Harley Benton te20 vs Fender Telecasster, can you pick out the Harley Benton te-20? Testing two Fender Telecasters to make it a little more interesting, ua-cam.com/video/C6J-3BSCSCk/v-deo.html
I thought they all sounded great which is down to your excellent playing skills. Skill is more important than having the most expensive guitar. I actually enjoy a reverse snobbery and like having cheap but functional guitars and Harley Benton are a wonderful example of this with quality plus value for money! Thanks for posting.
The HB TE20 came second for me in the first two tests, which is amazing and actually won test 3 and was last in test 4 on the Clean Bridge Sound by along distance, so the HB is a really fantastic Budget Tele all round according to my tastes lol.
I recognized the HB in most of tests, because I have the same :). Basically, you can hear the difference especially in neck pickup, which is not so twangy, it sounds a bit muffled. That's why I changed pots and stock pickups with Tonerider couple and now I'm very happy for this guitar. For what It costs it's fantastic.
I have this HB and it's pretty nice to be honest. I have a MiM Fender strat which obviously feels a lot better to play but something about the HB makes me want to play it, and mod it. I don't care about scratching or damaging it, or breaking it, it's great and sounds pretty nice, too. I have an affinity tele and they're fairly similar in quality I'd say, pickups on the affinity a bit beefier but I love them both they're great guitars, tele's are just great in general and you have some really nice ones including the HB. I got mixed up with the format and thought the order of the guitars would stay the same, my guess was always c was the HB...the results of the first test really shocked me as guitar c sounded so thin, impressive.
Cold Gin time again!! While listening I marked which guitar was worst in tests and surprisingly almost in all tests Ameican standard was the worst! HB and Deluxe is approx on the same, probably Deluxe slightly better on overdrive
I had the HB in pos A, for all the tests. It sounded good but slightly thinner sounding than B and C. Wrong of course but that shows, once again, how good HB guitars can be
I actually got all 3 guitars right, I was surprised to be able to spot a difference. To me the HB had the least pleasing sound of them all, even though I preferred te HB TE-52 in other blind comparisons. As an additional exercise I went back at random parts of the video w/o watching which guitar was being played- sure enough my confidence took a hit as telling the guitars apart became much more difficult !
Last year we picked up a used TE-30 in mint condition for 60 bucks, great looking guitar for some mods, well a year later and still haven't bothered modding, plays great the way it is!
Test 1: winner standard Test 2: winner DLX Test 3: winner DLX Test 4: Winner HB Harley Benton won the last category cleanly. And was competitive on test two (where the difference between the three was barely perceptible - though my ear favoured the DLX). The DLX sounded the best overall in each category. The Standard came in a close second. The HB didn't fair well with distortion, but the clean was decent.
The HB wasn't THAT far off the 2 Fenders :) Not quite the high end clarity of the Fenders but for that huge price diff ??? Slap a set of original Fender Yosemite pups in the HB with some high quality pots and you'll have a fantastic Tele clone for under $300 USD.
So i took notes while listening just ranking the sounds i preferred. Test 1 in order of preference B A C Test 2 A and C not much difference but maybe C a little bassier which i like B sounded very thin i didn't like jt Test 3 didn't do it because i dont like high gain so much. Test 4 B less clarity than A but has more personality So overall i really liked the Harley Benton sound pretty much the same or more as the deluxe and i didnt like the thin sound of the American standard. C sounds cheaper
I too, nailed them all and thought the HB sounded pretty cheap compared to either of the others. That said, the damn thing is currently $89 so it's not gonna sound like a $1500 guitar. But at $89 bucks, I can switch the cheap hardware and go through a hell of a lot of pick ups before I'd get anywhere close to $1500. Btw, HTH are Starts costing as much as a used Les Paul these days? That's way too much considering how they are built. And that's what HB actually does best. They prove that you can build a cheap guitar which can be made every bit as good as a $1500 one, for 1/3 the price. Fender better wake up.
