Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit ST-Style Reviews

Awesome!

Got this kit today as a kind of early b-day gift from my wife, and what a gift!

I really love guitars and DIY hobbies, and this kit is just amazing!

Be aware that if you want to stain the guitar you'll need a good 2/4 hours sanding time.

Assembled it as it came and needs some work here and there but nothing much, as it plays quite well and the sound though it is not amazing (you can change the pickups whenever you want) it is quite nice, the entonation out of box was almost spot on!

Now I've already disambled it and started to stain, it's getting amazing!

If you enjoy customizing and having a good time, this is the perfect product for you!

Looking forward to finish this one and grab a LP kit :D

Value for money

Great starting kit with better than average quality

Good project

The guitar is quite rough. There was a dent on the front face of the guitar. Also, there were a lot of machining marks. It took me 3-4 hours of hand sanding to remove the marks and the dent. The body wood is not matched. The middle peace is significantly darker than the other 2. After staining though the body turned out to be quite nice.

I the neck seems straight. The frets were level, but the frets were not finished well. some had protruding edges, others needed to be filed down.

The parts are nothing special, but for the price they are good.

Its a great project, especially if you would like to learn how to work on guitars as it is reasonably priced. If you want a bargain, but you value your time, then its better if you just get a good finished guitar.

I bought this a a summer project to learn how to level the frets without damaging any of my expensive guitars. I could not do this as it was already level, but I had fun completing the kit.

Amazing craftsmanship

Wasnt expecting much from this thing at all, but I didnt even have to level the frets or anything.

The only critique is that the frets weren't polished, but that is easily fixed.

The pickups ofcourse sound thin and tinny, which is to be expected at this price point, but they would do the job for a beginner, and otherwise easily swapped out by an expert. I love it.

Best choise for someone who wants to experiment with the assembly and the setup of a guitar. Gives you a "stress free" freedom to mix things up and try different parts without having the fear of damaging an expensive instrument. Everything is operational out of the box, but trying different things is the way to find out what you really like. Worth mentioning is the fact that it took 8 days for the order to be delivered from the moment it was submited, which is very quick.

Misaligned holes of neck pocket kai bridge holes

Great for the price

It's looks and sounds great but it had one major flaw. The neck didn't sit flush with the body. That took a good while to fix but one I did I was delighted with the guitar

Great starter/workhorse guitar

This great little guitar recently joined my axe army to fill the role of workhorse/allround guitar.

It's quite impressive considering how cheap it is.

It has a 14'' radius fretboard, a modern C-shape neck (I could be compared to a '50s gibson neck, quite chubby but not unpleasant) with a smooth satin finish.The rosewood fretboard is quite thick (surely thicker than on my Strat), the frets are well placed and leveled, although fairly rough: I had to polish them with steel wool. The trussrod is precise. The body is fairly consistent in weight, sporting a well designed contour-body, although the routings for pickups and bridge are a little tight (I slightly widened them with a dremel).

The machine-heads keep the guitar tuned, even when abusing the tremolo, but their gear ratio is too small, re-tuning is more laborious than it should be. I changed them with gotoh locking tuners, now the guitar is as stable as a floydrose. The bridge is fairly cheap, and not very precise, bearing tuning problems and lack of sustain. I strongly advice an upgrade to a decent wilkinson 5+1 (I did, excellent upgrade).

Soundwise, the guitar handles excellently, the pickups are not bad and akin to vintage, thin sounds. However, a good set of pickups can turn this cheap studio guitar into a serious instrument, if backed by the aforementioned Bridge and tuners mods, with a final cost dwelling just under 300¤. That's quite a feat.

Rock on!

Not too bad

I Purchased this product because i was bored, and because I had to do some paint and dye testings on something that could be ruined without a problem.

At first sight it seemed all in order. the parts were counted, the holes were drilled right (on mine).

the body that would have been treated with only pore filler was quite rough and needed some serious sanding, and when i installed the neck to inspect the joint on the bolt-on, one of the drilled holes made the neck snap, so I had to glue that back.

Also, the working space on the blank headstock might need an extra cm to create that big strat head.

The quality of the parts was cheap, but okay, it costs 69 euros, so what did you expect? I threw away the bridge and neck pickup and got a Jailhouse Rail II (bridge) and a Texas loco (neck) from Iron Gear guitar pickups. that fixed a lot in versatility.

By all I would say this product is an awsome product for beginners, this lets them understand what it's all about, but to be a good product it needs better wood strength and a few stronger pickups to match more styles than just classical clean chord striking. If HB could provide these improvements for let's say .. 100 euro's for a set, that would be a nice beginners set.

Good Value

I bought this for the crack and to have another electric guitar handy.

Good Qualities: it has good sound; everything's very easy to assemble; it's price is very good considering the quality; and it's very handy to have a guitar like this lying around and so cheap.

Bad Qualities: some of the parts were quite stiff and the neck wasn't quite straight.

But hey, a few stiff parts and a slightly warped neck are worth it for something so cheap with good sound, which is very easy to personalize.

