i noticed that the neck pickup on this guitar is slightly lower, more towards the bridge as compared to other strats, do you think it sounds particularly different? like 22 vs 24 fret guitars?
I like that Elmo doesn't give out praises all the time, so when he does, you know he means it. He's not going through the motions. If I were looking out for a modern strat type guitar, I would trust his judgement.
Great review as always Elmo. Just had mine delivered a few days ago after over 5 months on back order. To my surprise it came with staggered locking tuners, roller string trees and the setup was fantastic. i have serveral high end guitars and the build quality is about the same as those. Very happy!
I have three Harley Benton guitars: SC550 II, Fusion 3, and now this ST-modern plus, with all three I am really happy, I only changed the pickups for the Fusion 3 for Seimour Duncan, and I made a fret adjustment. I couldn't be more grateful to be able to have these guitars for these prices. The new ST-modern plus is a pleasure to play, I have only changed the strings to 9-42 for my comfort. Then with the combination of simple Tesla pickups and the humbucker, which I think are fantastic, and you don't need to change them, you get a super versatile guitar. Elmo you are the best!!!!!
@@MrPolevaulter as with all these guitars, the mark up /profit , must be very low. You have material costs, the factory operative's wages, then Thomann's sales mark up. It seems too good to be true, but you are playing them ..
This is great for practicing and rehearsals. Under $400 US. You can take this guitar anywhere and its high quality enough so you don't have to risk bringing out your high end guitar all the time. Excellent review Elmo!!
I am waiting for mine. She will be my second guitar. I am lefthanded. I was to buy cst-24 and my wife said is that blue one better. Yes honey it should be and she gave me half the money and she was totally sobber. Must be the sign from god. Thanks Elmo and God bless you and your family.
Echo everything Elmo says. I wanted a "strat" but didn't want to pay a lot. Tried a B stock Sire S7 but the nut looked like it had been attacked with an axe so it went back. Then tried a Chapman MLX pro as they were on offer at Andertons but it wasn't quite right, so back that went. Took a chance and grabbed a B stock one of these a couple of weeks ago (Shell pink/maple Fretboard). Absolutely brilliant. The only issue was a tiny lacquer crack on one side of the neck pocket, but I've seen guitars three times the price with those. I'm sure there will be some rogues leaving the factory but ive had a few HBs over the years and never had any issues.
I bought the Harley Benton fusion II guitar Max signature and its an amazing guitar for the price im sure this one is just as good. I'm still blown away How good these guitars are for the price they're sold at.
According to a guy who imports HB guitars in mass to Poland, makes a setting a resells them, there is a significant problem with fretwork in many st pluses. He recommended me to wait for the second version
Good advice, I bought the same ST Modern as Elmo demo’s here and returned it because the fret work was absolutely terrible, 9 out of 22 frets were high. It had a number of other QC issues too and should have never left the factory. I have 5 other Harley Benton’s so this was a massive disappointment. The flat compound neck radius wasn’t for me either so I won’t be buying another ST Modern.
I've bought one recently and it's amazing for the price. I don't think even the tuners are bad. The only thing to be upgraded are the pickups but actually are better than average ceramic pickups
@@benjaf2002 I had returned mine because its humbucker wasn't reliable at all. I brought it 3 times to be repaired but it kept having problems... so after having spent more cash on gasoline than the guitar itself I decided to send it back.
I’ve been playing for five decades , Owned / still do , the usual top brands in guitar and bass , Came across this very cheap brand Harley Benton , 61’ Custom SG , languishing in a second hand goods store , bought it , probably THE best sounding bang for buck guitar I’ve ever owned: This guitar blew away my Gibson LP sound wise , in terms of build quality it’s quite sturdy as I’ve dropped it a few times and it has had no effect on the neck or body , Do I think it’ll last as long my 31 year old Gibson ,? MMM , not so sure bout that (well I will) need to be around at nearly 100 to find that out 😂😂
Outstanding whammy work. I really don't think these trems were built for dive bombing and wild playing but it stayed in a pretty good tune regardless, nice demo thanks!
It’s a very good guitar for sure, I reviewed it positively on my channel. After living with it a few weeks, one major criticism is those awful glow in the dark side dots. They are invisible on a dark stage. I also wasn’t a great fan of the flat compound radius neck, however that is somewhat subjective of course. There is quality control issues going on as well. Some people have got a real turkey whilst others were perfect. Mine was good copy, but I didn’t love it enough to keep it and ultimately sent it back. Shame as I wanted to love it
I think if they could get a supplier here across the pond they would be a global juggernaut in the affordable guitar market. I was trying to get one to review but shipping taxes it was a heavy lift. Great job😎
KEEP IT ELMO!!!. That specimen very much deserves a home in that rack my friend. Superb..The flame on that roasted neck👌👌.👏👏👏 Again,keep it. Thanks Elmo!