The honest truth is, the difference is really not that noticeable in my BOSE headphones. It’s there, but not enough to justify the huge price differences. They all sound very very close, and to be really honest, when playing live, nobody would ever know. A few small amp tweaks and let er’ rip! For me, the HB is a no brainer
The Harley Benton sounded ok, but it isn't as refined as the others and the pups didn't have the clarity and it was lacking the tele spank a bit. Having said that, it's still a great guitar the difference is there, but is it hundreds of dollars worth of difference?
I'm a guitarist but I bought a bass JB-75 form HB just to mess around and record some stuff and they ar really good. A bit heavy if you ask me, but really fun to play. amazing build quality and great wood.
It just goes to show you do get a lot of bang for the buck with Harley Bentons. Other models come out well in blind tests as well. Most times you can pick the HB out, but not because it's bad, just a bit different. I wouldn't swap my Fender Tele for a TE20, but if I was broke and needed a guitar the TE20 would be a no-brainer. The TE52 is better again and not a lot more money. I also have a CST24 (PRS copy) and a HB35 (335 copy) and as secondary instruments in the arsenal they are a great low cost option.
I never picked the hb guitar as the tone winner. I own 2 hb guitars and they are really amazing to play but an upgraded pickup could improve the sound. I would buy the hb guitar and change the pickups.
I just hear the TEST 1 and TEST 2 and rated downward the prices: best Fender DLX, second Fender Aniv., third Harley Benton TE-20. But how would it be if you replace the stock pickups in the Harley Benton by 51 NoCaster Pickups?
Harley Bentons are the best bang for the buck, rule of thumb is that H.B.s play as good or better than most guitars priced twice as much, so for 100 bucks you're getting the quality and sound of a $200.00 guitar or better, you can imagine what a $300.00 ( their most expensive Tele) would sound like
Yes there is a difference but is it 1700 dollars worth of a difference? When you think you could buy three or four harley bentons and still have enough for a really nice well made fender gretch guitar?
Yeah, some people might argue that there is so much more than just the sound, things like second hand value, quality, etc. But it is an eye opener for sure.
@@Olwehn yes I suppose the second hand value is a big consideration for some people for sure but I honestly wonder when it comes to sound what percentage of people would really know the difference. Did you get enough feed back from the blind test to show confusion?. I assume there's a massive difference in wood quality and hardware on the fenders too.
I purchased a HB t20 my first T type guitar nice neck and easy to play I think the pick ups don't sound as powerful as quality pickups but maybe I'm wrong?
Thanks! What I did was pick the sound I liked the best of each group instead of trying to identify each guitar. 2 our of 4 of m likes were the HB. The other two were split between the others. Was the HB stock? Now, what advice do you have on how to order one and actually get it in reasonable time and good condition? A very good video. Thank you.
Yes, all stock. In times like these nothing is for certain when it comes to shipping, it also depends on where you live, I would imagine living in the EU is better than in Australia for example.
Very interesting what I did was try and pick which tone I liked and it was the std each time now I need to sell some body parts or just buy the cheap tele and some great pickups!
That is absolutely bizarre because I was swearing that the lack of brightness was going to be the TE20 every time. HAHAHA ppl waste money on those expensive guitars.
Maybe that would be something to do, the single coil pickup is not really suited for heavy distorted rhythm playing, but yeah, it is doable. For lead it works well though.
There is a difference for sure and if I were a professional recording artist making a living from playing the guitar I'd by the best I could afford. However the difference isn't great enough to my ears to warrant spending big money when a guitar this good gets a sound like this for playing in your bedroom or even with friends after school. There are more and more people now saying that you just can't get a shit guitar now and I'm starting to believe them. Just get a Harley Benton for your kid if they want a decent guitar to learn on, I see no reason to go above that for a none professional. These guitars are £80. Enough said.
Impresive, I thought that A was the worst and it was the Harley. The A guitar is more briliant but less body, in the distortion the different sounds of the chords aren´t well defined a litle bit blured and have liked the best the last b ut with some doubts in comparisson to the B one. Somebody wants to pull our legs, or the comparison has got a trick or somebody is over-pricing some brands in this string world. Or perhaps it is that as deaf as a plaster cat.
