Harley Benton ST-62MN VW Vintage Series Reviews

Good guitar

I received my guitar about 15 days after ordering to Russia, delivery by UPS did not cause any problems, they always sent notifications and gave the necessary instructions for customs clearance. There are only positive emotions about the guitar itself, for several days now I have been playing only on it and there is always a slight smile on my face, its sound is very pleasant to me. Externally, the guitar is a little lighter than in the photos presented on the website, the neck seems to be covered with wax, it is matte, the hand moves easily and does not get stuck when sweating, I will leave these pegs, they perform their function, given that the string must be inserted deep into the peg, the string forms a bend, so it is not worse than the locks. Frets are well executed, require polishing. The tremolo turned out to be set up quickly, it keeps the build, you don't need more to play at home. The paint is perfect. The only thing that caused difficulties was the resonating notes on the 3rd string starting from the 12th Fret, I had to adjust the height of the strings, the beaker, the position of the saddles, put a different caliber of strings.

In two words - it’s a bargain)

Amazing price/performance ratio.

From Good to Great

This guitar sounded good from the go, however, the strings would not stay in tune, and the neck was quite curved. I replaced the tuning machines with locking tuners, added roller bearing bridges, straitened the neck(had to shim one side). Plays now like butter and a rich tone. For the price with extras I now have the great guitar..

Amazing guitar for the price!

I'm afraid it is known that I have too many guitars but I was tempted with this ST-62MN VW vintage series guitar and seeing the reviews I pulled the trigger. I was nervous about it coming from Germany to the UK but the double boxing was perfect! The tuners on this thing are really good and hold for some time. No rough fret edges, no scratches or even finger prints on the guitar surface. I could go on but suffice to say, this is a great guitar for the price and I was so pleased with it I gave it a nice solid flight case for it's home! Thoroughly recommended, go for it!

Great, if you know how to set up.

I wanted to leave this review for a while, but feel now I can give an informed opinion.

This guitar has been the most mixed bag HB I've had so far. There are some issues to get out of the way first.

1. Neck. The neck feels great, nice satin finish, but the fret job on this one is easily the worst of any HB I've purchased. It was simply awful. Fret sprout was terrible, Very rough frets, totally uneven, requiring a full fret level and dress. The nut was poorly cut and biting the strings. Machine heads are satisfactory, and work fine.

So after addressing the frets, and changing the nut, what do we have?

Quite simply, a stunning strat type guitar, that looks great and sounds even better. Without exaggeration, this HD sounds more 'stratty' than some of my other F brands. Beautiful, glassy, chiming tones, every position has distinct strat sounds that are a joy to hear. The alnico5's are punching way above their weight for this price point. Full size pots on my model also, pickup switch feels good, substantial.

All in all, serious issues aside, this is a great guitar (now), I almost sent it back because of the frankly atrocious fret work, ( brexit and covid put me off the idea), I'm glad I didn't however.

In the studio, I have found myself reaching for this over and over whenever I need that strat sound.

So good and bad, but overall the guitar is well worth every penny, but just be aware, HBs rock, but sometimes can mean some work to get right.

Guitar with good potential but came very badly finished

I think the guitar, specially for the price point, has very good potential. The tuners and tremolo are OK if you don't abuse it, although I believe it would be worth to invest in better tuners. The pickups sound nice and acoustically the guitar sounds pretty well and have a good sustain. The issue I had was with the frets and setup. The frets came like they were never sanded, very rough, and the action came very high. When I tried to setup for lower action I found that the frets are not leveled, so I still have lots of buzz and even dead notes when bending on the high frets unless I give the neck a deep bow or raise the strings again. If only it came with a playable setup I would probably not have much bad to say about it.

A great guitar

I love this guitar. It's got the perfect strat sound I was looking for, and it's a dream to play.

Pros

The neck is fantastic, just superb quality way beyond anything in this price range or much above.

Great sound quality. It's got all the proper strat sounds you could ever want.

Cons

I really dislike the stock tuners. They're old school Kluson style tuners, but the notch in them where you're supposed to hold the string while winding on is far too shallow and leads to a very frustrating restringing experience. Easy fix, just got new tuners and that's it solved.

A few months after getting the guitar the input jack came undone and slipped inside the body. Was an easy fix, just unscrewed the jack cover and tightened it back up.

The nut is well cut, but I did find the strings were biting a bit when tuning. Small bit of graphite from a pencil and it's perfect.

Overall, it's a great instrument that might need a bit of care on the users end. Highly recommend.

Biting frets

Sound are excellent on clean sound.

Excellent value!

This is an excellent guitar, period!

PROS - It looks really good (no faults or blemishes), is really well built (fretwork is good, electronics work fine...), it is more robust and heavy than the Squier Bullet, for example, tuners work pretty well... It is definitely a bargain for the price!

CONS - Pickups are perhaps the biggest disappointment. They sound just ok. Yeah, I know that for this price... I also own a HB sc-550 (which also has the roswell alnico-5 entry level pups) and these single coil pickups are noticeably worse than their humbucker counterparts. Definitely my first upgrade.

But overall, for this price, nothing can beat it! I would definitely recommend it.

very good guitar for beginner

This is my first guitar. Before buy it I have looked at various youtube reviews and read some articles, and everyone praised the quality of the Harley Benton guitars. Initially I wanted to buy the Harley Benton ST-20, but then I decided to take a guitar a little more expensive.

