Top Cheap Electric Guitars

I’m certainly not a guitar expert, when I saw this model for the first time online I instantly had to have a closer look. Upon watching a few too many unboxing videos and videos of the guitar in action. I decided to bite the bullet and buy this as my first ever electric guitar.
I love the look of this guitar, it’s absolutely my style and Harley Benton written on the headstock makes it seem less beginner-ish to the untrained eye. Rather than blowing over a grand on a big name for my first guitar.
I ordered full well knowing it would be a while to arrive, as it was a back order.
It finally arrived today, I noticed the box had taken some damage in shipping although thankfully it was just an outer layer.
The guitar itself, was checked and signed off as part of the QC process, both in the warehouse and by the manufacturer, so the process was obviously pretty stringent.
I inspected the guitar, upon opening to find perfect paintwork, no sharp frets and surprisingly shipped with strings already fitted.
I tuned up to test it and I was actually very impressed with the sound, the setup felt pretty good too.
Although I will let my guitar tech friend take a look at it to check all is well in due course when we do some sessions on the basics of playing.
I restrung with his help and recommendation too.
I get a feeling I am going to enjoy learning to play with this guitar.

Overall, I am very very impressed with the quality of this guitar, it feels and looks like an item that should cost twice as much as it does.
It makes a great beginner guitar or even a good backup for a professional, given some love and setting up.

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.

I’ve been playing for 49 years, owned over 40 guitars in that span. Mostly hobbyist playing, but lately I’ve started clubbing with a small combo on sporadic dates. As I get closer to retirement, I’m looking to expand my clubbing with a guitar that can cover a wide variety of rock, pop and country from late 50’s through 90’s.

After much researching around, I found both Henning Pauly and Jonathan Koh’s video reviews of this guitar on the YouTuber, both of which combined convinced me to take a chance on this beauty. Subscribe to both of them if you haven’t by now… both are wonderful and honest in their reviews of these guitars.

The purchase process was great. I live in Minnesota, USA. Guitar arrived in 10 days from Germany. Packaging was great and finish-wise the guitar was pristine on arrival. Setup was good, with slightly too much relief in the neck for my liking, so about 1/4 turn of truss took care of that. 2 of the intonation lock-down hex screws on the bridge needed tightening, otherwise setup and intonation were great!

All electronics except the 5-way switch worked fine. The 5-way was intermittent, so I shot with electrical cleaner and that seemed to fix. With an eye on future upgrades and/or maintenance, I asked Thomann for a wiring diagram and was surprised to hear they don’t have one. Please supply these with your instruments, Thomann!!! PDF’s in the Support Page would be Awesome!!!

I play through mostly Positive Grid products using a ’63 Gibson Skylark played clean, and the tonal choices on this guitar are terrific. I can get anything from Tele to Strat to LP and combos thereof. Love it.

This guitar has a neck to die for! Beautiful roasted maple, stainless steel frets (which are perfect), GraphTech nut and roller tree. Man, you can dive the crap out of the whammy and it holds tune! It’s thinner than the other guitars I’ve owned, but not weirdly so: very comfortable and capable of supporting much faster players than me!

All in all, I’d rate this guitar as the nicest playing instrument I’ve ever owned, with the possible exception of my Gretsch Electromatic. (No, they’re tied for first!). And my faith in Harley Benton and Thomann is 100%. So much that (again, Thanks to Henning and Jonathan) I put an order in yesterday for the CST-24HB Tortoise Flame. Dying to get my eyes and hands on it!

Keep up the good work, Thomann! I’ll be spreading the Harley Benton Gospel here in Minnesota for ya! – Cheers!

Due to the current pandemic, I’m not playing out. I have yet to gig out with the guitar.
I’ve had the guitar for over a month. First what I liked about the guitar. I was always wondering what the big deal was with "roasted" necks. Well, if you haven’t tried one, please do. This is the smoothest playing neck ever. I have over 20 guitars, Tele with maple, Les Paul with rosewood, Schecter with ebony. IMHO this is the best neck of all.

Next the pickups.
I wanted a guitar that could do it all, humbucker and single coil. First of all despite some of the You Tube reviews, I like the pickups and will not be changing them. The humbuckers would not be confused with the Seymour Duncan Custom 59’s but they have a good tone, compare them to the Epiphone Probuckers. When split I’m able to get very close to the Fender Strat sound, playing clean, think of Jimmy Vaughan or Robert Cray. I have played this through my Fender Hotrod Deluxe to check out the tube sound with volume, and the Fender Champion 50 XL for around the house. I was able to get myriad tones with both amps.
Looking forward to gigging out with this.

The guitar was set up very well, I have a slew of luthier tools, but needed none. I adjusted the action and intonation. I had to go to You Tube for a video on how to adjust the Wilkinson bridge, which BTW is much better than the Fender vintage. Electronics all worked well. Cavity is shielded, no name large pots, smooth action on volume and tone, with no big drop offs. Locking tuners are a real plus on any guitar with a tremolo, BTW the arm is adjustable, no flapping around.

Cosmetics.
The guitar cosmetics were well done, no flaws found. The flamed finish looks great. I had to get use to a little different style of picking as there’s less than 3/4" inch between pickups. I had ordered the "bundle" which is supposed to come with a HB gig bag, it came with a GEWA economy gig bag, which I actually consider an upgrade as I can compare this with my HB.

The only negative was the shipping of the guitar. I was aware that there would be delays due to the current situation, however there was a mix up in either their shipping or DHL. The order showed my address as correct, but somehow the mailing label hat was printed out had a zip code from an old address over 300 miles away. It was lost for a while until someone in the Postal Service here corrected the address by hand. The good news is that there was no damage despite a round about route to get to me.

Question, "Is this guitar suitable for the Blues?"
Answer, "All guitars are. It’s the player that puts the Blues out there."
Yes, when I return to gigging I will be playing this guitar, but for the B.B. King songs it’ll have to be my Gibson.
I’m happy to have this guitar in my arsenal.

