Harley Benton ST-59HM Fiesta Red

Excellent guitar

Great guitar, lovely to play the sound is fantastic compared to an original fender Stratocaster

This Guitar, Fcukn Sh*t Hot

Amazing, first Guitar I bought two years ago was Amazin, the one I bought as a gift for My Dad couple of weeks back, is even more fikin AMAZINGGGGGGLY AMAZING.

Also, honestly, the Guitar 🎸 is Amazing.

I'm Happy Yipeeeee!🤪

HB ST-59 HM Fiesta red

No Fender by anymeans. But hey, for the price it's good. The neck on these guitars feel better than my Squier, and sound very much the same. It's a feel good look for beginners.

The Quality Was Mind Blowing

I last purchased a guitar some 7 years ago (the thing was unplayable out of the box), it cost maybe 5x what the ST59HM did. I wasn't sure what to expect at this price range.

Apart from a slight blemish around the neck pocket, the finish was flawless. The Fiesta red colour looks pretty authentic to me, in general the attention to detail is very pleasing.

My experience here tells me that this would be an ideal guitar for a beginner as all that was needed in order to start cranking out some Hank Marvin stuff was a slight tuning.

An experienced enthusiast on a tight budget would love this guitar, spending a little time, no sophisticated luthier tools to end up with a guitar that looks and feels more expensive than it is.

Starting with the neck relief, it just needed a slight loosening of the truss rod, I went with .009 inches at the 8th fret based on the radius, the truss rod seemed nice and smooth.

The vibrato plate was flat against the body out of the box, I wanted it to float a little, that trick with 'Post It' notes in combination with a small amount of adjustment to tension of the springs got my desired 1/8th inch vibrato plate height above the body easily.

A little string height adjustment was needed, 2mm and 1.5mm was easy to achieve on the bass and treble sides respectively, although I've had to order some shorter grub screws as the stock ones protrude too much with the lower saddles.

The intonation was pretty much spot on out of the box, just the high E string being a little sharp.

The frets feel comfortable, no sharpness encountered at all, I gave the frets a good polish and lubricated the the nut etc. (I lost the high E string during the process, a replacement set of 10-46 strings ensured the previous changes were unaffected) Other than that there's nothing else that needs doing with this guitar.

The ST59HM is the least expensive in my collection, but could well end up one of my most played guitars.

Good stuff

The one I got has sort of a thick , soft V neck, I LoVE it. The body resonates beautifully. Pickups are ok, but nothing special.

I also bought the ST 90, the ash body , rosewood neck one.

Changed necks between them and I think I struck gold ( evaluating myself a genius for the move)

So the alder body of this one, the rosewood neck of the other, Tonerider pickups …. and….. BINGO !!!

Get lost Fender … you and you’re price tags.

I have been making guitars for over 30 years

The reason I bought the ST59HM was of the good reviews. but the one that I got was not up to speck. The quality of the guitar is very poor in my opinion for the following reasons, Not a one piece flamed maple neck it was a two piece plane maple and not made very well, frets not fitted very well, the nut was a cheap plastic thing cut to low had fret ratel, the neck had a back bow in it, the tuners would not stay in tune. the string trees were cheap things, the neck pocket was poorly fitted, Bridge Pickup was not working. the intonation was way out, Playability was none. so I set to work putting It right. Changed the tuners for good ones, changed the string trees for rollers changed the nut for bone, repaired the frets, repaired the bridge pickup, finished the off, fitted all back together put new strings on, then give it a setup, now its all working. I think that I got one of them Friday afternoon ones. But what do you expect for £162.00 (up date) on stripping the guitar down and scrapping some paint out of the pickup pocket the body wood is not Alder as stated Its Paulownia or Basswood.

Exceptional value and excellent quality

I bought this guitar to take to performances to save my old Fender from damage and am very impressed with the quality of the finish in all respects. Some minor set up was needed to get a nice floating tremelo. The tremelo arm is more comfortable to use than my fender and tuning stability is very good indeed. The fretboard is a bit flatter radius than a fender STD Strat but not a big issue to me. The bridge pick up is a little harsh and trebly through an amp but is really good for direct recording of Hank guitar tones. Colour and finish is excellent and the Gold Hardware looks great and to date shows no sign of discolouration or pitting. The White single ply scratch plate is the only thing that lets the appearance down and I would upgrade this if changing pickups. The Neck and frets are perfect. I am a delighted customer.

Buy It and Play it

It is a wonderful guitar, playable, clean & crystal sound.

5 pickup position you can find useful sound,

I really love the Alder body, not too heavy and belance sound.

cons- few minor cons you have to know before buy

1. there's a pit hole at guitar back body, maybe caused by hitting I watch other people bought this guitar have the same problem,

it is not a problem for me, but depend on you

2. You have to do some minor adjust ,

it is fair you buy a quality guitar online at low price, so you have to learn to adjust string action , neck curve for your playing style, I strongly recommend you buy a guitar gauge and tool set

3. the maple fretboard is super smooth and beautiful, but it is too slip~ really too slip...sometimes I can't hold a chord very steady.

Overall it is a wonderful instrument, you won't regret

the st-59 is a pretty good tool for its cost.

A very Beautiful Hank Marvin Strat type Modle

with Alder Body, Maple Neck and fretboard,

Roswell pickups, all golden Hardwear, everything was good out of the box,

why spending money on an eqvivalent squirer or even some MIM fenders,?

i am an average Gigging Guitarist, my style involve s lots of Bendings, its stay in Tune!!!!

its the5th HB guitar i have,WEll done H Benton

if i was a CEO of Fender/squire or Epiphone, i would have been deaply worried(improvement is the word!!!) as H Bentone produces better guitars and... at incredibly reasonable Prices.