Harley Benton ST-90SA Swamp Ash DLX Series 5-stars Reviews

Unexpectedly good

While getting back to guitars i searched for something to start with, i was drawn to this harley benton because of its price and its wood finish, and also the good youtube reviews the harley benton brand is getting.

The guitar looks good, sounds good, the setup and intonation are good and there is almost no fret buzz ... for a sub 200 axe.

And then if you think about the fact that the new 75years celebration fender strat ... is also made of swamp ash ... you can really say that this guitar is a steal.

So, all exited i bought a HB bass and pedal steele guitar ... those are whole other stories

l m very happy great surprise ... Pro instrument

Belting Guitar

Arrived yesterday Blemish free and set up nicely.

Looks amazing in the Flesh a really pretty guitar it plays and feels excellent these latest models have really come on in Quality

Recommended cannot be faulted especially at this price

Simply fantastic guitar at any price.

Really have nothing bad to say about this guitar in any way. Yes the pots and tuners could be upgraded but they work just fine. No functional reason to change them at all. I was skeptical about the Subika body and fretboard never having seen or played that wood before but have to say that at least on mine the guitar is relatively light, very resonant, and the fretboard feels like a well played in (in a good way) old maple Tele neck right out of the box. Almost perfect fit and finish. Only needed a minor tweak in intonation and saddle height to be perfectly set up. Looks gorgeous in person. And most importantly it sounds fantastic. Compared it back to back with a buddy’s custom built Tele using Gretsch Filtertrons and have to say that the Roswell pickups and the guitar more than held it’s own. A little brighter than the Gretsch pickups but also warmer and with better clarity at the same time. Big surprise to both of us.

Simply put this is a fantastic guitar.

Amazing guitar

This strat weighs heavy...sounds fantastic with a great range of tones, plays like a much more expensive make. In short, this swamp ash strat is a joy to own and a looks amazing....awesome value for money.

Very good!

Very well made guitar! The routing and neck joint are very clean. Has the full thickness body, which makes it heavy. Very resonant guitar! The bridge has a big, full thickness trem block. After a thorough lubing the trem system started working well! Even with the string trees. Thats a big plus! The tuners are fine, i didnt have any skipping with them. They are vintage styled though, so there isnt any hole to thread the string through. It is a pain in the behind, if you meet it for the first time, like i did. The first string change took 30x more time than it should have. Be avare of that, dont get dissapointed! The neck has meat in it, I find it confortable.

Electronics: The potentiometers are full sized, there are 2, 0,22 uF caps inside. The switch is on the mass produces cheap side. The pickups are alnico, the pole pieces are the magnetst. Wiring very neat! The neck and middle pickup measured 5,7 kOhm, the bridge pup 6,35.

I find it to be a warm sounding guitar in the neck and neck + middle positions.

Mine came with a flawless finish, well setup. String height very low, no fret buzz, neck straight like an arrow.

If you want to buy it, and like the features, buy it. The quality will not dissapoint!

Very good guitar for its price

This is my second electric guitar,an excellent instrument that I recommend to buy, the workmanship is very good, it is an excellent choice not only for beginners but also for those who already know how to play the guitar.

Below I described in detail the main parts of the guitar, in which I wrote 1 poor, but I want to note that this guitar costs 160 euros, and it cannot be even better for such a price, but if you do not take machine heads into account, then it does not feel like 160 euros but by 300

Guitar Deck: (Excellent) The wood is very well fitted on the front, looks like a natural piece of wood, the gluing borders are visible from the bottom and the back, the deck has a nice matte finish.

Pickguard: (Excellent) Quite thick, has 3 layers of plastic, which is very good, since it does not allow the nails to deform themselves, its edges are even and beveled at an angle, there is nothing to complain about.

Bridge: (Good) not a bad bridge for a guitar for this amount, nicely polished, but I would not recommend using a tremolo, the tremolo handle sits tight.

Pickups: (Very good) Very good pickups, especially in the Strat version, a very wide range for music, do not stagger, do not vibrate when playing, sit very well

Potentiometers and Pick-up Knob: (Not bad) There is a little noise when using them, but they do their job, they can be replaced in the future to get rid of the sound.

