Harley Benton ST-20 WH Standard Series

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!!

I bought this as I wanted a cheap guitar that I could mess about with, mod and take to a gig without worrying too much about it getting knocked over.

The first one came with a big scratch down the back, but Thomann happily took it back and replaced with a new one.

Let's be honest... It is what it is for the money. For £69, I doubt you'll get better.
The fretboard was extremely dry, so needed to soak up a fair bit of lemon oil. Feels quite rough, so will need a little bit of attention.
The nut is high and fretwork isn't great, but I wouldn't expect either of those to be perfect, at this price point.
The pickups sound very usable. I'll leave them in and just swap out the jack, pots and switch.

I'll get my local luthier to sort the nut and fretwork, so for less than £200, it's a perfectly gig-able guitar!

Biggest plus for me is the flatter radius than normal S type guitars.

Bought this as base for a modding project. I only needed the main things to be aligned (neck, neck pocket, neck heel, body, bridge etc ...) Pickups and electronics would be changed and so would the tuners, nut and even bridge saddles.

But as of late Im not having any luck with Harley Benton! The neck pocket is routed too wide for this neck. Sure I can make it aligned but you have to be precise when tightening the neck screws.Any way ... I will keep this guitar and play God of Mod with it and hope it makes a decent player at the end.

This body is routed for HSH pickup configuration. The paint is very thin which is good for "relicing" if one fancies such things.

Not sure the fretboard is rosewood ... could well be the roasted maple ... I have a G&L Fallout with rosewood fingerboard and it sure feels more solid in feel and also has those shades of rosewood colors. This ST-20 rosewood is uniform very dark brown.

Frets need slight leveling with rubber hammer and filing a few sharp fret ends.

All in all, I would not buy this to a beginner. Im sure the ST-62 would be a better choice.

It's a 80 euro guitar. You can't expect the quality delivered from a $300 Fender Strat. But it works, the strings that it come with aren't good at all so i recommend you change them the second you get them. It also needs a full setup, various frets are buzzy. I find even fretting that the strings can be off key or sharp, even when the string is perfectly tuned. Don't get this guitar if you are going to be learning electric guitar seriously, only if you are using it for a small hobby, or (like me) just getting it for playing small things for music production, where you can alter the signal.