Harley Benton te20 vs Fender Telecasster, can you pick out the Harley Benton te-20? Testing two Fender Telecasters to make it a little more interesting, ua-cam.com/video/C6J-3BSCSCk/v-deo.html
Just buy the complete Harley Benton range for the price of a fender
I thought they all sounded great which is down to your excellent playing skills.
Skill is more important than having the most expensive guitar.
I actually enjoy a reverse snobbery and like having cheap but functional guitars and Harley Benton are a wonderful example of this with quality plus value for money!
Thanks for posting.
i actually picked the Harley Benton as the best sounding one (to me) guess i'm a sucker for HB guitars, gotta catch them all.
Wow! I'm blown away! I never would have guessed those results! Great Blind Test!
The HB TE20 came second for me in the first two tests, which is amazing and actually won test 3 and was last in test 4 on the Clean Bridge Sound by along distance, so the HB is a really fantastic Budget Tele all round according to my tastes lol.
Brilliant Video man. No nonsense and straight forward. Thanks for uploading
I recognized the HB in most of tests, because I have the same :). Basically, you can hear the difference especially in neck pickup, which is not so twangy, it sounds a bit muffled. That's why I changed pots and stock pickups with Tonerider couple and now I'm very happy for this guitar. For what It costs it's fantastic.
I have this HB and it's pretty nice to be honest. I have a MiM Fender strat which obviously feels a lot better to play but something about the HB makes me want to play it, and mod it. I don't care about scratching or damaging it, or breaking it, it's great and sounds pretty nice, too.
I have an affinity tele and they're fairly similar in quality I'd say, pickups on the affinity a bit beefier but I love them both they're great guitars, tele's are just great in general and you have some really nice ones including the HB.
I got mixed up with the format and thought the order of the guitars would stay the same, my guess was always c was the HB...the results of the first test really shocked me as guitar c sounded so thin, impressive.
Cold Gin time again!!
While listening I marked which guitar was worst in tests and surprisingly almost in all tests Ameican standard was the worst! HB and Deluxe is approx on the same, probably Deluxe slightly better on overdrive
I had the HB in pos A, for all the tests. It sounded good but slightly thinner sounding than B and C. Wrong of course but that shows, once again, how good HB guitars can be
I actually got all 3 guitars right, I was surprised to be able to spot a difference. To me the HB had the least pleasing sound of them all, even though I preferred te HB TE-52 in other blind comparisons. As an additional exercise I went back at random parts of the video w/o watching which guitar was being played- sure enough my confidence took a hit as telling the guitars apart became much more difficult !
Heck no in 2 of the tests I could have sworn the brighter treble would have been the American, and come to find out it was the full range of the TE20
Last year we picked up a used TE-30 in mint condition for 60 bucks, great looking guitar for some mods, well a year later and still haven't bothered modding, plays great the way it is!
I guessed harley benton test 1 guitar b , test 2 guitar a, test 3 guitar c, test 4 guitar a, bridge pickup sounds really good imo
Yes, it does!
Test 1: winner standard
Test 2: winner DLX
Test 3: winner DLX
Test 4: Winner HB
Harley Benton won the last category cleanly. And was competitive on test two (where the difference between the three was barely perceptible - though my ear favoured the DLX). The DLX sounded the best overall in each category. The Standard came in a close second. The HB didn't fair well with distortion, but the clean was decent.
Great blind test. thanks. great help.
In a live band setting with the volume up and a drummer who thinks he's John Bonham it would be difficult to hear the price difference.
I liked the HB best on 1 and 3 and second best on 2 and 4. Looks like I'm buying an HB :)
Que buen review! Gracias!
Lol.. I could never identify which one in specific, but I liked the HB more in 3 out of the 4 tests. I am definitely getting one.
The HB wasn't THAT far off the 2 Fenders :)
Not quite the high end clarity of the Fenders but for that huge price diff ???
Slap a set of original Fender Yosemite pups in the HB with some high quality pots and you'll have a fantastic Tele clone for under $300 USD.
So i took notes while listening just ranking the sounds i preferred.
Test 1 in order of preference
B
A
C
Test 2
A and C not much difference but maybe C a little bassier which i like
B sounded very thin i didn't like jt
Test 3 didn't do it because i dont like high gain so much.
