NGD here! We recently bought a second home, and I convinced myself it was a better idea to buy a practice guitar so I could just pack headphones, headphone amp, and tuner back and forth instead of a bulky case. I went for a Harley Benton TE-52, being cheap and all.
Sat the HB next to my 2004 Fender AVRI 52; the HB is a wee bit darker in both neck and body. The HB is, as far as I can tell, only a 2-piece body, and not well matched. The finish is deep polyester, probably wouldn’t chip off a bowling ball. Heavy beast, over 10 pounds, but it’s ash and maple and I’m a couch player anyway. Neck is satin finished and fat. Neck edges are slightly rolled and some sharp (a little) fret ends-I’ll take care of that when I restring. I’m not impressed with the tuners.
The electronics are smoother than I anticipated, and everything works. Pickups sound really good: the neck has plenty of that woody Tele jazz sound I wanted and the bridge has all the spank and sparkle I could ever want. Action is set nice and low, intonation is as perfect as I can determine with 3 tuners on 4 of the strings, I’ll tweak the other 2.
Only flaws I can find are a couple of tiny pickguard scratches next to 2 of the 10 (!) pickguard screws.
$229 plus tax delivered. Not bad for a very playable Indonesian or possibly Chinese knockoff of a classic guitar. Now where are my Ted Greene books…………