Harley Benton ST-20LH BK Standard Series

I bought this to do a neck swap with my other st-20 and fit better electrics and HSS pickups along with black plastic bits, so not exactly the standard use for the item!

Once again the construction quality and overall functionality of the guitar was spot on and it speaks volumes for a product's consistency when parts can be easily interchanged.

I think these are superb guitars for beginners and with a few clever upgrades can definitely hold the attention of more serious players.

This guitar is the perfect base for customising, I've put together two really nice guitars from mine.

What holds these back from being really good is the pickups and electrics, which are of a perfectly acceptable standard for the price and for someone just starting. The bits that can't easily be upgraded don't need to be, such as solid wood bodies and well made necks.

In my opinion, value for money is the lens through which any Harley Benton guitar must be viewed, and the fact that we can even compare these guitars to others costing 10X as much and more is perhaps the best compliment I can give them.

I bought both the black and candy apple red versions of the ST-20 with the intention of swapping the necks to create a David Gilmour "black strat" clone with one of them, which worked out great, and gave me a gorgeous candy apple red version with a dark laurel neck as a bonus, at about $80 USD each.

Bottom line: The finish on both these "cheap" guitars is remarkable, and while glossy black always looks great, the sparkly candy apple red body is particularly stunning, and makes a great platform for upgrades.

The fret work does not quite measure up to more expensive Harley Bentons I own, but this was easily remedied with a bit of work, and for beginners, would be acceptable as-is. The laurel fretboard resembles a dark rosewood, and I wouldn't know it isn't.

The tuners are better than expected and functional, but not great, and the same would describe the pick-ups. I expected very little, but got more than that, and both would be acceptable to a beginner.

More experienced players may opt for upgrades of tuners and/or pick-ups, but both exceed what one would expect of an $80 guitar, and more experienced players probably aren't looking at $80 guitars anyway, unless they are interested in modding them like I did. These guitars are simply a bargain, and for beginners and those looking to expand their collection on a tight budget, I don't think you can do better than this.

Finally, kudos to Thomann for fast delivery to the US despite Covid. They have yet to disappoint me, and communication and order tracking has always been good.

I managed to kill two birds with one stone in this purchase. I wanted to try a Harley Benton guitar as I was seduced by the low prices . I also wanted to try a left-handed guitar as a right handed guitar just to get the Jimi Hendrix Experience.! There is a Vintage brand guitar which gives the right handed guitarist the Jimi "sound" but I wanted to feel what Jimi was up against in playing his guitar as a left handed player. The things that were against him were:- restricted access to the top notes on the treble strings ,arm in the way of the volume and tone controls , no conture on the now upper side of the guitar and the tremelo arm is also in the way of certain techniques . I always noticed that he played his guitar fairly high on his left side as this facilitated his method of reaching around below the trem . I have found that the trem arm gets in the way for my style of playing so I wonder what Jimi might have achieved if he'd had a proper left-handed guitar . So In spite of all the draw backs he managed to influence the world with his playing . By playing a left handed guitar right handed I am finding out what Jimi started with and I understand his style better . I now call this guitar my Harley Hendrix !!