Chords for Cheap vs Expensive Guitar Blind Test: Harley Benton vs Fender

Welcome back to the channel folks, my name's Shane.
So today we're doing a blind test shootout
between this Harley Benton TE-52.
Say it's worth around 200 bucks up against this,
which is the Fender Original Series 50 Telecaster
worth over two grand here in Australia.
So we're gonna see whether or not
you can actually hear a difference
when you're not looking at them.
I always like doing these tests
because I also like to see which one people like the most
when they're listening back to it.
So for today's test,
we're using the Tone Master Twin Reverb back there
and I'm also gonna be using an overdrive pedal
at some point as well.
We'll test them both clean and dirty.
And just to let you know,
guitar A will always be the same guitar
and guitar B will always be the same guitar.
So you only have to guess [G] one
and you can guess [F] which one
or pick which one you think it is in the comments.
List it below, put A, Harley Benton,
or [Abm] A, Fender Tele or B, vice versa.
So let's get into this and I'm keen to see
whether or not I can actually hear a difference in the room
and I'll comment at the end
and I'm also at the end of this video
gonna let you know which one was which.
So watch till the end and the answer will be revealed.
Here we go.
So this is guitar A [E] on the neck pickup clean.
Here we go.
[A] _ [Em] _ [A] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[Dbm] _ _ [E] _ [A] _ [E] _ [A] _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ [Gbm] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [A] _ [G] _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ [Dbm] _ _ [Em] _ [A] _ [Em] _ [A] _
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [A] _
_ [Em] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ And now let's try both pickups with a little bit of drive
thanks to the Royal Flush Dual Overdrive [N] pedal.
This is guitar [D] A. _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ [A] _ _ _ [C] _ _
[A] _ _ _ [E] Back to guitar A now,
clean with no drive on the bridge pickup.
_ _ [A] _ [E] _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ [Em] _ _ [E] Over [G] _ _ [Dbm] _
[D] _ [Am] _ [E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [N] to guitar A and what I've done,
I've hit both sides of the Royal Flush Dual Overdrive pedal
and I've also turned on some delay for lead tone.
This is bridge pickup.
[Em] Let's take a [E] listen.
_ _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ [D] _ [Eb] _ _ [E] _ [B] _ [Am] _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [Em] _ _ _ _ [Dm] _ [Am] _
_ _ [E] _ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Em] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [F] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ [E] It's a great tone. _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [Eb] _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ [Em] _ _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Em] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Dm] _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Bb] [F] All _ right, so that's the blind test shootout
between the Fender Original Series 50s Telecaster
and this guitar here, the [Eb] Harley Benton TE-52.
Now, if you guessed that this one was A, you were wrong.
It was actually the Harley Benton TE-52.
So for a guitar that's roughly 10 times more expensive
than this, [G] could you actually hear a difference?
Now, I've stood by this since [Gb] I got my hands on one of these
and this is one of the [Abm] best inexpensive guitars
in terms of playability and tone.
And I actually think it outclassed the Fender
on both pickups because it's sort of got
that hum canceling [Eb] thing that this doesn't have.
This is noisy in every position, [G] whereas this isn't.
Now, I could mod this, but I'm not going to.
I love the sound [Gbm] of it already.
[Ab] But I got to tell you, I think, you know,
that middle position, which is both pickups
on the Harley Benton actually sounded better,
especially with a bit of drive.
It really rocked.
But I actually preferred the tone of this overall.
So if you guessed B being the Fender, you're right.
If you guessed B being this one, you're wrong.
So hopefully that's not too confusing.
So A and B.
So there you have it.
At the end of the day, I could take either of these out
and play them live and get great tones.
You were hearing an actual amplifier mic'd up
with an SM57 and an E906.
And that's the sound [G] I get.
It's very, very similar.
It's great to see an inexpensive [E] option like [Ab] this out there
because not everyone wants to go buy a Fender.
Not everyone likes a Fender guitar.
People might not even want to buy a Tally,
but they're kind of like, oh, I'll just get a cheap one.
You get one of these, you'll be a happy guy
because they don't sound that different.
Sure, there's going to be guys
that will much prefer one over the other.
But in terms of what I was listening to,
especially with a bit of dirt,
once you add dirt to your signal,
you tend to lose a lot of the character of the guitar.
You tend to influence it way more by the tone of the pedal
than how the guitar would sound just [G] dead clean.
So that's why I wanted to do it not only dead clean,
but also with a bit of drive.
I did a test years ago where I took five guitars
of all different pickup combinations
and I played them through some high gain amps
and they all sounded pretty much
indistinguishable from each other.
They were all vastly different, clean, add a bit of drive,
and that's where you start to lose
the inherent tone of the guitar.
But it still comes down to feel at the end of the day.
This one's got a nice fat, chunky neck.
So does [Ebm] this, but it's not quite as big
as the U-shaped neck.
But you know, this is a fantastic guitar.
I don't know, I like it.
So let me know what you think.
Thanks again for watching.
My name's Shane.
If you're not already subscribed, please do so.
Let me know in the comments if you got it right or wrong,
[G] or which one you preferred tone wise.
So thanks again.
Catch you soon.
See ya.
[Gb] _ _ _ [Abm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ _ [Gm] _ _