my Harley Benton modded Prinz Tele

jimboflojo · February 2016

Thought id take a punt on the harley benton TE80 as it had some nice reviews and was more importantly-cheap!

Played well and sounded nice but wasnt a fan of the tortoise blood pickguard. Inspired by the modding challenge on here and some of the nice work been done I thought I'd give it ago myself. Here's a pic of what they look like stock

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah160/jamesbardall/Screenshot_2016-02-05-18-33-24_zpssrejrw3j.png

And here's mine after the mods

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah160/jamesbardall/20160204_145754_zpsv0fjcmk1.jpg ;

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah160/jamesbardall/20160204_145637_zpskcdva7y2.jpg ;

Cut a scratchplate from an old 12" LP with some little hobby knives heated up on a candle which took ages and messed up a bit on the right hand side but I'm happy with it!

I did buy a bit of sheet metal which I was going to cut for the bridge surround - partly being interested to hear if it would make the bridge pickup more tele sounding but it's not magnetic plus all I have is a jigsaw with a metal cutting bit. I settled on cutting down the old surround and wrapping it with copper tape and smoothing it out.

Then added some ez lok tuners but tbh the originals were fine after a bit of tightening up. Had a quick go of shaping the headstock but all I had was 1500 grit sandpaper so was a bit like trying to cut a steak with a spoon.

Was toying with replacing the bridge with a tele toploader but the stock is fine too. Neck is chunky and the frets were great. It plays really well and I like how it's turned out. Bought a tusq nut but didn't fit but again stock is ok. Just filed the slots and sanded the base until it was low enough. It's just fell out after removing strings so glued it in.

Might change the bridge pickup and pots. Could probably put a tele bridge and pickup in its place - we'll see. Just going to play it for a while!