Neck: (Excellent) Very comfortable, has a varnish finish, but it is convenient to slide on it, there are a couple of knots on the tree, the fingerboard is glued very smoothly and beautifully,very well screwed to the deck

Frets: (Very good) Even after 3 days of upkeep, after cool Germany, in a hot Arab country, and then upon arrival in my country, they are all on the same level, and do not require grinding, great job! However, they are not mirrored to the end, but this is not a problem, when playing on it, after the bends, they will become smooth.Their polishing along the edges is not quite perfect, it does not scratch the palm even if you move it strongly and quickly along the neck, but there is a feeling that it clings a little bit.

Nut: (Good) Very nicely inserted, no gaps, but it is worth deepening the grooves under 1 and 6 strings a little.

Machine heads: (Poor) The only thing that's bad about this guitar and I would highly recommend replacing them. Their movement is uneven, and they do not hold the formation very well.

i love this guitar

Cant put it down - love the sound.

Its a bit on the heavy side - I like that.

if lost or stolen - I would buy again. Really happy with this buy.

I used to own a Squier Classic Vibe stratocaster and I sold it to be able to buy a nice acoustic (Eastman e1d).

After a few months I really started to miss a strat style guitar. I love modifying guitars so a cheap but good one is the way to go for me. I was on the fence on a couple of cheapos: SX SST62, Harley Benton ST-57, Harley Benton ST-62 and this one.

Based on the reviews on YouTube I decided to go for the Harley Benton st-90. It is a little bit higher specced than the ST-62 and it still is dirt cheap.

It got here last friday and Boy, am I pleasantly surprised!

The finish is flawless. Let me sum up my observations:

1) Fretwork. The frets were polished and no fret sprout! A few high frets here an there but nothing out of the ordinairy. I could set the action at 1.9/2mm at the low e without fret buzz.

2) Nut. I think it is plastic, don't know for sure, but it is cut beautifully. Will not touch it any time soon. Action at first fret is great as it is.

3) The specs say the fretboard is either Blackwood (a composite material) or Pau Ferro. It is definitely made of real wood. It is rather dark, so it could even be Rosewood. Not sure the guitar factories already use Rosewood again since the lifting of Cites, so let's assume it is Pau Ferro.

4) Hardware. As soon as it arrived, I opened it up to apply some shielding tape. To my surprise this guitar has full size Alpha pots! It uses 1 capacitor per tone pot @ .47. I will replace it later with one .22 because I like that better. The body routing is done very cleanly.

The tremolo is of very good quality. Nice thick plate and it was set up to float.

Now, I don't like floating tremolo's so I decked it by lowering the bridge poles (detune first) and tightening the spring claw. Now it is nice and resonant! Also it has a full size steel tremolo block. That is really amazing at this price point.

The tuners work fine, but a couple of them are really stiff. But this is a guitar of 169 euro, so it is acceptable.

The 5 way switch is the cheap square version and will be replaced by an Oak Grigsby 5 way switch.

4) Finish. Lovely matte finish on the neck and body. The body is a bit orangy/honey like. Love it. Scratch plate is real nice faux tortoise.

5) Tone. The Roswell alnico 5's sound very good. I say they are a bit on the hot side, they sure sound sweet and stratty. Was planning on swapping them for Toneriders, but currently I don't think it's necessary.

Since I used to own a Squier Classic Vibe, I can compare the two.

I say build quality is the same. Hardware on the Harley Benton is better, except for the tuners. I would even say it's on par with Mexico Fenders.

Also the feel is totally different. The Squier has a 9.5 radius finger board and a much skinnier neck. HB has a thick neck with 14 inch fretboard radius. So feel wise, these are totally different animals. Also, the HB is HEAVY. Mine weighs around 4.3kg. That is almost 1kg heavier than the Squier Classic Vibe, that weighted 3.4kg. The Squier is made out of Alder and this one is Ash, so I expected it to be heavier. The specs say it is Swamp Ash, but as that tonewood is usually also lightweight, I think it is regular northern Ash. I play guitar sitting down, so I don't mind, but keep this in mind when you are a gigging guitarist. You might want to have a look at another lighter weighing tonewood.

For a guy that loves to mod cheap guitars, I'm sort of dissapointed: it really doesn't need a lot of work! ;).

Maybe I will put on a 9.5 inch radius neck on it later, I measured the neck at 55.5mm, so It should fit Fender spec necks.

