Harley Benton ST-Modern Plus HSS SBBL

I was expecting quite a lot from this guitar, and boy did it deliver, I haven't found anything AT ALL to complain about, a friend who has worked as a guitar tech. for a few well known artists gave it a once over and commented that he was currently working on a £4000 plus guitar had several issues needing attention, and said they should sit up and take notice of the competition out there. This has been my best purchase for years and I can say that it looks and play better than you could hope for. If you're sitting on the fence on one of these DOIN'T, just buy one and play the hell out of it everything in there is a quality item.

Great guitar with amazing spec for the price, but let down by the Babicz tremolo. Flame maple neck/headstock with rounded end s/steel frets puts £2k strats to shame. Pickups, controls perform solidly, & the slightly heavy ash body with it's open grain finish looks very nice. Only problem, & it is a big one, is the trem unit keeps breaking the top E string when bending up a tone on the 22nd fret (fitted with 9's) I've gone through 3 E"s since March which isn't right. I think the string hole through the trem plate has sharp edges so after about a week or so you lose a string. Also the 'screw in' trem arm either rattles, or ends up too stiff if you try & tighten it. Almost a perfect guitar let down by a bad trem design. I saw a similar review & hoped I'd be lucky & not have the same issue, maybe it was a one off, but unfortunately not. With this remedied, I'd happily use this over many bigger name guitar as a tough gigging work horse (you may want to upgrade the pickups at some point, although their still very usable)

I am very pleasantly surprised by the quality of this guitar. It feels solid, well built and the finish looks really nice. The neck is comfortable and the guitar is easy to play.

The sound is clear and versatile, and overall the instrument feels like something more expensive than it actually is. For this price range I really have no major complaints.

The only small thing I did not like very much are the knobs on the potentiometers. They feel a bit basic compared to the rest of the guitar, but this is a very small detail and easy to change if needed.

Overall I am very happy with this guitar and I think it offers excellent value for the money.