Harley Benton TE-62CC

[Jackson753]

These look good to me.
Good specs.
Has anyone bought one?

https://www.thomann.de/gb/search_dir.html?sw=Harley Benton TE-62CC

• Deluxe Series
• Body: Poplar
• Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple with roseacer skunk stripe
• Fingerboard: Maple
• Neck profile: Modern D
• Dual-action truss rod
• Scale: 648 mm
• Fingerboard radius: 305 mm
• Nut width: 42 mm
• 21 frets
• Pickups: 2 Roswell AlNiCo 5 TEA-F-CR/TEA-B single coils
• Controls: Master volume, master tone
• Switch: 3-way blade
• Single-layer mint green pickguard
• Hardtail bridge
• Diecast machine heads
• Deluxe hardware
• Stock strings: D‘Addario EXL110 .010 - .046
• Finish: Charcoal Frost

Four colour ways to choose from.

 

[Quexoz]

A buddy of mine bought me the Extreme 76 BK (Explorer), and himself the humbucker version of the TE-40 Tele. Both were very nice as far as build quality and bang for buck. Sadly, $85 shipping to the USA has put Harley Benton out of range for me since then so I went with Monoprice for my "Tele", but was very pleased with that too.

 

[DugT]

I just got a Harley Benton Fusion. It cost about $370 plus $80 5 day air ship to Calif. It has a roasted maple neck and stainless steel frets. The frets were quite ruff but I was able to sand and polish them. The guitar is a great value, especially considering the stainless frets and roasted neck.

image removed

Monoprice Indio guitars are great value guitars and their price includes free shipping. They just had a black Friday 20% off sale. Maybe that discount is still available.

 

[Greplington]

CSGuitars on YouTube did some videos about a year ago upgrading pickups etc on a Harley Benton, and his overall impression of the build was good. Pretty sure he rated them quite well as a budget guitar, and as a solid base for a hotrodded one.

 

[Jackson753]

Thanks everyone. The explorer and TE 40 look good. That Fusion looks top drawer. After doing some research HB appear to be quietly making and selling some very nice guitars without any middlemen hiking the prices up. That TE 62cc in Charcoal Frost was £126 including VAT in the UK shipping was £8. I pressed the button. I couldn't see any competition here in the UK at that price and spec. I wonder what factory they are built in?

 

[PhredE]

Thanks everyone. The explorer and TE 40 look good. That Fusion looks top drawer. After doing some research HB appear to be quietly making and selling some very nice guitars without any middlemen hiking the prices up. That TE 62cc in Charcoal Frost was £126 including VAT in the UK shipping was £8. I pressed the button. I couldn't see any competition here in the UK at that price and spec. I wonder what factory they are built in?

Greetings.

I have heard that many of the HB models (certainly not all) are produced by a company named IYV. IIRC, it is a S. Korean company which has manufacturing facilities in Vietnam. Here in the US, there are a handful of models of the IYV guitars which appear on Amazon. Let me see if I can find a good pair of links to demonstrate similarity of a model:

(US directed links, hope these work ok for you)

There is a regular poster on the forum (El Marin) here that has bought the HB guitar below and gives it a 'thumbs up' -- FWIW

The IYV Model:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0107BAET8/?tag=tdpri-20

HB TE-90QM
https://www.thomannmusic.com/harley_benton_te_90qm_trans_red.htm

Thomann sources guitars from different manufacturers. IYV is just one of several suppliers I hear.

HTH

Good luck.

 

[Bruxist]

These look good to me.
Good specs.
Has anyone bought one?

https://www.thomann.de/gb/search_dir.html?sw=Harley Benton TE-62CC

View attachment 929099

• Deluxe Series
• Body: Poplar
• Bolt-on neck: Roasted maple with roseacer skunk stripe
• Fingerboard: Maple
• Neck profile: Modern D
• Dual-action truss rod
• Scale: 648 mm
• Fingerboard radius: 305 mm
• Nut width: 42 mm
• 21 frets
• Pickups: 2 Roswell AlNiCo 5 TEA-F-CR/TEA-B single coils
• Controls: Master volume, master tone
• Switch: 3-way blade
• Single-layer mint green pickguard
• Hardtail bridge
• Diecast machine heads
• Deluxe hardware
• Stock strings: D‘Addario EXL110 .010 - .046
• Finish: Charcoal Frost

Four colour ways to choose from.

Is that Pewter or gray?

 

[Jackson753]

Thanks for the feedback examples. IVY certainly look the same.

The colour is described as Charcoal Frost. It's a grey. Or gray. I just forgot there were two different spellings

I also just noticed 'colour' for color. I'm from the UK.

 

[brookdalebill]

Neato!

 

[gimmeatele]

I have the TE 52, and it is a very good guitar, if this is as good it will be a good one too

 

[Jackson753]

I have the TE 52, and it is a very good guitar, if this is as good it will be a good one too

That is reassuring to hear!

 

[Jackson753]

I ordered one. It's very good. Glad I did. It has a nice neck. Plays well. Sounds like a tele. No need to change anything. Frets need a polish and a new set of strings. It has tele routes. Switch and knobs feel solid. It's resonant unplugged. It's a good weight. Well built. Great fit and finish. I like the neck.

 

[stormsedge]

I have four HBs.

-BM-75
-SC-550
-TE-80
-ResoKing

I enjoy each of them and have had no issues with any of them, running them pretty much as is out of the box (with maybe a quick tweak on the truss). The SC-550 was/is a B=stock...it is a really sweet guitar to play. I think you will be pleased with your purchase (I wish our shipping charges were as low as yours...I'd have a dozen ).

 

[stormsedge]

Here is a good review that mirrors your impression. I blew through the playing and started at his "thoughts" ~18.31. I may have to order one myself . Doesn't help that I was seriously considering a T the same color at 8x as much usd. Cheers!

 

[Jackson753]

What did you end up getting?
There's a new TE-62 out now it's a double bound.

 

[Alamo]

I ordered one. It's very good. Glad I did. It has a nice neck. Plays well. Sounds like a tele. No need to change anything. Frets need a polish and a new set of strings. It has tele routes. Switch and knobs feel solid. It's resonant unplugged. It's a good weight. Well built. Great fit and finish. I like the neck.

I've just had my NGD with a HB TE-62 IS (inca silver)
Quality wise, I'm one the same page with you.
Nice setup and intonation right out the box.
the neck looks & feels very nice. except the fretboard edge can be rolled and fret ends rounded a bit. no biggy though.
I did change out the dome knobs right away because I was sitting on some heavy knurled knobs from Axecaster.UK

 

[StudentGuy]

If I had not already bought 2 TE 52's recently, I'd be lookin hard at a TE 62. The "caramelized" (roasted/ torrified) neck is worth the price of admission alone.

From what I understand, the TE62 is very much like the TE 52... except its poplar body will make it about a pound or more lighter than the beautiful grained Ash body of the TE 52 NA.

These durn things come so nice, that they really do not require any
" must do" Mods ... As a matter of fact, I bought 2, so I could mod one, and pretty much leave the other stock .

I am not much of a player, but I am a "gear snob". Would only buy USA made Fender , a Gibson... But it was my experience with PRS SE that opened my eyes to import guitars (I have since bought a US made PRS, but I digress)

But these Harley Bentons, have shown me that other import lines (Fender Player/Squier) are maybe overpriced, in that the HB either equals them or surpasses them for way less.

I mean, why spend $459 US for a Squier Classic Vibe Tele to "Mod" where a HB that still has the advantage of a roasted neck... can be full tilt modded and still cost less ?