Harley Benton ST-Modern Plus MN HSS OW

Very good, beautiful neck

The neck is every bit as beautiful as you hope it will be! Really stunning, seen nothing like it in this price range. Came set up nearly perfectly, just some scratchy frets to sort out. Elixir strings as standard is SUCH a good decision. The tremelo is a bit unusual but feels solid (comes screwed in tight for 1 way action, not floating). Pickups are fine, I think I like the neck single coil best, and the coil split works nicely. The humbucker is very loose and does wobble when you shake the guitar. The neck is undoubtedly the star of the show though. One thing I'm not sure about is the 2nd string tree. It's creating points of friction which will hinder tuning stability. Staggered tuners would have been better I reckon. It's also a tad on the heavy side when I compare it to my other strats. For context, I've been playing about 40 years and this is my 3rd HB. It's my 2nd good one (DC dlx in pink had paint coming off in my hands!). This guitar reminds me a lot of my Schecter Nick Johnson in feel, but the HB has better frets (hate the XL Jumbo's) and the amazing flame maple.

Lots of angled screws on the pick guard due to poorly done drilling which is killing me. Couple big scratches in the finish. Out of the box high E string broke. Rattling like hell humbucker. Overall sound is great, neck is awesome! Bridge is super uncomfortable and requires to get used to it - can't play as is :-\