Hi Elmo. Sorry if someone already suggest it ( I could not read 223 comments...) but I think you must compare side by side the ST Modern Plus with Sire Larry Carlton S7 Gen 2. The latest in my country cost 499€ and Modern Plus is at 462€ (flame top) at Thoman. So same price more or less. As the say "there will be only one"!!! 😀
You just made me extremely interested in getting one of these. I have a Harley Benton but a much, much lower model. I will have to sell the old one (to the lowest bidder - lol) so I can get one of these nice one and stay married at the same time.
If I got one, that miniscule sustain block would get chucked immediately. I had a Squier with a similar sustain block and it had little sustain. Put in a more substantial sustain block and the guitar sounded much better overall.
Man that looks sweet!! Sounds great and I know it must be good when you get speechless like that! I wish it wasn't such a pain ordering from thomann in the States. We'll ordering is easy, returning is a hassle if there's something wrong.
I've just bought a g and L s500 tribute and that in my opinion is a fantastic guitar for the money !!! I pai😊d 480 quid for it. Otherwise I'd probably have the HB. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS 😊
Elmo your playing has gotten a lot better, hats off to you. You didn't do one of these trips down to the crossroads did you? LOL! Thanks for the review, I have 3 HB's , played a gig tonight and used my baby blue Fusion all night, with 2 single coils and a Humbucker, Hot Duncans, I put in, Love It! very versatile, Hello from Florida.
I really want to purchase but have had to return so many HBs recently for awful quality control. Looking on YT and the web, the QC on this model is also highly variable with some people receiving awful examples. I have often said that if HB added a bit more to the price of their premium guitars to ensure consistent QC it would actually result in increased sales. It looks like you received a good one. On the design itself, they should have used staggered tuners to do away with those awful string trees. The rest of it looks good although the heel joint could be made thinner, it would benefit from a bigger trem block and Tesla pickups would definitely have been a better choice. Thanks for the great review🤘🏻
@@kennethdarlington You are probably right but in the long run it damages customer confidence. I like the concept of HB’s guitars but have had to return so many that I have basically given up on the brand whereas, if their QC was better, I would be a long term customer. There is so much on the web now about this I can’t believe it isn’t damaging them.
Great review and playing Elmo. I’m a big Harley Benton fan and currently own 5 but unfortunately the ST Modern Plus LPB I received was awful. The fretwork was terrible, 9 out of the 22 frets were high causing fret buzz and ‘fretting out’, which would have required a full fret level and crowning. The neck pocket rout was poorly aligned resulting in a high action regardless of truss rod adjustment or bridge adjustments (it needed a large neck shim). There was a lacquer crack at the neck pocket, damage and scuffing to the pickguard, there were additional unfilled screw holes under the pickguard, presumably to try to realign it as the bridge cutaway was out of alignment. The fretboard edges were a mess, a blade or sanding block had been run along the entire length leaving 2 angular edges on both the bass and treble sides. As we say here in the UK “it was a bit of dog’s dinner”, so mine was returned. I might buy another ST Modern Plus if HB mitigate these early productions problems hopefully they’ll sort these issues out in their future production runs.
You should test the vibrato with a clean sound. It's much more difficult to hear any detuning with a dirty sound. You also could check tuning with a tuner before and after vibrato use.
For another US$70, you can get cort 280 select. That's a stage grade instrument. I have tried a few of those, and none had any issues. Just on feature set cort 280 is better value
That's an additional 20% on the price tag. Not a negligible price difference, and I don't see how Cort's feature set is better. They have different areas where more money was spent, so not apples to apples.
Other than Europe, UK. I am unsure if you actually looked at delivery costs elsewhere. I have not played or actually aware of quality of metal and timber components on this guitar- 280 select uses premium components. hb products have questionable quality control with a hit or a miss. So add a setup cost of around US$100-150 or more/less dependent on your location. but hey if you know both guitars well , your money , spend anywhere. @Falconryder
@@MrPolevaulter sure thing - we can get CORT 280 in Australia/New Zealand right now for under £420. Thomann sells same for 499 not 599. There are vendors in UK selling cort 280 select for less than 450. HB cost with a Thomann courier to ANZ is Selling price + courier (120) + potentially set up cost due to HB Quality assurance. Then it creates new set of issues such as claiming remote warranties for example. i suggest trying cort 280 privately or on your channel, very nice guitar. timber quality and metal work is top notch with excellent voiced pickups.
Some criticism has been raised against the Babicz tremolo. It has an unusual design where the string "slot" is buried in the tremolo block which makes palm muting different. Some guitarists don't like that they have to change position of the hand to achieve same level of palm muting.
I want a Tele version of this, I have the Fusion T 25th and the TE-25th, I wish they did them in a choice of body colours though, instead they are in Firemist Gold, considering it was their 25th anniversary you would have thought the bodies would have been silver as that colour is associated with 25th anniversaries.
