Harley Benton ST-20HH Active SBK Reviews

Don't let the price fool you, this is a great active pickup guitar that sounds awesome.

Harley Benton does it again, creating a highly affordable and good quality instrument. The active pickups sound nearly identical to my guitar with EMG 81s in it...the HBZ pickups really deliver. Overall build quality was really good and the neck is super smooth. The strings were a bit high out of the box, but that's a small adjustment to get a fantastic guitar worth many times the price.

Bought this after not playing guitar for around 7 to 8 years, previously owned a number of guitars, but never anything you'd call "expensive". Bought this because the reason I started playing were the signature guitars of a certain man from Slipknot, and the price was very good - why not? Arrived in Croatia in 3 business days.

It amazed me that the overall quality of the guitar is much, much higher than the cheap strat copies of just a few years back. Everything is well set up, there are no build quality issues at all and the guitar looks very great to the eye. Frets are well-polished and the guitar needs just a bit of setting up right from the box. I feel like I got a very well-made instrument, especially considering the cost.

The neck is a bit thicker than I'd like, and the action came a bit high from the factory so I needed to adjust it, but other than that the neck is as strat-like as I remembered. Very easy to play, and looks very nice as well. The strings on it are interesting as well - they're .010-.046 which gives you the opportunity to tune a bit deeper right out of the box. I'd recommend buying a set of thicker strings if you plan on tuning to very low tunings of course.

The pickups are possibly the weakest part of the guitar, but they sound good if you don't go crazy on the gain and volume - probably the first thing that many people will replace, but for the price, I feel like they are much more than you could wish for. They can definitely sound very evil if that's what you're looking for - paired with the Neural DSP Gojira plugin it does sound surprisingly close to the real thing.

The fact that the battery compartment is routed already is a big plus, I feel like this makes me want to work on the guitar and modify it in the future.

In conclusion, it's not on the same level as the guitar it pays tribute to, and of course, it's not a perfect instrument. It is a very capable metal guitar, though, and a great platform for improvement. I also bought a replacement Graphtech Nut and some locking tuners for it - but will wait for these improvements when I change the strings.

All in all - amazing value not just for this price, I'd be happy to even pay 100€ more for it if it had a bit better pickups.

Harley Benton ST-20HH

Ordered the Harley Benton ST-20HH. Arrived within 3 days very speedy delivery. Absolutely love everything about this guitar. Quality is amazing and sound is phenomenal.

I had a issue with one of the tuners but with a message to the claims department they and sending me a new tuner. Amazing staff with quick responses. 10 out of 10 will definitely be seeing more of my business.

Perfect metal/blues guitar

It's perfect sounds and feels guitar.

It's delivered untuned, tuning was easer then on other guitars.

Guitar is really loud.

Neck feels really comfortable.

On bridge pickup it's nice metal guitar.

On neck it's sounds like oldschool blues.

Sustain is really long, i think it's because of fixed bridge.

I compare this with my jackson dinky and ibanez blazer, this guitar is better then jackson, and pretty close to ibanez.

It's looks fantastic. And feels the same.

Harley Benton, please create firerbird with the same specs.

Cool

Loud and chunky, as a metal guitar should sound

Great guitar

This is the first Harley Benton guitar that I have ever purchased and it has blown me away. It is by far the cheapest guitar I have bought yet the quality is honestly brilliant. The guitar played great straight out of the box and appears to hold tune pretty well, although I haven’t had much playing time yet.

The guitar feels and looks great. Mine had a couple of cosmetic flaws but nothing worth complaining about.

I own multiple American made PRS and this guitar has really got me considering more Harley Benton guitars in future! The only annoying thing is the price has dropped slightly since I bought mine 😂

Great guitar

I mostly play seven strings but, I wanted an inexpensive six to noodle around on. Ordered Friday and, arrived Wednesday. Great guitar. Sounds good, sturdy and I love the finish.

It takes a lot of setup but, its worth the time. I'll probably order another model, soon.

PS, replace tuners, stat.

