Harley Benton ST-20HH Active SBK

Prvni objednavka nastroje slovute znacky Harley Benton a musim smeknout sombrero. Vykon cena/pomer absolutne mimo stupnice. Zpracovani bezvadny, mozna slabsi odolnost laku(lehky tukanec po padu na koberec) ale to by se stalo i u mnohem horsiho nastroje. Neladi uplne oktavy, ale ani jsem to necekal, jinak prazce nelezou jak upozornuji v jinych recenzich, kytara je vyrobena temer bezchybne, problem mozna ve slabsich ladicich mechanikach ale i to je v unosne mire, pracuji tak jak maji. Kytara je fakt skvela, kam se hrabou Squiery a dalsi. Jim Root se klepe:)
K nejslabsimu clanku - snimace. Mam jeste Gib LP s EMG 81/60 , prosel jsem Ironlabelem Ibanez s Emg atd, tady snimace HBZ nezni tak jak by meli aktivy podle meho znit, nemaji takovy punch a preznivaji i v highgainu jednotlive struny. Ale i to je vec vkusu. Musim naopak pochvalit clean zvuky, tam to zni paradne. Paradoxne bych ja na kytaru hral predevsim cisty, bluesy zalezitosti:) ale nastelujes tam samozrejme vsechno:) takze zaverem - tyvole takovouhle kytaru jsi kamo nikdy za tydle skvarky nikdy nemel:) vsem vrele doporucuju a hned po dopsani inzeratu jdu objednat dalsi kus:) nebal bych se to vzit sebou i na podium, ale na doma a do zkusebny nebo jako startovni zalezitost, co ja bych za to pred lety dal:) zijeme ve zlate dobe pratele:)

I still can not believe, somebody is able to build this kind of guitar for the price... its not cheap, its robbery once you order!
Not well set out of the box, but playable.
Much better after setup of neck tension and bridge high, but still will need some extra care to get low action on the 12th fret.
Regarding used materials and finish of the guitar, I can not complain (first part I recommend to change is the nut, second are tuners).
Sound is surprisingly good - aggresive, concrete, balanced for all strings.

As a training, back-up, begginer or to-be-modified guitar, I can recommend, but please invest at least time into proper setup of the instrument.

Za danou cenu je to víc než solidní kytara, i vzhledem k tomu, že je v této ceně s aktivními snímači. Ty nemusí sednout každému a značkové snímače v ceně celé této kytary je možná překonají, ale jako vstup do světa aktivních snímačů jsou myslím dostačující. Zvukově nejsou špatné, ale mají opravdu velmi hlasitý výstup, takže optimální maximum nastavení potenciometru Volume na kytaře je cca 7. Výhodou je, že díky aktivním snímačům se charakter zvuku nemění ani při nastavení nízké hlasitosti potenciometrem Volume, na rozdíl od některých zapojení pasivních snímačů (mám ještě HB SC, tam je při snížení hlasitosti patrný úbytek výšek).
V dané ceně je to myslím bezkonkurenční kytara, hodnotím po půl roce, koupil bych si ji zase.

Bought this after not playing guitar for around 7 to 8 years, previously owned a number of guitars, but never anything you'd call "expensive". Bought this because the reason I started playing were the signature guitars of a certain man from Slipknot, and the price was very good - why not? Arrived in Croatia in 3 business days.

It amazed me that the overall quality of the guitar is much, much higher than the cheap strat copies of just a few years back. Everything is well set up, there are no build quality issues at all and the guitar looks very great to the eye. Frets are well-polished and the guitar needs just a bit of setting up right from the box. I feel like I got a very well-made instrument, especially considering the cost.

The neck is a bit thicker than I'd like, and the action came a bit high from the factory so I needed to adjust it, but other than that the neck is as strat-like as I remembered. Very easy to play, and looks very nice as well. The strings on it are interesting as well - they're .010-.046 which gives you the opportunity to tune a bit deeper right out of the box. I'd recommend buying a set of thicker strings if you plan on tuning to very low tunings of course.

The pickups are possibly the weakest part of the guitar, but they sound good if you don't go crazy on the gain and volume - probably the first thing that many people will replace, but for the price, I feel like they are much more than you could wish for. They can definitely sound very evil if that's what you're looking for - paired with the Neural DSP Gojira plugin it does sound surprisingly close to the real thing.

The fact that the battery compartment is routed already is a big plus, I feel like this makes me want to work on the guitar and modify it in the future.

In conclusion, it's not on the same level as the guitar it pays tribute to, and of course, it's not a perfect instrument. It is a very capable metal guitar, though, and a great platform for improvement. I also bought a replacement Graphtech Nut and some locking tuners for it - but will wait for these improvements when I change the strings.

All in all - amazing value not just for this price, I'd be happy to even pay 100€ more for it if it had a bit better pickups.