The problem is with Harley Benton that the quality of your guitar can be awesome but the quality goes up and down with cheap guitars. So better try it before you buy and if you have the one, then keep it in your hands and say I want this one .. Not the one thats still in the box .. I say this to share my tip on buying a guitar .. I buyed a Cort guitar acoustic for 120 dollar and that was because i tried it out in the store and the sound was good. I kept it in my hand and said ill take this one even without a box !
The main issue with these for me, is the choice is Harley Benton or Ibanez for roughly the same price. And we can only get HBs from Thomann, which does ship to the US, but you won't find them in any US dealer to try out.
@@MrPolevaulter Exactly. Maybe I'll come across one used that I can try out. Shipping is actually pretty reasonable, but if it needs to be returned I don't know if it works both ways.
Yah Elmo, I definately think that you should keep that Harley Benton Statocaster, I already watched a few videos on these new guitars and went onto Thoman's Site, this one sells for $499 Canadian, but they sold them all already and are waiting for the next shipment to arrive, all they had when I checked about 1 month ago was the black gloss model regarding this exact Strat. So $500 Canadian plus $100 Canadian for shipping comes to a total of $600 Canadian. But remember also that $100 for shipping allows you to order up to 3 guitars in 1 order, so the shipping is the same to Canada for 1, 2, or 3 guitars from Thoman . Anyways these guitars have really high specifications for the price. Squier just came out with their Limited Edition Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster HSS, and they sell for $620 Canadian here in Canada, and of course fender just came out with their Player's 2 Series, and they sell for $1100-$1150 Canadian. But Harley Benton still beats both Squier and Fender regarding a high end Stratocaster for a very cheap price with high specifications. Yah, I would definately go with Harley Benton. Anyways great guitar playing as usual, great review and keep Rocking On!
Thanks for the review, Elmo! 👍About the "cost" part, and this at 8:06... You can bet, that due the extreme large amount of ordered hardware, Thomann gets such a great deposit from the overall purchase price of those freaking, insanely good Babitz, Floyd Rose, Wilkinsong tremolos, Gotoh locking tuners, stainless steel frets, and the pickups as well, etc... So the 130 USD tremolo is more like 30 or 13 USD tremolo due their factory production cost, you can bet. And this is sad, because this clearly shows, how overpriced nowadays' guitar hardwares are. 😢 And with all due respect, I tend to think that you, '"famous UA-camrs" receive selected piece of instruments, as interestingly none of you ever find any issue about the Harley Benton guitars... while Thomann website is full of B-Stock Harley Bentons, as people sending them back in large numbers due quality issues. Also, even in my personal network of friends, I can tell guys, who ordered 3 of the same Harley Benton model from Thomann, and all of those had a pretty severe issues, that they had to be sent back to Thomann. So in theory, the Harley Benton brand became good in the recent few years, their stuff are expectedly good for now, but yet.... there is still a high rate of quality issues (and cheap, crap components used in their cheaper models), just strange things, that you, reviewers never receive any of those... Khmmm.... 🙄
by the same logic - an overpriced American made guitar with similar quality would be at same level- that's not the case- its about value proposition. To me most of these high end expensive guitars do not add additional value - unless you see those guitars as an investment such as if you sell after x years - you may be able to get a much higher price. Alternatively you may be a stage musician(or passionate) and need a certain style of guitar with certain features and you may go that extra dollar. value proposition is name of the game
I know what you mean, however, it still makes sense to mention “for its price”. Let me explain myself. If you would buy let’s say a $4,000 guitar, you will be expecting to be awesome, stay in tune, perfect intonation and frets, etc… However, if you would be buying a $400 version of this guitar, you would expect it not to be as good as the expensive one, maybe expecting some lower quality because they would have to cut corners to get the price down… and if you try it and they still got it right even after cutting corner, and they still got perfect frets, stay in tune, great intonation, good finish, etc… then you could come to the conclusion that “it’s a great guitar… for its price”, because “for its price, you couldn’t expect it to be THAT good”. So yeah, I agree that we should simply focus on how good or not a guitar is, even forget about the name on the headstock, or from which country it comes from (unless you want to support a specific country economy, which is also fair), the reality is that we all have our preferences but also our pre judgements, and we always want more and better, and it’s not always the case when we shop in the “entry price”… I hope it makes sense.
@@Spidouz it does make sense. the reason many people come to this channel is our host appears genuine and he attempts to find budget/cheaper instruments which can also play well. by nature of how it works- cost of material, cost of labor, cost of craftsmanship and training , smuggled wood bypassing international timber laws, local labour laws, a historic name etc all adds to cost. now because it is rare to find a quality instrument at lets call it a budget point - our host has a significant audience because thats what he does and does it well. -:) if cheaper instruments all were great - this channel wouldn't have an audience.