I wouldn’t usually buy a guitar at this price point as I tend to only buy more expensive Japanese or USA built instruments, but I was intrigued by this guitar after seeing so many good reviews for it. It’s safe to say this guitar has opened my mind about cheaper guitars! It is all round built to an excellent standard with no imperfections for what I can see. The paintwork is pristine and feels and looks much more premium than you would expect for a guitar of this price point. Hardware wise everything provided is excellent value. The bridge is well built, stock tuners feel solid and I have not yet had them detune, volume and pickup switch are also solid. The pickups themselves are a little on the noisy side, however still hold up and since they have a separate battery compartment it would make upgrading to a pair of active EMGs very straightforward.

All round a very impressive guitar for the money and makes for an excellent platform for upgrades or modding!

Love, Love, Love It

My son asked me to purchase this guitar. We already have a half dozen. A couple Schecter, Ibanez, Agile.

After getting this, this is his go-to guitar.

Solidly built, looks great, set-up was almost perfect...flawless finish. In fact, it plays so well with the standard strings, he hasn't replaced them yet.

Shipping to US was super fast. I reached out about the order only once, and got great service quickly.

We are so impressed, that I will probably place another order very soon.

What a great deal, on a great sounding, very playable, "budget" guitar!

Love it!

Budget metal goodness

Guitar was shipped quickly, packaged well.

Finish is good, no major flaws or imperfections as far as i can find. Maybe a better matte finish than Gio's.

Frets are solid. No dead frets, nicely crowned ends. They stand up up to more expensive guitars in the collection.

Tuners are okay, nothing special, but this is generally the case with budget guitars.

Bridge seems like it'll do the job, but haven't had to do any adjustments at that end.

Pickups sound good through a PRS MT15.

Slight hiss at idle with high gain, but again, cheaper guitar, common issue.

Slight truss rod adjustment for a bit of neck relief was all the set up needed for a nice low action.

Great guitar? Not quite, but for this money I don't think you'll get better.

Overall a decent guitar, and a great modding platform.

Amazing

Ridiculous price/quality-value.

Straight from the box, plugged into interface and ready to go.

Everything in good shape (nothing too stingy or rough)

Pickups, for this price range, are a huge deal for anyone looking to buy a guitar with active pickups.

It’s worth the money

Some waiting period in the delivery, but it is so worth it after giving it a quick play through. Certainly love the matte black design and caters to my heavy sounding/high gain effects

Strat with Attitude "Bender"!!!!

I received this guitar it came in good quality. This has been my first purchase and since this I have ordered 4 more guitars. The active pickups are so so and definitely need to shield the inside cavity a lot of interference happening but for the price I am very happy with this guitar. Fender naw it's about the Bender

Gothic Root

For £109, you can't get better but it does come with the usual budget guitar disclaimer....you will very probably need to get it set up!

If you're OK with power/open chords and want to put your fingers through a bit of a work out when soloing, then you're good to go. If however you want to do a bit of shredding, then a hex key and/or a shim are your friends. The tele I got needed a fret leveling, truss rod adjustment and a shim, this I feel is pretty good from the box with just a shim and an intonation set up.

Fret edges are smooth, no flaws in the paint work, pickups sound good but as usual for HBZ actives require a gate at high gain. The nut, tuners and strings do their job, I won't be modding these!

The bodies on this matt black range isn't as thick as a Fender but then again it doesn't seem as skinny as an Affinity Strat (need to get calipers out). Seems petty but I do prefer a full thickness!

Ignore the price. It sounds like it looks, really nice.

As soon as it came out, it got my attention. A really cool matt finish, all in black, active pick-ups, a real metal machine, just what I needed. I expected good value for the money as with the previous harley benton guitars/gear I ordered.

Overall Impression:

I'm blown away by this one. The finish is excellent, it looks even better than on the photos. The pickups are definitly good with heavy distortion, but they are even inspiring to use with less distortion or even clean. It plays great, no rough edges or anything disturbing. A good weight, my Fender strat weighs more. I can't fault it. When I ordered this guitar I thought I would have to mod it later, bit suprisingly it is great out of the box.

Conclusion:

For the looks alone it's a bargain but it sounds and plays better than I would expect from a stock guitar at this pricepoint. I don't see how such a good guitar can disappoint.