I retired two years ago after 56 years as a pro guitar player. I sold the Strat, the latest in a long line of Fenders, Gibsons, and PRS. I lost the desire to play, and only rarely touched the B team guitars I had left.
I then found out Harley Benton was Thomanns own brand of guitars. I had bought from Thomanns before, and was always pleased with the products, and service. I could not believe the choice, and value, and started looking at Youtube Videos about the guitars. I was drawn to the Fusion 11 HSH in blue, with the roasted neck. I had to wait a few weeks for it, but boy was it worth it. I can not fault it. It looks fabulous, the variety of tones from the 3 pickups is amazing. A big help has been videos by Max Solo Music, ( unbelievably detailed reviews ), and Jonathan Koh, ( beautiful guitar player, and really helpful ). I now have the guitar bug again, and am enjoying playing.
Some reviewers have felt it necessary to improve the pickups. Maybe if I was still pro, I would go down that route, but for my present day needs, it is perfect.
Having taken advice from Thomanns guitar gurus, I have altered the trem to make it more fluid. This has meant adjusting the action. It is now really low, as I like it, without any fret noise. No other guitar I have owned has been so silky to play. With the right adjustments, I think this guitar could be made to suit most players.
I bought my first Strat in 1962. ( wish I still had it ), and have owned dozens of quality guitars. If Harley Benton guitars had been around during that time, I would have saved a lot of money. I am now making a list of future purchases. As I am 75, I suppose I had better get a move on.

Before the COVID-19 Pandemic hit world wide I would spend a good chunk of the last few years on the road touring, USA, Canada and Europe, as lead guitarist and backing band leader for Canadian legend THOR and wow do I wish I had this guitar with me then!

Once Touring is safe again this will be my main guitar to take on the road.

I also found this to be a great guitar for studio work as well.

I used this guitar exclusively for tracking the traditional metal songs I contributed to the upcoming THOR album and I had no problem getting good high gain classic metal tones from this guitar,

But this instrument is far from a one trick pony, I was able to take this into a session for a ballad and run clean the entire time and the Roswell pickups delivered.

Pros: High end features such as Stainless Steel Frets, Locking Tuners, Roasted Maple neck, and vast switching options at an unbeatable price.

Cons: Pickups may not be for everyone. some may prefer real flame top instead of veneer.

Guitars with similar features will cost at least twice as much.

Harley Benton really delivered the goods!

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.

After seeing videos on YouTube and varying quality (it appears the T-style kits are the best by far, which will be my next purchase), I was pleasantly surprised by the entire kit.

Firstly the body. Smooth and well cut, it could have been left as is but the sealant had to go so I could prime it for painting. Sanding by hand using 120, 400, and 600 grit sandpaper as I went, the sealant varied from very little along the back and front to seemingly truckloads along the belly cut. Still, when I couldn’t get anymore out, it didn’t look too different and I couldn’t see any defects. Although the painting process would reveal some anyway (sanding and spraying over the two sections along the back resolved that).

The neck feels extremely smooth and shaping the headstock didn’t take long (cutting by hand with a Japanese saw). The frets felt smooth enough out of the box that only an absolute perfectionist would be sanding and polishing them. More importantly, they’re also level. Which happily saved me some work! 🙂

The pickups are decent ceramic ones without much in the way of breakup at the extreme ends. Functional and certainly on a par with guitars that use ceramic pickups from any brand that cost upwards of £200 (depending on how cheeky the brand is). If you want Alnico pickups, either buy a prebuilt Harley Benton (from £110+), a Kramer VS-211 (£109+), or buy a set of Alnico pickups either to immediately replace or later on down the line (set aside £20-£30).

The tuners are much the same as any inexpensive electric guitar. They work and, with the guitar setup properly, stay in tune. Although locking tuners would be advised at some point.

The same can be said for the strings, good enough for setup but I replaced them with a set of 9s I had laying around (budget Johnny Brook brand but they sound better to me).

The real joy though is having a guitar that you painted and put together without any need for soldering. Straight out of the box, you could have this all put together in about an hour or so – although if you’re going to be painting this, obviously expect to add days to the build time to allow for adequate drying time as you build up the layers. Paint and lacquer (or clear coat if you go with that instead), expect to set aside around £15 or monetary equivalent for primer, main colour, and lacquer. Of course. if you have unused paint/varnish laying about…

Overall, I’d say if you’re willing to budget about £50 extra to cover any tooling and materials you’ll need, you’ll have a perfectly playable guitar that will not look like any other and, provided you can play well enough, will impress all around you. Expect to tell the story of your kit build many times over! I built this for my sister for her to learn to play guitar on. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I get requests…

I give this kit 4/5 overall – but the enjoyment I derived from the entire project means it gets top marks 5/5 from me!

After doing my fair bit of research and coming to a personal conclusion that there isn’t something exclusively as a ‘perfect beginner guitar’, but its all a matter of personal choice and most importantly the available budget to spend towards said guitar.

My initial options or favoured choices were more inclined towards the Fenders, and other bigger name brands, due to their quality, etc. But couldn’t justify some of the prices keeping in mind I had to still keep aside enough money for a good amp, and other miscellaneous expenditure towards my first set up.

Until one of my friend mentioned Thomman, so I found my way here and was truly surprised and impressed. Went through all the offerings in ST and T style guitars, zeroed in on this model and then went back to the internet to check a variety of reviews and demos on YouTube, which only gave me far more confidence in taking a chance with Thomman’s offerings.

Made the purchase, bid my time and it finally arrived.
Beautiful finish with no issues, dents, chips, etc, aesthetically the guitar is on point.

Functionality: no sharp frets, came with good quality D’Addario strings, and just overall well set up. The final check was done thoroughly. I will be changing the nut eventually, I’m sure it will only improve the instrument. The Roswell pickups are great, and oh the sound and tone from this guitar, does way more than what I expected it to.

Go to YouTube yourself check out videos from a bunch of reliable sources (there are quite a few) < my purchase surely confirmed that personally>, and read the reviews from other purchasers here as well.

Take a chance if you feel like going for a ""budget guitar"", and on receiving this well crafted instrument you’ll soon realise it is and does what its supposed to as a guitar.

Best value for your money, by a country mile.

And then what, just plug in and surrender your offerings to the altar of music, whatever be the kind your into and enjoy playing.