Hi Elmo, Five weeks ago i bought my Harley Benton ST-Modern Plus, i have an Olympic White and i love it....... What i did after half an hour of playing, i installed Harley Benton roller stringtrees and that improved the stabillity even more..... And i stuck a foam pad under the humbucker to stop it from wiggeling......and installed a treble bleed, now it's perfect and i play gigs with it👌👌👌
@@geoffreyalder7275 Unfortunately, the ST Modern Plus LPB I received (exactly the same as Elmo’s) wasn’t good at any price! It was unplayable due to major QC issues that I’ve listed in another comment under Elmo’s video. I returned mine to Thomann.
Tell it like it is Elmo! I don't get the hate for affordable gear no matter which brand. If it's good, it's good! You can catch a bad one from any name, send it back and get on....🤷♂️🎸👊🏼🎸🙏🏼
Their choice for the compound radius is a blocker for me (would like to see a straight 9.5 or 10" radius model). I think they are going after the Schecter Nick Johnston-style models.
I'm currently feeling very mixed between this and the Jet JS-450 that I haven't seen you review in a video yet. It specs much closer than the Jet JS-400 which is part of why I'm conflicted. With a slimmer neck, locking tuners, etc it would seem a more fair comparison. Any change you'll get your hands on one for your impressions?
Thank you for this great review. Do you have plans to review the Harley Benton SC-Custom III FR VBK? A LP-Style with Floyd Rose. I'm very interested in your opinion for this guitar.
You'd give an honest opinion even if you'd get sponsored video. Question, how does that trem model works with palm muting? It's designed differently than the more ordinary trems.
I hope they do a tele version of this guitar. How does the neck compare to the js 400 neck. The jet has the best neck I've felt in my little girly hands 😂😂 I don't get on with fat necks.
Hyvä arvostelu kitarasta. Olen etsiskellyt edullista kohtuu laadukasta kitara toiseksi soittimeksi. Kiinteä talla ollut mielessä mutta jos tämä pitää vireen varsin hyvin niin ei väliä. Strato oli eka kitarani mutta se oli heikkolaatuinen.
Here's what I want to know... What is your daily driver guitar? When you're not filming a video, or doing a review, or looking at something new. When you're just playing for your own pleasure, what do you reach for? And will it be this one?
Mate! as a left handed, (this very model is available in LH!) im quite stunned. that "torture" at the end is crazy, how much did it stay in tune? tbh it doesnt even matter bcos from locking tuner + normal trem combo it isnt expected to stay in tune after this even if its a very expensive one. doubt that a suhr would stay in tune... but all in all for left handed guys slowly the bentons are the only guitar that worth considering in this prc range, and even one up. other brands just kick lh players in the gut where they can. benton even managed to get the color combos right again. this, the most expensive burst, and the pink. its a nice choice. unlike ibanez who go out their way to present hte most shitty, boring and cheapie colors they can. also babitz trems are good they should be better than wilkinson. i was looking into them for left handed tremoloes thx for the review and heads up!
If you were to purchase a Fender with the same specs and materials, then it would be in the thousands, and I am sure of that. I would prefer to have more guitars like this than only a couple of really expensive ones and have decent collection. Saying all that I am not a famous guitar player but just someone who loves guitars.
The problem with this guitar is that there is the g&l legacy tribute for the same price and although this one has better specifications, the g&l has an American bridge and pickups...difficult decision
I've watched probably 20 reviews of this guitar. I love the specs. It is really cool what they put into it. But in all reviews it simply sounds a bit cheap. Especially when it is compared against budget Fenders.Maybe I am wrong
I watched a review where he was playing in the middle of the neck using the neck pickup and it sounded JUST LIKE a Strat. With the stainless steel frets, that'll do for me! 👍
Incredible playing as always sir! - Great vid too! 😎👍 I might have to eat my hat after what i said about the string trees! 😬🙈 But to be fair, mines will not stay in tune
Mine wouldn’t stay in tune either, any friction point between the tuners and bridge is going to cause tuning issues. Staggered tuners and no string trees would solve this.
Hi Elmo, great review and playing. I bought exactly the same ST Modern Plus in lake placid blue but unfortunately it was awful. The fret work was terrible, 9 out of the 22 frets were high causing fretting out and buzzing. All of the frets needed levelling and crowning. The neck pocket rout alignment was poor creating a really high action no matter how the truss rod or bridge was adjusted (could have been remedied with a big neck shim). The lacquer at the neck pocket was cracked, there was damage/ scuffing to the edge of the pickguard, and 2 screw holes under the pickguard had been drilled twice (the holes were left unfilled) presumably to try to align the bridge cutaway whiich was way out. This guitar shouldn’t have passed QC and it needed more work to remedy it than I was prepared to do so I returned it. HB are generally responsive and correct early production problems so I might buy another ST Modern in the future on the 2nd or 3rd run once the majority of reviews are favourable.
On another channel the reviewer mentioned that the Babycz bridge is not good for palm muting because the strings don't run on top of it. Can somebody verify?