Also, I'm changing the capacitor to a .22, maybe put a push pull pot in it to get the 7 tones (gilmore mod). I ordered Ivory coloured pickup covers and knobs because I think that will look better. I will add two more springs on the tremolo to deck it more firmly. Also I will replace the 5 way switch. Other than that I don't think it needs more work.

I can't understand that it is possible to sell a guitar at 169 euro's with this insane amount of quality. It can measure up to a Classic Vibe which costs nearly 200 extra. I even say it is on par with a MIM Fender.

King Of Budget Strats

This is my first Harley Benton guitar and I must say I am very impressed with the level of quality for the price.

The Pros:

- Well fitted tonewoods (Swamp Ash, Maple Neck, Pau Ferro Board) with little to no blemishing. Resonant and light weight. Cavity was cut very well and can house a HSH configuration.

- Good electronics : CTS sized pots with a nice switch - I did not see the need to replace these. The Roswell pickups are fantastic as I found myself only replacing the bridge pickup with a Hot Rails style humbucker (personal taste)

- Good Tuners : vintage style klusons that stay in tune and feel robust for their price.

It did need work out of the box however as :

- The nut was too high and made out of butter : this was replaced with a TUSQ nut (essential),

- The frets were too sharp : they had to be dressed by my technican but he was impressed with their fitting!

- The board was too dry : it had to be oiled, but it looks amazing now.

- Minimal shielding: it does have a bit on the plate but I would recommend shielding the entire cavity.

With a bit of work, the ST-90SA is a fantastic instrument that rivals many beyond its price range. Easily better than modern day Squire Classic Vibes and on par with Mexican Fender if tempered by a proper guitar technican.

Great guitar, great sound, great parts/build. Just one thing that i don't like is the color is kinda orange not natural in the pictures. Also mine was delivered with some scratches and dents, but really small and not so much visible in overall looks.

Worth it's money!!!

great looking guitar

I own many guitars . these Harley Bentons play well. This is currently my favorite among guitars worth thousands.Very impressed with workmanship . keep up the good work. many thanks A W.

Exactly and more than I expected !

I have to say that I am amazed at the body fit and gorgeous satin finish and the joints are all but invisible and grain is nicely matched and is really hard to see where the joint is. I was expecting the maple neck to be a lighter colour to the body, but again they did a wonderful job in using maple that was an almost exact match colourwise to the body. It looks superb! I cannot stress just how good the body and neck are. It is better in real life than the photos,though the photos are very accurate in all aspects.

From past experience, I was expecting that I would naturally have to do some set-up and adjustments and was actually looking forward to that.... but alas.. NO.... everything was really perfect. Nut cut perfectly, action and relief set nice and low and the intonation was 100% perfect. Neck to body joint faultless and sounds just great so far. Pickups heights were spot on too. Perhaps the pickups themselves are sweet, and it has really good sustain but have truly great tone ( to me anyway!) and pos 2 & 4 real nice chimey sounds.. ..... All in all, I could not have asked for more.

I bought this because of what it is and had absolutely nothing to do with price - especially as I was going to buy a Mex Fender start 4 or 5 times the price!

The only thing I do not like is the pretty naff pickguard,

It came with allen key for truss rod and bridge but no key for the saddle height adjustment, though this is really a very minor issue and even came with a 1/4" lead.

I am glad that I bought this and did not spend much much more on a Mex Fender. I am amazed!!!!!!!!!!!!

For this price forget, "the others," play HB

Played strait out of the box, little tweak here (4/64 high e) little tweak there (5/64 low e) no other adjustment necessary. You want to pay £400 - £1000 for the "other brands" go ahead, this HB swamp ash is unbeatable value for the money, feels amazing (just can't stop picking it up) and has tonal qualities all of its own. For £117 it is one of the best guitars I've bought, the other was the HB telecaster (but don't tell my brother it's his Christmas present from mum LOL). In a nutshell, want a strat, can't afford a strat, buy one of these; even if you feel the need for full setup (I mean freestone etc at £119) you still win a watch (I mean an excellent electric guitar). Wondering what to treat yourself with this Christmas after you've treated everyone else and your almost skint? One of these will play you into the new year, look good all year round and for many years to come, and as the wood ages the guitar will like yourself become more dignified and mature.