Before ordering this guitar i was a little bit worried that it might be too heavy for me. I watched reviews on YT and heard people say that it was a heavy instrument. 4 K plus. Thomann must really love me because my copy only weights 3.2 kilo’s. It’s a light guitar in my book. And it feels like it….It came very well & safely packed as always…it arrived absolutely flawless…no dents, stains, wrong binding areas No sharp fret ends. nothing. The glossy finish is spot on..the flame on top looks gorgeous.
The pics on the Thomann page shows that the side and back of the guitar look brownish…this is not the case on my copy. It’s beautiful black gloss. The neck has the same color. Glossy black. it’s a great feeling neck. Fits perfectly in my left hand and feel fabulous. The tuners feel sturdy and of good quality. The Wilkinson trem looks and feels good too. it’s not ‘stiff’ feeling at all for my liking and it bends just right for me. When strapping the guitar and putting it round my neck it feels really well balanced. Lovely to hold…I could have it hanging there for hours without any pain. The pickups sound great…both give a good sound. Humbucker mode is my favorite…sounds fatter and the tones generated are top! When applying the push-pull mode one goes into single coil..the humbuckers split..this makes the sound a little thinner…but still good sounding. The CST is the 4th Harley Benton electric guitar i bought in one year. It’s definitely the best. It is also one of the nicest guitars i have ever played on…among them guitars which have cost a lot more. I have been playing it for two days now…the only thing i did was lowering the saddles a bit and align them a little more to the neck ‘curve’…..I am very, very happy. An absolutely stunning buy!

PS: 3 days later…i now have the pickup height set-up according too PRS’s advice for a model like this guitar…this results in a much better sounding coil-split mode…the overall sound became better.

This guitar is awesome. I just bought mine this year and I love it! I researched it as much as I could before buying it. The neck is glossy so if you like satin you’ll have to deal with that, but I just love the skunk stripe. It is thin with a C shape profile which can fill your hand a lil, but the board is rather flat (12 inches) compared to the small radius of a vintage Strat, but very, very, quick for chords and soloing. The tuners are nothing special but they do hold a tune especially if you tighten the screw in the center of the knobs. However, that’s the first mod I would/will make with probably some locking tuners from Grover. The neck is amazing in terms of the fretboard (not rosewood, much darker looking, almost ebony, and looks dry out of the box, but that’s just the type wood it is) and the frets, although they didn’t come shining, were perfectly cut along with the nut which is perfect in terms of height and cut. Frets will need some polish! The nut may need some graphite here and there as it is plastic I believe. Eventually I might change it down the road but it’s not a big deal. The bridge is absolutely beautiful with a slight hint of gold brush on the saddles (very slight). I have it floating and it is just great for a good tremolo sound when you need it. No dive bombing though, but the block on the trem is one of the thickest I’ve seen. Note: the trem bar has a little tiny screw behind the bridge that you will need to tighten to keep the bar from falling out of its hole (took me a minute to figure that one out bc it doesn’t screw in like most trem bars… lol). There’s a tiny Alan screw provided with the guitar to adjust that. I want so bad to change the pickguard to either a light translucent green or a milky metallic cream white or gold to enhance the colors in the beautiful paisley finish. Any type of gold accents on this guitar would really enhance it! And believe me it really is beautiful! The paisley pattern is truly amazing and one of a kind that doesn’t really look like anything else to me that I’ve seen. In terms of overall color though it has more black on the body than I anticipated. Headstock is nice. The guitar feels very solid, a little heavy though at maybe about 8lbs – you will notice that if you like light guitars. But this guitar is not fragile at all to me. It will last for sure! Comparing this to other guitars from about $500.00 to $1,000 at my local guitar center, it truly shines imho. Just as good if not better than any Strat, Schecter, Gibson, Squire, or PRS in that price range in terms of quality and sound. You never feel like you’re holding a cheap guitar in your hands. I would not change the pickups either! To me they’re perfect for this axe. They have that glassy Alnico V pickup, Strat-like tone, but at the same time there’s something unique about it’s tone that I haven’t found in any other Strat-like guitar. It’s really subtle, but you can hear it when someone else plays it! There doesn’t seem to be any shielding which is really a bummer because there is truly a 60 cycle hum to these PUs, so get ready for that. That’s my next mod along with the tuners is the shielding! That’s about all I can think of right now. I wish I could have found a review like this about it before I bought it, but I’m very very happy with it! Overall this is a great guitar and I love my purchase. Still making up a name for her. Lol. If you like fender Strats, you will love this axe, trust me!

First Impression

Looks right, feels right, nice weight, no damage, no obvious flaws. Overall it looks shiny, beautiful and professional

Second Impression

Fret ends feel good, frets look good, fretboard looks dry (as everyone says – that’s why I have lemon oil). Fretboard is quite a light colour, partly due to the wood used and partly to the dryness. Also knobs look a bit cheap and need adjusting so that the "10s" are facing me when I look down and they are all turned up. The push-pull for the coil tap feels very good quality and the pots turn smoothly. Pickups look good – can’t wait to hear them.

Looking over the body and neck for flaws I though I saw a bit of glue around the neck pocket – turns out it’s just the film on the pickguard. The paisley printing doesn’t look absolutely perfect when looking at it up close – so I won’t look at it up close. The effect from a smallish distance is really good, if slightly lighter than I was expecting.

Crikey, this is as well-finished as my PRS SE Santana for a fraction of the price.

Intonation sounds spot-on to my ears – will measure it later. And it’s in tune! (apart from the G being slightly flat). The neck feels good but the strings don’t – I’m used to coated strings and I’ll be changing these pretty soon. Unplugged it sounds as it should but the frets are unpolished and feel "graunchy". So I’ll polish them when I’m changing the strings. No obvious problems with fret alignment or buzz and the action is actually lower than I usually have it.

Handling

Pickups are clear and "chime-y" with good sustain but slightly less attack and "teeth-curling" sharpness than my Pacifica – which is exactly what I wanted. The humbucker has the bark you’d expect and, when tapped, does sound like a single coil that matches the others, though it may need adjusting as it’s a little quieter than the others. I think it may be a compromise so that the humbucker doesn’t sound too loud when it’s not tapped. The tone controls are progressive (turn up and down gradually) as they should be. The sounds in each pickup siwtch position are distinctly different and as you would expect.

The neck feels slightly deeper at the nut than it does at the 15th fret, which is a little unusual but I’m not complaining about the extra strength. Ffrets are even, no buzz problems just in need of a polish. The A and D string saddles have been set noticeably too high compared with the other strings. I hope that’s not to hide buzz problems. I’ll investigate later.