Test 4
B less clarity than A but has more personality
So overall i really liked the Harley Benton sound pretty much the same or more as the deluxe and i didnt like the thin sound of the American standard.
C sounds cheaper
Cool! Yes, the Harley Benton sounds more similar to the DLX in certain ways, than the American Standard to my ears as well.
I too, nailed them all and thought the HB sounded pretty cheap compared to either of the others. That said, the damn thing is currently $89 so it's not gonna sound like a $1500 guitar. But at $89 bucks, I can switch the cheap hardware and go through a hell of a lot of pick ups before I'd get anywhere close to $1500.
Btw, HTH are Starts costing as much as a used Les Paul these days? That's way too much considering how they are built.
And that's what HB actually does best. They prove that you can build a cheap guitar which can be made every bit as good as a $1500 one, for 1/3 the price. Fender better wake up.
The Harley Benton te20 can be either A, B or C.and it changes for each test.
They definitly sound liké three différent Fender Telecaster. Good job !
Thank you for this,very useful information. Good player, Your recording is nice,too
Great test. Great playing. Great Harley Benton!! So I could buy one Fender, or for the same money eighteen Harley Bentons?
One in each color Please!
The honest truth is, the difference is really not that noticeable in my BOSE headphones. It’s there, but not enough to justify the huge price differences. They all sound very very close, and to be really honest, when playing live, nobody would ever know. A few small amp tweaks and let er’ rip! For me, the HB is a no brainer
The Harley Benton sounded ok, but it isn't as refined as the others and the pups didn't have the clarity and it was lacking the tele spank a bit. Having said that, it's still a great guitar the difference is there, but is it hundreds of dollars worth of difference?
The Harley Benton te-20 seems crazy good for the money! I would like to try one of their bass guitars myself.
Never tried any of the basses, but I am sure they are just as fine. :)
Men tänk int...😂
I'm a guitarist but I bought a bass JB-75 form HB just to mess around and record some stuff and they ar really good. A bit heavy if you ask me, but really fun to play. amazing build quality and great wood.
@@marcosilva2719 Sounds nice, maybe I go for that one too.
Picked the DLX and then the STD three times. Didn't think the differences were that big, except in the first test where to my ears the DLX stood out.
That's great! GJ!
I am not a fan of the tone of HB Strats, but the HB Tele's are really nice tone for me.
It just goes to show you do get a lot of bang for the buck with Harley Bentons. Other models come out well in blind tests as well. Most times you can pick the HB out, but not because it's bad, just a bit different. I wouldn't swap my Fender Tele for a TE20, but if I was broke and needed a guitar the TE20 would be a no-brainer. The TE52 is better again and not a lot more money. I also have a CST24 (PRS copy) and a HB35 (335 copy) and as secondary instruments in the arsenal they are a great low cost option.
Yeah man, I totally agree!
@@Olwehn Hi good man, wich is the best sound between te52,hb33 and this telecaster? sound quality no tone. thanks
@@philidorblackmmar7910 TE52 for tele comparison, you can't really throw the HB35 in there because it's a completely different beast.
I never picked the hb guitar as the tone winner. I own 2 hb guitars and they are really amazing to play but an upgraded pickup could improve the sound. I would buy the hb guitar and change the pickups.
Yeah, it is a common thing to do for sure.
I just hear the TEST 1 and TEST 2 and rated downward the prices: best Fender DLX, second Fender Aniv., third Harley Benton TE-20. But how would it be if you replace the stock pickups in the Harley Benton by 51 NoCaster Pickups?
this was stock TE-20 right? if it was the case and you didn't change anything in it.. it's a really a crazy value for that price
Yes, pure stock! :)
Harley Bentons are the best bang for the buck, rule of thumb is that H.B.s play as good or better than most guitars priced twice as much, so for 100 bucks you're getting the quality and sound of a $200.00 guitar or better, you can imagine what a $300.00 ( their most expensive Tele) would sound like
@@kct9967 I agree! I have a couple of HB's and my SC Special (which i kind of modded) is an absolute tone monster, 200 bucks well spent! 🤘🎸
My choice for best was always the american standard.
