Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit ST-Style Reviews

Stunning kit

Really really enjoyed building this plays great. Only one niggle machine heads arent the best but other than that superb

Good to tinker with

Are you consider this to get a decent guitar for very little money? Don't bother -- just buy a pre-built guitar. Do you want to learn more about guitar maintenance/repair and don't mind fixing any number of flaws in the kit? Read on.

Pros:

- Neck is very well made and worth the price alone. The only flaw was the slightly recessed inlay on the 3rd fret. That's an easy fix.

- While the routes on the body are a bit rough, there are no major flaws.

- Neck pocket has a nice, firm fit.

Cons:

- The screw holes for the tremolo were not in a straight line. These needed to be filled and redrilled.

- The tuners were junk.

- The bridge and electronics are not horrible, but I would actually prefer to be able to buy the kit without the hardware -- most of this stuff will just end up in a landfill.

- While some plastic packaging is no doubt unavoidable, the plastic pickguard (that will be full of scratches anyway) was itself both covered with a plastic protector and then packaged in a zip-lock bag. Unnecessary.

Absolutely outstanding!!!

1. If you are not handicraft eligible guy/doll, equipped with a good set of tools (screwdrivers, drills and so on...), keep from this one away.

2. Tuners, strings - piece of crap, definitely. I decided to install Kluson Self Locked tuners for 50 Euro and DAddarios 12-52 Halfrounds for 10 Euro. After that guitar sings SWEET!!!

3. SHIELDING! You need to cover all the body cavities with graphite lacquer (GRAPHIT 33). After that there is NO hum at all.

4. In the effect I have a Strat for 150 Euro sounding (for me) like instruments rated much more than 500!!! Really, I have checked it in guitar shop. May be they are looking better but Sound Matters.

Good value for money

Bought this kit to use the body and neck for some better parts I had lying around. Overall this kit is good value for money, but probably not better than buying a guitar for just a little more money.

The best part of the kit was the neck. While it had a little ding in the fretboard and a couple of hairline cracks inside the neck pocket, the neck looks and plays great. The maple is very hard, and the satin/unfinished back makes it wonderful to play. Fretboard looks very attractive, though the frets were a bit scratchy. Tip: Polish them up before you mount the neck.

The body is quite attractive, but the routing was a bit rough on the inside. Also, the wood is very brittle. Take care if you need to route out for humbuckers or some other custom setup.

I mounted the pickups and the rest of the guitar to an old body, and it sounded okay. Pots and switches were ok, but the knobs looked pretty cheap. Easy to mount with no soldering.

PROs:

- Good neck (polish those frets first!)

- Decent, attractive body

- Pretty easy to put together

CONs:

- Brittle body wood

- Cheap looking knobs

- Tuners and pickups ok at best

Overall a fun kit, good for the money and a great starter for a custom build.

A must have if you're serious about electric guitar

I'm a beginner guitarist - started to learn during the first lockdown in Spain - and never played an electrical guitar before. I bought this as an entry path into the electric guitar playing, mostly to learn and understand how the sound comes out.

The package came just in time for my birthday, no damage, scratches or missing parts. It took me about one and half hour, with breaks, to put everything together. You need a good screwdriver and a key (that's for fixing the tuners in place), other than that, nothing, everything is already wired and soldered in place.

Be extra careful when you fix the bridge, as it will be connected to the whammy bar later on, and it will affect the tension in the strings. Expect a few trials and errors. Also, be aware about the truss rod, if you happen to see the strings coming too close to the fretboard. You can adjust the tension in the neck - to the point of making it concave or convex - thus adjusting the distance between the strings and the frets.

The white pickups board has a thin film on top of it, again, be careful when you remove it, as it may get stuck, or you may have leftovers around potentiometers.

After I tuned it and connected it (you even get a cable, so no need to buy an extra one) the miracle: there was sound coming out and I could play an instrument. Don't have too many expectations in terms of quality, this is perfect for practicing (probably even singing for friends) but if you look for stage-ready equipment, be ready to do some upgrades. Which is exactly what I'm going to do: I will disassemble it, properly paint the body, shield the inside (to reduce hum) and, if I can squeeze in some new pickers (humbuckers) I will add them too, making this stage-ready (or so I think right now).

If you have no idea how an electric guitar works, especially a Stratocaster, then this is by far the easiest, cheapest way to understand it. And you get a real, playable instrument. It's also fun.

Excellent service

I received this kit in 5 days delivered to the middle east and was exactly as described.

