Review of the Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley Electric guitar. Where to buy it?

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).