Harley Benton ST-Acoustic Black 5-stars Reviews

Worth the price

Closest thing to a Kramer Ferrington KFS-2. Wasn't a fan of the bronze strings and replacing them with Ernie Ball 2252's did the trick. The pickup isn't anything special and works well should you want to add some chorus or distortion.

Everyone should have one

An absolute 'must have' guitar. Just what is needed for casual 'noodling' around the house, without needing to be too 'precious'. I have better electric and acoustic instruments which all live in cases but I leave the HB ST Acoustic lying around the house and can pick it up without faffing around with cases, amps, leads etc. yet the neck feels great and it plays like an electric. Really light too. Pre-amp may not be as good as the Fishman found in Fender's Stratacoustic but the finish of the neck and body is fantastic.. There's no tuner and tuning machines might not be the finest but hey... I can tune a guitar and the tuners work. As received, the setup left something to be desired and it was strung with heavy duty cables but after sorting out the action and changing the strings, it plays like a beaut.

A Little Gem...

I am no expert ,but I have many guitars to choose from and since I bought this little gem I continually reach out for it, it has become my first choice when practicing, I love its cute "smallness" and its almost shy sound ..perfect for not disturbing the whole house just because I love playing it...but plug it into an amp and its a different story...thankyou Harley Benton, My little guitar is amazing!

Bought this Guitar Last year

I’ve had this Guitar for a while now and all I can say is it is SO GREAT great quality good equalizer in it and sounds great through PA a lot of my people thought it would be sub par until they heard me play it! SGO BUY THIS

So much better than I expected

I have 3 high end acoustic guitars, but I needed to preform on stage and I wanted a thinline acoustic for comfort and some flexibility. I am totally impressed with the quality of the guitar and love it way more than I thought I would. This guitar is a perfect stage guitar. It is easy to play and with the right preamp (I use the NUX Optima Air) it sounds amazing. The action was perfect for me (perhaps a little high for some). Great build build quality and solid craftsmanship. I did end up dressing the fret ends a little (but they weren't bad, and due to some extreme climate conditions, it was completely understandable). No major complaints. The only down side was the electronics/preamp. They work fine and sound decent. They just feel cheap and slide around too easily. I cut two pieces of cardboard and locked them in place and adjust the tone via my pedal preamp or amp, so it's no big deal to me. By the way, the tuners are good - no need to replace! It doesn't sound as good as a proper acoustic for recording, but for the stage it's awesome. I would by again in a heartbeat! Thanks Harley Benton!

Good quality materials

I liked everything very much, wonderful assembly and great sound! Thanks a lot!

black acoustic beast

Delicious Excellent Very Impossible Luxary instrument for this money.A fender costs about six hundred euros ... I spent 60 minutes searching and placing an order in 6 minutes. Now I have this beast.I put service mark good!

Great value, despite budget price

I opened the box, and first, checked the guitar in terms of sound.

I haven't plugged it in yet, but in terms of acoustic sound it's quite loud, saturated, comfortable to play

the neck, just like the electric guitar.

Later when i ll have my frets leveled and polished, i ll add an additional review,

Disadvantages: has less sustain, not installed tuner.

So for the first impression, not bad, really not bad, i ll give HB instruments a green light towards fulfilling my little music studio , with their Acoustic Roundback bass and Acoustic roundback nylon guitar and Electric guitar

Love it

I remember years ago when fender put out their stratacoustic and i always wanted one but couldn't afford one back in the day, even their squire stratacoustic was high priced for me at the time and when I finally was able to afford one they where not in the market anymore and I didnt want to buy a used one. Then last year I became aware that Harley Benton had their own version at a pretty affordable price so I bought one. I loved it, i did have to pull the neck back a bit for lower string action but I absolutely adore it so much that I planed to buy a second one but sadly they where sold out, I waited along time fro them to bring it back and I have order a second one and cant wait to receive it.

Very good base for hybrid

I put in Fishman active PU and added electronics for that, changed preamp to Ghost system, new tuners, nut ,bridge and brass pins. Now it plays beautifully accoustic guitar sounds and can turn from single-coil thick sound to humbucker fat sound in a whiz.. All in a very playable and nice package. I cannot judge how the original guitar was anymore, but it sure make a stable base for modding :) Recommended

cool

this guitar is quite small. sounds good. belt attachment location on the fretboard is inappropriate. Harley Benton engineers could do better (made belt attachment on the top of deck like stratocaster). in general this guitar is good.

Comfortable Guitar

A good guitar for those who play electric guitars and pick up an acoustic guitar once a month. This is how I use it.

Needs a setup but otherwise superb

I'm playing mostly electric so I wanted an acoustic that plays like an electric. I also didn't want to spend a lot so I was at first looking for a stratacoustic. I have heard a lot of good stuff about Harley Benton for years so when it showed up in my searches at 1/3 the price of a Fender, I decided why not.

First impressions was not great. 3.25mm action on high E, 12 fret is a lot and this guitar did not play like an electric. Truss rod was loose and neck had too much backbow. After adjusting neck and adding a neck shim, the guitar plays beatifully. I got the action down to about 1mm which feels comfortable. The neck is straight and the fretwork is better than I've seen on some brand new Gibsons.

