Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit ST-Style 4-stars Reviews

Overall I was very pleased with this little kit. Firstly the delivery was outstanding! perfect tracking and arrived in 3 days, very much impressed! The kit itself is rather good too, now I'm no guitar expert but i personally think it's really good for a starter guitar and project, not really a professional level guitar without maybe some alterations, Myself, I bought some alternative parts, mostly cosmetics like scratch plates, dials, pickup covers etc... i did replace the string trees too since I have seen many a guitar critic/expert state that these types aren't particularly good for string life since they drag on the strings. My only real gripe with this kit is the fact that the heel of the neck was uneven so when it sat in the neck pocket of the guitar, one side was sitting fine but the other side was floating about 1.5 mm from the body in one corner and also I was missing 2 screws for the jack socket, but those were easily replaced. there was also a tiny crack in the body of the guitar, but that sort of thing was easily fixed with some filler. really I was very happy with it overall, and am considering maybe getting another one, different body type though, since i had so much fun with building this one.

ST Kit

Well never mind buying a Squire Strat...the quality of this kit is unbelievable.

An hour to build and 30 mins to tweak, tune, stretch and final adjustment..

The supplied pickup set is not bad at all but being ceramic lack bell like tones, I didnt use the supplied strings but fitted some Ernie Ball Slinky 9's

Retro fitting a Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in the bridge and the playability and sound this kit guitar produces is better than most Squire and Mexican Fenders.

The Neck is very well fretted, no choking or raised frets and the whole kit just fell together to produce a serious players instrument.

Unbeatable for the cost..

Next step now is to carve the Headstock shape and laquer the body, again the quality of the Basswood body means a natural finish is possible, there are no unsightly joins or blemishes to hide.

And fit a Roland GK2a pickup system.

My only gripe is that there were a few screws short and the one string tree screw is not long enough, but I never use the rear cover plate or D/G string tree on Strats anyway.

Excellent and great fun for those that like Lego...

Great for a first try!

Very interesting thing, I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to try to work on their first custom guitar.

Some minor issues though:

- one screw for the spring bracket wasn't really a screw, but more a bent nail. Easy to replace of course.

- the little screws for the string tees on the headstock are rubbish (or the pre-drilled hole was drilled too big). Whatever it was, the screws jumped out of the holes within just minutes, because of the string tension.

- it claims to be "paint ready", but sand it anyway. My first layer of spray paint was terrible. Don't know if it was because of my very limited painting abilities or the wood finish, but after i sanded it, everything went much much smoother.

- a little bit more advice on how to install and adjust the hardware like tremolo bar, pickup height, truss rod, ... would be welcome. As a beginner you will need to find helpful advice from others (or the internet), because the manual is very limited in that.

But those were really the only issues I encoutered.

It's not a fantastic sounding guitar, of course. But for the small amount of money it costs, it's an INCREDIBLY awesome portal to a new world of guitar customizing. It's perfect for everybody who wants to try it, but is a little unsure to start.

And to prove it's not a throw-away thing: i'm going to play it on the closing ceremony of the Special Olympics in Antwerp, 20/9/2014

your cheap custom guitar!

I bought this kit to make an decoupage experiment, without spend too much.

Open the box the woods looks good , the shape is perfect and the basswood weight is comfortable (but also tender, may be dented easily, so cover it with several layers of paint!).

The neck is ok, you have just to design your own headstock shape (please quit copying the fender one and create your own!!!)

you dont need to solder because the electronic part is very simple, just connect wires with connectors.

I replace the bridge and neck pickup, the cheap plastic capo with a bone one, straplocks and tremolo saddles.

After some time i also replace the tuners with locking tuners for a better tuning and also the strings with daddario.

also oiled all the fretboard and the wood return to life!

the decoupage and the 8 paint hands fixed very well to the body and headstock surface.

At the end of all the guitar looks and play very well, the feeling is good, non buzz, great tone and the improvements raise the guitar level from cheap guitar to useful live axe.

with few bucks you'll get a personal customized guitar thats play well and a lot of fun.

just think at least to replace the cheap capo

Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit

Easily assembled and has good furniture. The tremolo is a bit tough to set up properly, so patience is required. In use, it gives good reponse from all 3 pickups, and not to heavy in weight.

Good value

guitar kit st-type

this product arrived in the north-west tip of Ireland within 4 days from order,that was a suprise in itself,the body of the guitar has quite a good finish as so the neck,the frets have no sharp edges,and are well set,The action was pretty well set,i had to raise the bridge slightly but that was it.The stock pickups are priced correctly, they would suit learner ok,but not the experienced player,the main reason being the hiss,but when it was finished i had to laugh aloud at the whole product,it looked great after a coat of cheap clear furniture wax,fender 9s had it screaming,i would recomend it to anyone,not only for the aspect of being cheap,but for the pure fun and enjoyment of creating your own personal sound/look/ in a guitar.

My boyfriend loves it

The set was shipped very fast to my place, as orders are always.

This was a present for my boyfriend, who already owns some guitars, but he didn't expect this one.

The guitar can be put together and set up pretty fast, but a finish for the wood-parts takes some time. So we put it together without that, for now, and the guitar sounds very nice, the neck and the frets are just fine, too. The only problem we had was a inlay dot which came already crumbling off.

I'd suggest this item for anyone looking for a good gift or just to get to know better how guitars are set up, build etc.

Harley Benton straight kit

This kit contains a strato" body and neck plus all the components. The alder body and neck are quite ready for use after some use of sandpaper and paint. The instrument is very close to strato. The manual is quite clear thou some assemblies are omitted. It took abt 3 hours to assemble. After that I dismantled it for painting.

I can't imagine how they make these kits with this quality and price.

The mikes can be replaced if the instrument is other wise correctly adjusted.

Easy to build and ready for playing.

29.10.2014

I got my third ST-style Kit yesterday. The wooden parts are ok, but the quality is not so good any more: minor scratches on the back side, missing screw and some sticky stuff laying on the fingerboard. Luckily the neck is straight and ok. The pickups are as good as you can get with this price. Gonna change those.

overall ***

features ***

sound ***

quality **

For this price it's a no brainer.

Bought this for fun (and it was fun) but was surprised with the quality.

It's no Gibson ore fender for sure but it is very playable and that's not always expected at this price point

Good for Learning

Firstly, this guitar kit is great to learn about parts of the guitar on, and also to learn how everything works. On top of this, making your own guitar is fun and can be a challenge.

The parts are of decent quality, and the finished guitar sounds okay. With some new pickups it may sound much better. The guitar is like a blank template for your designs and can be painted on because of the unfinished wood. When you are assembling it, no soldering is required because the wires clip into slots. The guitar also has a decent tremolo bar. Overall I would recommend this to anyone who wants a cheap guitar to learn on.