The relentless Harley Benton machine continues to produce electric guitar temptation for those priced out elsewhere, and long may it continue – especially with this new TE-53KR BL Tribute that nods to Keef's iconic 1954 Micawber Tele.
That means a humbucker in the neck and more traditional single-coil in the bridge – here a Tesla Opus-4 Alnico-5 vintage Humbucker bridge pickup: Tesla Opus-TE Alnico-5 single-coil.
The specs elsewhere look decent to us; an ash body (which we're honestly surprised to see with the shortages of that tonewood in the guitar industry right now) and vintage-style caramelised Canadian maple with wide C-neck for those big open G Keef chords. The neck has a roseacar skunk stripe and it's nice to see a bone nut being used here too.
The deluxe chrome hardware and BT101 gold-plated bridge is a clear nod to the Rolling Stones legend's guitar, while Kluson-style tuners and a hi-gloss blonde finish round out the spec.
You'll have to relic it yourself.
The TE-53KR BL Tribute is available now for £207 / €238 at Thomann
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I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.
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