Harley Benton TE-52 NA Vintage Series

I got this guitar as I watched some videos online and loved the sound of it and it had some nice reviews as well. The finish and build quality seemed to be very good although the action was very high, but I figured lowering it shouldn't be an issue.

Unfortunately no matter how I adjusted the truss rod and saddles on the bridge I couldn't really get the action much lower as I immediately got fret buzz - so the action is still too high and I assume it needs fret leveling, which would literally cost me more than half the price of the guitar.

Another issue is the noise of the pickups, as there's a significant hum which I assumed was just a feature of single-coil pickups, but now that I have compared it to two other single-coil guitars I realize that this is not just normal noise, this is something else. This is not a huge issue, but it is a little bit annoying.

Overall, I do like how the guitar feels and sounds, but unfortunately the annoying buzz does irritate me a bit and the high action makes it less than a joy to play.

I guess this is what you'd have to expect for the money, and I can't claim that it's terrible as the finish is nice, it stays in tune, the sound is crisp, and there's no sharp fret ends to tear into your hand - but you do get what you pay for and it's far from perfect.

If you own the skills and the tools to deal with issues like this, it's probably not a big deal, but I don't know how to level frets, nor should I be expected to on a brand new guitar, so for that I can't really recommend it to a beginner, but maybe to a hobbyist.

The base is solid, but has some fret buzz problems if you want to play up to and past the 10-12th fret.

The guitar is a great feeling, chunky, solid base product. My only issue is that a fret or two high up the neck is buzzing. I don't want to send it back to Europe over that (import to US) but it is disappointing. I had to raise the action till it's about 4+ millimeters at least at the 12th fret to get it to stop. So this guitar has the worst action of all my guitars.

So it's hard to play, but it sounds much better than my $150ish Squier and feels close, maybe even better in construction than my $350ish Epiphone. I don't know if it's the pickups or the rest of the construction or what but it is the best single-coil sounding guitar I have ever had.

I'll take the opportunity buy some fret leveling tools and try to fix it myself. In the long run, I guess I might save money learning to fix this stuff myself but I wish could have just enjoyed playing this otherwise great guitar right out of the box.

First things first I bought this to be upgraded in the future and have experience with setup and troubleshooting guitars, so for me if the neck was good enough I was going to keep in anyway.

The body looks pretty good but the biggest downside is the weight of this thing. I'm ok with that for now since I just play this sitting down at home but will probable buy a new body for it when I find a good deal.

The neck feels good, its a flatter radius than I am used to but its nice.
Downside was the fretwork, it needed a fretlevel badly so that's what I did before going on with a regular setup.
Fretedges were decent and not sharp.

The pickups sound nice when you set them up right(height) but again a big flaw here, the wiring was not correct and had to be fixed.
On my guitar in all the positions both pickups were active, fixed this mistake also.

The nut was cut well and that was a surprise on a cheap guitar, I did replace it with a bone nut since I had to level the frets anyway.


As you can expect for this price, the electronics(pots, switch etc.) and overall hardware are where you save the money.
The biggest issue I have is with the tuners, they seem to "jump" and don't feel great, but they work for now.
Some screws were put in by someone that was in a hurry, but that was fixed easily.

I don't think this can be advertised for absolute beginners that have no experience with setup or troubleshooting guitars, but it can be just the guitar I got.

As mentioned for me this was always going to be a upgrade platform if I liked the neck.

I have put together partscaster with pickups more expensive than this guitar so my expectations weren't that high anyway but the build quality did surprise me its not bad at all and it just "failed" for me in the expected areas, fretwork and used hardware.

So in short, you get what you pay for and if you know your way around setups you should be fine.
If this is your first guitar and/or you have no experience with setups make sure you know someone that does.

You'd be hard pushed to get a Ash bodied T-style for the price. But, it's far from perfect out of the box.

The playability and setup needed attention. After truss rod adjustment it still has fret buzz. It's going to need a fret level and crown to get a moderate action. It also has a chunky neck, beware.

The pickups where as to be expected for the price. I replaced the scratchplate with a Nashville T-Style and added 3 Ironstone single coil pickups. I happier with the sound now.

I had issues with the delivery, the outer box and other purchased items where lost in transit. Being in the UK, I was told I might have to pay duty again for replacements due to no fault of my own, and I'd already paid the courier the initial VAT and duty payment.

Thomann said they would not make a claim for the missing items, calling then "low value". So, I made the claim to avoid paying extra. Better customer support would have been welcomed from Thomann. After spending thousands of pounds at Thomann, I questioned their customer support.

I got the issues resolved eventually after sending pictures of the guitar box minus the missing outer box.

Might need work out of the box to become playable.

This is my 3d guitar and I am 45 years old playing guitar for the last 30 years. This instrument is cheap, very cheap but isn't so cheap after all!! It sounds good, ok not as the real thing but good enough! The wood is heavy but not so heavy as my fender lead III. I am a little bit disappointed because the guitar's body had a small paint cracking near the neck area! Also the strings were too high so I had to adjust this from the bridge screws. Also the tone knob is not well done and it turns like crazy! I intend to open the cover and clean-fix the knobs. Also the fret ends are not smoothened and I feel them when I play...I intend to do some work there...Ok the fretboard is bit wide and the arm is a bit uncomfortable. Off course this is a matter of taste... Another thing is that the nut is uneven but I can't feel any problem playing the thing,,,Anyway, for the money it costs is a fairly good instrument! Maybe I could give some more money for a basic model of another manufacturer but I don't regret buying it at the end...Many thanks to thommann for very fast delivery!!!

As far as the guitar is concerned, it is an excellent product. The frets were already dressed, no buzzing even after I lowered the action.
The workmanship is also great. Visually this guitar looks amazing. The colour is more of a butterscotch than it shows in the online photos, much to my liking.

However after stating the above I will never order from Thomann again until they fix their shipping methods.

I paid 60 euros from Germany to Vietnam, not bad if it came here in a suitable time frame. I paid for DHL or so you are lead to believe but it was handed over to the Vietnamese Postal service upon arrival. It then spent 12 days in Customs. The Vietnamese Post said they were not responsible to clear it and DHL said that it is not their responsibility either.
Thomann was of little to no help and basically stated it is not their problem.
All I know is if I pay a company, in this case Thomann to deliver a product then it is indeed their responsibility.
After many phone calls and paying "extra" money I was able to get it released.
I then had to go to the post office to pick it up as both Thomann and the Vietnamese post said my payment of 60 euros and "extra" money does not cover delivery to my actual address.