Why on earth didnt they make the neck block transition uniform to the body? instead they have 3/4" of neck block sticking out, a lot of companies also do this! They spend all that money on the bridge and then the cheapest of the cheap string tree's, come on Harley Benton lets have a Tusq nut and string tree's!
I've seen mixed reviews of this model but then that's often the case with HB. There are noticeably more unhappy customers from North America nowadays. (I don't understand why they would buy budget guitars from the other side of the Atlantic myself - seems a rather self defeating economy especially considering they have access to many more budget brands over there already). If you are in Europe and the UK, Thomann's customer service is usually very good and they make returns pretty painless if you get a poor product. I'm not in the market for one of these but I have bought four guitars from HB and a Jazz Bass and never had any problems with a single one of them in terms of QC. That could be blind luck but they haven't disappointed me and the only problem I ever had buying from them was due to a UK customs foul up that caused a rather long delivery delay and was obviously outside of their control. As for the Jet JS400, yes, my son has one and it's also a really nice instrument even without considering the price.
Wow. I hope that Fender watch this. Not that they'll give a s**t. 🙂 Take away the name on the headstock and Made in.... wherever badge & the guitar market would look a whole lot different.
Same goes for most big names, they spend all their money on marketing instead of making their guitars worth the money they ask for. But the problem lies with all the dentists who actually pay the skyrocketing prices believing just because a guitars made in America that it’s worth 4 times the price
I found the frets to be too small for my taste. Jumbo frets like on the DC custom would be preferred. I sold mine due to this. Too bad because everything else was great about this guitar. Reminded me of the Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional HSS. And that guitar is a lot more expensive.
Check out my comparison of 6 cheaper Harley Benton Strats: ua-cam.com/video/yQPEMM0yw8c/v-deo.htmlsi=I1ZpotHAYl3sfOKP
i noticed that the neck pickup on this guitar is slightly lower, more towards the bridge as compared to other strats, do you think it sounds particularly different? like 22 vs 24 fret guitars?
I like that Elmo doesn't give out praises all the time, so when he does, you know he means it. He's not going through the motions. If I were looking out for a modern strat type guitar, I would trust his judgement.
But it's not always good to trust the judgement of somebody that's trying to sell you something. Not one negative thing said about it.
@@randomguywithnoname2131 This guy is generally quite critical.
It's just nice to see Elmo delighted with something 😂
Great review as always Elmo. Just had mine delivered a few days ago after over 5 months on back order. To my surprise it came with staggered locking tuners, roller string trees and the setup was fantastic. i have serveral high end guitars and the build quality is about the same as those. Very happy!
I have three Harley Benton guitars: SC550 II, Fusion 3, and now this ST-modern plus, with all three I am really happy, I only changed the pickups for the Fusion 3 for Seimour Duncan, and I made a fret adjustment. I couldn't be more grateful to be able to have these guitars for these prices. The new ST-modern plus is a pleasure to play, I have only changed the strings to 9-42 for my comfort. Then with the combination of simple Tesla pickups and the humbucker, which I think are fantastic, and you don't need to change them, you get a super versatile guitar. Elmo you are the best!!!!!
Hey that's cool, glad you like them :)
Thank you!
@@MrPolevaulter as with all these guitars, the mark up /profit , must be very low. You have material costs, the factory operative's wages, then Thomann's sales mark up. It seems too good to be true, but you are playing them ..
This is great for practicing and rehearsals. Under $400 US. You can take this guitar anywhere and its high quality enough so you don't have to risk bringing out your high end guitar all the time. Excellent review Elmo!!
Elmo, I'm buying one because of you. Let's get this man to 100,000.
Thanks 😊
Love the clean picked part from “Dreaming”. What a song! ❤
I am waiting for mine. She will be my second guitar. I am lefthanded. I was to buy cst-24 and my wife said is that blue one better. Yes honey it should be and she gave me half the money and she was totally sobber. Must be the sign from god. Thanks Elmo and God bless you and your family.
Thanks!
Great review, wonderful demo 🧡
@@HarleyBentonOfficial Thanks!
Have this exact model, a couple of small issues, but make no mistake this guitar is the real deal, phenomenal!!!!!!!
Cool bananas :)
Thanks for your video :) I was considering this Harley benton but finally i bought a Sire S7 FM wich once properly adjusted is an excellent strat !!!
Great review thanks, I was planning to buy one, you convinced me
Echo everything Elmo says.
I wanted a "strat" but didn't want to pay a lot. Tried a B stock Sire S7 but the nut looked like it had been attacked with an axe so it went back. Then tried a Chapman MLX pro as they were on offer at Andertons but it wasn't quite right, so back that went.
Took a chance and grabbed a B stock one of these a couple of weeks ago (Shell pink/maple Fretboard).
Absolutely brilliant. The only issue was a tiny lacquer crack on one side of the neck pocket, but I've seen guitars three times the price with those.
I'm sure there will be some rogues leaving the factory but ive had a few HBs over the years and never had any issues.
