Harley Benton ST-20 WH Standard Series

I'm no luthier, but I am also no novice when it comes to assessing quality and setting up guitars. the first time I played this out of the box I thought I had wasted my money. I couldn't get the thing to stay in tune, the action was horrible, it was cutting my hands up and I was comtemplating sending it back.

Then I got drunk.

Then the fret file and screwdrivers came out. Here's how I turned this guitar from a potential error into my favourite guitar to play.

1: Take the strings off.
2: File the fret edges down to stop it from shredding your hands off.
3: Get some oil. I used fast fret. I went up and down the whole neck dabbing oil on. I also put plenty on the nut. This is important as it helps termendously with the tuning issues that came with using the trem. Then wipe off the excess.

3: I removed a spring from the trem. This made it float. If you dont want a floating trem then don't follow this step. If you want to be like Jeff Beck then absolutely do.

4: Put new strings on.

5: drunkenly send whatsapp messages to your brother and your guitarist friend declaring yourself to be some kind of guitar fixing god.

Seriously though, after I had done the above I was scarcely able to put it out of tune again even with diving the trem right to the body. The fretboard drank a fair bit of oil but looks and feels lovely now. I did have to file some of the frets down above the 12th as I was getting buzz when bending up but this was probably just luck of the draw and you may have 0 issues. A good guitar tech could have this thing playing beautifully for you with minimal effort if you dont fancy trying it yourself.

Soundwise it is beautiful. I can't hear much difference between this and a fender. The pickups are good, there's a lot of buzzing like you would expect from this configuration but I know this can also be remedied to a point with good shielding and some proper earthing.

If you want a good starter guitar, a project guitar or something to pad out your collection (I use this for recording) then I can't recommend this enough. Great guitar. Great price.

I purchased this guitar to act as an upgrade platform for my American Stratocaster, to act as a sounding board for upgrades. I figured for this price that there would be some work to do, but was hoping that it wouldn't be too bad. To make a long story short, I think the guitar met but did not greatly exceed my expectations.
Out of the box, the guitar was quite playable, but unexceptional.
The action wasn't the worst, but was too high for any ones style of playing. A truss rod adjustment helped, but only slightly. A number of frets were too high. I could hammer some of them down, but had to file 5 frets, two of them heavily, to get the frets flat. The truss rod was set up a little weird, the bend created by relief was too high on the neck, so I couldn't get the action as low as I wanted (I like very low action), but at least it was much better and definitely playable.
Tuning stability was kinda meh. I've seen worse, but it wouldn't hold tune for extended periods. Replaced the tuners with Fender American standard tunes and it now has great tuning stability. I also replaced the nut with a graph tech nut, mostly because I it was on a guitar I was selling, so I figured what the heck. The tuning stability using the trem isn't great, but I figure if I put on a heavier trem block and possibly new bridge saddles, then it might be able to hold tune with heavy trem use.
The stock pickups were okay. Not great, but not terrible either, and definitely a surprise in a guitar at this price point(in a good way). I put GFS single coils in it to see if that would help the sound, and it definitely did. I measured the resistance of the stock pickups (ceramics btw), they all measured in at around 4.5k ohms, so I am guessing they all came out of the same bushel basket. The pickups I originally installed were a Texas Special set I had lying around, and although I liked the neck and middle, I just couldn't live with the bridge. Strong for a single coil, but too harsh and trebley. I opted to go HSS with over-wound GFS singles and a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary PAF in the Bridge. Really liking this configuration. The problem I had with it, was the screw holes didn't line out with a standard strat HSS pick-guard. I managed to get 5 screws to line up. I haven't decided if I want to drill new holes or not. The routing is actually set up for HSH, very neatly done too, another surprise. I have worked on numerous Squires, and the routing on this guitar was much better than most of those.
The paint looks good, but is on the thin side, not as heavily painted as Squires. But it is very evenly applied and overall looks like some attention was paid to it.
Roseacer. I havn't decided if I like this or not yet. I did clean the fretboard when I replaced the factory strings (mandatory of course) and it was very dirty (common with new budget guitars). At first it felt kinda chalk-boardy and perhaps a little fake. But the more I play it, the more I kinda like it. Categorizing it is the hardest part. It is not like ebony, rosewood, or maple. It is really its own thing. The neck is kinda a medium width C shape, I would say somewhere in the middle between slim and chunky.
My overall impression of this guitar is that it is a good out of the box guitar, with some good but limited upgrade potential. I keep up on the Squires they are making nowadays, and would have to say that overall this is a bit better than a Bullet Squire, and would compete nicely with Affinity Squire in regards to sound and play-ability. However I would give the Affinity the nod in regards to overall finish work. those guitars have a thicker, higher quality finish to them. I always thought they were designed to look good first, and play/sound good second. This guitar seems to be designed the other way around.

Hi all! I have been looking for a glass sound for a long time! After watching some YouTube videos, I decided to order this particular guitar for myself.

And I ordered to the city of Astana, this is in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Delivery was very long, the track code was not tracked. I paid on February 10, 2023 and, taking into account the delays, I planned to receive it before March 8! But I received them only on the 44th day, although the site states that delivery to Kazakhstan will take 12-19 days. In Kazakhstan, Nauryz is celebrated from March 21 to 23 and all institutions are closed, I didn’t receive it for these holidays either ... After the holidays, I started searching.
I went to the Kazakhstan branch of DHL, they did not find it there according to the specified Turk code. I went to Kazpost, where they could determine the location of my order using my passport, the track code was also not determined. I went to the branch where the order was and picked it up on my own transport. According to the terms of delivery, they should have brought me to the apartment, all my data are correct (address, phone number). I was upset. I lost a lot of time, incurred additional costs for the search, shipment and transportation of my order ...