I can’t find any significant dead spots on the fretboard (unlike the Pacifica which has a dead spot around the 12th fret on the G and, to a lesser extent, the 8th fret on the B – this is a common problem on Pacificas and is due to a body/neck resonance). However the D string sounds slightly quieter and duller than the others. This may be due to the strings or the pickups, or even just that it is set too high.

Actually Playing!

Even without a setup this thing plays fine. OK I can feel that the A and D are high but that will take a few moments to fix. The fretboard doesn’t feel as dry as it looks but the frets do feel gritty. The pickups aren’t the best in the World but I don’t feel as though there is any need to change them – at least not for a while. It feels comfortable and sounds as Strat-like as any other copy (and more than most). It has the ridiculous Strat two tone control system so I may have to change that (either PTB or active tone controls) but that’s not Thomann/Harley Benton’s fault. Let’s get it set up!

After Setup

The intonation was slightly out on the lowest three strings (E, A and D) but only about 10 cents at the 12 fret. The A and D saddles have been lowered to match the camber of the other strings. The action is now about the equal lowest of any of my guitars and still no buzzing. I have polished the frets with a leather strop on a wooden block with some polishing compound and they feel fantastic. I find it comfortable to "wear" standing or sitting. I like to look of it. It plays beautifully now that I’m getting used to the pickups and adjusting my amp settings accordingly. I love it!

Conclusion

I had to remind myself that this is a £130 guitar. The last guitar I bought was about £500. This stands up to it in almost every way and is better in some – AND it needed less setup! It gives me what I wanted, looks and feels great and makes a great complement to my PRS. It is versatile and feels good enough to the point where I feel I’m playing better. You can’t ask much more than that.

If I had to be critical the only thing I would say is that the headstock seems a little too short – the distance from the nut to the low E peg puts quite a sharp angle on the string. I’ve seen MUCH more expensive guitars which are worse but, hey, this is only if I had to be critical!.

Only time will tell if the wood will hold stable enough for it to remain such a good guitar but… £130! Wow!

Summary

This is a good mid-range guitar which plays well, gives Strat and Fat Strat sounds and looks great. The surprise is that it is about a third of the price of a mid-range guitar! The hype is true: Harley Benton guitars (at least this one) are great guitars at an excellent price!

Postscript
I always had a slight reservation about the sound of the pickups. There was a slight high-frequency harshness and excessive attack at some settings, only noticeable on headphones. The guitar had shipped with a non-floating trem setting (bridge hard down against the body). I had left it like this as it is supposed to improve sustain and I don’t tend to use the trem much (and have a Floyd Rose equipped Washburn for when I do.

Out of interest I adjusted it to a floating trem for a particular recording project. That harshness disappeared and the sustain hasn’t been affected, as far as I can tell. It now has exactly the tone I wanted!It is now my favourite guitar – at least until my new HB CST-24HB is properly set up (a couple of frets need taking down slightly).

Update: As mentioned below, I have contacted Thomann and submitted a photo of the issue. to their credit, they have given me a £50 credit on my account, which I have used towards another purchase.

Not sure if Thomann will publish this review, but I will write it anyway. Received this guitar on 29/03/2021. It was not in stock at the time of ordering, so was placed on back order, with an arrival time of late February. The QC label has a date of 05/01/2021, so I am assuming the the QC happened at the place of manufacture. This guitar looked like it had been preowned. The black gloss finish has numerous fine scratches all over it. The neck is not properly sanded, and is quite rough in places, and certainly does not have the fine satin finish shown on the Thomann web site. In fact the neck looks like untreated bare wood. I’m not sure why Thomann have allowed this guitar to be sent to a customer, particularly one that has spent alot of money with them. Prior to this guitar, I had purchased 3 others, all of which had no QC issues, and were all of excellent quality. So I am very disappointed with this guitar. I have emailed Thomann about these issues and await there response. Given the price of the guitar, it is not worth the hassle of having to sent it back. So I suppose I will probably have to accept it. As mentioned, I have other HB guitars, and one thing which is very apparent, is that the guitars made in Indonesia are much better quality in finish and built quality, than the ones made in China. I’m not sure why this is, but it is certainly the case. If this review is published, I will update it in due course.

At first I was happy with the delivery. At first glance, beauty. The guitar has weight. The guitar neck is elegant, satin and lightly tinted. It is pleasant and comfortable to the touch, straight as a bayonet. The frets of the guitar do not bite, wide, aesthetic. Kluson style machine heads are beyond praise. Nut TUSQ XL, although it does not have a label. The strings lie deep in the nut, but the top can be removed. Nut is set well.
There are no large gaps anywhere, everything is fitted. Still, a little tuning of the string height is needed. The pickups are a little high, but this is subjective.
It is not clear, but the edges of the pickguard do not have a chamfer. Will have to change.
The tremolo system is successful.
Potentiometers are good. 5-Way toggle switch is not heard.
In general, the body and neck of the guitar without flaws.
Sound like a stratocaster can’t be said anymore. It’s good.
Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute is no worse than Squire, and in some places even nicer.
In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the products of Harley Benton. I also bought a JB 75 bass, this will be written in another place. But also satisfied. I can advise friends.

I’ve been hacking away at guitar for more decades than I care to admit. Though 98% a home player, I finally am starting to play teeny gigs again. I’ve been lucky to amass a decent selection of guitars over the years – I count an MIJ JS 1000, an MIJ 1200 guitars, 2 MIJ S-series guitars, a Suhr superstrat and most recently a PRS SE Holcomb model as well as a MusicMan Silhouette in my collection.

If you’re looking at this HB CST guitar you’re probably got here the same way as I did – hearing all the recent positive hype over these HB axes. I just got mine delivered to Hong Kong from Germany in exactly 5 days and after 72 hours with this thing, I thought I’d share my thoughts on it as well as my very first time experience dealing with Thomann.

100% no BS – the hype is real. I simply cannot understate how impressed I am by this guitar at this asking price.

SHIPPING & PACKAGING: crazy fast, efficient shipping across half the world to HK. Guitar came very well packed, inner-box-in-a-huge-shipping box style. Quality cardboard for both with a nice cardboard neck support as well.

