For $85.00 US, I don’t think you will find a better guitar.
I went to place an order for an HB35 Lemon Semi Hollow and happened to see this HB ST-20HSS SBK. I am not, nor have I ever been, a Strat player but I thought this 20HSS was really cool looking. I figured for the price, even if it was junk, I could hang it on a wall as art so I added it to my order. Well, this thing really surprised me.
When I took the guitar out of the box I was taken by it’s appearance. The red and black pick guard really went well with the matte black finish on the body, with just enough red so as not to be gaudy. The hardware, pickups, etc. all blended nicely giving what I consider to be a kind of a mean, “metal/shredder” vibe. Cosmetically, it was very nice, no major flaws that I could find. Of course you usually don’t buy a guitar for looks only so on to the mechanics and playability.
After a quick tune, it became obvious that more work would be needed to make this an acceptable and playable instrument. I had no illusions that an $85 guitar would be perfect or even close to really good so I expected to find things wrong.
The first thing was a rattle from the bridge. One of the intonation screws had backed out and was loose. No problem, I was planning on putting in a roller bridge anyway. Second, the nut was plastic and I knew that would get upgraded at some point, but upon inspecting it, I found the string slots were cut way too deep and the nut length was too short for the neck width. The plastic nut itself was 42mm long as stated in the specs but the width of the neck at the nut slot was 43+mm so the nut really looked like it was the wrong one for the guitar. Third, the frets were not even close to being finished. Unpolished and gritty feeling. Fourth, super dry fret board. This seems to be a common issue especially with budget guitars so it was expected. Fifth, the strings were so bad my fingers were black after a few minutes of playing. Again, not a big deal, I was planning on changing them anyway.
Okay, most of the “problems” were easily corrected except for the nut. I replaced the stock saddles with roller saddles. Rattle gone. The frets were all pretty level and there was no fret sprouting even though the fret board was dry. I cleaned and polished the frets and oiled the fret board. The neck was actually very good, no twists and straight with a slight relief. No truss adjustment needed. The tuners were pretty good, no backlash or slippage, and the pickups and controls were fine for me so I left them all alone.
Now, the nut. I don’t want to get into an overly long diatribe about this but if you decide to change the nut yourself you might want to know what you’re getting into. Removing the nut was no picnic. It was heavily glued in and removing it was a little unnerving especially for an amateur like me. I could have had this done at the guitar shop near me but I wanted to learn to do it myself. I got the nut out after spending about an hour on it (and trying very hard not to damage the neck) and found that the glue that was used had melted the plastic nut almost the entire length of the nut and that melted plastic was really stuck and embedded into the nut slot. After spending a lot of time, I got the plastic cleaned out, being very careful not to widen or deepen the slot itself. I purchased a Tusq XL nut which was well over 43mm long (remember, the original 42mm one was too short) and was also little taller than the original nut. A little fine sanding where needed and I got it to fit like a glove. I installed the strings and checked the string height at the first fret. Right on the money. Removed the nut, put one drop of glue in the middle of the slot, reinstall the nut and strings and done. Full disclosure, I did make myself a drink after that.
After making the final adjustments to the saddle and final tuning, this thing plays and sounds great. Stays in tune even after using the whammy bar heavily.
In the end, the price of the guitar (not including shipping cost) and the cost of upgrade materials came to around $140.00 US. With a little work, this guitar turned out to be a really nice, comfortably playing instrument. Definitely not getting hung on a wall anymore!
