Harley Benton JA-20HH Active SBK

Another kick@$$ entry in Thomann's series of Jim Root-inspired metal guitars with everything you need & nothin' you don't! This is my Mean Metal Jag!!

I've bought literally dozens of Harley Benton electric guitars & basses over the last couple years. I've rarely been disappointed. You just can't go wrong here. I love this 'dark mode' aesthetic and prefer fretboards to be clean with no inlays. Mine arrived with an extremely dry fretboard and drank in copious amounts of lemon oil. I applied it, scrubbed it in and let it soak for a good long time. Once that was done, she played smooth & sweet and I encountered none of the grounding issues I've read about with these models due to the painted bridge preventing grounding.

The 2 HBZ Active humbuckers absolutely weaponize this guitar! While I'm not going to say they're the equal of EMG's 60 & 81 or EMG 85 (or 89) & 81 sets but they're damned close! Especially for the price of entry. If you find yourself unfulfilled and cannot abide these HBZ 'alternatives' to the real thing, simply pay for the guitar now and start putting cash aside for the upgrade, which will likely double the cost of this guitar. Even then, this guitar would come in among the least expensive metal guitars worth owning & still be a smoking deal!!

In the long run, my recommendation would be to do just that: Buy one of these fine instruments, get it setup professionally (or learn to do it at a professional level yourself), install a set of locking tuners (perfectly good sets can be had for under $50. Less if you know where to look.) Buy your preferred brand/set of active pickups whether they're OG EMGs or Fishman Fluences, Duncan actives, etc. and you're good to go. Go play the hell out of it & soak it in the sweat of a million chugs.

Personally, I also installed a brass nut, a momentary kill-switch a la Buckethead and a second battery box to be able to run @ 18V. To each his own. Unleash your imagination. Doowutchyalike. (RIP Shock G.)

It's an excellent instrument & an excellent value, ESPECIALLY at this price-point! It makes a great mod platform. Make it yours! Remember the Metalman's Creed: 'This is my Mean Metal Jag. There are many others like it, but this one is mine. My Mean Metal Jag is my best friend. It is my life.'

I saw the ad for this guitar on social media. Clicked the link and really the way it looked. The specs show that it has active pickups and I was sold. Placed the order. Thomann was incredible for getting this beauty out the door so quickly. I received the guitar within 3 business days! I was worried that it was going to be in pieces when I received it since I forgot to order a case, but Thomann took great precautions to pack it safely. After tuning the guitar, I plugged it in and was in awe of the sound and tone coming from the Harley Benton JA-20HH Active SBK. No buzz from the humbuckers, but they were LOUD. Loved it. I have to say this is the most satisfying purchase I've made recently. I am very impressed with the Harley Benton brand and equally impressed with Thomann. I will certainly buy more.

I'm a huge fan of Harley Benton - I've owned over a dozen in the past couple of years - and I'm an especially big fan of the ST-20HH Active (which I firmly believe is unbeatable as a budget metal guitar). When HB announced this model, I was super excited... then dismayed once the grounding issues came to light. By that point, I had already placed an order for this, so I decided to see it through and see how it would work out.

The guitar arrived in great condition, with perfectly playable action and nothing out of place. The finish looks and feels great, really nails the aggressive metal look without getting too over the top. Fret ends are good, though they could use a little bit of cleanup for that perfectly smooth feel. It balances very nicely on a strap, but because of the body shape it's a little bit neck heavy while sitting down. (If you've ever played a Jazzmaster, you know exactly what I mean.)

The most important part, though, is the sound - and I was fortunate enough to receive a guitar that exhibited zero grounding issues! Plugged it in to both my available amps and my audio interface, and there was none of the dreaded buzz that these guitars have become rather notorious for. (I even ordered a second one after the fact to see if I could double my luck, and that one didn't have the grounding issue either - so either they resolved it, or lightning struck twice for me!)

The HBZ actives punch above their weight - the neck is pretty smooth and has a nice compression to it for cleans and leads, and the bridge has plenty of crunch and attack for the big chunky rhythms. They're a bit dark sounding, so that's something to be aware of, but they're plenty good enough and compare quite favorably to my guitars equipped with big-name actives.