FIT & FINISH: Again, no BS – my example is literally perfect. I spent a lot of time specifically looking for defects – overspray of paint, discolorations, dings, scratches, loose screws, binding misalignment, fret sprout, finish issues, etc. There literally are zero cosmetic issues with my guitar. Honestly flawless.

OUT OF THE BOX SETUP: Guitar as a bit out of tune, but the neck also appears totally straight. As I am predominantly a Floyd user, the Wilkinson 6 point trem bridge is kinda new for me. I specifically asked that the guitar be setup as low as possible and indeed it appears it was – action was low enough for my tastes. However, the Wilkinson bridge appeared to have been set to a fixed position out of the box so pull-ups were not possible. Also, the rear of the bridge plate was actually resting on the body of the guitar [there is no bridge cavity well a la Floyd guitars]. This looked odd to me, especially since the finish is so beautiful. Some quick research online and a phone call to Thomann guitar department totally fixed the issue. They said to simply adjust the claw screws so that the rear of bridge is floating a bit off the body – not at a crazy angle, but just enough so that some pull-ups are possible. Not Vai/Satch Floyd pullups – more like Alex Lifeson trem work. Problem solved.

Intonation was also still spot on after I made the desired adjustments to the trem claw screws. Thus far zero tuning issues with the original D’addario strings [9s I believe, though I will change to NYXL 10s soon]. I also used a bit of pencil lead on the nut grooves [which appear to be properly cut for all strings and thus do not bind at all] and again tuning stability seems terrific. Really impressed as a guy so used to Floyd double locking nuts.

The tuners work. Nothing amazing there. Unsure of the gear ratios but they seem solid enough and all work smoothly. I may invest in some locking tuners at some point but so far tuning with light to moderate trem work has been rock solid.

FRETBOARD and NECK: Never had a Jatoba fingerboard before. Honestly, my first impression was that it looks kinda cheap and a little fake, like maybe a veneer but that could be down to my inexperience with the wood. It FEELS OK and in fact feels quite flat and very comfortable to play on. While I’m not a shredder by any means, the fingerboard does feel very fast. The dot inlays are real – no decals here and they are are all perfectly set flush. The back of the neck is finished and while I am not normally a fan of finished necks, so far it feels really smooth and comfortable. Not an Ibanez Wizard neck by any means, but definitely in the PRS SE neighborhood. As I mentioned, zero fret sprout on my guitar and the bindings along the neck sides are perfectly finished, even at the very end of the fretboard. Crazy impressive again at this price.

PICKUPS, POTS and SELECTOR SWITCH: Never heard of Rosewell pickups before and I have not much experience with P90s, but that was exactly the reason I chose this model as the HB for me to try out. The Rosewell’s are pretty hot indeed. The bridge and neck pups do indeed have great clarity and work really well together also. Have not adjusted the pole pieces at all and probably won’t. These things have a great chimey quality – again, not sure if that’s typical of P90s but they sound great to my ears all the same.

The volume and tone pots work quite nicely are are very smooth and loose in a good way. The control taper quite nicely. No idea of the details on the pots but they work well. Same with the pup selector switch – it feels fairly solid.

My only gripe is the position of the selector toggle. It seems to be in an inconvenient location for me, but I guess I can work around that.

ELECTRONICS and BRIDGE CAVITY: Here was a nice surprise that the photos don’t show. Both of the plates on the rear of the guitar are flush mounted to the body – in other words, recessed. Even older PRS SE models didn’t do this. The inside of the cavities were pretty clean, especially the electronics compartment which were EXTRA clean in their cable management. The back of the electronics cover is also "shielded" with some metallic sheet.

As for the bridge/claw cavity I was really impressed with the size of the Wilkinson bridge block itself. No idea how heavy it actually is as I haven’t taken the strings off yet, but the block itself really is substantial.

OVERALL CONCLUSION SO FAR: I’m not here to say this guitar kicks ass over all other guitars out there. That would be ludicrous. However, as someone who is old enough to remember the sheer garbage guitars that were out there for sale for less than 200USD ages ago, I really am blown away with the overall quality of this instrument. This is certainly NOT a disposable instrument. Whatever voodoo magic Thomann and HB are working right now, well, all I can say is that at this price, one would be hard-headed indeed to not be as impressed as I was.

BRAVO THOMANN – looking like I will be grabbing a couple more HBs shortly, just to see if I got a unicorn somehow.

PS:
BRIEF COMMENT ON THOMANN CS: So, I noticed that my guitar came with a trem arm that was missing the rubber tip. I called Thomann, explained the issue and said I was not really expecting Thomann to do anything, that I was simply reporting the matter to them – after all, it’s no big deal, the trem arm still works. They checked and got back to me within 12 hours: they verified that indeed the trem arm is supposed to ship as in the pictures, with a rubber tip. They apologized for the matter and are now shipping me a replacement arm at zero cost all the way to Hong Kong.

Now that is Amazon level customer service. Bravo again.

For a while, I have wished for a PRS guitar with P90’s, and out of no where, this HB appeared. I had never heard of HB guitars until I had listed a bass guitar for sale online, and the guy that showed up interested in my short scale bass, just happened to bring his long scale Harley Benton bass, just to show it to me. I was really impressed by the quality and price he said he paid, unbelivable! So I soon went to the Thomann web site to browse over the HB guitars and found this one. I ordered it right away and within 10 days received it in the U.S. The box had some damage, and as I was opening it, even the inner box had some damage. I thought for sure the tip of the head-stock would be damaged. To my surprise, it was fine. Upon my first inspection, I was very impressed. beautiful fret job, almost perfect finish, the tuners worked perfect, no problems. I did have to lower the action, and when I got in to the guitar, a few of the frets needed a small amount of leveling. When doing so, I decided to polish the frets, oil the fingerboard, and set the intonation, while perfecting the action. So I’m a 40 plus year guitar player who learned early on how to work on my own guitars. Been doing this for a long time! I have never bought any guitar at any price that has not needed some setup, adjustment, and tweeking. The same for this one. The guitar is SO well worth the money, but like any guitar at any price, expect some possible adjustments and light luthier work. The P90’s sound great! I have an Epi E339 with P90’s and they are also very good. The Epi is slightly warmer but has a noticeable amount of single coil hum to them. The HB has 95% less hum than the Epi.
Barely barely noticable. Clean, clear, and warm clean tones, great spectrum of tonality for different styles. As expected, great for blues, rock, jazz. I don’t play metal, so I can’t comment on metal tones. The neck is amazing and comfortable. I have smaller than average hands, (not tiny) and I can play this HB like it’s custom made for me. I really like the PRS scale lenght of 25" (U.S.) and the strings are in such good shape, I did not have to change them out right away. I’ve never used 9’s on my electrics, but I like them on this guitar. Will use 9’s when I do change them out.
All in all, I would definitly recomend this guitar! And I love the Ocean Flame color. The flame maple is very nice, and the color is deep rich blue just like in the photo’s. Good job HB and Thomann. I have already ordered another HB, the HB TE-90FLT SB Deluxe Series. Should be arriving any day now.

