Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit ST-Style

The body is made up of three pieces of wood and is very light. However, it is surprisingly resonant. On mine, the grain and width of the two outer sections match perfectly. The centre section has a very straight and contrasting fine grain. As I have varnished the body using rub on thinned varnish after hand sanding all over with 400 and 600 sandpaper, the grain shows through and looks good. The result is an ?aged, natural? look, which is precisely what I was looking for. So for me, it is very pleasing aesthetically.

The neck is a perfect and very tight fit into the body pocket. It is an even better fit than the two other Harley Benton kits I have built (Single Cut and TL) and I was very pleased with both of those. The rosewood finger board is smooth and blemish free. The frets are very level for the price range. Only one fret (4th) being slightly high. A quick sand and polish sorted out the problem. The slots in the nut all wanted additional filing to lower the strings for good action and ensure intonation. The groove positioning was perfect. This extra work has resulted in a good low action and enabled me to set the guitar up to Fender strat specifications. Remember you have to shape the head stock yourself. I used a router to cut a strat style shape without a problem. The back of the neck finish is very smooth and only has a light matt varnish. Left as it is, which I have done, it is a perfect smooth playing action. I would question how long the varnish will last though, before sanding and refinishing is necessary. All in all the neck is very good and well worth a little time and effort to get perfect.

As far as the pre-drilled holes go, only the low E tuner retaining screw was slightly out of place. All the others were okay, so no serious complaint, but as it was out by approximately a screw width, I had to plug the original hole and re-drill, as I was concerned the screw may not grip if I just left it.

The scratch plate needed slight sanding on the low E side of the neck in order to get a good fit. It does look good with the gold lettering on the volume/tone controls. The electrics worked well. The pickups are bright, but not very powerful. Setting up as close to the strings as specs allow is recommended. However I found the overall tone to be as good as a Squier, so at this price range, no complaints. To suit my personal taste, the neck pickup could be warmer, but this is personal and not everyone may agree.

The tremolo fitted well, but in my opinion could do with a larger block which would most likely improve sustain. Once again at this price range, perfectly acceptable.

The strings need to be replaced. After using them for setting up, I changed them for D?addario 9 ? 42?s. This made a vast improvement to tone. Definitely change the strings!

Without tweaking, this guitar is better than the cheap range Strat copies, which are twice the price. The neck is worth putting in a little extra effort as the overall quality is very good and if you put the effort in, the result is a guitar equally as good as a Squier.

I am very pleased with this guitar and apart from the fun/pleasure derived from building it, the resulting guitar is very playable. Even if you were unlucky enough to have more issues than I did, Thomann after sales service is the best I have experienced of any musical instrument supplier, so you do not have to worry. Delivery was incredible, equally as quick, if not quicker than some UK suppliers. If you are considering a kit guitar, I would recommend buying one of these without hesitation.

Bought this out of curiosity but it turned out to be great fun. It can be as simple or as complex a project as you like. Putting the guitar together is very simple. Setting it up can be achieved with a quick youtube tutorial for anyone not familiar with that process. Complexity comes from deciding how far you want to go with the finish/modifications. The wood has some sealant on it so it can be ready to go with no modification if that’s what you’re looking for. I went down a rabbit hole of learning how to paint and finish a guitar from bare wood but it was a good learning opportunity. For me the trickiest part was cutting and finishing the headstock to my liking but it can be done well. The hardware is as you would expect from the price but solid in terms of sound and function. If I could change anything I would like some better quality tuners but at this price point they are perfectly acceptable. Some small imperfections in where the holes were drilled on the headstock for the tuner screws - they weren’t perfectly aligned; a minor issue in the scheme of things. Frets needed to be polished prior to use but again no big deal really, easily sorted. Overall a fun project and would recommend for any guitar enthusiast who would like to learn more about the instrument they play while getting to build one to their own liking.

We've customised & assembled quite a few of these Guitar Kits from Thomann, especially these: Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit ST-Style; one's. Generally we've found them very good, but there were a few issues with this one, but it worked out great in the end. The lad who we assembled this with eventually decided to go with it as it came out of the box without customising it. We fitted the machine heads & string trees without a problem, but when we tried to fit the neck to the body the heel wouldn't seat into the neck pocket. At first I thought I'd have to ease a little wood out of the neck pocket - I was surprised at this as I've usually found them to fit like a glove - then on closer inspection noticed that it wasn't just a tight fit, but the end profile of the neck heel was different to that of the end of the pocket. After puzzling for a bit I realised that the the neck was probably intended for a Telecaster Kit & had probably got put into the wrong box at the factory where it was manufactured. I contacted Thomann & within a week received a replacement neck. When we began fitting the machine heads & string trees we discovered that the pre-drilled pilot holes were to big & so the screws just spun around & did get grip. Fortunately I was able to replace the screws with spares that I have. But the problems with the neck continued when we tried to fit the new neck to the body - the fit was like glove - & discovered that each of the pilot holes in the neck had been drilled in the wrong place. I drilled 4 new pilot holes, in the correct places, & finally managed t attach the neck to the body. The rest of the build was uneventful, but what is worth mentioning is that with all the problems & after 2 necks,the action on this guitar is great. All-in-All, these: Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit ST-Style; are great value & it's well worth having a go at one.

Rock On & Good Luck, mddwoody 3.

Are you consider this to get a decent guitar for very little money? Don't bother -- just buy a pre-built guitar. Do you want to learn more about guitar maintenance/repair and don't mind fixing any number of flaws in the kit? Read on.

