Harley Benton ST-62 VW Vintage Series

De gitaar ziet er mooi uit, goed afgewerkt, geen uitstekende frets en op twee puntjes na goed gelakt.

Ik heb hem wel uit elkaar moeten halen om een goede afstelling te krijgen, de hals met een stukje plastic (reepje van een oude creditcard) meer achterover gezet om geen last te hebben van de uitstekende schroefjes in de tremolo brug. Tremolo is slecht, ik heb hem na uitgeprobeerd te hebben weer vastgezet om stemproblemen te voorkomen.

Na dit gedaan te hebben ben ik zeer tevreden met deze gitaar, voor dit geld een volwaardige gitaar die goed klinkt en fijn speelt!

I have been playing the guitar for 64 years, electric guitar for a few years, a little later in a band, I became interested in the classical guitar. I graduated as a guitar teacher and soloist, I had a career as a full-time guitar teacher during 44 years. The past five years I have been playing electric guitar, blues classics and improvisation.
In these five years I bought several guitars and tried out many different guitars. For a few years I owned a Squier CV 60s Telecaster, a Fender Player Stratocaster and a Fender Player Telecaster and others, also three Harley Bentons.

The HB Harley Benton ST-62 VW Vintage Series: I think I am able to make a good comparison between the Fender player and this guitar. Three years ago I bought a HB ST59 HM Stratocaster, I still have it, it's a good guitar but not completely convincing, certainly not in comparison with the ST62. This ST-62 is simply incredibly good!

The finish: is very good, I couldn't find any defects and I'm picky, the guitar looks really nice!

The neck: nice caramelized Canadian Maple, the wood grain is somewhat wide, hopefully this will not affect the stability of the neck in the long term. The C profile feels a bit different than the Fenders, I think the Fender player feels a bit better in the hand but the HB certainly doesn't feel unpleasant, the adjustment was very quick. The fingerboard is much darker than the photo on the website and fits perfectly with the guitar. The bone nut is well cut, this could perhaps be a little better. The action was perfectly adjusted for my liking, the same as the Fender factory standard 1.6 mm on the 12th fret, a little higher on the 6th string. The 12" fretboard radius is a pleasure to play on, I didn't like the 9.5" radius on my Fenders, that's why I sold them. Only when I played a made in Japan guitar with a 9.5" radius I did really enjoy it.

The playing experience: for the past three weeks I have played about two hours every day on the ST-62. With advanced blues solos one quickly knows if there are manufacturing problems, there are none. I checked every fret with a fret rocker and the job is almost perfect, and no sharp fret edges.

The hardware: the bridge and the saddles are basic, but they do the job well, the tremolo block is very thin and light, I don't mind because I don't use the tremolo. The tuners are often not too good, in this case even with frequent bends they have proven to be very stable, hopefully it stays that way. The Jack plug just does what it's supposed to do. The five-position switch is working well for the time being, with the HB ST59 HM I had to replace it after six months of light use. Just to be sure, I ordered one from Fender.
The volume control does a good job, the tone controls aren't that sensitive. All these things are easy to replace over time without excessive costs, this is also normal with budget guitars.

The pickups: they are surprisingly good, much better than I expected! All five stands are very usable and produce a traditionally recognizable Stratocaster sound. Next to those of my Fender Player, these pickups can certainly hold their own.
Pickups are a very subjective matter, not only quality and taste play a role here. My experience has taught me that especially the quality of the amplifier and the effects you use, will ultimately determine whether you like the sound or not!

I owned several tube amps and transistor amps, now I use a UAFX Dream 65 pedal with a Fender Tonemaster FR10 and a Line 6 One simple delay and the sound is great for almost clean blues. I can't judge how the pickups will sound with a more crunchy sound or distortion because I do not use it!

Finally: this guitar is a success story. I do realize that one always need a dose of luck when buying a guitar online because not all guitars can be equally good. After all, not every individual that is working on this instruments has the same craftsmanship.

To sum this up: I can say that this guitar offers incredible value for money!

Thomann is a great online music store with a fantastic service, once more many thanks to the Thomann team.

OK, its Eu111 (£79) so its not going to be a Fender CS Strat but it IS surprisingly good for the money. Clearly styled around the early 60's Strats, its a good looking instrument. Straight out of the box it presented no cosmetic faults whatsoever. It comes with an 'accessory pack' of truss rod and bridge adusting allen keys, a "throwaway" short, cheap and nasty 1/4" mono jack lead, and the tremolo (vibrato) arm. This model is called "Vintage White" but is really light cream, just as Oly White might become after many years. Its a thick plastic paint coat which hopefully will wear well. So I expected quite a dull body tone acoustically but the Basswood body is quite reasonably resonant. It's fitted with branded Wilkinson 60's style single coil Alnico pickups, standard Strat controls and 5 way switch. Lifting the scratchplate reveals fairly cheap pots and blade switch (what do you expect for Eu111?) but for the moment everything works as it should with little "noise" - and I work right in front of the monitor. The bridge is a mock-60's no-name with pressed steel saddles. As supplied, its hard-tailed - flat to the body - but it's only a few minutes work to loosen the claw and bridge screws sufficiently to give a 2.5 to 3mm float. The 3 springs supplied do allow tuning to return to normal after use. Serious dive-bombing does knock the tuning out however. The worst thing about the bridge, and about the guitar in total is the positively awful zinc trem block. It's small and the internal screw thread for the arm is SO slack that it actually rattles unless it is wound in tight, which defeats the object. Whatever tolerance it has been tapped to is a very poor one. Time to get out the PTFE tape! The scratchplate is a 3 ply 11 screw mock-tortoiseshell one. 3 ply torty on a 62 Strat? Dont think so! The edge finish was very good and I thought it was very pretty. Neck pocket wasnt a 'precision fit' but wasn't at all bad and I've seen worse on 'real' Fenders.
The neck is 22 frets (excellent idea) Canadian Maple (that's Pine to you and me) with a rosewood topping and medium jumbo frets. No skunk stripe so the adjustable truss rod was inserted prior to being capped. Kluson type no name tuners keep tune reasonably well. Two string trees which I may experiment with the removal of to remove friction points. Fret dressing was good, no sharp edges or loose frets etc. The neck is a C profile and 13.75" radius fretboard so quite flat compared to some but very playable. Not hugely struck on the poly varnished neck (prefer satin myself) but it does not get sticky so its a personal thing.
Came with 9's D'Addario's which sounded OK but were like playing elastic so were replaced with Elixir 11's.
Sounds? For Eu111 ((£79) it gives a good account of itself IMO. (Tested through a Vox AC30 twin cab). ALL the pickups are a little 'brighter' than I expected, the Bridge having quite some 'bite' that I had to tone down with amp EQ. Neck pickup is nicely rounded but to my ears didn't quite have the depth on the top 3 strings. Roll off the tone, run a bit, or even a lot, of Overdrive and its an instant Blues guitar. Very impressive for a cheap Axe. Middle is a good general purpose pickup, quite warm and also good when driven into a compressor and OD pedal for some crunch. Bridge is wonderfully twangy at the bottom end but a bit brittle on the top two strings, especially if you're working above 12th fret. I'm sure I will find an amp setting that helps in this regard. Its great for RocknRoll. The in between 'quack' settings can give you Tele type tones or Mark Knopfler too.
Apart from the terrible zinc trem block in the obviously low spec bridge unit, the general and overall quality level, playability and the sounds you can get from this guitar exceeded my expectations. By a LOT!! How Thomann can do it for the money beats me!