The tuners are low quality but the guitar stays in tune. The pickup system sounds a lot better than the price should allow for and I'm blown away by the overall quality. It should not be possible at this price point.

Good value guitar but may need a little set up adjustment.

Just had to try one of these for this amount of money, Delivery was quick via DHL, No damage or imperfections on inspection, tuned it up and played it unamplified and was pleasantly surprised at the loudness and tonal qualities. Popped the battery in and plugged into amp and again very pleasantly surprised at the sound and tone variations available. The action was far too high for me being about 5mm where neck meets body, and there was also no relief to the neck, so I modified the set up (generally in accordance with Fender recommended measurements)

firstly setting the neck relief, but when I checked the 'Action' I would have needed to lower the bridge by approx. 3mm, and as I did not want to do this (piezo pickup underneath), I decided to modify the neck angle - thank goodness for Leo Fender! It did not need much in the way of shimming and a small folded piece of emery paper at the bottom end of the neck pocket did the job perfectly so overall I am quite happy with the guitar especially at that price. It would be interesting to hear if others experience similar set up issues. Almost forgot to mention on the second day of playing via amp, the sound kept varying in volume and cutting in and out, I bought a new battery and when fitting it spotted what the problem was - battery too loose in plastic holder so fitted a folded piece of card to press the battery down onto the contacts and this seems to have solved the problem.

real good)

full-fledged solo acoustics, you can make the strings very low and play any shred solos, the sound is slightly flat but this is a design feature, the quality is very high)

I recieved this guitar quickly, and was plesantly surprised, it was in great shape nice and clean no flaws that i could see. It is really light, nice and thin which make it easier to get around and play. I hooked it up to my amp and it sounds pretty good. Nice little practice guitar . Would purchase again.

A great acoustic guitar that plays like an electric

I own a Fender "Stratacoustic" guitar (which this Harley Benton is based off) and the Harley Benton is nearly as good, but for less than half the cost. The Fender has slightly better piezo pickups and a built-in tuner, but overall the Fender isn't really "better" than the Harley Benton. The HB even has better tuners than the Fender.

If I had a time machine I'd have never bought the Fender and simply got this guitar and a clip-on tuner.

Great practice guitar

I never had an acoustic before and wanted something to practice with that I could carry all over the house easily and not be too loud and bother my kid doing remote learning school, and this is perfect. It plays sort of like an electric without needing an amp and with 1/3 the size and bulk of a traditional acoustic. It's obviously not going to be as loud as a dreadnaught, but that's perfect. Yea, the body is plastic, but so what? Set-up and playable right out of the box. Just tuned it up. I've only played it through an amp once, and it worked, nothing noteworthy. The only down side is the tuners are kind of rough so those will get replaced.

love it

I bought this thinking it would do nicely as a "general purpose dogsbody" guitar which I wouldn't need to worry about getting a knock or two - unlike my more expensive guitars. It's better than I expected.

The good stuff:

Very prettily finished, there are a couple of minor imperfections at the binding edges, but only noticeable if you look very hard and critically at it. Lovely neck and fingerboard, nice frets, no rough edges there. Action was fine for me, straight out the box. Unplugged, it is louder than I expected, compares well with my Ibanez Talman. Obviously not so much projection as a dreadnought - you couldn't expect it - but very useable all the same. Amped up, good tone (typical piezo undersaddle sound) and the 4 band EQ works well.

The bad stuff:

Nothing REALLY bad, but the tuning machines feel clunky, heavy and not nice to use. It seems to be stable enough once it is tuned but I'd consider fitting a better set at some point, Which, for a set of Klusons, would add about €40 on top. Still a lot cheaper than buying the Fender product, which is also not without its critics.

Overall, highly recommended as a good all-round top value guitar.

Update 3/10/2020: The clunky tuners were really getting to me, so I obtained a set of gold-plate finish ones (from Amazon - about €12, free postage) as well as some goldie roller string trees. Now I cannot fault the instrument, I took a bit of a gamble buying cheap tuners, yet even at that price they were much better than the factory ones. HB please note!

Update 18/10/2021: I'd like to add that I've now had this guitar just over a year and it has become my most used instrument of the seven guitars I currently have available. I don't think anyone could regret buying one and at this price they are amazing value as well.

Full fretboard access with ease on an Acoustic Guitar!!!

Fantastic guitar. It's a Fender Stratacoustic at a third of the price. I wanted an acoustic that gave full easy access to all the frets without the huge neck heel that most electric acoustic have. With this guitar, i can play it just like an electric for some acoustic Hendrix tunes. Also, this sounds amazing through my Yamaha THR5A Acoustic Amp. As far as quality goes, the binding isn't perfect with some overspray which wasnt polished out before it was lacquered; but that's just cosmetic. Frets are good with no sharp edges or flat spots. Action was a bit high, but after filing down the underside of the bridge a little bit; it's fine and plays great. Tuners of course aren't as good as expensive ones but they work and stay in tune. Strap button is on the upper horn rather than the neck heel as shown in photos, but that's better to avoid the strap getting in your hand's way when at the top end of the neck. No bad points in my opinion. Over all, very happy; but wish they did some different models with pretty flamed tops rather than only plain glossy black.