Harley Benton ST-90SA Swamp Ash DLX Series Reviews

Punches way above its price point

I have always bought more expensive guitars in the past however i have read a few reviews of the Harley Benton ST-90 Swamp ash and needed a back up guitar for my main guitar so i thought i would give one a go. From ordering to receiving the guitar was about 6 days and it arrived in a very large box which was good and sturdy, opening up the guitar it was well packaged and all the bits you need to be protected (switch tip etc) were. on inspecting the guitar the frets were really well dressed a couple of sharp ends but nothing to stop me from plugging it in, tuning it up and cranking up the amp. the quality and finish of the guitar knocks socks off the competitors at three times the price! you will not be disappointed with owning one of these swamp ash Strats! the action was incredible and the Roswell pickups are amazing rivalling more expensive and heard of brands. I am so happy with this guitar that i already have a TE -40 telecaster on the water winging its way to me. Just because the Harley Benton brand is less expensive the fit and finish and playability of the you would think its 3-4 times more expensive. Well done Harley Benton a Top quality instrument.

A "stratocaster" replica?....not sure.

Let me first give this guitar the compliment it deserves: 1.great build quality 2.great sound. 3. Great unbeatable price/value. 4. Great finish. Now, to the only complaint i have,short and simple: if you are are aiming for a "fender stratocaster" unique unmistakable SOUND...thinking you've found one for 150 bucks...well,that's not gonna happen. Sure enough it has great electric- guitar sound...but this for sure is not a stratocaster.(with all respect). This is ofcours my personal opinion.

Excellent as is

It's a good guitar as is, however I've used it to strip back to wood, new locking tuners, graphtech nut n trees, drilled/routed a humbucker in the bridge and with a new HSS guard and a tbx tone system. It wails but is heavy weighted

i'm happy with this purchase

i have maily pros about this guitar and a couple of cons i' start with the cons .... these rosswell pickups are very hot so i am having to readjust my playing when using the center pickup but i am going to ape up the pickup caveties ... another con is the 5 way swtch is ver cheap and will get replaced ... lastlly this guitar is heavy but since i don't gig anymore it's not that big of a deal plus i think the body fits with mine better than the sqire that i used to own

NOW FOR THE PROS

I WILL START WITH THE NECK I HAVE PLAY $1500 + GUITARS THAT HAVEN'T BEEN THIS COMFORTABLE WHEN I SAW THE PRICE I FIGURED THERE WOULD BE SOME FRET PROBLEMS BUT NOT ONE FRET SPOUT THE FRETS SEEM TO BE WELL POLLISHED, THE SATIN FINISH ON THE BACK OF THE NECK IS LIKE PLAYING ON SILK

THE OFF BRAND TUNERS ARENICE THE GUITAR ARRIVED IN TUNE ALSO THE ACTION IN WONDERFULI LITERALLY UNBOXED IT AND PLUGGED IT IN..... THE BODY IS BEAUTIFUL SWAMP ASH , I WILL MOST LIKELEY CHANGE THE PICKGUARD ,,,,, THE TRMELO BLOCK IS NEARLY THE SAME QUALITY AS A STRATOCASTER.... THE VOLUMN AND TREBLE KNOBS I DON'T KNOW WHAT KIND OF POTS ARE BEING USED I EXPECT THE CHEAPER DIME POTS BUT THE KNOBS ARE JUST RIGHT AND FAR AS RESPONSE

I BOUGHT THIS GUITAR BECAUSE IT IS BEAUTIFUL I FULLY EXPECTED TO PUT ANOTHER 300 OR 400 DOLLARS INTO IT I MAY CHANGE THAT CENTER PICKUP AND THE PICKGUARD BUT OTHER THAN THAT I LOVE IT...I DO EXPECT THAT I WILL HAVE TO REPLACE THE 5 WAY SWITCH T SOME TIME

BUT THESE AREN'T REALLY COMPLAYS THIS GUITAR IS BEAUTIFUL ABD THE NECK IS AMAZING

Poor QA

I received the guitar today and was very disappointed with the color, hardware and weight. The G string tuning machine has damaged shaft that spins freely. The strings are pitted with rust, the saddles have sharp set screws and the frets are rough and dirty. Reminds me of a Squier that takes hours of work to get setup. I am tired of doing setups and replacing parts. This guitar is a failure and not up to the JA 60, TE 62DB models I have. Junk.

One piece solid body

Always wondered why they never have one piece. Solid body guitars always two-piece bookshelf this one was one piece solid body ash

Very nice guitar for the price

The only thing letting it down is it’s 9lb 3oz weight, which I think should be listed in its specs so people can see it’s a heavy guitar before deciding to buy one.

