Harley Benton ST-20HSS SBK Standard Series

I have bought it for my son, it is very nice and smooth, the quality of material is quite ok, considering the price.
It has a pro aspect and is perfect compatible with HB 20R.
The only con is that the humbucker`s springs are not very tensioned, if I press on the coil, it balances towards the bridge and remains that position, does not come to center position. It does not seem to a functionality problem, is only visible.
Strings should be upgraded, the E low and A sometimes vibrate very annoying.
Overall, for a beginner it is excellent and for this price is best offer !

So this is the first Harley Benton I've bought and I bought it for my son who took a liking to my Fender Strat. At this price point I wasn't sure what to expect. Out of the box I was immediately impressed by the feel and finish and the weight and balance, this doesn't look or feel like some of the budget strat copies I've seen and played in the past and actually felt and looks really good.
Clearly some effort has gone into the setup as the intonation was quite good and the action very playable out of the box, no fret sprout or sharp edges along the neck, fit and finish is very good.
So although on the whole very good I do note some small things that needed some attention. Unfortunately the first time we put a strap on the front strap button just came off the guitar and it almost was dropped as a result, it wasn't a case of just screwing it back in as the screw hole was way too large for the screw so it had to be plugged and glued and then the screw had something to bite into and it attached fine and now feels secure. The frets themselves were dull and a bit scratchy when bending strings so a fret polish would help solve this. The only other thing I noted was the tremolo bridge was hard against the guitar body along it's back edge and not "floating", again a quick and easy adjustment.
The pickups are surprisingly good for this price point and the output clear and crisp with no undue noise on high gain settings, all the controls and the 5 way switch felt good and again no nasty crackles or pops when switching positions.
So overall this is a lot of guitar for the price that was very playable out of the box, yes it needed a few tweaks and the strap button repairing but nothing that would be beyond the scope of most players. If you're looking for a budget guitar that’s actually pretty decent then look no further, I've seen much more expensive guitars not be close to as good as this is.

I have imported four of these guitars to practice my set-up skills and know a fair bit about them now. Overall they are great starter instruments for beginners as well as great looking foundations for upgrading and modding for more experienced players. Would I go on stage with one, YES. Of course, at a 20 series price point there have to be compromises and you find them in the pots and guts of the guitar. Everything is absolutely functional but you can improve on the parts as and when you wish IF you wish. As a budget guitar it has budget elements but these are only one piece of the pie. The finish, the fretwork and the pickups are better than some 500-1000 dollar instruments, mentioning no names. You can't go wrong with these ST-20s. If you read anything negative about these guitars online then I strongly suggest ignoring what you see because simply put a 120 dollar guitar that looks and plays like this does is simply brilliant. It should not exist at this price.

Obiously you shouldn't go into this purchase thinking you're ending up with a top-of-the-line product that could compete with an actual Fender Stratocaster, however, for less than 1/10 of the price of one, it is an amazing guitar.

Right out of the box, the guitar is perfectly set up. No sharp frets, straight neck, no paint-job fails - flawless QC.

The sound is OK. With a certain amount of messing around with amp settings, EQ, and such, it can sound pretty good. I found the guitar tends to do better with clean tones, rather than distorted ones. The one thing I dislike about the sound is that there is just too much treble (on the humbucker too) which can make dialing in tones a pain.

Hardware-wise it's ok, nothing spectacular. The tuners hold the guitar in tune better than I expected, however, they aren't the most pleasant to tune with. The pickups are cheap, but get the job done. In addition, while I like that there is a whammy bar bundled with the guitar, using it is another matter. If used to achieve slight vibrato, it's fine but will eventually detune the guitar. Don't expect to be doing any dive bombs with it tho.

Overall, it's a solid guitar and the fact it doesn't even cost 100€ is baffling. It is obviously aimed at beginners, or maybe just someone who wants a wall decoration, so if studio work is what you need it for, you should probably look elsewhere.