I was waiting for your review before I ordered, professor. I knew it’d be honest and well done.
I bought the Harley Benton fusion II guitar Max signature and its an amazing guitar for the price im sure this one is just as good. I'm still blown away How good these guitars are for the price they're sold at.
According to a guy who imports HB guitars in mass to Poland, makes a setting a resells them, there is a significant problem with fretwork in many st pluses. He recommended me to wait for the second version
Good advice, I bought the same ST Modern as Elmo demo’s here and returned it because the fret work was absolutely terrible, 9 out of 22 frets were high. It had a number of other QC issues too and should have never left the factory. I have 5 other Harley Benton’s so this was a massive disappointment. The flat compound neck radius wasn’t for me either so I won’t be buying another ST Modern.
Yes, the Jet JS-400/450 is really a master guitar for its price!
I've bought one recently and it's amazing for the price. I don't think even the tuners are bad. The only thing to be upgraded are the pickups but actually are better than average ceramic pickups
@@benjaf2002 I had returned mine because its humbucker wasn't reliable at all. I brought it 3 times to be repaired but it kept having problems... so after having spent more cash on gasoline than the guitar itself I decided to send it back.
I’ve been playing for five decades , Owned / still do , the usual top brands in guitar and bass ,
Came across this very cheap brand Harley Benton , 61’ Custom SG , languishing in a second hand goods store , bought it , probably THE best sounding bang for buck guitar I’ve ever owned: This guitar blew away my Gibson LP sound wise , in terms of build quality it’s quite sturdy as I’ve dropped it a few times and it has had no effect on the neck or body ,
Do I think it’ll last as long my 31 year old Gibson ,?
MMM ,
not so sure bout that (well I will) need to be around at nearly 100 to find that out 😂😂
Outstanding whammy work. I really don't think these trems were built for dive bombing and wild playing but it stayed in a pretty good tune regardless, nice demo thanks!
It’s a very good guitar for sure, I reviewed it positively on my channel. After living with it a few weeks, one major criticism is those awful glow in the dark side dots. They are invisible on a dark stage. I also wasn’t a great fan of the flat compound radius neck, however that is somewhat subjective of course. There is quality control issues going on as well. Some people have got a real turkey whilst others were perfect. Mine was good copy, but I didn’t love it enough to keep it and ultimately sent it back. Shame as I wanted to love it
Yeah, I've heard about the QC issues after filming this.
I think if they could get a supplier here across the pond they would be a global juggernaut in the affordable guitar market. I was trying to get one to review but shipping taxes it was a heavy lift. Great job😎
I think they already have in some American cities.
KEEP IT ELMO!!!.
That specimen very much deserves a home in that rack my friend.
Superb..The flame on that roasted neck👌👌.👏👏👏
Again,keep it.
Thanks Elmo!
Thanks! I did end up selling it, but to a friend of my dad, so it's kind of within reach still :)
@@MrPolevaulter That'll do buddy...Great guitar, I'm investing!
Looks and sounds amazing!!
I bought the 25 year anniversery one in firemist, and it is so good!
Hi Elmo. Sorry if someone already suggest it ( I could not read 223 comments...) but I think you must compare side by side the ST Modern Plus with Sire Larry Carlton S7 Gen 2. The latest in my country cost 499€ and Modern Plus is at 462€ (flame top) at Thoman. So same price more or less. As the say "there will be only one"!!! 😀
@@androtekman6131 Thank you bro!!! Direct answer form a PRO !!!
Been waiting to see your thoughts on this guitar... 👍🎸Thanks
You just made me extremely interested in getting one of these. I have a Harley Benton but a much, much lower model. I will have to sell the old one (to the lowest bidder - lol) so I can get one of these nice one and stay married at the same time.
If I got one, that miniscule sustain block would get chucked immediately. I had a Squier with a similar sustain block and it had little sustain. Put in a more substantial sustain block and the guitar sounded much better overall.
I want the shell pink one. Maple neck, reverse headstock.
I always enjoys your reviews - Spot on!!!
Thank you!
Thanks for the video Elmo. I appreciate your opinion. And you shred awesome as usual.🙏✌️❤️🎸🎼🎵🎶
Man that looks sweet!! Sounds great and I know it must be good when you get speechless like that! I wish it wasn't such a pain ordering from thomann in the States. We'll ordering is easy, returning is a hassle if there's something wrong.
Yeah, I can imagine that.
I’m really hoping and praying for a TE Modern Plus also.
I've just bought a g and L s500 tribute and that in my opinion is a fantastic guitar for the money !!! I pai😊d 480 quid for it. Otherwise I'd probably have the HB. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR REVIEWS 😊
Sick! I drunk ordered one last night. Good job I.
Ive wanted one since i saw them. Great review. I am glad it passed your test. Ill sell my HB fusion T HH FNT to fund one if i can.
