Harley Benton ST-62CC MN Dakota Red

Great budget guitar

Just perfect for the price , sounds good , plays well with!

HB ST 62 Excelent for beginners

Great sound! Great quality/price. I really recommend It for beginners.

A guitar that makes me smile

Straight out of the box, it was just about playable. After a little bit of standard setup, it makes me smile each time I play it. I am very pleased with my purchase. Does all I expected of it and more.

Bad News

I have 4 HB's. This thing was not good. The whammy bar throws it way out of tune. I even tried to, "block" the whammy bar but there were just too many issues. In my opinion, I would never even think about playing out live with this guitar. Sadly, it's just not up to the task.

I took the whammy bar off it and I'm going to put some work into turning it into a hard-tail since I hate whammy bars but need that strat sound. Once I plug the whammy bar cavity and mount a fixed-bridged on it, I'll report back.

A mixed experience.

Bought because of previous great experience buying an Ash body HB '52 Telecaster Natural - a truly amazing budget guitar. This '62 Strat tribute is not quite in the same class as that Tele. 1) There's something strange about the Neck or the Bridge placement in the body, so that the Top 3 strings are pulling the saddles off-line towards the Top E edge of the fingerboard, making the strings unable to stay in the centre of the saddles. 2) Out-of-the-box imo this guitar is not really ready to play - it needs a full Set-Up which if you cannot do it yourself will cost you to have done. The intonation is out on all strings, and the action is way too high - not comfortably playable. So you or your tech guy might need to get busy on the basic three parts of a set-up : Neck relief; Action; Intonation. Having said all that i really like this cheap-as-chips Strat for its looks, (excellent paint-job) its nice neck, and its sounds; and after the set-up, its playability. Defo not for returning !

really nice

neck is more flatter than my mim strat which is better for my taste. really nice body color and finish. I liked the pick ups. no need to upgrade them.

I wish the neck had a glossy finish i really dont like matte finish. it feels slower to play.

the tuners and nut could be replaced and its a really nice guitar.

don't let the price fool you. this guitar has tones and feels like a good one.

my tone knob is a bit up-lifted i dont know why.

Surprisingly good.

I've been playing guitar for 50 years and have owned too many guitars to count. I took a chance on one of these and I have to say I'm blown away. The fit and finish are excellent, the nut was cut well and no sharp fret edges or sprout at all. I put Wilkinson tuners and better bridge saddles on mine but really, this guitar is pretty good stock. I like this ST-62 better than the Squier Classic Vibe I used to own; the Squier CV felt "cheap" to me, but this guitar with upgraded tuners and saddles is GREAT. My only "complaint" is that the trem arm is a little tight and I wish it would screw down a little further. Overall, great value. I also own one in the Vintage White and it's also flawless.

Love it!

Plays great, looks amazing, no issues, nice fast matt neck. The action is a little high but I haven't got around to lowering it because it just feels nice and crispy and I don't want to mess with it yet. It was almost in tune sraight out of the box as well! I bought a sea-foam green tele-a-like at the same time and really pleased with that too.

Nice, Playable, Solid

I had just purchased a true Fender Strat (stamped 'made in Coronado California" paid around 1300.00 I got it home and saw this HB ST-62CC and thought 'what the heck' will give it a try so I ordered it. Well I got it unpacked it, tuned it up (not by much) and played, it was really sweet!

Good out of the box. Brilliant with a little work!

I play a lot of guitar, and play the occasional pub gig. I have a handful of guitars but inexcusably no strat. I really fancied that classic shape but didn’t want to spend too much then heard good things about these.

It arrived after a week (very reasonable considering how far it’s come!) and was well packaged in 2 boxes.

Out of the box after a quick tune up it played pretty well for a guitar of this price range. The neck was good and all the frets level and indeed crowned, no sharp fret edges either with a slightly rolled fingerboard.

The biggest downsides were tuning issues from the bridge (easy fix detailed below) and the nut slots not being quite deep enough.

So for the setup I used my nut files to lower the height to the first fret which made the open chords easier ring out a bit better.

The other was getting the trek to sit better, I slacked the springs off a bit as they were VERY tight and tightened down the two outer screws on the trem.

Last things I have done are lubricate the nut with a pencil and adjust action at the saddles and set intonation.

After this pretty standard setup the guitar is now beautiful to play. It’s my go-to and I can even do repeated dive bombs and the tuning barely budges.

The pickups have a bit of power in them for single coils so it’s a really versatile guitar that can even do hard rock tones.

Another point is the quality of the woodwork, the neck pocket is better than any strat I’ve seen! Everything is so neat and precise with this guitar, I would definitely recommend.

Bad point: trem atm is screw in and can be a bit wobbly, but it’s a minor point.

There were a few adjust