Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley 5-stars Reviews

great!

Update: 1 year later, still a great guitar, but the pickups sound terrible, they are Wilkinsons though, so newer Roswells may be better.

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I got 2 Harley Bentons about a month ago.

This strat was in great condition/build quality out of the box, but required serious setup, the action was super low, with lots of fret buzz. The setup was a little tricky, due to the bridge/tremolo system being a bit crappy. Had to have the action quite high in the end to avoid buzz, but still a great guitar and plays fine. I do like the fact you can coil split the humbucker. The tuners are a little on the cheap side, but nothing terrible. No sharp frets or any imperfections besides tiny aesthetic ones, eg a tiny dot in the finish.

Im no expert so I couldnt tell you how they compare to an expensive Fender version, but for me, for the price, they are incredible. I do love the paisley look.

pros

coil split humbucker

cons

tuners, tremolo, bridge all a little cheap.

1 of the tuners is slightly misaligned, purely cosmetic.

TLDR: for the price, im more than happy.

Love it!!

After watching Nick in the States (YouTube channel to see what an inexpensive guitar was like. This one is more than twice the price of the most inexpensive HB ST but you get the Wilkinson pickups and trem plus a very beautiful Paisley finish. It's a fun guitar and it has that ST sound with some extra punch from the humbucker. The frets are nicely finished and the tuning pegs feel good as well.

So what's the difference between this and a guitar that costs five times more? Well I only have two other guitars, but both were pretty expensive when I bought them 35 years ago ('79 Takamine Acoustic and '82 Ibanez AR 105). First thing I noticed is that when looking carefully at the finish it has some texture, unlike my Ibanez which looks like glass. At this price point I doubt there is enough clear coat to buff. The next thing I noticed is that the nut can catch your finger. It needs to be shaped a bit near the high E string. As others have mentioned, it looks like they don't condition the fret board so a little "Wax and Feed" will be applied. The volume and tone knobs seem stiff compared to my old Ibanez, but they are functional. The pick guard and pickups are protected by a plastic sheet and it seems that you have to remove the mounting screws to get it all off. Lastly the action is a bit high.

I've only spent a few hours playing it and I can't speak to how well the trem system keeps tune, but like I said at the beginning, it's fun to play. I didn't have a thousand bucks laying around but I wanted that Strat sound and I'm not disappointed. I don't know if they let us amend these comments, but I'm confident that after a proper setup this thing will be pure joy. And it really is pretty in person. They changed that cover shown in white here on the site to black which is much nicer. It's early to tell but I'm sure there will be more HB guitars in my future. If you can do without the Paisley and want to mod something, you may want to buy an even more inexpensive HB, but I had to have the Paisley and luckily I really like the sound so I won't even bother swapping out the pickups.

Amazing Guitar

What can I say , looks amazing. plays great, thought this would feel so cheap but , was I surprised, Like all the bentons I've purchased, all I've done is oil the fret board as they seem so dry.

Only slight issue and I mean slight, The pick up haven't got quite the punch as the fender Texas hot pick ups on my previous Fender, but hey it doesn't carry the price tag either, Very very happy with this guitar.

The Guitar is very beautiful I got today, still not yet played which I will do later and lets everyone knows of what was my findings about the sound and other issues. Quality for this price point is top notch. For my experience the finishing on the paint is quite good, of course the fretboard needs to be oil and polish to remove the factory dust etc. I am going to replace the string tree with Graph Tech PT-7004-00 String Tree.