Elmo your playing has gotten a lot better, hats off to you. You didn't do one of these trips down to the crossroads did you? LOL! Thanks for the review, I have 3 HB's , played a gig tonight and used my baby blue Fusion all night, with 2 single coils and a Humbucker, Hot Duncans, I put in, Love It! very versatile, Hello from Florida.
Thanks! Just played almost every day this year. In past years I've not played necessarily every week.
Good work mate! And thanks for not being heavy metal all the time. That´s so boring today!
Glad you enjoyed it
I really want to purchase but have had to return so many HBs recently for awful quality control. Looking on YT and the web, the QC on this model is also highly variable with some people receiving awful examples. I have often said that if HB added a bit more to the price of their premium guitars to ensure consistent QC it would actually result in increased sales. It looks like you received a good one. On the design itself, they should have used staggered tuners to do away with those awful string trees. The rest of it looks good although the heel joint could be made thinner, it would benefit from a bigger trem block and Tesla pickups would definitely have been a better choice. Thanks for the great review🤘🏻
Maybe it's cheaper for them to take back bad ones and list them as B-stock, than implement QC on every single one.
Cheers! Mine was a B-stock item.
@@MrPolevaulter probably because of "dull" neck wood.
@@kennethdarlington You are probably right but in the long run it damages customer confidence. I like the concept of HB’s guitars but have had to return so many that I have basically given up on the brand whereas, if their QC was better, I would be a long term customer. There is so much on the web now about this I can’t believe it isn’t damaging them.
@@MrPolevaulter Wow you lucked out then😊
Great review and playing Elmo. I’m a big Harley Benton fan and currently own 5 but unfortunately the ST Modern Plus LPB I received was awful. The fretwork was terrible, 9 out of the 22 frets were high causing fret buzz and ‘fretting out’, which would have required a full fret level and crowning. The neck pocket rout was poorly aligned resulting in a high action regardless of truss rod adjustment or bridge adjustments (it needed a large neck shim). There was a lacquer crack at the neck pocket, damage and scuffing to the pickguard, there were additional unfilled screw holes under the pickguard, presumably to try to realign it as the bridge cutaway was out of alignment. The fretboard edges were a mess, a blade or sanding block had been run along the entire length leaving 2 angular edges on both the bass and treble sides. As we say here in the UK “it was a bit of dog’s dinner”, so mine was returned. I might buy another ST Modern Plus if HB mitigate these early productions problems hopefully they’ll sort these issues out in their future production runs.
You should test the vibrato with a clean sound. It's much more difficult to hear any detuning with a dirty sound. You also could check tuning with a tuner before and after vibrato use.
For another US$70, you can get cort 280 select. That's a stage grade instrument. I have tried a few of those, and none had any issues. Just on feature set cort 280 is better value
That's an additional 20% on the price tag. Not a negligible price difference, and I don't see how Cort's feature set is better. They have different areas where more money was spent, so not apples to apples.
Other than Europe, UK. I am unsure if you actually looked at delivery costs elsewhere. I have not played or actually aware of quality of metal and timber components on this guitar- 280 select uses premium components. hb products have questionable quality control with a hit or a miss. So add a setup cost of around US$100-150 or more/less dependent on your location. but hey if you know both guitars well , your money , spend anywhere. @Falconryder
The Harley Benton is 409€ here, and the Cort is 599€. Bit of a difference there.
@@MrPolevaulter sure thing - we can get CORT 280 in Australia/New Zealand right now for under £420. Thomann sells same for 499 not 599. There are vendors in UK selling cort 280 select for less than 450. HB cost with a Thomann courier to ANZ is Selling price + courier (120) + potentially set up cost due to HB Quality assurance. Then it creates new set of issues such as claiming remote warranties for example. i suggest trying cort 280 privately or on your channel, very nice guitar. timber quality and metal work is top notch with excellent voiced pickups.
Some criticism has been raised against the Babicz tremolo. It has an unusual design where the string "slot" is buried in the tremolo block which makes palm muting different. Some guitarists don't like that they have to change position of the hand to achieve same level of palm muting.
Fair enough. I thought it was great.
New tricks on new toys...🎸🤘🏼🎸
harley benton really nailed this one, imagine if they make tele version of this too
I want a Tele version of this, I have the Fusion T 25th and the TE-25th, I wish they did them in a choice of body colours though, instead they are in Firemist Gold, considering it was their 25th anniversary you would have thought the bodies would have been silver as that colour is associated with 25th anniversaries.
My only serious complaint is the D shape neck, to chuncky for my small habds.
hmm that would be sweet 😉 Or imagine a SC version with similar specs 😍
@@HarleyBentonOfficial YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Really good 👍
Looks and sound fantastic
I have two Harley Bentons, now I want one more
The problem is with Harley Benton that the quality of your guitar can be awesome but the quality goes up and down with cheap guitars.
So better try it before you buy and if you have the one, then keep it in your hands and say I want this one .. Not the one thats still in the box ..