Pros:
- Neck is very well made and worth the price alone. The only flaw was the slightly recessed inlay on the 3rd fret. That's an easy fix.
- While the routes on the body are a bit rough, there are no major flaws.
- Neck pocket has a nice, firm fit.

Cons:
- The screw holes for the tremolo were not in a straight line. These needed to be filled and redrilled.
- The tuners were junk.
- The bridge and electronics are not horrible, but I would actually prefer to be able to buy the kit without the hardware -- most of this stuff will just end up in a landfill.
- While some plastic packaging is no doubt unavoidable, the plastic pickguard (that will be full of scratches anyway) was itself both covered with a plastic protector and then packaged in a zip-lock bag. Unnecessary.

This is a great kit for very little money.
The main points are -
The frets needed quite a lot of leveling.
The nut needed a lot of adjustment.
The truss rod needed a fair bit of adjustment.
I replaced the tuners.
The 1st string was much too close to the edge of the fretboard so I re drilled the holes for the bridge/trem unit and moved it.
I really enjoyed making this kit and all of the above add to the fun of completing it.
These are not complaints or faults, it is a DIY kit and a really good one.
I played a friend's strat a couple of weeks ago and I honestly wouldn't swap my kit for it.

This is the second guitar kit I have ever worked on, and I can say that I'm quite happy with the result. Now it is finished, I still use the guitar everyday. I didn't really know what to expect from Harley Benton products, since this is the first time I bought something from them. I was thinking the finished result would be ok, but not great, since it's only 69 euros. I was wrong.

The parts come in a small box. I was expecting to receive an unfinished body, that still needed grain filler, since I didn't read the product description that well. Apperently the body was already finished, so that saved me some work. There were only 2 spots on the guitar that needed some sanding and grain filler. This is the only real remark that I have concidering the guitar parts. The neck is in perfect condition and the tuning heads might be cheap, but they do the trick. The pickups have a good clean tone ( for the price ) but aren't good for harder genres ( I don't really mind, I didn't expect any Dimarzios to come with the kit ). The rest of the parts are fairly basic. The tremolo, backplate, knobs and all that serve their purpose. However you get all these parts, nothing stops you from buying new pickups, pickguard, knobs,... Since ( I think ) most guitar parts are universal.

Now, when you build the kit according to the manual, you should get a fully operational Stratocaster. That is true, however, for me, the purpose of a kit like this is to be able to make something that I can't just buy on Thomann or any other site for 100 or 200 euros, so you will need more equipment to make this guitar into something you really like. I bought some extra stuff to make the guitar look better, like, a new pickguard + knobs ( +- 30 euros ), spray cans ( 40 euros ) and sanding paper + grain filler ( 30 euros ). You will also need some tools like a screwdriver and a file ( to make the headstock look good ). So yeah, to get the best out of it, the whole guitar is going to cost a little extra, but I think it's completely worth it.

The finished result is a light, easy to play Stratocaster. I myself never really use it outside my house, so up untill now it has served it's purpose very well. However, I will be buying some new parts for it like a new neck ( next to a file, I also used some power tools to form the headstock, and accidently made a scratch ), new pickups and some new tuning heads, because upgrading your old guitar or buying a DIY kit will always be cheaper ( and more creative) then buying a completely new one. Also, don't be afraid if this is your first guitar kit. All steps are explained in a manual you get with it. There is also a manual you can download on the product page if you lose your old one like i did.

This is all I have to say about it. Invest a little money in a kit like this ( and maybe buy some extras ), and you will have yourself a beautiful guitar that will last a lifetime.

I bought this kit for the experience of building a guitar. I have 2 Fender guitars a Mexican strat and a Japanese Mustang. My existing guitars were needing a little bit of maintenance and set up so this guitar was to be my guinea pig. The kit is fairly impressive upon removal from the box, everything is of a decent enough standard. I sanded it down and hand painted it with acrylic paint sanding between coats before a final coat of rustoleum clear coat and t-cut car polish. I built the guitar up and set it up with the help of various youtube vids. I was able to get a nice low action with no fret buzz. The only minor gripes I have are that the tuning machines have a few wee dead spots where you turn and nothing happens to the pitch but they stay pretty much in tune. I replaced the nut with a graph tech 42mm pt5000-00 nut which helps. I was able to get good intonation at the 12th fret and a very playable set up over all. The neck is initially pretty impressive but the fingerboard is a kind of matte material and feels very scratchy when bending notes. In conclusion I would highly recommend buying this kit for the experience of building your own guitar. I was planning to slowly upgrade this guitar over time with new locking tuners,pick ups and tremolo etc, but the scratchy feeling of the finger board has given me cause to rethink this as its never going to feel great (think Jaws blackboard scene and you'll get the idea)
Experience 10/10
Quality of wood 7/10
Quality of hardware 7/10.
p.s. 1x bridge/tremolo screw was missing from my kit so make sure you count the parts before cracking on with your build. All the best and good luck.
~EDIT. Polished the frets and this got rid of the scratchy fret board feeling. !st build inexperience.

This kit is great for a first time builder. Even out of the box play for the price excelent. If you put some time and elbow grease into it you will get a nice strat for just a few punds.

Body is realy light made from 5 pieces of wood. Neck is made from one piece.
Before spray painting you should still sand the body since it is not smooth.

I changed all the electronics, tunners, tremmolo and nut. Now stays in tune perfectly. I also levelled the frets and crowned them.
Ordered some new cheap alnicos since the ceramic pick-up in the kit don t give the sound I want.