Harley Benton TE-20MN CA Standard Series

fit & finish:
everything fits tightly, nothing is crooked or uneven. the neck has a nice smooth satin finish. the red finish of the body is a lot duller in real life than the promotional pictures suggest. a warm, almost torino red with a hint of very fine glitter rather than the deep, sparkly metallic finish. the laquer itself is fine, no streaks or runs.

playability & feel:
the neck is set up properly, almost straight with a very slight concave bend, as it should be. the bridge needs some adjustments both for string action (too high) and intonation (too short). the frets are okay, a bit sharp on the thumb side. the neck profile is advertised as a "Modern C", but it feels more like a soft V.
the strings the guitar comes with are complete trash. the High E broke the second I tried to tune it just for a test strum, so that's at least 5 bucks you will have to spend extra. the tuners are alright so far. the plastic nut needs some lubrication (some pencil graphite).
the bridge is a modern Tele Style, so no annoying "ash tray" getting in the way. still uses the three bridge pieces instead of six, so intonation adjustment isn't perfect.
the strap buttons are of the vintage convex type - the ones where the strap easily slips off when you don't want it to. I do not understand why these are still in use. I swapt them for some HB secure locks. that's another 5 bucks.

sound:
it's a Tele. sharp, twangy, spanky. Neck pickup sounds great clean, the bridge comes alive with a bit of dirt, but you have to be careful, it's very "bitey" at the top end. it can do high gain within certain limitations, if you have something that thins out the bottom end a bit, otherwise it might get a bit muddy. but that is exactly that you would expect from this pickup combination.

conclusion:
after some work, it's a solid instrument, perfect for those who normally don't play Telecaster or Fenders in general and just want it as a side instrument for certain occasions, or those who need a backup Tele.
not really a guitar I would recommend for beginners, since it not only required a proper setup to be playable but it is also not the most versatile instrument. an HSS strat will definitely give you more range, unless all you wanna play is country/blues or crunchy garage rock.

I've been playing for a while now and I'm a bit of a collector of cheap guitars (I have some nicer ones too such as a PRS SE). I wanted a tele to add to my collection.

Make no mistake, this is a cheap guitar. The tuning posts are somewhat loose, the fretts need a polish and the frett ends are of a mixed finish as you work your way up the neck.

THIS BEING SAID. If you are a beginner, the setup out of the box was really nice. The neck feels a bit wider to me than other teles, and I find its low finish/unfinished nature quite easy to play on/fast compared to laquered necks.

IF YOU'VE BEEN PLAYING FOR A WHILE - buy some cheap fine steel wool, some fret guards and your favourite pack of strings. Spend an hour or two polishing the frets. Raise the pickup height. Congratulations, you've got yourself a guitar which plays absolutely beautifully for this price point.

I will say the pickups seem fairly low output and I'll consider replacing them down the line. To be honest though, it doesn't matter. It still sounds nice when you crank the amp. For the price, something has to give somewhere.

Way nicer feeling, playing and sounding than Squiers which cost more than twice as much. I won't give it 5 stars because at the end of the day it's a cheap guitar, but it seems you get way more than you pay for here and I am extremely impressed.

This guitar is good value for a player who doesn't mind spending a few hours setting it up.
Out of the box the fret ends were sharp, the action was a bit high, the intonation was a bit off and the strings were slightly rusty.
I recrowned the frets, polished them and took off the sharp ends. Lowered the action at the bridge saddles, put on a decent set of strings and intonated them.
Once set up the guitar plays well. The neck is straight and the truss rod did not need adjusting. The tuners are budget but work smoothly and the guitar stays in tune. The tone is not bad with the twangy Tele vibes we all like.
The finish of the body is great - very pretty cherry red metallic with no blemishes. Pots are smooth with no crackles. Knobs are solid chromed metal. 3-way switch works fine.
I like this guitar and am having a lot of fun with it but corners have to be cut in order to keep the price down. In this case, the frets need quite some work. The setting up is not difficult - you just need a triangular file, some masking tape, a few grades of fine sandpaper and a few YouTube videos - all part of the fun!

Bought this as a throw in with another guitar to save some shipping costs. I'd read the reviews and watched the You Tube demos and had to give it a try to see if it lived up to the hype. It did not disappoint.

If you can play you can make most anything sound good and if you can't nothing is going to make you sound good. I can play a little and was more than pleasantly surprised with this little gem.

Like most Harley Bentons, a great value for what you pay. This would be an ideal intro guitar for a beginner and is more than serviceable for a more seasoned player as well as a terrific platform for any aspiring modder. Also the candy apple red with white pick guard makes for a very nice looking guitar.