Harley Benton ST-20 BK Standard Series Reviews

Amazing.

I have brought a couple of budget guitars in the past and really wasn't expecting much for less than 100 euros. I took it out of the box and my first impression was that it looked like a far more expensive guitar, I was sure that my initial surprize would disappear when I plugged it in. Straight from the off I was blown away by the sound and the ease of play, I couldn't put it down. The finish and workmanship was as good as any guitar I have owned in the past, OK I've never owned a top class strat. I love playing this guitar and would not have the slightest concern about gigging with it. I'm not going to look for fault or any negativity on this guitar just for the sake of a review because honestly, less than a hundred bucks?? Don't bother looking, I doubt very much if there is a better guitar than this out there in this price range. Amazing.

I bought a guitar for my son, he liked it very much because it is very easy to play, has nice hands and everything is fun with this.

my first guitar...

guys, to be honest, I love this guitar, it's cheap, I'm a beginner, I wanted something as cheap as possible, of the highest quality, and I got it ... I'll tell you briefly about the guitar, perhaps ...

The neck is a maple, a good one, a light piece of maple, and well polished, and I know this is a rarity in budget models. The fingerboard is polysander, yes, it may be inexpensive, but the fingerboard is thick and looks cool, switches, knobs and all that work great. The tuners are cheap, but quite solid, I don't think that something will go wrong. The strings are excellent from the factory, so for the first time I will leave them, then I will buy similar ones. So, now the cons, I did not like milling in some places, it is rough, somewhere there is So, now the cons, I did not like the milling in some places, it is rough, there are burrs somewhere, I had to carefully clean it up, but that's all. By sound ... an ordinary sound, my guitarist friend, said that it sounds good, he would have estimated it at 15 thousand rubles (about 190 euros) If you are such a novice guitarist, or you need a guitar for your home, then take it boldly it's really worth it!

PS: guys, those who live in Europe ... it's not money at all for you, I'm now a schoolboy from Russia, everyone is in trouble, for me it can be a large amount, but for you it's not money at all ...so? why not to buy?

Excellent value

As a total guitar beginner, this product proved perfect for me. Its very "pick up and play"-friendly without further adjustments, and has a very pleasant sound for a variety of genres. Absolutely bargain for the price.

Great guitar for beginners

Great item, especially for that price! Very high quality made guitar, pretty good strings. The guitar came a little upset, possibly due to transportation, but a few minutes of adjustment will give a pleasant sound.

Great for the price

I’m very happy with the instrument. Very playable right out of the package. Can’t think of a better deal for the price. I needed an affordable decent guitar while I wait for my instruments to be shipped to my new home... This has been perfect, and the service people are awesome.

Very good guitar vor low price

Well, it's my first e-guitar and i'm using it for 6 months and it's VERY GOOD. Well sanded, smooth and comfortable neck, shiny black body, it looks very good. No problems with jack plugging or other.

PERFECT FOR HOME RECORDING

I bought this 3 months ago, I just love it.

Pros :

Smooth Fret Board

Cost

Pickups

Cons :

weight

Solid guitar as a base for upgrades

This guitar is a very solid guitar for the money. The next and body are good and it is a really good platform to build a solid partscaster. Great value for money. Good entry level / beginner guitar if you are prepared to put some work in (intonation, action and fret ends) and upgrade into it (factor in an additional €40-65 for tuning machines and possibly an input jack, although it's still playable/ enjoyable without them). My ratings are taking the price into context.

Positives include:

- the neck and body is good and has a reassuring weight to them;

- the bridge / tremolo seems solid and stays in tune well once the tuners are changed;

- the pickup selector feels solid;

- the strings were much better than I expected but I still replaced mine to clean the fretboard;

- and the paint job was fine.

Negatives include:

- The tuners are really bad and keep slipping, with poor tuning stability (I replaced them straight away with the harley benton locking tuners, which are really good for the money);

- The input jack seems very weak and cuts in and out, so will need to be replaced. Short term solution was to unscrew the plate and bend it back into position but still not solid enough;

- Pick-ups are fine but a little thin sounding.

- Fret ends are a little sharp but easily fixed with a light sanding (first time I've done this and it went fine).

Update: I replaced the input jack with an Allparts gold one and that fixed the cutting out issue and somehow made the pick-ups sound much fuller and remove the thin sounding issue I mentioned above. I was thinking of changing the pick-ups later but I don't think I will bother now. Be careful changing the input jack though, as the new one was too big for the stock plate, so I replaced that with a Fender one (although a decent drill and bit would probably do the job on the stock plate). Guitar sounds good now.

St-20 BK Strat style guitar for £69 ... !!!! Amazing!! And that includes delivery! How do they do it?

I have basically turned it into an ST-62 Hotrod clone by changing the bridge p'up to a hotrail and adding Harley Benton Chrome Roller String Trees, Harley Benton Locking Tuners, strap locks and a switchcraft jack socket.

The build quality is very good indeed. It feels solid as a rock in the hands when playing and I'm impressed. I like this guitar very much.