Буду краток. Это моя третья электрогитара Harley Benton. Просто решил попробовать самый дешевый страт, чтоб иметь свое мнение. И получилась интересная вещь.)) Это теперь моя любимая гитара.)) Не хочу вдаваться в технические подробности, что можно заменить колки, звучки и так далее. Но зачем? Она полностью удовлетворяет потребности "домашнего" гитариста. Беря в руки дорогой Les Paul я ощущаю тяжесть прожитых лет.)) Беря в руки эту веселую и легкую гитару, я ощущаю юношеский задор.)) А что то менять, доделывать, переделывать, одним словом апгрейдить, можно всегда, но опять же. А нужно ли? Уверен, что закажу себе еще пару гитар Harley Benton. Вот нравятся они мне.)) Спасибо Thomann!

I seen many videos saying that this guitar was impressive for its price. I was skeptical. I was thinking that maybe the guitars sent for reviews are going beyond Thomann QC check. I wanted a Strat type guitar to add to the collection of the 4 most iconic guitars in history which are the Strat, Les Paul , Tele and Double Cut guitars. I wanted a cheap but classic looking Strat type guitar but I wanted a playable one. I came across the Harley Benton HS20 and how much classic look can that be in that Candy Red apple body and white pickguard and knob and chrome hardware. I liked it but as said I was not sure if to go for HB. Finally I decided to go for the HSS version which is more to my taste.

When I unboxed this guitar I could not believe what I was holding. The Body is flaw less and the paint is stunning and shiny, the neck has a beautiful grain to it and I like the reddish Rose wood imitation fret board.
The build is awesome. Frets maybe need a polishing but no sharp edges whatsoever. The action is set up perfectly as i like it very low and no buzzing. The guitar was slightly out of tune which I understand. The guitar is very light compared to my Squire Tele and the lawsuit LP. After a quick check on relief and a quick tune with the original strings I played this HB ST20 HSS and it is so comfortable to play. The pick ups might not the be best in the world but surely not crap everything works fine.
This guitar is simply not the best guitar money can buy you under a 100 Euro but maybe in the under 200 Euro price range. It is unbelievable how they do it at Harley Benton well done !. Its is a MUST HAVE even if you have other guitars and you are not Big Company Biased. Seems like its going to me my favorite. Definitely I will be closing my 4 guitar collection with an other HB DC Customer when its available again ! It is worth it guys.

I wanted an electric guitar with a Floyd for some time, so I decided to buy this one mostly because of its price. I have to say it was worth it, but there are some problems that really stick out.

So, what is good?

-The pickups are fine, although they are from an unknown brand the sound isn’t bad.

-After properly setting it up, the Floyd Rose bridge stays in tune.

-The finish on the guitar is really nice, the frets are smooth and polished, the maple neck is really comfortable, and the overall look of the guitar is really pleasant for the eyes. It really is a joy to play.

There are some problems that sadly, lower the total quality of this guitar.

-First is probably the biggest one. The guitar came with the volume knob broken on the inside. The knob spins around the pots and moves a bit to left and right while you turn it around. It’s a bit hard to notice at first but you can definitely feel it while turning it around. It’s not a big problem though because the knobs still work fine.

-The bridge was setup badly, but I expected that. The tension on the springs was too high and one of the strings wasn’t properly attached to the bridge, and it jumped out after I tried to tune the guitar before restringing it to see how it sounds.

-The tuners are a bit weak. It feels like sometimes you tighten to much just by slightly turning them up. The fine tuners could also be better, they are made out of very cheap plastic and tuning with them really is a pain.

Overall, I think the quality compared to the price is really good. Although I think the pros outweigh the cons, If the problems that I listed are really worrying you, I would go for something a bit more expansive.

If you are looking for a High quality guitar that will satisfy all your metal and rock needs this is it!!! It came completely setup to perfection witch really surprise me! I’m pretty picky but a lot of people took real pride in the creation of this axe! If your worried about buy before you try…….. DON’T! This is the best guitar I ever had I promise This guitar will out shine any in its class, stock! Harley Benton from this day forward is the only name I trust.

I have several Harley Benton guitars and this is the one that I have scored the lower, however is not fault of the guitar itself.

Let me start with the pros:
The fret work is excellent no edges that would harm your hand or anything
The look and feel is great, the painting job looks very nice and I have no complains about it, however be prepared cause matte finish will easily get dirty, keep a microfiber cloth handy

Predator inlay and the freatboard looks amazing for this price point, the 3-way switch and the knobs works great and do not seem to be of bad quality

I like the weight on this guitar, it is not that heavy but still feels solid, will be good for your back.

Overall the construction on this instrument is great! would recommend to anyone who wants to start playing or more experienced players that could even modify a few things here and there and make this guitar totally standout.

For this price the guitar is fine, well done!

The cons:
There are 3 things on this guitar, that I would complaint a little about.

1. The humbuckers could be better, they are just not my style, I think even when it says " High output humbuckers " doesn’t mean they have to be so noisy, they have that hum noise that bother anyone when using distortion, but my amp does’t help to much, …adjusting your amp settings will help.

2. This one is more a cosmetic issue than anything else, the nut was properly cut in terms of functionality, but it was very scratched, as if the person or the machine that cuts it had a fight with it, still makes the job.

3. Besides the 2 points mentioned above, this is the one that for me would be the most important to describe.

As you can see the reversed headstock on this guitar is very pointy, this is what happened…
Normally the guitar box will have a few paddings for protection, at the bottom, on the sides and on top.
Well… the top padding was not put on this box! that caused the neck literally tear apart the box, when I saw this I thought it was damaged, fortunately the guitar had bubble wrap and the other cardbox on which the guitar box is put on avoided a bigger damage.
However a small section of the reversed headstock less than 1mm has a scratch, I will have to buy some black matte nail paint and make the trick!!! 99.99% is well painted.

