ST-90SA Swamp Ash DLX Series : Converted Gear Snob

I have to confess, owning a 30 year old US Strat and a Gibson Midtown and having previously owned Rickenbacker, Epiphone, Ibanez and PRS guitars, the idea of gigging with a Harley Benton was simply inconceivable to me. I ordered this purely as a chuck around to hang in my music room to try to save strings on my gigging guitars. Given the low price I really wasn’t expecting much when it arrived. I can’t stress enough just how wrong I was! This guitar is possibly the best thing I’ve played in my 40 years of playing live music. It is simply awesome! The tonal range puts both my Strat and Midtown to shame. It is a heavy guitar but this gives it a natural sustain comparable with my Midtown and my old PRS. The fret board and neck feel almost identical to the Midtown and the action, after a small adjustment to the bridge saddles, is comparable without any buzzing. I recently fitted my Strat with Custom Shop Texas Specials but in my humble view they compare poorly to the Roswell STA Alnico-5 ST set up in the HB which offer more bite and clarity of tone. The only things I may replace are the pots and switchgear, which do feel a little cheap and a bit sloppy, and the machine heads although they’ve performed well so far at gigs with minimal slippage. These very minor issues are the only reason the guitar doesn’t rate full marks across the board. It’s an absolute joy to play and I can’t recommend this guitar highly enough!