Harley Benton Telecaster T-Style Kit - Assembly

Welcome to the Next Project!
Time for another guitar kit assembly project.
A nice "easy" one, well mostly easy.This will be a very quick unboxing, basically looking for obvious issues, missing parts, and gather my senses. Then put it all together.

00:00 - lights, camera, action
00:04 - project intro
01:07 - brief unboxing
01:40 - step 1 - shape the headstock
02:07 - step 2 - install tuner & "string retainers"
02:41 - step 3 - mount the neck
03:35 - step 4 - install the bridge
04:42 - step 5 - install scratchplate & neck pickup
05:10 - issue resolution
07:47 - step 6 - electronics - plug-n play
09:00 - bonus content - string saver tuner mod
10:26 - step 7 - final assembly
11:21 - project takeaway
15:40 - sound samples

I rate this kit a 3 out of 5. Easily upgraded to a 4 with just a few minutes of "repair" work. And, YOU can easily improve this kit to your liking.It is a very easy kit to assemble, and the resulting guitar isn't all bad. It needs some love and attention to make it enjoyable to play, but that is all good practice and training for being a guitar owner. JUST HAVE FUN!

Please be sure to Ring the Bell and Subscribe so you are notified when the Build Video drops, and leave a comment.
I greatly appreciate feedback.

I will attempt to upload my full description soon. Currently there is a YT bottleneck which is limiting my content to about this much. Gotta love tech~

#diykitchallenge22 #diykitchallenge #harleybenton #telecaster

[Markleford]

My spouse has a love of blue "painter's tape"! She'll stick any two items together on a moment's notice as an extra set of hands. Must be from a sordid history in art and framing projects!

[ttolliver]

I've always thought when restringing that there has to be some clever use for old strings. Not that it keeps me awake at night, but as someone with a modest workshop there are always those little things you repurpose. So now we have one!

[piemmetubo]

Great video, thank you!
I shaped the body of my kit like in the Strat to make it more comfortable to my arm and chest and to make lighter this already quite light guitar.
I replaced all the screws with higher quality ones, because the ones in the kit are of soft metal.
14:47 I did not mount the black plastic piece to bolt the neck, because I preferred to have a more rigid contact between the wood and the metal plate.
All in all I'm 100% satisfied of this kit and I'm going to assemble two other ones for friends who have been very impressed by its value for money.

[ernestwernars]

In july '20 I assembled a Harley Benton P bass kit as a Covid-19 shut down therapy here in The Netherlands. I didn't expect to achieve anything comparable to my Fender basses but I did it for fun and learning. The body had a crack in the neck pocket but Thomann sent me a beautiful replacement body within a few days.
Neck fit was perfect and I modeled the headstock after a Fender 51 p bass.
Holes were of the correct size but basically all in the wrong place so I filled them and re-drilled.
Line up of the bridge was not very acurate but since I had planned to replace it with a Fender bridge I could easily position it correctly.
I had planned to replace the pickup also by Seymour Duncan but surprisingly the HB pickup did not sound bad at all. Different, more trebly but ok.
Just like your tele the neck had to be shimmed and I disposed the HB strings and replaced them by Fender flats.
I have finished body and neck with numerous layers of tru-oil and I'm very pleased with the end result.
In the end I did have fun, learned a lot and in addition got a very nice bass which I frequently play on gigs and at home.

[jaistanley]

I've built a couple of cheap kits: to improve my skills before I started building my own. Trust me: you're MORE than capable. Next project I uegre you to build one from scratch. It's REALLY rewarding! Love the videos either way.

[roelschouten]

These kits are pretty good for the price, I've also modded one myself. Look forward to the build series, I'm also working on a ":acoustasonic" type design

[steroq]

Catching up on your content.
The Tele-Mule was a terrific idea!
As always soothing voice, just enough of a laidback attitude, great montages, perfect mate!

[piemmetubo]

Great video, thanks!
I just acted as "brico consultant" to my granddaughter who assembled her HB Telly. It took to her about an hour, plus another half one to perform the setup with me.
We chose to do the "rough" assembly because we were eager to hear and feel this axe.
All the holes were good for the screws and not loose. The neck was perfectly aligned. Were we lucky?
Great guitar for its price! I don't mind the cheap tuners and bridge. They do their job. Only the strings are awful, but we used them only for the preliminary setting, and then they were replaced with good ones.
Compared to your procedure, we chose to test the electric parts "naked" first. And we mounted the neck as the last piece, because we thought it was more practical.
Next month I will disassemble the guitar to shape the body in Strat style and cut the headstock. We will not paint it, but finish with tru oil.

[stephanedondeyne]

Good morning Sir. Very nice video and the way you describe is calm, clever and fun. Best regards from France.

[wiretwanger]

Great post. I built one of these last autumn, huge fun, but like you, I had some issues. The bridge holes had to be plugged and redrilled as they misaligned, as did a couple of the tuner screw holes. I also had to resort to shimming the neck by about 0.8mm to get the right action. That said, I love this guitar and all its faults, can't wait to see what you do with yours.

[brian]

The guitar sounds better than I expected! I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

[JTD]

I got this kit 2 years back and it fas definitely a fun build as a first-timer. Also had some trouble getting the action right without a shim and "sitar" at least on the B string, but all that stuff teaches you more about guitars so not a huge deal. My control plate was a bit messed up (just visually, worked fine) and they sent me a new one right away so I'm sure they would send you the missing bits if you ask. As far as I know this kit is the same as the Harley Benton TE-20, just without the finish. I'll probably work on it again this year now that I've figured out the pros & cons - some hardware upgrades, a new finish and other mods like belly cut and arm contour as well as making the neck thinner. Kind of a tele-strat I guess as it already has a strat headstock!

Looking forward to your build!

[skinball]

I did a similar ground connection on my modded bullet mustang but instead of leaving the wire alone I put solder on it and then sandwiched it between the bridge and body

[MrStoneheart]

Cool video ! The tip for the tuner edges is actually genius 👍 always happy to check one of your vids !

[mrvbif]

Hi!
This is nice video, thank you so much.
It was much fun watching.

[ianmwright]

Good vid, cheers. I bought a HB Tele Delux in December, only £140, and it is very well made, sounds really good. I love building and modifying, but I think if you're getting a Harley Benton you may as well pay a little more and avoid the self build. Better tuners, better pickups, better materials and finish. Cheers from West Wales.

[pdp]

I'm starting on a similar project with a telecaster kit soon - five-string telecaster for slide/open tuning. I also get to have bigger string spacing for my giant hands. Just figuring out the bridge and headstock has been challenging. Really looking forward to seeing how you do this. I have a fraction of your kit, but I really would like an acoustasonic...

[grogg]

Always a pleasure to watch those projects! Thanks for this nice year start and eager to see the mod part. Thanks for the vids!

[maiko]

The best review ever of a Harley Benton T-Style Kit ! Congratulations and thank you for sharing !

[DarrellW_UK]

I’ve found this really useful, I’ve got one of this kit on the way! I’ve already got some upgrades in mind and already have some parts, a better bridge (with separate saddles) heavier and with through body stringing holes plus I’ve got the ferrules. I shall probably swap out the pickups for Irongeear Alnico 2 or maybe 5, probably use roller string trees and locking tuners. I’m also going to do comfort cutaways in the body, I like that idea! Finally maybe add a 4 way switch so I can have the two pickups in series, sounds like a lot to do but it’s going to be a great guitar when it’s done!