Harley Benton ST-20HSS SBK Standard Series Reviews

Fantastic beginner's guitar!

Bought for my son as his first electric, plays and sounds great, got a feeling I'll be playing it more than him!

My friend was very pleased

This is a good choice for guitarists looking for an affordable yet quality instrument. This model offers versatility and playing comfort. Sound versatility: With the combination of one humbucker and two single coils, the guitar offers a wide range of sounds suitable for different musical genres. The guitar has a comfortable fingerboard profile and lightweight construction, making it ideal for extended playing or learning. Despite its affordable price, the guitar is made with an attention to detail and quality not often found in this price segment. The satin black colour and classic design make this guitar visually appealing. In addition to the above I would like to say that I picked this guitar up as a gift for a friend of mine who has been wanting to start learning the guitar for a long time, and he was very pleased.

Sharp fret ends

Got this guitar, it sound nice but out of the box it needs lots of fixing, it got sharp fret ends which scratches the hand

Class begginer or even average player guitar

Volume is good Shape is excellent very comfortable to hold

Great player for the price

I love the look of this thing and it honestly plays as good as similar styles that cast 2 to 3 times as much. After a quick setup this thing plays great and I have no complaints about the quality and electronics.

Well… they can’t all be show-stoppers

I own around 15 HBs, and this one ended up being nowhere near the quality, fit & finish of every other HB I’ve received. It barely stays in tune just sitting there (let alone playing it), and the fret ends are so poorly finished that you can literally cut your fingers on them. This is a guitar you’d give a middle schooler to start on, otherwise it’s near worthless. It was bound to happen eventually though - ever other HB I’ve bought was outstanding

Kid's First Electric Guitar, great choice

I don't play guitar, I play Banjo so I bought this for my daughter after looking over similarly priced second hand guitars. Unimpressed with the condition of them I started looking and was recommended HB guitars. Having previously played acoustic and knowing she wanted a Strat style I went through the various reviews and this came top as a good guitar for the price. Arrived well packaged (double boxed) and took 4 working days from Germany (I'm UK based). Postage was a very reasonable £10. For £105 total I couldn't have bought a decent condition 2nd hand from a "big" manufacturer. After unpacking I had some help setting it up. Other than dropping the action slightly it didn't need any work. The finish is excellent, looks and feels good. It has been looked at by a workmate (2 LPs amoung other guitars) and her guitar teacher they're impressed with it. Teacher is impressed enough he's considering getting a similar one for pupils. Overall I think a Good Buy for anyone wanting a guitar that is good value and plays well for a new-ish player.

It looks amazing

Great look, it could pass for a much more expensive guitar.... But when I tried to lower the action, I didn't realise that so many frets would buzz.... So, it looks like I'm going to be practicing how to level a fretboard.... I watched a lot of reviews on YouTube, but none of them had a fretboard as bad as mine so maybe I just received a bad one...

A perfect cheap electric guitar

I've been playing classical guitar for 3 years, and I wanted to buy a nice but cheap electric guitar. This one blew my mind. The delivery was super quick, and the guitar for it's price just sounds so good. I changed the strings of course to get a better sound out of it but you can definitely get this guitar if you're looking for something cheap but good! Also, get a nice pedal if you want your guitar to sound different

Amazing gift!

Bought it for my girlfriend, she plays now better than me!

Actually insanely impressed with its value

When my friends looked at it, they all guessed over 200 euros for the price and were shocked by what it actually costs. As long as you replace the strings and do a quick setup (truss rod, action height, intonation, tremolo springs mostly) it sounds really great and feels incredibly high quality, especially for the price.

Outstanding

By the time I got it to my hands I can’t put I’d down

I’m really happy with the product

It’s good I think I need to change the strings for it to make the sound I want it to because I’m not improving atm and I bought this bungle about 7 months ago. It’s really good love my guitar a lot

for the price - all 5 points

Everything about the guitar is good for its price, workmanship, sound, comfort, appearance, everything performs its functions. but in general there are also disadvantages: the tremolo is useless, the frets are far from well polished, the coating will noticeably deteriorate over time, the paint near the anchor hole completely breaks off, the tuners do not always stay in tune, although they are good for their price

It's GREAT! (For the price)

It feels good, whammy bar needs some setup, and strings could be better, but it's good :)

does everything and is very cheap, either way i cant hear a difference beetween a 100 euro guitar and that of 500

For the price I'm impressed

So this is the first Harley Benton I've bought and I bought it for my son who took a liking to my Fender Strat. At this price point I wasn't sure what to expect. Out of the box I was immediately impressed by the feel and finish and the weight and balance, this doesn't look or feel like some of the budget strat copies I've seen and played in the past and actually felt and looks really good.

Clearly some effort has gone into the setup as the intonation was quite good and the action very playable out of the box, no fret sprout or sharp edges along the neck, fit and finish is very good.

So although on the whole very good I do note some small things that needed some attention. Unfortunately the first time we put a strap on the front strap button just came off the guitar and it almost was dropped as a result, it wasn't a case of just screwing it back in as the screw hole was way too large for the screw so it had to be plugged and glued and then the screw had something to bite into and it attached fine and now feels secure. The frets themselves were dull and a bit scratchy when bending strings so a fret polish would help solve this. The only other thing I noted was the tremolo bridge was hard against the guitar body along it's back edge and not "floating", again a quick and easy adjustment.

The pickups are surprisingly good for this price point and the output clear and crisp with no undue noise on high gain settings, all the controls and the 5 way switch felt good and again no nasty crackles or pops when switching positions.

So overall this is a lot of guitar for the price that was very playable out of the box, yes it needed a few tweaks and the strap button repairing but nothing that would be beyond the scope of most players. If you're looking for a budget guitar that’s actually pretty decent then look no further, I've seen much more expensive guitars not be close to as good as this is.

Could be better

I bought it after being positively surprised by the sound of an Harley Benton bass of a similar price, but this one is a little pitchy. I don't have a super trained ear, but I could hear something was wrong when playing on specific frets. I checked on a frequency spectrum and I was actually right. Maybe it's only my guitar, I don't know.

Very affordable, fun to play

I bought this as my first guitar in july and it came perfect. No flaws or any major problem. Everytime i pick it up i play it for hours straight. 8.75/10

Guitar is not like brand new and cable was not included in the box

The guitar had scratches on it and there was no cable in the box. Also, there is no keyboard setup, bad intonation.