The rest of the hardware is pretty great - the pickup switch is incredibly responsive and has a satisfying *click* when changing positions, and the Hipshot-style bridge is incredibly comfortable. The tuners are fine, but nothing to really write home about, and a couple of them are fairly stiff - they're probably the only thing on the guitar that could really use replacement.

All things considered, the JA-20HH is a great addition to the budget active line Harley Benton has been building up over the past year or so, and I'm looking forward to seeing what gets added to the line in the future. (A side note for Harley Benton, though... could we *please* get some other finishes?! Even just a satin white option would be welcome!)

I'm a big fan of the "gothic" look and have 2 of the ST-20HH's, one of the ST-20HSS, three of the TE-20HH's and also a JA-60SB.
Out of the box, the usual is apparent....it needs to be set up as the action is too high to solo comfortably! After tuning it up, inserting the battery and plugging it in, I see/hear that the HBZ actives are just as noisy and for my high gain setting need a gate.
My main issue with this guitar are the tuners, they are the worse that I've come across on a HB (I have 35 so far), so clunky, stiff and lose and really let the brand down, I've not had as bad a set from the Aliexpress budget buy range!
Another very small but noticeable aesthetic for me is the scratch plate, it's a 3 ply but has no bevel to it, from the top it might as well be a one piece black plate!
In comparison to my JA-60SB, it's night and day. The 60SB is by far the better quality guitar and makes the 20HH feel more like the kit version! In all fairness I may have got a bad one., there isn't a great deal of consistency with these models.

I have been looking at a Harley Benton for a few years. I pulled the trigger on this one not really knowing what to expect. To say I was pleasantly surprised is a massive understatement.

The finish of the guitar is flawless from the tip of the headstock to the bottom of the body. The frets are very well dressed both on the ends as well as the crown. The tuners are holding tune perfectly and are very smooth to turn with just the right amount of tension. The active pickups are extremely good. The bridge is bright on the cleans and gets very crunchy when driven. The neck is pure fat vintage sounding cream. And the middle position is the best of both. The setup of the guitar feels like someone cared about the playability of this guitar and took the time to make it rad. The action may be a bit low for some but it is perfect for my style. Very low to the frets and ZERO buzz. The metals used don’t look nor feel cheap and there is a bit of a premium feel to them. The only downside I have found is one that has been mentioned here before. You will need to remove the bridge and sand the paint where the ground wire touches it. There is a bit of noise when you push gain or distortion. It’s a simple fix and I don’t feel it warrants a drop in the rating. I will purchase another HB, and it will be soon! Oh and shipping was fast, 3 days from Germany to the US.

If ever a guitar needed a tone knob, it would be this one. Unfortunately, once the volume on the guitar is pushed past 5, it becomes very muddy. If you plan to actually use this guitar, I'm going to recommend getting yourself a proper EQ pedal first in your chain. It helps it a little bit, but not enough for my taste.

Other than that, the infamous grounding issue has been resolved if you've seen all of the videos around from a year ago and were worried that it might still be a QC issue.

The neck is sensitive, and takes a bit to get used to. Fretting your notes too hard pulls this out of tune every time. Be gentle with this one.

It looks nice, but I'm not sure it's going to get played much. I got what I paid for.

Let me say right off the bat, this guitar gives you a lot of bang for your buck and a lot of the minor issues with this guitar are things that are completely understandable for a guitar at this price point, but it did have a grounding issue (well documented with this model) that I don't think is ok at any price point).

Pros - Killer looks, lightweight, and feels amazing once it's set up.

Cons - Cheap hardware...the tuners/nut/string trees aren't the greatest quality, but at this price point, its something I would expect. The fret ends were also a little rough and I needed to do some filing/sanding to smooth them out. Again...something I fully expect at this price point.

The big issue I was not OK with was the grounding issue with the bridge that caused a lot of noise when playing through high gain settings. I'm comfortable working on guitars, so this wasn't a huge issue for me to fix, but not everyone is in the same boat. Seeing multiple reviews of this guitar online shows that this was a well documented issue and a customer should not have to fix a brand new guitar out of the box.

All that said, if you ARE comfortable doing maintenance on your own guitars, this thing definitely punches well above its weight class and can be a beast once you've given it some love.