But please next time do not omit this padding or any other, they are important, the lack of this padding was a small human error in my opinion, but could have ended worse!! fortunately it was not the case.

Overall, I was satisfied with this guitar as a fixer-upper, but abandoned the project after a year.

Pros:
– I love the string tension with the tuners on the bottom of the headstock; it makes for good playability and looks cool.
– The neck is super playable! I personally love how chunky and flat it feels. If you’re used to a more rounded neck, then this guitar might not be for you.
– The sound is good, but not great. It sounds a bit hollow or bland.
– The matte finish is nice.

Cons:
– It’s a very heavy guitar. The first time I picked it up I was a bit disappointed. I once owned a PRS guitar which was really hefty, too, but here it seems unnecessary.
– The nut was awful, reducing playability and tuning stability. I ended up replacing it, but had a difficult time finding the correct nut. After some failed attempts I decided to abandon this project. It was more hassle than it was worth as a beginner modder. Maybe I’ll pick it up again someday.
– The tone pot is flimsy and ‘came loose’ after half a year. It’s now barely usable.

With the ST-59HM, you get a quality instrument at a great price! It plays and sounds great. Expected some minor, inconsequential flaws at that price and was pleasantly surprised when I found none! I use it for playing at home with headphones, as well as amps. With the great prices, it is good way to acquire a number of guitar types for variety and not break the bank. I am extremely pleased with this purchase.

Everything works as expected. The gold tuners work well and look terrific. The nut is much better than some of the other Harley Bentons I own, with no sharp edges. The frets are smooth in all aspects and didn’t need to have them worn in when bending strings at any of the frets. I like the pickups. They sound good enough and give you the basic tone one would expect with this style guitar. It’s fun to play and I pick it up to play all the time. All the knobs and switches are good and work as expected.

pros – I literally loved every aspect of the guitar. Looks great, comfortable to play with nice sound. A shout out to their customer service too. I changed my orders a number of times for various reasons and they handled every change I wanted perfectly. I really appreciated their flexibility. If you are in the US it will take a day or so for them to get back to you these days.

cons – None really. Only concern is that if you are having it shipped to the US during the pandemic, it is going to take a while, figure 2-3 weeks. This falls on the shipping companies, not Thomann. From tracking it, it sits at the airport for a week or two
and then when it gets to the US, it gets shipped to Chicago more often than not in my case, and the USPS has taken as long as 2 weeks to get to NY. The one order that got sent to NY (by luck), 25 minutes from my house, sat there for days and ended up taking a week once it got moving. All of this is expected in these times, but it is frustrating to not see it making any progress, staying in the same place so long. I’ve had an order prior to the pandemic and it was a little more than a week, basically what they promised. Other shipping concerns are the outside box can take a beating. When it arrives, panic might start to set in, but the packaging inside is great with no concerns. Even when the outside box look damaged, rest easy, the inside boxes that actually hold the guitar are impeccable and strong.

This is the latest ST59HM just brought in June 2021. I already have a earlier model ST59HM circa 2019. there is quite a few alterations to this new model and the quality and authenticity of this new model in comparison is very poor in my opinion for the following reasons . The colour of the "fiesta" red is much darker and has no pinkiness in it at all , more like a Torino red. the rounded countours of the body edges are now much more square. Neither my earlier ST59HM or my ST-62 Harley Bentons are like this. The lovely one piece amber tint gloss neck with a slight V on the back has gone, a 2 piece capped neck is now supplied with a very very pale satin finish. The spacing of the double dot E markers at the 12th fret are almost on the edges of the fretboard and look ridiculous. The authentic split post vintage tuners have now gone. There are also 2 string trees fitted now , poor choice there. The bridge saddles have been changed from ’59 correct pressed steel to the cheaper cast type. The tremelo arm is very long
( something Mr. HM would surely not approve of ) and does not have a tip. A positive however is that the trem does come with a full size block. Sound wise the guitar is pretty good .
Now I understand that this is a budget guitar, but so was the previous model, so why make all of these, IMO, detracting changes .
My intention now is to use the guitar as a basis for a project, starting with neck replacement and re contouring of the body edges and a more realistic "Fiesta" red finish. Thomann you had a winner with the previous model , but sadly IMO not with this one .

I am a techie-type and have been playing electric guitar for fifty years. I bought this Strat-style guitar for the sole purpose of fitting my MIDI pickup to it which I was desperate to get off my real Strat because it gets in the way of comfortable playing and also requires undersireble settings of string-height etc.
I therefore was never intending to play this HB-ST20 actually as a guitarist, I had no interest in the tone or the action or anything else because all I intended to do was play slow, simple chord-changes to control my synth via MIDI.
As such, I bought the cheapest guitar I could find and had very low expectations.
When this guitar arrived I was literally ASTONISHED by it. I can hardly believe that it is possible to buy such an excellent instrument for so little money.
I can see no significant flaw in the finsh – this guitar looks great.
The scratchplate is proper too – three-ply white/black/white as it should be.
The sound is very good. As a lifelong (American) Strat player I know what a Strat should sound like and this extremely inexpensive guitar comprehensively achieves it. The "tubular" sound of a Strat neck pickup, the spanky brightness of the bridge pickup, the distinctive hollow sound of the 2 and 4 switch positions …… it does it all.
The neck profile is quite thick – this is not an ultra-slim C-shaped neck, more of a D – but I found it very comfortable indeed and despite decades of playing slim C-shaped necks I immediately felt at home with it.
In recent years there has been a trend away for high gloss finsh on the neck because with the slight dampness of a hand the neck becomes sitcky to the feel and slower. The finish on this neck is matt and it feels fast. The frets are well finished, no sharp edges, fret-sprout or radically uneven heights. It needed a set-up but once the intonation and string heights were correct, the action is low. The nut was quite well cut – some small improvement would be possible, but it’s definitely close to it’s ideal straight out of the box.
The pickups sounded good both clean and into distortion.
The tuners are nothing wonderful but they’re fine, perfectly serviceable and far better than expected.