I came home, eagerly unpacked, set up, connected, heard the sound that I had been looking for for several years !!! I forgot all the negatives!!! Yes, the quality needs improvement, there are nuances, but this magical sound... crosses out all the nuances!!! And look at all this for what money! If you dreamed of buying a Fender Stratocaster and saved up money, then spend all the money! You only need to leave $80 and don't hesitate to buy this particular guitar! Same shapes, same sizes! She's worth a lot more! I am in love with this sound and I have found my old love! I want you to find your sound!

P.S. I specified that all the inconveniences in delivery were caused by EMC Kazpost.

I wanted a guitar for university, something that I wouldn't be too upset about if it got damaged in my dorm or at a gig — though, knowing myself, I’d probably still be a bit upset! So, I decided to get the Harley Benton ST-20, which only cost me £75. To my surprise, I fell in love with it. This is my first Stratocaster, and at first, I was a bit confused. I’ve been playing a Hamer Archtop XT with P90 pickups (essentially a double-cut Les Paul) for the past three years, and there are some things to consider when switching to a Strat.

Let's start with the things I didn't quite like about this guitar.

Cons:

Middle Pickup: Oh boy… When I first tried palm muting on the ST-20, I kept hitting the middle pickup quite a lot. I had to adjust my picking technique (for reference, I’ve always used a jazz pick). It's not a deal-breaker for me, as the middle pickup is part of the classic Strat sound (more on that later).

Volume Knob: This actually annoys me. I get that it’s part of the original design, but it makes it hard for me to comfortably rest my hand on the bridge. I’ve taken to just pulling the knob off the pickguard while playing.

Acoustic Sound: The acoustic sound of this guitar is a bit dull compared to what I’m used to (again, I played a mahogany Les Paul for three years and a cheap Ibanez Superstrat for a year before that). It has a deep acoustic tone, but when you plug it in, it sounds crisp and twangy.

Paint Job: The paint job is decent, but there are some weird bubbly spots on the body. But for a £75 guitar, what can you expect?

Stock Strings: The stock strings need to be changed right away. They sound dull, but good strings only cost about £8 these days, so I can’t fault the guitar too much for this. 🤣

Tuners: The tuners are decent, but nothing more than that. They don’t hold tuning well if you use the tremolo system, but otherwise, they get the job done.

Pros:

Now, onto the good parts! I absolutely love the sounds this guitar makes. While I didn’t like the middle pickup's placement, sound-wise it’s an essential part of the 4th position on a Strat, and it sounds beautiful.

Scale Length: I like the 25.5-inch scale because the strings don’t feel as sloppy as they do on a Les Paul. I put on a 10-46 gauge set (the only pack of strings I had at home), and the guitar sounded completely different afterward. It still feels great in standard E tuning, but as an experimenter, I tried tuning it down to Drop C, and it still had the right tension for playing some 0-5-7 riffs. I even went lower to Drop A#… and guess what? It felt great in my hands and sounded really good. Even though the SSS pickup configuration isn’t meant for metal, it still delivered a crisp sound.

Polished Frets: I’m also thrilled that, for £75, I got a guitar with polished frets. This is a big deal for me — my hands never catch on the frets! I own a bass that cost nearly £400, and its frets are still unpolished and snag my hands.

I hope this review helps if you’re considering buying this guitar! It's totally worth it!

You may easily make the mistake of thinking cheap guitar = rubbish sound useless trem ect,you'd be so wrong, I have a big collection of guitars and this is a star ,maybe not so straight from the box but with a few tweaks IE dial in those pickups 3mm bass side 2 mm treble,alittle attention with a nail file easing any tight nut slots, set up trem frudua style as on you tube,a quick file of burrs on string trees to remove burrs
,and take off the D +G tree and use it on the B +E to correct the string angle ,a touch of lube to nut ,saddles ect ,set string height, and all done result fret guitar super low action no fret buzz trem smooth,and stays in tune,excellent finish nicely built guitar a pleasure to own and play,the quality of this is better than many guitars I've owned costing 8 times the price,in fact there seems to be no truth in the old saying that you only get what you pay for,oh and it wasn't a fluke, we got one in red and it's just as good ,

Purchased 6 months ago as an experiment really to see if you can get a strat for less than £60 new that actually plays and sounds good.

Well for this sought of money you are not buying a high end instument.

First impressions though are good... nice finish on the paintwork, fingerboard, and neck as good as to be expected at this price...surprisingly no buzzy frets???

Mind you I always whip off the strings as factory strings are just nasty!!

A 15 minute set up , new 10s strings fitted and plugged in!!!

Its a strat!!!

Sounds like one at least,not a good one but one all the same , the pick ups are cheap ceramic mass market and not going to blow you away but they are in keeping the tone of the guitar and thats good.

Tuners are poor....but then most are at this price point, the tremolo...forget it!!

hardtail the bridge and it will be fine.

The neck is a funny profile... sort of a soft V going into a fat C shape after the 12th fret,Its playable but not a shape I want.

Overall its just ok... its cheap and it works..and ideal for a complete beginner..anyone who has any experiance.. its not for you.

You just can't make an instrument for such a low price without cutting just about every corner possible.

Nice effort Thomann..but IMO a beginners guitar only!!