A fun kit for my adult son's birthday

The price was certainly cheap enough! I thought this would be a good gift for my son for his birthday.....and I was right! He was very happy to receive it. He didn't want to wait to paint or stain it, he just wanted to start building. It took him about 2 hours. It sounds and feels like a pretty decent guitar! Does it play like a $1,500 Strat? No. But for $62 you just can't beat it. It does play pretty nicely and its feel and tone are also good. It has been 6 months now and this guitar is his favorite out of the two he owns.

Would I recommend this? Yes. If you're looking for a PRS then this one might not be for you. And I might not play this at a gig, but if you want a fun kit that will result a very inexpensive guitar that is fun to play, then get it. I would especially get this for a kid who wants to learn the guitar!

Great instrument to learn DiY and playable

I got this instrument simply as a workbench to learn on how to put a guitar together and set it up without being afraid of ruining an expensive guitar and boy was I amazed.

I got it together in no time and it was an enjoyable experience. Setting it up was also easy. The truss rod works well and got a good setup for my tastes.

The only downfall of this guitar is that the pickups are very low output and very bright. I'm considering changing those to make this guitar usable.

Also don't expect a good solid body and it does have a couple of cosmetic imperfections. Nothing that a good sanding and finish won't cover though. Also it is very light weight, which can make it a good practice/rehearsal guitar if you're spending a long time with a guitar on your shoulder, as a heavy weight one would not feel good on your back after long rehearsals/practice.

Poor quality

This kit was perfect for my project, as I planned to chop the body up and build a custom two neck guitar. It didn't matter about the quality of the parts it was just a way of getting some pre cut wood in a guitar shape, that I could use as a starting point. The kit also provided me with some relatively cheap hardware, (machine heads, bridge, saddle, pre wired pickups and electrics). BUT it is all really low quality material.

If you want to use the guitar from this kit, to make music.....dont buy it. The materials are poor, the pre drilled screw holes don't all line up, the neck and frets are a disaster. Great as cheap set of spare parts, but not as a build from the box.

fun fun fun and good at the same time

someone said that a panda gives more satisfaction than a merc!

product is good !!

did not expect much, but it's really fun to build and paint it, there is only that main issue of sawing the headstock in shape, but if you got the tools, online you can find 1:1 shapes that you can print out and recreate.

the fact that you can correct possible faults before the final assembly yourself, gives you a lot of options to detail and finishing. it needs a little care here and there. mine needed some adjusting between neck and pick-plate, and then of course you need to check tutorials of how to properly tune (12th fret, action, truss rod), but that is part of the game and fun.

i spraypainted mine in black and then sandpapered it off a little for that used look. it's very inspiring, good for classic little dirty rockn'roll.

it's very good also to understand how to customize your gear, PRIOR to ruin the 'good' gear.

don't expect a vintage tele '59 worth 10k$, but does a good job.

i wish they would make explorers, too or flying V's withtout pickplate...

Excellent

This is the second Harley Benton guitar kit I have bought as I previously bought their T-style Kit. The kit assembled nicely without any problems and is very easy for those with little or no knowledge to undertake.

The guitar when assembled also plays and sounds very well for a guitar at this price point. I would definitely recommend this product to those interested.

Agreat guitar kit for a very affordable price

I brought this as a project and I was blown away at the quality of the product! For the price you pay, you get the neck and body pre made, hardware and pickups mounted to the pickguard. The instructions are very easy to use and feature simple step by step diagrams. The only problem I had was that at the sides of the fret board at the 1st,2nd and 3rd frets there as scuffs but overall not a bad product at all.

Amazing!

I wasn't expecting much for my 68 Euros, but it was apparent when it arrived that this was a quality, well-thought-out kit. EVERYTHING included, not a screw missing, decent enough neck and a nicely finished bare wood body (albeit not the most expensive timber).

I wanted the guitarto fit in a Seymour Duncan Humbucker (I had taken off another guitar), so I decided to give it a full custom job on the paintwork! The only mistake I made was not getting the right lacquer for the finish. To be honest, I am not sure what this should be...I have done one custom paint job using car lacquer, and this one I used wood lacquer...but the finish is a bit soft...Would recommend going for a polyurathane lacquer if you do it...and good luck finiding that in a spray can!

Back to teh guitar itself...I put on the fully-loaded pickup set supplied and was amazed at the quality of those...In the end I've decided to sell the Seymour Duncan and stick with the stock pickups! At some stage I may put some EMG Active Pickups in, but for the time being, I am jsut enjoying the sound of a guitar I built! I think a Bass will be next on the list

Suprisingly Good Tone

This was my first guitar project and it really payed off. Simple to build as no soldering was required and was built very easily. the assembled pickguard really helped. It handles very well for the price and does give some great tones. I would recommend this to anyone who's interested in building guitars.

Features: On the body of the guitar there is a small knot but clearly visible. There are some discoloration on the fretboard , some parts are light brown in colour and some are nearly black. Overall the guitar looks nice and works good.

Sound: Guitar plays very nicely, good sounding.

Overall this product is very nice, and not hard to assemble. I would recommend this product for anyone who wants to start their journey with making their own guitars.

Okay overall, but cheap in both senses of the word.

It's a cheap kit, so you get what you pay for. The parts are cheap, so is the sound, but you can make a functional personalised electric guitar out of it. If luthiership is something you have an interest in, this is a great place to start. Of if you're looking for cheap parts for an experimental build, this would be worth looking at.