Harley Benton ST-62MN SB Vintage Series

I bought this guitar almost on a whim: saw a couple of very favorable reviews, etc, needed a strat for recording purposes, finally got this, was very low on funds. I have been playing guitar for over 10 years as a band member, as a session player, etc, had my fair share of expensive stuff, at this time just happened to need a strat relatively quickly, and only had a tele and a les paul, which didn't fit the job. Was I surprised.. First of all, the guitar was in tune right out the box (albeit the slightly sharp high E string). The finish looks great, way better than on the photos. The guitar itself is pretty light, just about right for a strat. The neck is, well, not too slim, but not too fat as well, feels like a MIM Fender strat neck, almost identical. Freatboard finish is spectacular, no blemishes, high polish and all. Now the good stuff. I was worried about bad frets/warped neck/electronics/tremolo. None of these things are bad in any way. All it needs is a proper set up (And what I mean by that is , obviously everyone likes a certain set up for a guitar, so it can't be perfect for everyone, I like a floating bridge, a two spring setup, angled claw and so on), after that, it plays like a dream. The pickpus are nice, jangly, just as a strat should be. You'd have to be insane to complain about this guitar, would recommend to anyone looking for a decent strat. Only thing that it needs is a setup according to personal specifications, after that, it's a spectacular piece of equipment. (P.S - When set up right, ya can dive bomb it for a half an hour and it doesn't go out of tune, I was quite pleasantly surprised).

UPDATE:
Okay, it has SOME issues, of which ALL are fixable without much hassle. The issues that mine has are - some frets aren't fully set into the fretboard, which makes them stick out just that much, AND makes some strings at two or three positions buzz. While this is a very low maintenance job, it's still a little annoying, as everything else works perfectly (well, change the string trees, unless You never bend. then again, every strat with non-roller string trees has this problem.) and this seems as such a silly thing to miss. I've carefully set the frets fully into the neck, and now it plays great, but just a word of warning - when buying this, I mean, even with these issues, it's still a complete steal! Sounds great, the tremolo works fine, the finish is fantastic, the neck is comfortable and smooth, even the electronics are absolutely fine.

UPDATE No.2:
I've had it now for four years, so here's my recap. Everything is still working, the neck has been sanded down to a silkier feel, the wiring was resoldered to a different configuration, but as it stands it is still fully original and in working order. It survived gigging, bad conditions, etc. The only thing that went wrong with it is the tremolo arm - it broke off inside, due to me abusing (aka diving till I hit the scratchplate) it all the time during a certain song. (YES it keeps tune if You set it up properly, did it during live shows!) That and the ruined thread of the trem block is sad news, but having in mind my somewhat violent playing, I guess it was to be expected. Even so, it broke only recently, so it was able to whitstand three and a half years of abuse. Overall - fantastic guitar, worth every penny.

Amateur player. Country Greece.
My check cleared 4/8, received the package 17/8, a little bit late for a European country.
Some external damage to the package but no internal to the goods delivered.
The guitar's color and finish are perfect, body wood selection not so great, 3 pieces glued together with many wood flaws obvious under the nice finish, pity, it could have been a perfect high end looking, sun burst Stratocaster.
Neck is very nice with level freds that need a little polishing TLC specially to the sides.
The guitar came more or less tuned, but with high action that was set very easy from the bridge adjustment. Nut plastic low quality, a bit off center it will be replaced with a good one and centered.
Tuners a bit stiff probably need some lubrication but they keep up.
Pick guard well set but after of just five minutes playing was full of scratches.
Selection switch nice and two tone knobs that function properly and deliver what they are supposed to deliver ie tone change.
The guitar plays nice feels and sounds nice as well, typical Stratocaster sound, according to its price range expectations and above.
Generally a pleasant experience, but being amazed from my other HB a fusion II Tele style with hum backers and splitting coils, kind I got disappointed or better said earthed.
It seems like higher price HB guitars offer a lot more and lower price HB's offer just more.

I bought this guitar and a few others to check out the Harley Benton brand. This is probably the best of the ones I bought. I did not expect a lot for the price that I payed for it and the guitar was way better than I hoped. I have owned the guitar over two and a half years now and I still feel extremely satisfied every time I pick it up.

This guitar is a great alternative to a bigger brand that creates a similar guitar. I had a few of them over the years and I will rate this one over the 3 Fender strats that I had who was made in Mexico. I will put it between the Mexico and Japan made when it comes to quality and sound.

When it comes to playability I really love the neck of this guitar. I have quite big hands and I often feel the guitar necks are just to small and skinny for me. This one got a proper neck with a c shape that fits my hands perfect. I would not recommend it to people with small hands but if you like a bit bigger necks I would try this one out.
The neck feels good and there is no sharp fret ends. The frets are also well leveled so there are not fret buzz anywhere on the neck, even with very low action.

The sound of this guitar is really nice. The alnico 5 pickups makes it sound like a strat should and in my opinion it is sounding at least as good (if not better) as the Mexico made Fender.

The tuners and hardware of the guitar does the job. I have blocked my trem system since I never use it, so I can't say anything about that part.
The tuners is not great quality, but the guitar stays in tune and that is good enough for me.

To sum it up I will say that this is in my opinion the best strat type guitar for the money. I usually keep my guitars for a year or two before I sell them on, but this one is not going anywhere. This one is a keeper!

This guitar was so bad I had to send it back. There was a twist in the neck, the intonation was off, the action was so high that it was barely playable (probably a cheap attempt to offset the twist in the neck and the terrible fret job), it needed much fret leveling, and went out of tune easily. Everything wrong you could imagine with a guitar.

After seeing the good reviews and how this guitar is advertised by those Harley benton send it to review on youtube, together with their own youtube channel, I was very dissapointed because the guitar actually sounds very good, but my product was completely unplayable without spending more than twice the money the guitar costs to get it fixed.

That is why I am giving it one star. If you're ordering this guitar, be very strict with how you want it setup and perhaps you will be given a better example than mine, but still be prepared to have to put atleast 2-3 hours of work or pay a luthier 200+ euros to get it fixed. Might aswell get a squier classic vibe from your local shop and know it is setup well.