First of all, I liked the look of the guitar. The color is really beautiful. The quality for the price is awesome. The guitar sounds very nice. As alternatives, I considered fender squier bullet and yamaha pacifica, but they are more than 2 times more expensive, and in terms of quality they are worse at some points. The guitar sounds good at various settings and is comfortable to hold in your hand. The tuners work efficiently, there is no free wheeling. The strings are also quite good, at first I think they won't need replacement. I believe that for a beginner guitarist this guitar is one of the best options, cause at its very low price it has the quality of good guitars of well-known brands.

After all the reviews on youtube, I expected a lot from this guitar, and my expectations were fully met. I can recommend this guitar to anyone who has long thought to start playing but had doubts about choosing a guitar.

Great for the price

Im the beginner and i think this is a pretty good instrument. My teacher also thinks this way. Got my fingers bleeding already. Awesome guitar!

A relly nice instrument, best start in that price range for sure

What to say the guitar is so nice, it nails perfectly the strat sound and feel.

I played a lot of strats of every price range and this one have nothing to envy to more expensive guitars.

I have a little problem on one tuners (it had a little slack, still perfectly

useable but a bit annoing) I opened a support request and they sent me a new set of tuners and a set of strings!!!

You are the best!!!

Solid workhorse!

Bought it thanks to all the hype around HB at the moment.

Positives:

+ Astonishing quality for the price (not perfect finish but whatever)

+ Beefy fast neck with a lovely feel, I think it's impossible to pick this up without going full blues/ western mode instantly

+ it's got that chunky strat twang, nice pickups!

+ Holds tune, have'nt even changed the strings yet and I've played it for almost a month every single day! Good tuners too!

+ Absolutely beautifully playing instrument, came setup really good out of the box (just below 1,7mm at 12th with a straight neck) but I've lowered the action a tad bit to 1,5mm.

Mehs:

- Kinda sharp frets out of the box (easily fixable, steel wool etc.)

- Middle position sounds a bit dull (however never really liked it on any strat-style guitar)

Negative:

- HUGE screw pitch on the tremolo screws, busted one when decking the tremolo (easily fixable since i've got tools available and I'll probably swap the trem screws for a schaller sure claw at some point.)

Conclusion: buy it without hesitation, you won't regret it. I'd rather have five of these than a single Fender.

Very Good Instrument

I was considering buying the real (F. Mex) thing and therefore I decided to visit the local vendor and give it a try. Having already a HB TE-52 I just could not justify the 5x price tag...

So I went on and ordered this strat instead.

The instrument came in very good condition, excellent finish, nice neck and acceptable hardware (considering the price).

Of course I had to change strings and set it up.

Two things to consider though:

1. You ll have to file the untreated and very sharp fret edges.

2. Unsure about the sound at 2 and 4 position. To me it is kinda muffled.

Overall a great guitar for those who can set it up.

This guitar is a great price deal

It will be great for up grades with hotter pickups and a little work on fret ends...no big deal...you can do the fret work yourself.

how is this even possible...

Got the guitar, before i plugged it in, did a perfect setup, low action, etc... I have a Mexican standard from 2004.. and this harley Benton is as good as my other strat.. un-be-lievable...

HB's need some setup, even fenders need it when you buy new.. but when they are setup, they are perfect.

top value

came already set up and nearly in tune. fit and finish was superb,plays great.for the price paid this is incredible.holds tune. very pleased .

Hendrix/Trower practice tool

As per the heading I bought this to use detuned for practicing Hendrixy/Trowery type riffs. I already have an ST-62MN in black which has a nice chunky maple neck but reading the reviews between the lines it seemed that the Vintage White had an even chunkier neck which is what I wanted. It does have a more chunky neck but its not very chunky to the point of being cumbersome in fact it is a nice neck for H/T type playing.

Obviously it could be improved at this price point; heavier trem block, better tuners etc. If I intended to gig with it I would do those things but for home use they are not a problem. Its not really white more a pale yellow colour but I like it. I have just ordered the same colour ST-62 with pau ferro board.

Mega guitar for not a lot of money.

This guitar is great for the money. I ordered the st-62 shortly after buying a sc-550, I just wanted a strat type guitar In my collection. I’m over the mood with it. No marks what so ever, I lowered the saddles ever so slightly to suite my playing style and this thing plays great. All the knobs and switches work spot on. BUY IT.

Surprisingly good

Well recommended for the price!

I am impressed with the following: quick shipping time (I received my Harley Benton ST-62MN VW Vintage Series in Australia within two weeks of ordering it), quality of the guitar straight out of the box, its affordable price.

I am an amateur guitarist of 40 years. I could plug this guitar in and play a gig and sound great. There are no fret buzzes anywhere on the neck! The neck feels nice, the pick ups sound good (I cant test them loud on my amp at the moment, but I think they will be fine for my style).

There are some caveats, which I expected for the price, but again the minor issues are better than expected. The tuners are good. There is some minor out of tune issues (slightly flat) after playing it but remember it just travelled thousands of miles to a hot city. With a silent tuner these are easy resolved between songs at a gig. I expect this will settle down. There are a couple of frets I will get dressed to take a millimetre or two off. Again, nothing to stop taking this guitar to a gig. I will pay for a set up purely because I like the action set for my playing style (jazz and blues) - this is just my personal preference.

I would have given this guitar 5 stars for its price, but the reason I didn't is the whammy bar doesn't do much at all. I can do some chordal whammy with it, but on individual notes it is too stiff.

Regardless, this is an excellent first guitar for anyone who loves the strat style and tone. I bought it to customise it a bit, so I also recommend if for those who like to customise their guitars. Yes this doesn't necessarily mean it is economical in the long run, but I would rather do this and personalise my guitar than spend $800 for a guitar off the shop wall which I still want set up and personalised for my playing.

Well recommended!