I guess that's my favourite guitar after all
Impressive Harley Benton
The tele hb 20 is very good guitar for the price.
Yes indeed!
@@Olwehn 👍🎸🎸🎸
Yes there is a difference but is it 1700 dollars worth of a difference? When you think you could buy three or four harley bentons and still have enough for a really nice well made fender gretch guitar?
Yeah, some people might argue that there is so much more than just the sound, things like second hand value, quality, etc. But it is an eye opener for sure.
@@Olwehn yes I suppose the second hand value is a big consideration for some people for sure but I honestly wonder when it comes to sound what percentage of people would really know the difference. Did you get enough feed back from the blind test to show confusion?. I assume there's a massive difference in wood quality and hardware on the fenders too.
@@jamescoughlan8193 Yes, quality is definitely a difference as well.
I purchased a HB t20 my first T type guitar nice neck and easy to play I think the pick ups don't sound as powerful as quality pickups but maybe I'm wrong?
vanson alnico pickups are a nice little upgrade without spending stupid money
Listening to just guitar is all well and good, but in a mix, eq'd and processed, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference at all.
This is a pure evidence how overprized the Fender products are! ;)
Thanks! What I did was pick the sound I liked the best of each group instead of trying to identify each guitar. 2 our of 4 of m likes were the HB. The other two were split between the others. Was the HB stock? Now, what advice do you have on how to order one and actually get it in reasonable time and good condition? A very good video. Thank you.
Yes, all stock. In times like these nothing is for certain when it comes to shipping, it also depends on where you live, I would imagine living in the EU is better than in Australia for example.
I think C is the Harley Benton. It just seems to have a little less output. Thinner. I have no idea about the other two.
Cool, check the end, you will see the results. :)
@@Olwehn I did, unfortunately I didn't understand that you were going to change the order for each test. But don't worry, I seldom guess correctly. 😆
@@leodanryan966 hehe, yeah to pick out the HB is not as obvious as one might think. I guess not many will be able to do that in all 4 tests
Very interesting what I did was try and pick which tone I liked and it was the std each time now I need to sell some body parts or just buy the cheap tele and some great pickups!
lol
That is absolutely bizarre because I was swearing that the lack of brightness was going to be the TE20 every time. HAHAHA ppl waste money on those expensive guitars.
Can you please demo the HB Te-20 for some heavy distorted stuff in a video?
Maybe that would be something to do, the single coil pickup is not really suited for heavy distorted rhythm playing, but yeah, it is doable. For lead it works well though.
Ohhhh !!! Great
How about a comparison between HB's premium guitars and any other guitar of equal value.
Great idea!
If I compare value per cost its Harley Benton all the way
There is a difference for sure and if I were a professional recording artist making a living from playing the guitar I'd by the best I could afford. However the difference isn't great enough to my ears to warrant spending big money when a guitar this good gets a sound like this for playing in your bedroom or even with friends after school. There are more and more people now saying that you just can't get a shit guitar now and I'm starting to believe them. Just get a Harley Benton for your kid if they want a decent guitar to learn on, I see no reason to go above that for a none professional. These guitars are £80. Enough said.
Impresive, I thought that A was the worst and it was the Harley. The A guitar is more briliant but less body, in the distortion the different sounds of the chords aren´t well defined a litle bit blured and have liked the best the last b ut with some doubts in comparisson to the B one. Somebody wants to pull our legs, or the comparison has got a trick or somebody is over-pricing some brands in this string world. Or perhaps it is that as deaf as a plaster cat.
Its all about tone adjustment on your amp. If I handed you a harley benton tele and you were blindfolded you could not tell.
Theres no difference at all. HB does the same as any telly. Some of them better.
I won test 1 and 3
"It comes in 3 colours"....not if you're left-handed.
Харли Бентон творят чудеса!
1 c(AMERICAN)ab(HB) 2 b(AMERICAN)ca(HB) 3 a(HB)bc(DLX) 4 b(HB)ca(DLX) BEST>>WORST
M
It just go's to show how overpriced American products are . Price has no relationship to quality . Just snobbery.