Harley Benton ST-90SA Swamp Ash DLX Series

I used to own a Squier Classic Vibe stratocaster and I sold it to be able to buy a nice acoustic (Eastman e1d).

After a few months I really started to miss a strat style guitar. I love modifying guitars so a cheap but good one is the way to go for me. I was on the fence on a couple of cheapos: SX SST62, Harley Benton ST-57, Harley Benton ST-62 and this one.

Based on the reviews on YouTube I decided to go for the Harley Benton st-90. It is a little bit higher specced than the ST-62 and it still is dirt cheap.

It got here last friday and Boy, am I pleasantly surprised!

The finish is flawless. Let me sum up my observations:

1) Fretwork. The frets were polished and no fret sprout! A few high frets here an there but nothing out of the ordinairy. I could set the action at 1.9/2mm at the low e without fret buzz.
2) Nut. I think it is plastic, don't know for sure, but it is cut beautifully. Will not touch it any time soon. Action at first fret is great as it is.
3) The specs say the fretboard is either Blackwood (a composite material) or Pau Ferro. It is definitely made of real wood. It is rather dark, so it could even be Rosewood. Not sure the guitar factories already use Rosewood again since the lifting of Cites, so let's assume it is Pau Ferro.
4) Hardware. As soon as it arrived, I opened it up to apply some shielding tape. To my surprise this guitar has full size Alpha pots! It uses 1 capacitor per tone pot @ .47. I will replace it later with one .22 because I like that better. The body routing is done very cleanly.
The tremolo is of very good quality. Nice thick plate and it was set up to float.
Now, I don't like floating tremolo's so I decked it by lowering the bridge poles (detune first) and tightening the spring claw. Now it is nice and resonant! Also it has a full size steel tremolo block. That is really amazing at this price point.
The tuners work fine, but a couple of them are really stiff. But this is a guitar of 169 euro, so it is acceptable.
The 5 way switch is the cheap square version and will be replaced by an Oak Grigsby 5 way switch.
4) Finish. Lovely matte finish on the neck and body. The body is a bit orangy/honey like. Love it. Scratch plate is real nice faux tortoise.
5) Tone. The Roswell alnico 5's sound very good. I say they are a bit on the hot side, they sure sound sweet and stratty. Was planning on swapping them for Toneriders, but currently I don't think it's necessary.

Since I used to own a Squier Classic Vibe, I can compare the two.
I say build quality is the same. Hardware on the Harley Benton is better, except for the tuners. I would even say it's on par with Mexico Fenders.

Also the feel is totally different. The Squier has a 9.5 radius finger board and a much skinnier neck. HB has a thick neck with 14 inch fretboard radius. So feel wise, these are totally different animals. Also, the HB is HEAVY. Mine weighs around 4.3kg. That is almost 1kg heavier than the Squier Classic Vibe, that weighted 3.4kg. The Squier is made out of Alder and this one is Ash, so I expected it to be heavier. The specs say it is Swamp Ash, but as that tonewood is usually also lightweight, I think it is regular northern Ash. I play guitar sitting down, so I don't mind, but keep this in mind when you are a gigging guitarist. You might want to have a look at another lighter weighing tonewood.

For a guy that loves to mod cheap guitars, I'm sort of dissapointed: it really doesn't need a lot of work! ;).

Maybe I will put on a 9.5 inch radius neck on it later, I measured the neck at 55.5mm, so It should fit Fender spec necks.
Also, I'm changing the capacitor to a .22, maybe put a push pull pot in it to get the 7 tones (gilmore mod). I ordered Ivory coloured pickup covers and knobs because I think that will look better. I will add two more springs on the tremolo to deck it more firmly. Also I will replace the 5 way switch. Other than that I don't think it needs more work.

I can't understand that it is possible to sell a guitar at 169 euro's with this insane amount of quality. It can measure up to a Classic Vibe which costs nearly 200 extra. I even say it is on par with a MIM Fender.

This is my second electric guitar,an excellent instrument that I recommend to buy, the workmanship is very good, it is an excellent choice not only for beginners but also for those who already know how to play the guitar.

Below I described in detail the main parts of the guitar, in which I wrote 1 poor, but I want to note that this guitar costs 160 euros, and it cannot be even better for such a price, but if you do not take machine heads into account, then it does not feel like 160 euros but by 300


Guitar Deck: (Excellent) The wood is very well fitted on the front, looks like a natural piece of wood, the gluing borders are visible from the bottom and the back, the deck has a nice matte finish.

Pickguard: (Excellent) Quite thick, has 3 layers of plastic, which is very good, since it does not allow the nails to deform themselves, its edges are even and beveled at an angle, there is nothing to complain about.

Bridge: (Good) not a bad bridge for a guitar for this amount, nicely polished, but I would not recommend using a tremolo, the tremolo handle sits tight.

Pickups: (Very good) Very good pickups, especially in the Strat version, a very wide range for music, do not stagger, do not vibrate when playing, sit very well

Potentiometers and Pick-up Knob: (Not bad) There is a little noise when using them, but they do their job, they can be replaced in the future to get rid of the sound.

Neck: (Excellent) Very comfortable, has a varnish finish, but it is convenient to slide on it, there are a couple of knots on the tree, the fingerboard is glued very smoothly and beautifully,very well screwed to the deck

Frets: (Very good) Even after 3 days of upkeep, after cool Germany, in a hot Arab country, and then upon arrival in my country, they are all on the same level, and do not require grinding, great job! However, they are not mirrored to the end, but this is not a problem, when playing on it, after the bends, they will become smooth.Their polishing along the edges is not quite perfect, it does not scratch the palm even if you move it strongly and quickly along the neck, but there is a feeling that it clings a little bit.

