Harley Benton ST-20HH Active SBK Reviews

Beyond Expectations

Pros:

Arrived in 99.9% perfect condition (washer for a tuner broke off)

Loud AF

Stays in tune, good for riffage

Very minimal adjustment needed, ready to play

Battery Included

Cons:

Battery door kinda fiddly

Action can't get 'super' low for more shreddy stuff

Awesome metal machine!

This is a great straight forward hard rock, metal guitar.

Bad quality even for the price.

Great sounding guitar. But the intonation was horrible and somewhat unfixable due to bad fret work and somewhat curved neck. I've got a few guitars from Harley Benton and i love some of them. Even replaced my expensive guitars but this model, atleast mine, was unfixable unless i spend a lot of money on it.

The sound however is very good. A bit sharp/bright for my taste in metal guitars but nothing wrong with it.

wisely choice

Fret had small flaws in workmanship need to manually adjust

Killer metal guitar

I saw reviews of this guitar popping up all over YouTube and the price made it hard to pass up. The guitar isn’t perfect- there is some very minor splintering around the nut and when I placed some heavier strings on it (11-48 for drop C tuning) it caused the neck to bow quite a bit more than I was expecting. I was able to flatten the neck out using the truss rod but I’m not sure how it will hold up with even heavier strings. Also, I plan to switch out the tuners as they feel cheap.

However, the value of this guitar is amazing. It looks sleek and the pickups are hot and very well suited for heavier music. They sound great. At this point I don’t think you can find another guitar (especially if you’re into metal) that looks, sounds or feels as good as this guitar for close to $100. I have to give it 5 stars across the board because you would have to spend x3 as much to find a comparable instrument. It’s incredible as a starter instrument (my first guitar was $200 and was absolute garbage compared to this one) or as a modding platform (which is what I plan to do with it). You can’t go wrong at this price. Highly recommended!!

Great Value

Easy to play - though the pickups were a bit noisy. Great value!

Exceeded my expectations!!!

Best quality in sounding budget guitar I’ve ever owned! Definitely buying from again!

You get what you pay for

its definitely a very pretty guitar at only ~100 bucks

the only real problem i had was the fact the pickups were Insanely loud and clipping, i had to lower the pickup height to the point it was flat with the pick guard, but after that it sounded pretty good.

could use a proper setup and new tuners , but overall fantastic for the price

Cannot fault for the money.

For the price this thing is out there as one of the best affordable guitars you can buy. I wasn't expecting the quality to be as good as it was. No sharp frets, nice bridge which intonates well, tuners do the job, nut does the job. I had to take the bridge off to restring as one of the holes had debris from drilling but was sorted within minutes. Pickups are great. Very very hot. I immediately tuned this to Drop B with 56-11s, tweaked the truss rod, adjusted the strings at the bridge and it plays fantastic. Nut needed filing but it's only plastic. I imagine this will need changing if you plan to drop tune long term. Stays in tune too!

All in all, it looks absolutely beautiful, plays really well with a slightly chunkier neck than I was expecting (definitely not a thin neck, more a nice comfortable C profile) and it was just over £130 with a gig bag.

Bang for your buck for sure.

This is coming from a person completely new to guitars.

Great sound, great feel and the color is beautiful!

no messing about at an unmissable price

i have recently taken up playing again after many years and was looking for a cheap but meaty sounding guitar for heavy metal playing.

the guitar comes well built and looks gorgeous with nice string heights to pickups already giving out some beefy sound and only just out of tune.

after about an hour of checking over the guitar i was mighty impressed,the neck is fast and smooth the pickups are really good especially after stretching the strings and re tuning a few times.

i tried this with my boss katana mk 2 100 and a few nice cheap pedals from Harley Benton and Donner.

The sound when using some smooth and subtle overdrive is insane for the price, i mean you simply wont get this sound any cheaper.

I have done some calculating and i really don't see how they can make money on this guitar and even today the price has gone down by like £2.

If you are in the market for a good looking amazing sounding heavy guitar i really cant say this enough "buy this thing now" before the back orders get longer and longer, i've just bought another in case anything happens to my 1st!

Amazing guitar for the price

pros:

- the active pickups sound amazing

- looks amazing

- has 22 frets

cons:

- has no trem system

- no tone controll (not too big of a con)

Great Guitar Great Price!

Can't beat the price! Right out of the box it was ready to go other than tuning it. Highly recommended for the money!

Shred Machine

Unbelievable value for the price. Active pickups are super hot, you'll be popping off squeals like Dimebag in no time. The quality is great- no sharp frets, satin finish is super smooth, and this thing stays in tune better than my Gibsons.

What a gem

I use this guitar to practice. Action is fantastic and sounds great.

Solid cheap Rock guitar

Heavy sound, good construction for the price, feels good to play. Minor nitpicks (such as slightly rough fret edges,) but great quality for such an inexpensive guitar choice.

Amazing quality for price

I've had this for a few months now and I'm even more impressed than when I first bought it. This guitar could easily sell for over £300 and it would still be fair. The build quality is impressive, solid tuners, smooth neck, good body. The only thing I might change eventually is the pickups but they're still quite powerful and high gain. This is an insanely good bargain-priced metal machine. When I was a kid, we didn't have gear this good at this price.

The hype is real!

Awesome Guitar

Don't let the price put you off... this guitar is awesome &if you YouTube this verses a guitar with EMG 85/81s you'll be hard pressed to hear the difference

Killer

Active hummbuckers sound monsterious with gain and vibrant running clean. It is my first neck that is a little thicker but the satin finish is smooth gliding

Stealth like Ax with fantastic action and tone

Stealth like Ax with fantastic action and tone. The EMG pickups are perfect for this player. Low action right out of the box. I had to make a few adjustments to the neck and bridge, but it was minimal and has played like butter ever since I set the intonation. I love this guitar and for the price, you just can't beat it. Hoping they make one with a locking trem.