Great for the money !

it is great strat for the money, easy to play, quite good sound and stays reasonably in tune. I bought it as a moding platform as the woods are awesome. My only problem is that it is a heavy guitar, so not comfortable for playing gigs ! for sure a great guitar for home use

good price for this quality

Cannot beat for money

This is beyond a deal. No USA manufacturer can make a guitar at this price this good. Is it perfect ? No but neither is anything else. Plays/sounds great. Only tuners are not great but for 148 are you going to Complain. Really enjoying it

Converted Gear Snob

I have to confess, owning a 30 year old US Strat and a Gibson Midtown and having previously owned Rickenbacker, Epiphone, Ibanez and PRS guitars, the idea of gigging with a Harley Benton was simply inconceivable to me. I ordered this purely as a chuck around to hang in my music room to try to save strings on my gigging guitars. Given the low price I really wasn’t expecting much when it arrived. I can’t stress enough just how wrong I was! This guitar is possibly the best thing I’ve played in my 40 years of playing live music. It is simply awesome! The tonal range puts both my Strat and Midtown to shame. It is a heavy guitar but this gives it a natural sustain comparable with my Midtown and my old PRS. The fret board and neck feel almost identical to the Midtown and the action, after a small adjustment to the bridge saddles, is comparable without any buzzing. I recently fitted my Strat with Custom Shop Texas Specials but in my humble view they compare poorly to the Roswell STA Alnico-5 ST set up in the HB which offer more bite and clarity of tone. The only things I may replace are the pots and switchgear, which do feel a little cheap and a bit sloppy, and the machine heads although they’ve performed well so far at gigs with minimal slippage. These very minor issues are the only reason the guitar doesn’t rate full marks across the board. It’s an absolute joy to play and I can’t recommend this guitar highly enough!

Fantastic guitar

This guitar is on par with some of the best strats I've played. Not only are the pickups good, the fit and finish, frets, etc are all perfect. It was set up and intonated out of the box, too. It's a bit heavy (9lbs/4kg) but it feels like a tank. I definitely would recommend if you want a rockin' guitar!

Great guitar

Harley Benton make some great guitars, this one is no exception. It oozes quality and looks beautiful. I needed a strat sound, I was looking at fenders, but when I saw this with the positive reviews I thought I'd try it.

The build quality is exceptional, I would say it's a little heavy, heavier than any guitar I have, but hey, that's just down to the beautiful solid body wood. The weight isn't a problem.

Sound wise, it's a strat and it sounds like what it is, I honestly can't say that I could justify paying so much more for a fender, and if you're really picky, just upgrade the pickups, I'm not going to bother with that though.

For me it just needed a slight adjustment, the strings were a little high, but once lowered it plays great. Very smooth, quick fretboard, I love it.

This has completed my collection, at least that's what I've told my wife 🤣

I have Rickenbackers, a fender, a Gretsch an Eko and now this, and believe me when I say it is in no way out of place amongst my other guitars.

Serious miscalculation in geometry

Disappointed with this product for the following reasons:

1. The first string does not sound adequate, I think it's a mechanical defect

2. Very rough frets (although this can be easily fixed)

3. The main defect that devalues everything is the incorrect installation of the bridge, its supports are set further from the neck by a few millimeters than it should be, and when I began to tune the scale, the saddle of the first string rested against the support, which did not allow the saddle to be moved to the desired position ( towards the neck). This defect is eliminated only by reinstalling the supports in the correct position, and this is a serious alteration. The guitar is currently unplayable because it is not possible to adjust the scale

Sweet as butter cream and it's become my favorite

I changed the output jack and the nut to a bone nut. Other than that I am so pleased with this sweet girl. She is my favorite and I have much more expensive guitars. It just plays so very nice.

Budget Guitar Collector

I needed a Strat style guitar for my collection. This guitar met or exceeded my expectations in build, playability and sound. Picking out my next buy already!

Decent, decent guitar

I am positively amazed by this guitar!

Arrived with a reasonably decent setup. So far I only made very quick-n-dirty adjustments on truss-rod relief and strings intonation. Haven't even changed the strings on it but I will try to set the action lower at some point.

PUs are lovely and sound like a proper strat, don't feel the need to change them AT ALL.

The neck is quite thicker than I expected and although I would prefer a skinnier neck, it plays comfortably. Frets are polished enough that it won't feel like 100-grit sandpaper (like for example in the HB-35). I will be fine polishing them soon though.

Pots are good, 5-way selector is more on the cheap side of things but does it's job well, for now (it still feels better than the common Chinese crappy ones).

Tremolo & saddleblock are solid and rather good quality.

Tuners are fine but not the greatest, I may replace them in the future with 18:1 ratio tuners of better quality.

The nut seems made of plastic but very nicely shaped. Bought a tusq one together with the guitar but haven't bothered yet to change it. Maybe when I bother to change the strings.

Stuff that is really nothing to worry about and much better than expected for the price but I will perhaps do in the future:

- change 5-way selector and perhaps add push/pull pot for "guilmour mod"

- clean-up a bit the cut edges of the pickguard

- replace tuners with greater ratio ones

- go to the gym and exercise to handle the guitar. It's heavy, people.

I don't find it very hard to resist modding it (which is strange for me). It's a proper guitar and there's nothing urging to be improved on it, really.

The Strat of my dreams

This guitar is absolutely gorgeous, sounds great & is very easy to play. I am not a Strat guy, but this is a guitar I keep on picking up to play. Great guitar for the money.

St 90 SA love it.

I literally dove in to the deep end buying my Harley B, can not find one bad thing to say. Ordering easy, delivery about a week from order the finish of the guitar is perfect. Seen a couple of YouTube posts comparing with other guitars like fender, why pay the money? I love it that much I've just ordered a telecaster roughly the same spec and just can't wait.

Great guitar!

Worth every penny, amazing craftmanship, great and smooth wood, for sound i can not comment, since i replace the pickups with klein custom 74 (blackmore sound). The fretboard, body, all excelent