Nut: (Good) Very nicely inserted, no gaps, but it is worth deepening the grooves under 1 and 6 strings a little.

Machine heads: (Poor) The only thing that's bad about this guitar and I would highly recommend replacing them. Their movement is uneven, and they do not hold the formation very well.

I am positively amazed by this guitar!

Arrived with a reasonably decent setup. So far I only made very quick-n-dirty adjustments on truss-rod relief and strings intonation. Haven't even changed the strings on it but I will try to set the action lower at some point.

PUs are lovely and sound like a proper strat, don't feel the need to change them AT ALL.

The neck is quite thicker than I expected and although I would prefer a skinnier neck, it plays comfortably. Frets are polished enough that it won't feel like 100-grit sandpaper (like for example in the HB-35). I will be fine polishing them soon though.
Pots are good, 5-way selector is more on the cheap side of things but does it's job well, for now (it still feels better than the common Chinese crappy ones).
Tremolo & saddleblock are solid and rather good quality.
Tuners are fine but not the greatest, I may replace them in the future with 18:1 ratio tuners of better quality.

The nut seems made of plastic but very nicely shaped. Bought a tusq one together with the guitar but haven't bothered yet to change it. Maybe when I bother to change the strings.

Stuff that is really nothing to worry about and much better than expected for the price but I will perhaps do in the future:
- change 5-way selector and perhaps add push/pull pot for "guilmour mod"
- clean-up a bit the cut edges of the pickguard
- replace tuners with greater ratio ones
- go to the gym and exercise to handle the guitar. It's heavy, people.


I don't find it very hard to resist modding it (which is strange for me). It's a proper guitar and there's nothing urging to be improved on it, really.

Sorry Henning, but you called this one dead wrong.I've had this guitar for a month now and I have to say it is totally a S***t, you know...... that guitar that American company makes (Shhhhh). Finish, fit of parts are quality something a certain German gentleman on YouTube said was poor. In fact he said it felt like a beginners guitar not a quality instrument at all. Maybe because of the natural oiled finish it is reminiscent of the very cheap Yamaha Pacificas of the 80's? But it is way beyond that. Mine arrived fully set up (and I'm very picky about my set up) and ready to go, but I changed the strings anyway. Harley Bentons are the only guitars I've owned that are string fussy. Some really play well with the obligatory XL's that come with. Others just sound crap. The ST90 swamp ash doesn't like XL's, but it does adore Elixir's 9-46. They take a bit of the bite off the alnico pu's, not a bad thing, they sound more vintage (slightly warmer) as you back the tone off on the neck and middle pu's. My ST90 has not one blemish to its body or neck finish it's perfect. The fret board has no issues and all the frets are seated correctly with no sharp ends. And if, like I have been doing, you sit there in the evenings rubbing your wood........Oooooer! By that I mean rubbing the guitar body; the natural oil from your hands very soon rids the body of its matte finish. It becomes silk like with a gorgeous sheen to it (sorry my tinkle is fizzing now)
I've changed the pu covers, the 5 way switch tip and the volume and tone knobs for 'ivory' coloured as the bright white just didn't look right to me. I stained the edge of the 3 ply faux tortoise shell scratch plate to match and now it looks (to me) far more in keeping with the 'vintage' theme and natural woods (also the faux tortoise shell sits better aesthetically). Sometime back I ordered, and returned a Rosewood deluxe ST90 because that did feel cheap and nasty, plus the neck pocket was out of alignment, so I was a bit worried about how this ST would be. I have owned Fender Strat's American, Japanese, Mexican you name it and Squier's (my 82 Squier being the best strat I've ever owned) But no matter where I purchased these Fender's and Squier's not a one, NOT ONE, ever came with a 'out of the box' working vibrato system (here after refered to as a 'Trem') Henning dismissed the Wilkinson trem on this instrument 'out of hand' saying and I quote "There's probably a trem arm in the box for this, but frankly I wouldn't bother on a guitar in this price range, just put extra springs in and block it off." Henning nooooo! This is not a dive bombing Floyd or Kahler system, but it is an excellent 'vibrato' system and it worked and was fully floating right out the box (!!??!!??) Brilliant! Quick tip, not just for Henning, but for everyone not in the know. Make yourself some small wedges that you can push in around the trem block at the back of the guitar when you change your strings. This will stop the mechanism moving whilst you release the tension. Pre stretch your strings prior to concert pitch tuning (or your favourite key) then once the tuning is stable remove the wedges. You may need to fine tune slightly, but it will not set the trem off and you will have stable string tuning. My only other 'mod' was roller string trees, a must if your going to use your trem and I do...... a lot 'Shine on you crazy diamond' (Lovely) 'Sleepwalk' Oh yeah. 'Cavatina' and even 'Sultans of swing' as I can't do 3 finger vibrato like Knopfler. But now I have my 'trem' (My tinkle is fizzing again). Shame on you Eytschpi42 don't judge an S type by its cover. Oh and that 'Fizz' in the pick up's when you over drive your amp isn't present in mine, but not to say I couldn't replicate it if I set my EQ up different. This is a bargain of a guitar and 'Swamp ash' body? Take a look on some custom web sites at replacement S bodies in swamp ash and you'll see what a bargain this guitar is. Well done Harley Benton. Well done Thomann and well done me for taking a chance and getting a damn good s***t. Well worth the money 5 star all round.