At a ridiculously low price tag, Harley Benton unveils three entry-level T-styles with Bigbsy-style vibratos and vintage mojo to burn

Harley Benton has expanded its range of entry-level T-style electric guitars with a trio of instruments that come factory-modded with a Bigbsy-style vibrato unit – and with three pretty classy finishes.

There is no escaping the design influence here, especially when you consider the finish options chosen for these Tremolo TE series Harley Benton guitars.

Take the TE-52 Tremolo NA, with its natural finish and solid ash body, the single-ply black pickguard and of course the three brass barrel saddles in an ash-tray style bridge…

It really does have something about it that makes you think of the first-ever mass-produced solid-body electric (a guitar that is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year).

Then there’s the TE-62CC. Again this is a cheap electric guitar with high-end vintage aesthetics on the mind, and with its solid basswood body wearing that Lake Placid Blue well, it’s got a distinctly early ‘60s vibe.

Here we see Harley Benton switching the recipe up. Not only do we have the basswood body, the fingerboard is laurel too. And it’s the same story with the Custom-style TE-62DB, which has something of a tux vibe when you consider the double-bound body and gloss black finish.

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The big talking/selling point here is the B-style vibrato. This was one of the most-popular – and dramatic – mods players would make to electric guitars in the ‘50s and ‘60s, especially after seeing virtuoso cats like Merle Travis.

Looking at these and you could well imagine Mike Campbell fans, or Beatles fans who remember John Lennon and George Harrison with their Bigsby-equipped Telecaster, seeing some appeal in these Tremolo TE models.

Besides the bodies and fingerboards, these three conform to similar specs, with roasted maple necks bolted to the body in the time-honoured fashion. These necks have a Modern D profile, and they’ve got a roseacer skunk stripe.

Harley Benton has given these three a pair of Roswell TEA Alnico-5 vintage TE-style single-coil electric guitar pickups, which you can be sure will have a degree of twang to them – and, we’d hope, sufficient treble to cut through the busiest mixes, and the required bite to pin the audience to their chair when leaning into an epic – and possibly too long. but who cares – blues guitar solo.

We say blues, but then these will do rock, country, indie, pop, the lot. Other vital statistics and spec details worth noting? Well, the complement of pickup controls are all mounted on a metal plate, the scale length is a Fender-esque 25.5” which is very familiar, but the fingerboard radius is… 12”, which is less so.

These Tremolo TE series models are available now via Thomann, priced £173/$230. See Harley Benton for more details.