Harley Benton ST-20 SB Standard Series Reviews

Bought to try Roseacer fretboard

I had great experiences with the ST-62MN and its variants but was eyeing this out due to the roseacer fretboard. I have seen this used as a skunk stripe and its should be like baked maple so it should be good right? however the build of the guitar is more like coming from the same factory as the ST 90 judging by the online photos so i decide to get one and yes it is the same finish style/logo placement as the ST90 but with cheaper hardware, the same thick and a tad hazy clear coat on the body. for the stock pickups they work. Only thing i didnt like was the tuners were installed slanted. For the Roseacer fretboard. it looks like Ebony, very dark but i would not recommend oiling this board at all. i would recommend cleaning it with naptha or something not oily. tonally roseacer is dull sounding. Overall its an ok guitar but if you want something better than this the ST62 Harley Benton is 2x better.

The guitar came with a crooked fingerboard. I straightened it with a truss rod. Action was high and I had to take it down. There is a fret on the sixth string. I suggest the company to raise the technical control of its production.

good price for this quality

Cheap guitar with cheap sound

The build of the guitar leaves much to be desired, but what can you expect at this price? After purchasing, it is worth modifying it yourself: File the frets, adjust the neck and scale. The guitar sounds very cheap, but for beginners and for children in general it is suitable. Accessories are also very cheap, a little backlash.

For beginners

It's great choice for beginners or whom trying to get in the world of guitars I highly recommend it.

3/5

For its cost, the guitar is not bad, but there are some differences

Awesome as a first guitar

theres nothing bad i can say about this guitar really.it plays well out of the box and even better with a professional setup. the potentiometres are a little on the low end side but you can only expect so much from a 72 dollar guitar. highly recommend this as your first guitar

It's good! Not perfect but good.

In my case:

- Neck: good, but frets the are slightly sharp;

- Pickups: work as you expected;

- Body: no issues;

- Tuners: work, but one slightly tilted, which happens in more expensive guitars. Not a big deal.

As a result this guitar is good. Especially when you look at the price. After ordering, you receive a product that you can use right out of the box.

I think this guitar can be a great starting point for beginners.

Awesome guitar

Its my first guitar, and its amazing. Playable, comfortable, good sound. I heard that the guitar doesnt hold the tune well, but all amazing

A Killer of Cheap Stratocaster

The product is more than amazing for the price. Quality is great for the segment, the sound is very decent. But unsure about "modern C" neck profile, more looks like classic "C". I wouldn't recommend this guitar for heavy styles.

The best product for that money

Everything is great. you get additional tools for tuning and changing the wire. Guitar tremolo is very hard, so I'm afraid the guitar won't crack. But everything else works perfectly.

Harley Benton Guitar

Husband is pleased with guitar but there is a small scratch on white part of body. Also disappointed there was no strap or plectrum. otherwise doing my head in, LOL

Beginner's review

As I had no previous experience with guitars I'm really surprised by quality of this guitar, but also I'm quite 'picky' so i will point what annoys me.

Finish of body is flawless, that means no sharp edges, paintwork is spot on.

Neck - frets are good, maybe on the side edges it would need a little bit of sanding to get them smooth with side of the neck. I recommend to buy Lemon oil to cure fretboard, it was little bit dry.

Tuners - well those feel.. Cheap, even me as a guitar noob can tell this not great. I guess I will be swapping them for better ones.

Pickups - well they get their job done, I Will be swapping bridge pickup for hotrail humbucker, and also pickup switch, it's little bit wiggly to my feeling.

Pickguard - it's good, nothing to complaint about, it's just plastic, I didn't have it opened yet if there's additional shielding.

Tremolo - I didn't use that, most reviews says not to use (due to tuning), so I will stick to that.

So overall for me go for it, If you are beginner. I was considering Fender Squier, but considering the price (+50€ for fender) this was best choice, as I can upgrade this guitar to my liking with the same price with upgrades to the fender without ones.

Note: in package is cable, screwdriver for neck and bridge, tremolo stick.

Excellent choice for begginer

On the outside is really good finish, but oh boy the inside is pretty gross

Better than expected

For this price point it would be a shame not to order one of these guitars. It's crazy to think that you can buy a guitar as affordable as this one and get more than you paid for. It's is very comparable to my Squer Affinity Strat.

Why should you buy this guitar?

- Affordable price

- Easy to play for a begginer

- No setup was needed out of the box, playable from the start

- Guitar looks great, no issues with the finish

- 3-ply scratchplate which some of the more expensive guitar don't have

- Leveled frets, nicely rounded

- Quality comparable to some other more established brands

Things you should be aware of before buying, but don't influence the playability much:

- Tuners are not the greatest, but they do the job

- Tremolo arm has a lot of play in it, but that can also be remedied

- Frets could be more polished. Lots of scratching when bending the strings.

Overall, great bang for the buck.

Excellent quality straight out of the box. Just tuned the guitar and played. Great action ,the set-up was great.Very good pickups and a very good finish. I have paid more for guitars not as good as the st20

Astonishing value

I am a techie-type and have been playing electric guitar for fifty years. I bought this Strat-style guitar for the sole purpose of fitting my MIDI pickup to it which I was desperate to get off my real Strat because it gets in the way of comfortable playing and also requires undersireble settings of string-height etc.

I therefore was never intending to play this HB-ST20 actually as a guitarist, I had no interest in the tone or the action or anything else because all I intended to do was play slow, simple chord-changes to control my synth via MIDI.

As such, I bought the cheapest guitar I could find and had very low expectations.

When this guitar arrived I was literally ASTONISHED by it. I can hardly believe that it is possible to buy such an excellent instrument for so little money.

I can see no significant flaw in the finsh - this guitar looks great.

The scratchplate is proper too - three-ply white/black/white as it should be.

The sound is very good. As a lifelong (American) Strat player I know what a Strat should sound like and this extremely inexpensive guitar comprehensively achieves it. The "tubular" sound of a Strat neck pickup, the spanky brightness of the bridge pickup, the distinctive hollow sound of the 2 and 4 switch positions ...... it does it all.

The neck profile is quite thick - this is not an ultra-slim C-shaped neck, more of a D - but I found it very comfortable indeed and despite decades of playing slim C-shaped necks I immediately felt at home with it.

In recent years there has been a trend away for high gloss finsh on the neck because with the slight dampness of a hand the neck becomes sitcky to the feel and slower. The finish on this neck is matt and it feels fast. The frets are well finished, no sharp edges, fret-sprout or radically uneven heights. It needed a set-up but once the intonation and string heights were correct, the action is low. The nut was quite well cut - some small improvement would be possible, but it's definitely close to it's ideal straight out of the box.

The pickups sounded good both clean and into distortion.

The tuners are nothing wonderful but they're fine, perfectly serviceable and far better than expected.

As I said at the beginning. I am literally astonished at how good this guitar is. Assuming that the one I received was typical then I would absolutely recommend this guitar to anyone.

As a guitar for beginner/inexperienced it is ideal, but this guitar is an actual INSTRUMENT which experienced and seasoned players would be happy to play.

My sole criticism is that the tremelo arm is an extremely sloppy fit, but excessive play in screw-in tremelo arms is a long-standing problem even for big name brands so don't be put off by that. People have been putting tape etc on tremelo arm threads since the day Fender launched the first Strat, it's all "part of the joy" :-p

great sound, amazing to handle

very happy with this guitar and it has great sound and is amazing to handle

Best Value

I ordered from Mexico, paid import taxes on top of shipping and it is still a great value instrument.

One of the best

Such a nice guitar,very nice color the finish on gorgeous , pretty good sound for the price of it i like it a lot