Been lucky to play original USA Fender Strat, several Gibson SG, and numerous Epiphones before this guitar. So will try to describe my perception of new to me brand name on example of this guitar.
Pluses of this Harley Benton ST-20 CA Standard Series guitar:
- it looks very bright and beautiful - much more attractive to my taste, than most of begginers level guitars by other manufacturers.
- head, neck, fretboard, deck - are good.
Minuses I've found:
- out of the box completely untuned and no chance any single of 6 strings will give you an octave at 12 fret;
- electronics with tone pot at maximum working like radio receiver - you can hear local radiostation weather report trough your guitar cabinet (funny fact - Harley Benton SC-450 P90 GT Classic Series tuned at the same station. So may be it's just patented, but undocumented, feature from manufacturer?).
- frets ends will bite your hand serious after few minutes of playing. Needed to be shortened for about 1-1,5 mm from both sides of the fretboard and polished after that.
Sound is good.
So my sincere recomendations to manufacturer - keep your instruments looking that good, but improove electronics and finishing of your products a bit. If you'll made this, I'll change rating to 5 stars for sure.
