Harley Benton Tele guitar (TE-40bk)

 This Harley Benton Tele Custom style guitar was brought in by a friend of mine. It needed a bit of work but I was astonished by the overall quality of this 125Euro instrument! It's amazing what 125Euros can get you nowadays.
 Let's see its original specs according to thomann.de
http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_bentonhbt1500tbk_egitarre.htm?partner_id=73786

Harley Benton TE-40 TBK Deluxe Series electric guitar
- basswood body, ash top,
- bolt-on hardrock maple neck,
- rosewood fingerboard,
- 648 mm scale length, 22 frets, nut width 43mm,
- Double action truss rod(!), die-cast tuners,
- Tune-o-matic bridge with strings through body,
- 1x volume and 1x tone controls, 3 way toggle switch,
- 2x wilkinson Alnico humbucker pick-ups,
- Deluxe gold hardware.
- Colour: Translucent Black

This guitar is designed in Korea and produced by "Shine"(Saein) guitars in China for thomann.de. Check out more Shine guitars products here:
http://www.saein.co.kr/
You will notice many similarities between the Harley Benton thomann models and some Saein products. There are also quite a few Vintage-Wilkinson guitars with specs close to some Shine guitars.

For instance, here's the Shine WF165 model (aka Benton TE-40bk) in sunburst...:

The difference is in the tailpiece. The Shine tele has no string-through-body design. In terms of "sustain", having a string-through-body bridge is better.

The good:
This tele guitar has got a really nice Ash top and it's a few mm thick, not just a one ply. This top looks really nice up close. There are no finish flaws or anything. The basswood body and maple neck are well balanced and tightly bolted together. The neck is quite comfortable to play as it's got a satin painted back and a pretty playable Yamaha-like neck profile.
 It's got a set of Wilkinson humbucking pickups. No hum or feedback noises are produced and the tone is great. The bridge pickup has punchy mids that can cut through a mix without losing top end. On the latest thomann pictures, the pickups actually have the Wilkinson logo on them. This guitar was an earlier model and the pickups don't have the wilkinson logo at the front even though the Wilkinson "WHHB" model is written on their back. Check out the Wilkinson pickups and hardware site for more products:
http://www.jhs.co.uk/wilkinson.html

The hardware on this guitar is pretty decent. Maybe it's made by Wilkinson as well. Who knows? I had no issues with the tuners or the bridge so far. The string through body design is a nice touch and the string tube inserts are solid.

So, what's wrong with it?
 Let's face it, like most affordable guitars out there, this tele came in without being set-up by the factory or any technician. That's common for most guitars that cost less than 600$ nowadays... I always tell people that a new guitar should be set up right when it is taken out of its box, not a month or a year later...
I checked the electronics and had to spray the pots and switch with some oil-free contact cleaner. I did that, mainly because there was dust and wood particles inside the control cavity. Cleaning the cavity will protect the pots against dust so they won't easily become "scratchy".
 I also tightened most bolts and washers including the strap buttons, the machine-head washers, the output jack, the control pot and switch washers. That's another common thing with large factory-built guitar,  many bolts are a bit loose as this saves time and money.
  The original nut and fretboard needed a bit of lubrication and the action was set a bit high. Luckily, the fretwork was pretty good and I could lower the action after putting a fresh set of coated 0,09" strings. Changing the factory strings is always a good thing! When the action was set right, the intonation was adjusted and the notes are spot on!

 Once the guitar was fully setup and cleaned, another friend of mine tried out the guitar and thought it was a high end Korean model until I unveiled its actual logo! The guitar is made by Saein guitars and the build quality is certainly higher than many Chinese built guitars of this price range. It could be easily priced at around 220$ if it had a "Shine guitars" logo on it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Shine-WF165-Frontier-Series-Electric-Guitar-In-Trans-Sunburst-Saein-Factory-/290880467855?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item43b9d3b38f

Here are a few pictures of the actual guitar:

-Cheers,
Thanos
guitardreamer.gr@gmail.com