As I said at the beginning. I am literally astonished at how good this guitar is. Assuming that the one I received was typical then I would absolutely recommend this guitar to anyone.
As a guitar for beginner/inexperienced it is ideal, but this guitar is an actual INSTRUMENT which experienced and seasoned players would be happy to play.

My sole criticism is that the tremelo arm is an extremely sloppy fit, but excessive play in screw-in tremelo arms is a long-standing problem even for big name brands so don’t be put off by that. People have been putting tape etc on tremelo arm threads since the day Fender launched the first Strat, it’s all "part of the joy" :-p

If only there had been guitars of this quality and price when I started playing over 40 (!) years ago. It’s an absolutely stunning piece of kit. I honestly don’t know how it’s possible to sell them at this price.
With a bit of work, you can turn this into a guitar that, in my opinion, is the equal of similar models at over 10x the price. Thanks to modern production techniques, this is a precision manufactured instrument. The (heavy!) 45mm thick body, cavities and neck are perfectly cut and fit like a glove. However, it does need some human touches to really get it up to scratch. Namely:
3 or 4 of the frets did protrude from the neck sides and needed filing down flush. Nearly all the frets needed dressing properly at the ends with emery paper. 3 of the frets were ever-so-slightly high and needed filing down and re-crowning. All simple enough jobs – YouTube is your friend. I also oiled the neck with some Danish wood oil.
Next after a re-string with some quality strings (the originals weren’t bad) I set the tremolo to float properly. The whole tremolo bridge works just fine and the plate, saddles and springs are all of a decent quality – perhaps the block could be upgraded, but no need especially. The tremolo arm does need bending up, off the strings, which I did using a vice. The tuners are well-made and do a quite satisfactory job. No complaints there. I then set the intonation and set the truss rod properly with feeler gauges. Just a quarter turn to the right. The pickup height was spot on,and I was ready to go.
So how does it sound? Just like it should! The pickups sound and feel authentic and don’t lack any power or clarity. Yes, I have heard better, but not by much. The knobs,switch and the jack socket are all fine and well-earthed and there’s no excessive, unwanted noise.
Conclusion: I was thinking of spending a lot of money on a Fender, but then, after reading a few reviews, I decided to take a chance – after all, I could always return it – thanks Thomann. Well, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one again or recommend one to anyone. Just spend a few hours setting it up properly and you will have yourself a fantastic guitar. The only negative I can report is a barely visible defect in the paintwork. For the record, whatever that’s worth, I also own a Fender Telecaster and a Gibson SG. I thought I might sand off the Harley Benton logo, but now? No way! I use it live and people (guys!) have come up to me and said they couldn’t believe it was really a Thomann copy, but there you go!

This guitar is a very solid guitar for the money. The next and body are good and it is a really good platform to build a solid partscaster. Great value for money. Good entry level / beginner guitar if you are prepared to put some work in (intonation, action and fret ends) and upgrade into it (factor in an additional €40-65 for tuning machines and possibly an input jack, although it’s still playable/ enjoyable without them). My ratings are taking the price into context.

Positives include:
– the neck and body is good and has a reassuring weight to them;
– the bridge / tremolo seems solid and stays in tune well once the tuners are changed;
– the pickup selector feels solid;
– the strings were much better than I expected but I still replaced mine to clean the fretboard;
– and the paint job was fine.

Negatives include:
– The tuners are really bad and keep slipping, with poor tuning stability (I replaced them straight away with the harley benton locking tuners, which are really good for the money);
– The input jack seems very weak and cuts in and out, so will need to be replaced. Short term solution was to unscrew the plate and bend it back into position but still not solid enough;
– Pick-ups are fine but a little thin sounding.
– Fret ends are a little sharp but easily fixed with a light sanding (first time I’ve done this and it went fine).

Update: I replaced the input jack with an Allparts gold one and that fixed the cutting out issue and somehow made the pick-ups sound much fuller and remove the thin sounding issue I mentioned above. I was thinking of changing the pick-ups later but I don’t think I will bother now. Be careful changing the input jack though, as the new one was too big for the stock plate, so I replaced that with a Fender one (although a decent drill and bit would probably do the job on the stock plate). Guitar sounds good now.

Summary: For €79, the quality of this guitar seems impossible. For a first guitar, it seems like the obvious choice.

So, first, background: This is bought for my teenage son who has been learning guitar for about 4 months. It is his first electric guitar, and the first in our home. We have no previous experience and this is my first time reviewing a guitar. Also, I myself cannot play guitar, so I cannot really comment on playability etc, for that reason, other than to comment on what my son has experienced.

With that said, out of the box this guitar feels substantially better than I was expecting for €79. I can’t remember the last time I have bought something and immediately thought that it should have cost a lot more.

The finish looks great, and the knobs and switches all feel good. I don’t think I’m going too far to say that this guitar looks great. Even if you don’t think about the price at all.

It took my son a few minutes to tune, but that was it, and he started playing clear chords with a very pleasant sound. It did take him a few hours to get accustomed to the narrow neck, having started out on an acoustic guitar, but it was all smiles all the way, and for us listening to him practice, the sounds coming from this guitar (through the Harley Benton TableAmp) are very nice.

If you are looking for comparisons to other guitars, and that kind of thing, I can’t help you. But if this is your first experience with an electric guitar, or for a starter guitar for a young beginner, it seems like a no brainer.

Pros:
– Price, obviously
– Looks great
– Sounds nice
– Plays nicely out of the box (after tuning)

Cons
– The frets are sharp along the edges of the neck, with a few of them protruding quite a bit more than others. (But I understand this is something to expect at this end of the price range, and can be addressed with some work.)
– No instructions (maybe this is normal, but it means we don’t know exactly what the nice feeling 5-way switch is doing, for example. And not sure how to make use of the supplied adjuster tools, for example.)
– Some minor damage marks on the white "pick guard" on our model, but hardly noticeable and could be due to shipping.

Overall this is a bargain. There are TOY electric guitars that cost this much, and this is the real deal. The fact that it looks good, sounds good, and is easy to play (according to my son), what’s not to like?

Also, there is a audio lead included in the box. I wasn’t aware so ordered a sssnake IPP1030 to go with this. The included lead will probably do the job though. However, we are glad we got the sssnake one at the time, as it is much higher quality.

If you don’t have an electric guitar, and you would like to have one, and you have €79 to spend, then you should probably get this one.

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.