perfectly straight row, the nut is well cut, there are no sharp fret ends, no obvious blemishes in the chrome plating, the neck plate is parallel to the neck, the bridge is perfectly centered and parallel to the edge of the pickguard, all the dot fingerboard markers are satisfactorily well centered between the frets, and so on. If I had to nit-pick, I would say that the tuning machine gear ratio is pretty low, so it is easy to overshoot when tuning. But it simply requires a bit more concentration.
Other than that, both guitars were pretty much perfect! In terms of tone, the pickups sound like a generic Telecaster, so, if you are looking for that tone, you can get it on the TE-20. This is an excellent choice for a beginner or someone looking for a cheap beater guitar. I imagine, it should be a great modding platform, but first make sure that the Fender parts are compatible with these Harley Bentons. These are really incredible! My four times more expensive Squier had a lot more quality issues than the two TE-20 I received! I am sure that my next beater guitar is going to be some kind of a Harley Benton. There is simply no need to look any further.
UPDATE: After owning my TE-20 for a few months, I decided it was time to do what I always do with all of my guitars: completely disassemble it, fix all of the cosmetic and functional flaws, then put it back together again, and set it up to my liking. As I was doing so, I made a few observations that some potential buyers might find interesting. They are as follows:
1) There were around half a dozen screws in total that turned worryingly easily, and one of the strap pins was completely loose. I fixed all of those issues by reducing the sizes of the problematic holes using splinters of a toothpick dabbed in wood glue.
2) The pickup and control cavities are not shielded (no foil, no conductive paint — nothing), which is perfectly fine for such a mindbogglingly cheap instrument.
3) The routing, except for a couple of small tear-outs, is pretty tidy. Tidier than on my Affinity Telecaster, which cost nearly three times as much!
4) The neck pickup cavity is a lot larger than necessitated by a single coil. It should fit a humbucker and, perhaps, even a P90. Unfortunately, I did not have any pickups at hand to test the fit. But it seems rather deep, so there should not be any issues.
5) Each pickup has a bar magnet attached to the underside of it. Also, since there was some waxy residue on both pickups, I assume, they are potted. I was surprised to see that the bridge pickup had a brass bottom plate, as is usual on vintage Telecasters.
6) The potentiometers are of the mini-size variety. The knobs are metal on the outside but have plastic inserts that fit on the split-shaft posts, just like on my Squier.
7) The soldering is surprisingly good for such an inexpensive instrument — on par with more expensive Squiers!
8) The neck pocket is cut so well that the neck pretty much stayed in place with all four screws removed! I had to carefully wiggle it out of it.
Summing up, this is a truly excellent guitar that is more than good enough to inspire a young budding musician to keep practicing. If it had me, a man in his thirties, smiling from ear to ear, a young child who has never played anything better should be over the Moon. Compared to what I started on back in the day, this is amazing!
