Harley Benton ST-59HM Fiesta Red

I ordered this guitar to play blues and I was pleased with the finish of the instrument in this price range!

General:
- The guitar has a very beautiful flamed maple neck.
- The mounted set 10-46 string gauge is not my favorite but that is a personal choice.
- The pickups are not great but have a very pleasing sound.
- The tremolo system is fine but after a few mild vibratos, the tuning was really out. I would advise any serious guitarist to install locking tuners!
- Even after I blocked the tremolo system with extra springs, after a few bends the tuning was out witch is very annoying. I replaced the tuners with Gotoh SG381-07 MG-T Locking tuners 6L CB.
- One of the string trees was loose and could not be fixed properly, the scew hole was too big, the G string was making an awkward sound. I replaced both with Graph tech string tress and this sounds now perfect.
- The saddles are pretty good although not fantastic.
- I did not inspect the electronics and switches but for now, they work just fine!

The good:
- Very solid basic construction,
- good finish in this price range,
- comfortable neck shape,
- good pickups for a guitar at this price range,
- no fret sprout,
- the guitar setup was reasonably good,
- great value!

The bad:
- unusable tremolo without locking tuners,
- poor tuners, even if you don't use the tremolo,
- string trees are not of good quality,
- some adjustments are to be made.

Final thoughts:
- If you are a beginner this is maybe not an ideal choice, especially if you don't want to fiddle with too many ajustements.
- but this is an excellent guitar for people that want to do upgrades.

I have been a guitar teacher for over 45 years and owning a good Fender Stratocaster player series, I am very pleased with this Harley Benton guitar after having done a few upgrades and adjustments.

A great value, thank you, Thomann!

Использую для обучения. Гитара доехала целой - упакована была надёжно. Общее впечатление от инструмента приятное.
Что не понравилось: 1) На накладке есть древесный рисунок и он выглядит как грязь если смотреть издалека. 2) Цвет не такой как на фото и в обзорах, не красно-оранжевый, а просто красный. Не смертельно, но впечатление хуже ожидаемого. 3) потенциометр громкости заметно фонит. На максимальной громкости всё в норме, а когда убавляю громкость - звук стихает , но фонить начинает гораздо сильнее. Это уже серьёзная неприятность, её придется исправлять. Эти мелочи весьма испортили впечатление. Потому что во всём остальном инструмент прекрасный.
Да, сравнивал его с Cort G250 BBL У Сort фурнитура по-хуже, но фонит он гораздо меньше , и потенциометры сильно приятнее. В звуке отличия есть, но описать их я не могу.
Инструмент приехал отстроеный по мензуре, с маленьким прогибом на грифе. Я опустил струны ниже, до 1,5мм на первой и 1,7 на 6 струнах. Ничего не звенит - лады ровные по высоте.

Pros
The body finish is very nice. It is the beautiful fiesta red.
I like the neck width, which is slightly wider than the standard Fender neck. May be that?s the way the D neck is, cause I?ve only played mainly on C necks.
The guitar was well set up with a nice low action. The playability is great.
The pickups sound good, very close to HM sound.

Cons
On the 3rd string (G string) on the fretboard, the sound was less sharp than on other strings. I was not sure if it was the string, or the bridge block. I replaced all strings and it seems to be ok.

Comments
The guitar was well packed and delivered in great condition.
If I could make one suggestion:
I suggest the neck (especially the headstock) could be a bit less yellow.