Harley Benton TE-90FLT Orange Blast

Guitar arrived undamaged and well packaged from Thomann. Out of the box there was very little to do to set it up other than a truss rod adjustment to reduce neck relief to my preferred action. Beautifully finished medium C shape neck with no sharp fret ends. The non-branded Kluson style tuners feel solid and work well. The body is nicely finished with a welcome cutaway to reduce ‘rib pain’ when playing T- style guitars for longer periods. A really nice feature is the recessed control knob and pickup selector switch cavities. Some negatives include a protruding sharp screw that secures the input jack. The pickup selector switch has a lot of ‘play’ and feels cheap and fragile. The volume and tone knobs on the other hand feel solid and premium. The guitar weighs 7.4lbs (3.25kg) which is great for my personal preference as I’m not keen on anything weighing over 8lbs. One of the reasons I bought this guitar was for the different tonal range offered by the filtronic pickups which sound good and record well in the studio.
In summary, I own 6 Harley Benton guitars, I’m also fortunate enough to own premium and custom built guitars, overall this is a great guitar for the price, and is definitely one of the best Harley Benton guitars I’ve played and owned. Recommended for all levels of players looking for a great sounding and recording T-style guitar with a difference.

The heading says mostly what I want to say about this guitar, It is my second Harley Benton guitar and for the price I got an excellent instrument, The frets are more smooth than my £1200 Jackson I own, which I hardly touch these days as manufactured guitars mostly feel overpriced for what you actually feel In your hands and hear with your ears for the most part.

GREAT unique tones on this guitar If a little bit thin sounding when distorted at higher levels but an excellent punchy and beefy clean output.

GREAT set up on this guitar out the box, neck is lovely, smooth frets...only slight major issue is fret buzz when set to a smooth low action which this guitar is, slightest adjustments to intonation and string action was required.

The only thing I don't like about this guitar is the finish on the body and head, It just looks like a cheap image printed on some laminated material...It has no dents and the matt finish on the surface is alright, It's just the 'blast' looks cheap and nasty.

Overall though for a guitar around £175 It's great and full of character.