I’m probably being hard on a £125 guitar here – it sounds like a £600 guitar and soon it’ll play like one! And I need to change that crappy bubbled jackplate for a black one. And I’ve already replaced the big chrome scratchplate screws with small-head black ones, just to make it look that tiny bit more badass. Maybe add an active boost on the other pot. I’ll replace the tone controls with a master tone pot using a spare Fender Delta Tone I’ve got laying around, just to open them out a bit. Upgrade-wise: I might get a Teflon-type nut and some roller string trees to help with the tuning (ok as is, but I like using the trem). I don’t care about the name on the headstock. It’s now hanging on my wall between a Gibson Les Paul and a high-end Ibanez and its currently my guitar of choice, just because it sounds EXACTLY like a great Strat should sound.
With an hours work, however, it’s starting to play and feel much more like a decent instrument. The poor finish to the frets is a disappointment and, initially, makes it feel like the entry-level guitar it is. The high quality of the pickups, trem and body/neck materials mean that this guitar sound amazing – easily as good as Mex Fenders costing several times the asking price. Whereas the hardware is mostly of decent quality, the jackplate has some bubbling on the chrome plating – yuk! I don’t have a crowning file so I’m going to play it for a few months to see if it fixes itself. Worse is that the frets don’t feel like they’ve been crowned completely, leaving a very ‘scratchy’ feel when bending strings. Still has the ‘open’ texture of rosewood but no longer feels like I’m playing on a stick I just picked up in a forest.įrets had slightly sharp ends in the upper octave, I fixed it with a small file, didn’t take much work. I removed the strings and rubbed it down lightly, then applied Lemon Oil for a smoother, uniform appearance. Fret board was dry and some ugly dye spillage was visible.
#HARLEY BENTON TE 80 NT DELUXE SERIES HOW TO#
Easy enough to adjust it all so it plays beautifully, though, so I’ve this is your first guitar then look on YouTube on how to do basic setups to get the best out of it. Very impressive.Īction as supplied is absurdly high (as above), trem screwed back tight against the body. Didn’t hold its tuning AT ALL at first, but settled down once I stretched the brand new strings.Īction as supplied was stupidly high, brought it down (using supplied tools) to almost fret-level and there’s no buzz at all. Neck is a chunky thick-ish D profile with big frets. Tone pots are the usual exponential taper so only really work over a small part of their travel, which is normal but could be upgraded. Electrics are all 250k pots, no noise and smooth travel. no horrible ‘swimming pool’ gap under the pickguard! Rosewood laminate looks great in the flesh and the headstock is immaculate. Well finished with high quality routing that fit the pickups snuggly – i.e. The body is solid basswood as advertised, not plywood as is common at entry-level price. Wish the grub screws had smoother tops, though!
Very solid sound, returns to pitch every time (once I’d set it up, see below). The Trem is also a quality Wilkinson unit with a HUGE inertia block. Hank Marvin to Yngwie at the flick of a dirt pedal.
Proper alnico slugs, quiet, nicely bright and clear but with a dark poke when needed. I’ve previously used Seymour Duncan, Dimazio, Kent Armstrong etc as well as countless OEM rubbish and these Wilkinsons are of Seymour Duncan quality. The biggest surprise on this guitar is how good the pickups sound.
#HARLEY BENTON TE 80 NT DELUXE SERIES SERIES#
Now that we’ve seen the features of this guitar Harley Benton ST-70RW Deluxe Series watch these related videos to learn more. This guitar usually has a price around 144.00 €