Great as DIY project

Everything is included, but the build quality is quite poor, i.e. gaps between neck and body etc. But you get what you pay for. Still had fun with building and painting it.

In the end, took it apart and used the neck to make "shovel guitar" and made a lamp out of the body. Still had much fun!

Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit

I bought the Harley Benton Guitar kit as a simple project during Covid-19 lockdown and finished painting the this week. The product is well designed and fits together perfectly. I have tuned it and it plays well, I will need to play with the setup but all in all its a great product. It a great way to understand how the guitar is put together and being able to paint it yourself is great fun. I would recommend the product.

All the basics you need, great for a project, but if you're looking for a cheap guitar, you're better off buying a readymade harley benton in the same price range.

Swapped out both the pickups and the eletronics so can't really comment on sound.

Neck is fair, frets are not perfect but they're playable, you get what you paid for.

Body is good, no complaints.

PROS:

Cheap, easy to assemble, great project

CONS:

Holes don't line up, takes a certain degree of crafting knowledge to get it right, cheap electronics

Very fun project

I've bought this strat kit after having a positive experience with the Harley Benton Telecaster kit. This strat kit is no exception. Although I've seen some youtube video's where the guitar bodies showed some imperfections, the body I've got delivered however is of very good quality. It consists of three pieces of basswood with a nice grain figure. Unfortunately not all screw holes where aligned perfectly for the bridge, so I'll have to adjust them in order so let the bridge sit straight on the body. The neck is very good manufactured and really doesn't need any work. Nice rounded fret edges, no high frets.

If you're looking for a fun project with a nice sounding guitar this is a no-brainer!

Create A Guitar To Suit You

Harley Benton Strat Style Guitar Kit

If you ever wanted to know how a guitar fits together this is the kit for you. The instructions are clear. You will need a few simple tools such as a screwdriver and a spanner to fix the machine heads. You can paint the body ; I used graffiti paints, Montana Black Purple Rain with twin Orange stripes.

I recently modified the guitar by adding an Artec hot rails style humbucker in the bridge position. I also installed a switch so I can use it in single coil mode.

I changed the tone control from the middle pickup to the bridge pickup, this was a simple mod. Further mods include adding a resistor and capacitor to the volume control to prevent treble loss when turning down the volume.

Pros

Excellent price.

Clear Instructions.

Body to neck join is accurate.

Fun to play a guitar you painted and assembled.

Cons

The first body had the bridge holes drilled in the wrong place. The replacement body was correct.

The pickups are a little harsh.

The body wood was a little rough.

The pick guard cannot be removed without loosening the neck, because of the 22 fret neck extending over the pick guard.

This kit is great for a first time builder. Even out of the box play for the price excelent. If you put some time and elbow grease into it you will get a nice strat for just a few punds.

Body is realy light made from 5 pieces of wood. Neck is made from one piece.

Before spray painting you should still sand the body since it is not smooth.

I changed all the electronics, tunners, tremmolo and nut. Now stays in tune perfectly. I also levelled the frets and crowned them.

Ordered some new cheap alnicos since the ceramic pick-up in the kit don t give the sound I want.

OK product for the price

I have built three of these Harley Benton sets, the P-bass, the Tele and now the Strat model. They are fairly easy to build and the instructions are comprehensive. The finished products sound OK. I have upgraded the pickups, which made a big difference. The main point of me getting this kit was mainly to get experience in building a guitar, but I have actually used the finished product quite a lot!

Fun little project

Don’t expect to build your dream guitar with this kit. What you can expect though is a very fun guitar building experience and a GREAT, risk-free exercise in setting up/finishing an electric guitar. The end result can be an enjoyable guitar with some effort and basic tools. Obviously not the best sound due to the cheap electronics and woods but great fun all together. No soldering required by the way! Recommended for what it is: spare-time project and learning experience. If you are looking for having your main guitar replaced, i’d look elsewhere. Harley Benton makes some great (finished) guitars if you’re on a budget!

Happy owner

Ok, 3 months since I assembled it, so I can finally give full review.

