Harley Benton ST-62MN VW Vintage Series

At first I was skeptical. How on earth could a quality instrument be sold for this price? When I began browsing Thomann online, I became increasingly hooked by all the candy on display.

I’m 59 years old, I was lucky enough to have an exciting music career in the 80’a thru 2000. Since then children including grandchildren had taken much of my attention and I loved every minute of it however the itch to get back on an axe was calling me back. I’ve always been a Gibson fan, owned several and still do however I’ve really never had much time on Strats and Tele’s.

A quick study on YouTube regarding the Harley Benton ST-62MN VW Vintage Series and I was hooked on finding out if this was all true because the price was hard to swallow as the truth so I took the plunge.

I’m not going to compare it to a Fender Strat however I can honestly vouch that this guitar with just a little tweaking has become a real instrument I would feel comfortable performing on stage with.

At first I was immediately impressed with the light weight basswood used. The finish was flawless, the frets were smooth and the neck and fretboard felt like it was going to be a nice experience. The neck has a smooth satin feel and easily warms up in your hand. The neck feels like a guitar hundreds of dollars more.

The tuning pegs, though not AAA chromed hardware is nevertheless not so bad to feel unreliable. The nut, will require replacing if you intend to use the tremolo bar. I suggest going to a luthier to get that done and perhaps upgrade the tremolo system.
The Roswell pickups, in my opinion offers a broad amount of sounds should you spend more time learning how your volume and tone pots are wired. Hint, don’t be afraid to back off from volume ten, that’s when this guitar comes to life with just a tad of warmth added to the distinctive single coil sound.

This axe surprised me beyond what I had expected. Sure i may upgrade parts in the future however presently I’m thrilled and love it just as is., I would highly recommend this guitar to novice or pro. There really is nothing wrong with it. At this price it’s foolish to not add a quality instrument to your collection for a fraction of the price of a genuine fender Stratocaster.

I love this guitar so much, I just ordered another vintage series in a ST-62 sunburst including the ST-62 Hot Rod.

Because it’s unfair to compare this directly against a Fender Stratocaster, I will say compared to it’s rivals in the price range the Harley Benton ST-62MN VW Vintage Series is a contender other manufacturers will have to compete with including longtime established manufacturers.

Firstly lets get the usual out of the way. Thomann delivery. The guitar arrived in the UK within 2 days of ordering, it then sat at DHL for 3 days (Weekend) before delivery. Six days total, who can fault that? Arrived in perfect condition.

Right. Stratocasters, I've always played Gibson copies, big fan of the Epiphone SG, my 2012 Junior was one of my favourites. Was.

Strat-wise I've had mainly superstrat types, Washburn, Jackson etc but kind of steered clear of the pure copies. In 2006 I bought a Fender Highway One, I hated it and sold it on after a week. It sounded flat and felt just wrong.

Feeling the urge to play again after a too long lay off I looked at reviews for ideas. Harley Benton kept coming up, I've played Squire's, so-so, and thought if I disliked the Highway how could a no mark be any good? How wrong was I. This is a honest comment, the HB is better than the Fender. I may have had a bad one but that's the cold hard truth. £85 Vs £675 (I think).

Finish wise, it's perfect. A thick coating but it resonates well. The colour is different to that shown, my monitor shows a beige tint, its a creamy vintage white.
Neck, fantastically playable and chunky. The maple looks aged slightly and the finish is fast and slippery like a hot buttered slug.
Tuners were on my change list. No need. They are smooth enough and hold tune all night.
Pickups were also down for binning if the body was worth keeping. No need. From Blues through Punk to Grunge. They are good. I played through a Peavey Transtube last night and it was in overdrive. I sat with a massive grin on my face. This is an £85 guitar!
Pots are smooth, do what they should, and the 5 way switch is solid & clicks into position well.

I cant comment on Tremolo durability as I keep it locked, never use them, and set up needed a quarter turn to bring it in but who can moan at that. The frets are level but could maybe do with a stone over the edges, I'm talking very very minor here.

The only downside for me is that now I have another 3 HBs in mind but worry that they cannot be as good as this.

Ordered this guitar and it came to my post office in Russia in under 2 weeks after the order was confirmed.
The box had a hole from a punch, i guess, but nothing was damaged
(I had ordered the guitar and an audio interface).
About the guitar:
I'd like to thank Thomann for offering good instruments like this one!
The quality of guitar parts is more than good, no flaws are detected.
The instrument was kindly treated with a nice tuning, i like the Action, no need to adjust truss rod, frets dont cut your flesh.
There is no excessive noise going out of single coils, no scratches out of knobs.
The finish of the guitar is excellent.
To say about the tremolo, I personally decided not to use it because it really destroys your tuning. I dont think this is a problem of this exact model, this is a problem of the tremolo.( I may be wrong, i did not try to make it work decent)
What you have to know before buying this guitar is:
Is this pickup configuration u want?
Do you like the Strat type guitar?(including all the knob positioning/spicy sharp screws under your right hand/not ideal tremolo so to say/etc)
And This is it! Theres nothing bad to expect from this guitar, it is only up to your choice.
The thing i'd like to add to description is that the fingerboard is not covered in lacquer/varnished, the fingerboard is flatter than average fender strat, the frets are not polished( i don't think this is a problem, they will be polished after first session of playing with string bending)
Thank you for reading this review! I personally love this guitar, i play both clean and metal, it is good for both if i use bridge and middle pickup( i set the middle one deep down to not affect the sound of the bridge pickup) and no noise is bothering me.

I wanted to leave this review for a while, but feel now I can give an informed opinion.
This guitar has been the most mixed bag HB I've had so far. There are some issues to get out of the way first.
1. Neck. The neck feels great, nice satin finish, but the fret job on this one is easily the worst of any HB I've purchased. It was simply awful. Fret sprout was terrible, Very rough frets, totally uneven, requiring a full fret level and dress. The nut was poorly cut and biting the strings. Machine heads are satisfactory, and work fine.
So after addressing the frets, and changing the nut, what do we have?
Quite simply, a stunning strat type guitar, that looks great and sounds even better. Without exaggeration, this HD sounds more 'stratty' than some of my other F brands. Beautiful, glassy, chiming tones, every position has distinct strat sounds that are a joy to hear. The alnico5's are punching way above their weight for this price point. Full size pots on my model also, pickup switch feels good, substantial.
All in all, serious issues aside, this is a great guitar (now), I almost sent it back because of the frankly atrocious fret work, ( brexit and covid put me off the idea), I'm glad I didn't however.
In the studio, I have found myself reaching for this over and over whenever I need that strat sound.
So good and bad, but overall the guitar is well worth every penny, but just be aware, HBs rock, but sometimes can mean some work to get right.