Harley Benton ST-59HM Fiesta Red

Olen positiivisesti yllättynyt - tämä kitara on todella hyvä! Jos ottaa hinta huomioon niin en usko että löytyy parempi vaihtoehto tässä luokassa! Tästä kyllä löytyy sitä vintage soundia ja Hank Marvinin henkistä ääntä, missä tremolon käyttö on aika kova mutta siinä vire pysyy moitteettomasti! Ostin tämän kitaran rautalanka soittoon ja siihen se sopii erinomaisen hyvin! Olen 100% tyytyväinen ostokseen, vaikka löytyy miinuksiakin - työnjälki teoriassa olisi voinut olla parempi (vai voiko 200 eur kitarassa olla parempi? en usko!), bridge asennossa ääni ei ole paras mahdollinen, mutta kun säättää tone ja gain asetuksia niin kyllä se siitä lähtee soimaan todellakin kauniisti! Voin suositella tämän kitaran aloittelijoille ja jopa kokeneemmille kitaristeille - se on tämän hintaluokan voittaja, aivan upea instrumentti pienellä rahalla!

I ordered this guitar to play blues and I was pleased with the finish of the instrument in this price range!

General:
- The guitar has a very beautiful flamed maple neck.
- The mounted set 10-46 string gauge is not my favorite but that is a personal choice.
- The pickups are not great but have a very pleasing sound.
- The tremolo system is fine but after a few mild vibratos, the tuning was really out. I would advise any serious guitarist to install locking tuners!
- Even after I blocked the tremolo system with extra springs, after a few bends the tuning was out witch is very annoying. I replaced the tuners with Gotoh SG381-07 MG-T Locking tuners 6L CB.
- One of the string trees was loose and could not be fixed properly, the scew hole was too big, the G string was making an awkward sound. I replaced both with Graph tech string tress and this sounds now perfect.
- The saddles are pretty good although not fantastic.
- I did not inspect the electronics and switches but for now, they work just fine!

The good:
- Very solid basic construction,
- good finish in this price range,
- comfortable neck shape,
- good pickups for a guitar at this price range,
- no fret sprout,
- the guitar setup was reasonably good,
- great value!

The bad:
- unusable tremolo without locking tuners,
- poor tuners, even if you don't use the tremolo,
- string trees are not of good quality,
- some adjustments are to be made.

Final thoughts:
- If you are a beginner this is maybe not an ideal choice, especially if you don't want to fiddle with too many ajustements.
- but this is an excellent guitar for people that want to do upgrades.

I have been a guitar teacher for over 45 years and owning a good Fender Stratocaster player series, I am very pleased with this Harley Benton guitar after having done a few upgrades and adjustments.

A great value, thank you, Thomann!

With the ST-59HM, you get a quality instrument at a great price! It plays and sounds great. Expected some minor, inconsequential flaws at that price and was pleasantly surprised when I found none! I use it for playing at home with headphones, as well as amps. With the great prices, it is good way to acquire a number of guitar types for variety and not break the bank. I am extremely pleased with this purchase.

Everything works as expected. The gold tuners work well and look terrific. The nut is much better than some of the other Harley Bentons I own, with no sharp edges. The frets are smooth in all aspects and didn't need to have them worn in when bending strings at any of the frets. I like the pickups. They sound good enough and give you the basic tone one would expect with this style guitar. It's fun to play and I pick it up to play all the time. All the knobs and switches are good and work as expected.

pros - I literally loved every aspect of the guitar. Looks great, comfortable to play with nice sound. A shout out to their customer service too. I changed my orders a number of times for various reasons and they handled every change I wanted perfectly. I really appreciated their flexibility. If you are in the US it will take a day or so for them to get back to you these days.

cons - None really. Only concern is that if you are having it shipped to the US during the pandemic, it is going to take a while, figure 2-3 weeks. This falls on the shipping companies, not Thomann. From tracking it, it sits at the airport for a week or two
and then when it gets to the US, it gets shipped to Chicago more often than not in my case, and the USPS has taken as long as 2 weeks to get to NY. The one order that got sent to NY (by luck), 25 minutes from my house, sat there for days and ended up taking a week once it got moving. All of this is expected in these times, but it is frustrating to not see it making any progress, staying in the same place so long. I've had an order prior to the pandemic and it was a little more than a week, basically what they promised. Other shipping concerns are the outside box can take a beating. When it arrives, panic might start to set in, but the packaging inside is great with no concerns. Even when the outside box look damaged, rest easy, the inside boxes that actually hold the guitar are impeccable and strong.