Harley Benton ST-20

For its price , this is a great option for a beginner. Good build, normal sound. Overall, it makes a good impression. Solid four stars.

Hard to find fault given the price

Summary: For €79, the quality of this guitar seems impossible. For a first guitar, it seems like the obvious choice.

So, first, background: This is bought for my teenage son who has been learning guitar for about 4 months. It is his first electric guitar, and the first in our home. We have no previous experience and this is my first time reviewing a guitar. Also, I myself cannot play guitar, so I cannot really comment on playability etc, for that reason, other than to comment on what my son has experienced.

With that said, out of the box this guitar feels substantially better than I was expecting for €79. I can't remember the last time I have bought something and immediately thought that it should have cost a lot more.

The finish looks great, and the knobs and switches all feel good. I don't think I'm going too far to say that this guitar looks great. Even if you don't think about the price at all.

It took my son a few minutes to tune, but that was it, and he started playing clear chords with a very pleasant sound. It did take him a few hours to get accustomed to the narrow neck, having started out on an acoustic guitar, but it was all smiles all the way, and for us listening to him practice, the sounds coming from this guitar (through the Harley Benton TableAmp) are very nice.

If you are looking for comparisons to other guitars, and that kind of thing, I can't help you. But if this is your first experience with an electric guitar, or for a starter guitar for a young beginner, it seems like a no brainer.

Pros:

- Price, obviously

- Looks great

- Sounds nice

- Plays nicely out of the box (after tuning)

Cons

- The frets are sharp along the edges of the neck, with a few of them protruding quite a bit more than others. (But I understand this is something to expect at this end of the price range, and can be addressed with some work.)

- No instructions (maybe this is normal, but it means we don't know exactly what the nice feeling 5-way switch is doing, for example. And not sure how to make use of the supplied adjuster tools, for example.)

- Some minor damage marks on the white "pick guard" on our model, but hardly noticeable and could be due to shipping.

Overall this is a bargain. There are TOY electric guitars that cost this much, and this is the real deal. The fact that it looks good, sounds good, and is easy to play (according to my son), what's not to like?

Also, there is a audio lead included in the box. I wasn't aware so ordered a sssnake IPP1030 to go with this. The included lead will probably do the job though. However, we are glad we got the sssnake one at the time, as it is much higher quality.

If you don't have an electric guitar, and you would like to have one, and you have €79 to spend, then you should probably get this one.

Great Quality for Price

Overall the guitar was great for the price. I had to give it a setup and it had a little fret sprout which I filed down. But other then setting it up for my tastes, the guitar is well worth the price.

Very good low budget guitar

The guitar came in perfect condition and played pretty well right after unboxing, there was just some tuning to be done at the bridge. The strings were very low quality but after i replaced them, the guitar sounds incredebly well for it's price, i'd say it can compete solidly with a slightly higher budget fender.

Shouldn't have guitar

Frets are scratching my hand and I was getting tired after playing for less then 30 minutes, I was getting wounds in my hands, at first I thought I was holding the guitar the wrong way as a beginner. Strings quality is very poor. G string was buzzing a lot, at first I though it was my mistake as a beginner. The actual mistake was buying this guitar, and it was a big mistake. After 4 months I bought a new guitar, then I sandpapered the frets that were scratching my hand, I put on new strings. I got no value for money. It almost got me give up playing guitar. Please don't produce any of these anymore, so that others will pay a bit more for their first guitar and won't be mistaken.

fabulous Guitar for price

i bought this guitar a while back as my first guitar to learn on after playing bass for years. It arrived well packaged and secure all set up ready to go. I was blown away by the sound of the guitar when playing it through a small practice amp i ended up getting a Harley Benton vintage 30 to play through and they sound exceptional together. would recommend replacing the strings with some cheep but nice ones to warm the tone up a bit.

works GREAT

does it work? it works, what more do you need to know? but I think I would have been more satisified with the higher priced ones.

Great guitar for the price

Pros: -Feels good

-Sounds good

-Frets are well finished, no meatgrinder

-Straight neck

-Good quality finish

-Since it is not a very expensive guitar, u can do lots of mods

without depreciating the value of the guitar, in fact u can

make it more valuable.

Cons: -Tremelo bar a bit loose but easily fixed with some tape

around the base of the tremelo

-Tuners not the best

-Volume knob is too close to strings

(fixed with some foam under knob)

-Needs slight adjustment on the bridge tuning (no biggie)

-Needs noise shielding (no biggie)

All in all a very nice guitar for a very low price.

With some work u can perfect it easily.

I probably will buy more cheap guitars.

Recommended for starters

Pretty "OK" solid guitar, sounds decent, looks decent, feels decent and price is more than decent.

Not the best guitar, but you'd hardly find a better guitar for this price and it's not even bad. Pretty good for starters, however probably falls off once you get good at playing it.

Would recommend for starter

Very good classic stratocaster for beginners and hobby players

Hi, we use this guitar in our guitar school. Every peace of this instrumet is perfect quallity, sound, look. Very affordable and unbeatable price. No problem. My best recommendation.