First of all, its not an IKEA shelve, you will need more that just a screwdriver. I had to shut down 1 hole that was screwed wrong and make a new one, and internal cavities on a body needed some care, as they were really rough and could damage wires. Really, it looked like cavities were done with dull tools. The rest of assembly was easy. Neck is really well-made, has satin finish that feels nice in hand and doesnt slow you down at all when playing. I would say its worth getting this kit just for a neck, if you need one for a project. Worth mentioning that when it came, fret sides were perfectly smooth, but after 2 weeks in a dry climate they started biting, so I had to sand them down a bit. So if your neck will come with frets sticking out a bit, don't blame the factory right away. Electronics are soldered well, but pickguard needed some adjustment to make space for neck and tremolo. Can't say anything about tremolo system itself, as I blocked it right away, Eric Clapton style, to increase sustain. Body surface needed just a bit of polishing, it has natural finish which I kinda like so I left it unpainted for now. To drop the string action I had to remove the nut and sand its bottom down, but it allowed me to get strings down to 1.2-1.5mm above 12th fret(from thinnest string to thickest). Overall it was a lot of fun to assemble, and I definitely bonded with my guitar after that. It makes me pick it up and practice more. It has nice glassy sound that strats should have. After 3 months still everything is fine, neck is straight, guitar holds tune well. That's all about my experience with that guitar kit, but be wary that all kits can't be exactly the same. Mine wasn't perfect, but good, and all problems were solveable, so I rated it 5/5 considering the price.

awesome kit

hardware was sufficient, but most people get new pickups and pots. This is a great kit for new builders like myself!

Nice Kit, Good For Building Guitar Or For Parts

I bought it at the end of December, I actually wasn't looking another guitar or kit but wanted to pay 70 euro more for something I can sell or maybe even keep, and have free shipping, instead of paying 15 euro for shipping. I decided to have some fun with it, I'm still building custom Strat using that body, I put neck on different guitar and used pickups and other parts in other instruments. However it could be a great guitar on it's own, neck is really nice and comfortable, frets are good and ends aren't sharp, parts are good too, pickups sound ok and tuners could be better but they do the job, bridge block is thin but it doesn't look very fragile. Body is also nice, wound looks good even if not painted, however back cavity is routed in strange way, one side of it isn't totally straight, it's little bit wavy, it may look like a routing mistake, but I looked on previous years models and a l l bodies have back cavity routed like that, maybe it's mistake in file for CNC and it's too small to be needed to be fixed?

very good quality for the price, but wish it was routed for neck and bridge humbuckers

The basswood body is great and easy to sand down (there were some rough, uneven patches on the body, but it was good as a whole.) The non-solder feature is very helpful for quick and easy assembly, but I'm somewhat disappointed in the routing only being for single coil sized pickups, but I knew that when I bought the item. Overall worth the money and a great product.

ST Kit, Excellent Guitar

I have Just completed my ST build,

I shaped the headstock to a more traditional shape,

spent several hours shaping and sanding until it was as I wanted,

Finished the body in clear lacquer as the wood was blemish free,

I fitted everything that came in the box,very good fit, if you take care ,

The Neck is really good and straight as an Arrow

I Fitted Ernie ball strings ,the guitar plays well and sounds brilliant

Anywhere I can post pictures ?

Think I will try a T Style kit next

Well impressed.

Great fun and decent value .

I bought this kit for the experience of building a guitar. I have 2 Fender guitars a Mexican strat and a Japanese Mustang. My existing guitars were needing a little bit of maintenance and set up so this guitar was to be my guinea pig. The kit is fairly impressive upon removal from the box, everything is of a decent enough standard. I sanded it down and hand painted it with acrylic paint sanding between coats before a final coat of rustoleum clear coat and t-cut car polish. I built the guitar up and set it up with the help of various youtube vids. I was able to get a nice low action with no fret buzz. The only minor gripes I have are that the tuning machines have a few wee dead spots where you turn and nothing happens to the pitch but they stay pretty much in tune. I replaced the nut with a graph tech 42mm pt5000-00 nut which helps. I was able to get good intonation at the 12th fret and a very playable set up over all. The neck is initially pretty impressive but the fingerboard is a kind of matte material and feels very scratchy when bending notes. In conclusion I would highly recommend buying this kit for the experience of building your own guitar. I was planning to slowly upgrade this guitar over time with new locking tuners,pick ups and tremolo etc, but the scratchy feeling of the finger board has given me cause to rethink this as its never going to feel great (think Jaws blackboard scene and you'll get the idea)

Experience 10/10

Quality of wood 7/10

Quality of hardware 7/10.

p.s. 1x bridge/tremolo screw was missing from my kit so make sure you count the parts before cracking on with your build. All the best and good luck.

~EDIT. Polished the frets and this got rid of the scratchy fret board feeling. !st build inexperience.