I say this to share my tip on buying a guitar .. I buyed a Cort guitar acoustic for 120 dollar and that was because i tried it out in the store and the sound was good.
I kept it in my hand and said ill take this one even without a box !
Always try before you buy.
@@MrPolevaulter I do the same in bars and disco's.... ;-)
The main issue with these for me, is the choice is Harley Benton or Ibanez for roughly the same price. And we can only get HBs from Thomann, which does ship to the US, but you won't find them in any US dealer to try out.
That is a problem if you live in the US.
@@MrPolevaulter Exactly. Maybe I'll come across one used that I can try out. Shipping is actually pretty reasonable, but if it needs to be returned I don't know if it works both ways.
Yah Elmo, I definately think that you should keep that Harley Benton Statocaster, I already watched a few videos on these new guitars and went onto Thoman's Site, this one sells for $499 Canadian, but they sold them all already and are waiting for the next shipment to arrive, all they had when I checked about 1 month ago was the black gloss model regarding this exact Strat.
So $500 Canadian plus $100 Canadian for shipping comes to a total of $600 Canadian. But remember also that $100 for shipping allows you to order up to 3 guitars in 1 order, so the shipping is the same to Canada for 1, 2, or 3 guitars from Thoman . Anyways these guitars have really high specifications for the price. Squier just came out with their Limited Edition
Classic Vibe 60's Stratocaster HSS, and they sell for $620 Canadian here in Canada, and of course fender just came out with their Player's 2 Series, and they sell for $1100-$1150 Canadian. But Harley Benton still beats both Squier and Fender regarding a high end Stratocaster for a very cheap price with high specifications. Yah, I would definately go with Harley Benton.
Anyways great guitar playing as usual, great review and keep Rocking On!
Cheers!
Than the million dollar question: This or the Jet JS 400? 😎 I mean for the price difference you could throw in some decent pickups in the Jet.
Keep in mind that if Thomann supplied these to dealers, they would be around 1000.-......Nice review, great guitars!🎸🤘🏼🎸👊🏼
This 👆
@@HarleyBentonOfficial I could shift up a gear on my channel, i just can't buy all the great HB guitars i would like to praise to everyone.....😇😉😉
Thanks for the review, Elmo! 👍About the "cost" part, and this at 8:06... You can bet, that due the extreme large amount of ordered hardware, Thomann gets such a great deposit from the overall purchase price of those freaking, insanely good Babitz, Floyd Rose, Wilkinsong tremolos, Gotoh locking tuners, stainless steel frets, and the pickups as well, etc...
So the 130 USD tremolo is more like 30 or 13 USD tremolo due their factory production cost, you can bet. And this is sad, because this clearly shows, how overpriced nowadays' guitar hardwares are. 😢
And with all due respect, I tend to think that you, '"famous UA-camrs" receive selected piece of instruments, as interestingly none of you ever find any issue about the Harley Benton guitars... while Thomann website is full of B-Stock Harley Bentons, as people sending them back in large numbers due quality issues.
Also, even in my personal network of friends, I can tell guys, who ordered 3 of the same Harley Benton model from Thomann, and all of those had a pretty severe issues, that they had to be sent back to Thomann.
So in theory, the Harley Benton brand became good in the recent few years, their stuff are expectedly good for now, but yet.... there is still a high rate of quality issues (and cheap, crap components used in their cheaper models), just strange things, that you, reviewers never receive any of those... Khmmm.... 🙄
Mine was a B stock. And I've found many issues with many Harley Bentons, just not this.
@@MrPolevaulter thanks for the info! It seems you were lucky with this one, indeed. 👍
Good playing - So the economy of scale helps them cut costs. That scale seemed to be the right key.
Why does everyone say "For the price".......a good guitar is a good guitar,just play it,and forget about the price.
by the same logic - an overpriced American made guitar with similar quality would be at same level- that's not the case- its about value proposition. To me most of these high end expensive guitars do not add additional value - unless you see those guitars as an investment such as if you sell after x years - you may be able to get a much higher price. Alternatively you may be a stage musician(or passionate) and need a certain style of guitar with certain features and you may go that extra dollar. value proposition is name of the game
I know what you mean, however, it still makes sense to mention “for its price”. Let me explain myself. If you would buy let’s say a $4,000 guitar, you will be expecting to be awesome, stay in tune, perfect intonation and frets, etc… However, if you would be buying a $400 version of this guitar, you would expect it not to be as good as the expensive one, maybe expecting some lower quality because they would have to cut corners to get the price down… and if you try it and they still got it right even after cutting corner, and they still got perfect frets, stay in tune, great intonation, good finish, etc… then you could come to the conclusion that “it’s a great guitar… for its price”, because “for its price, you couldn’t expect it to be THAT good”. So yeah, I agree that we should simply focus on how good or not a guitar is, even forget about the name on the headstock, or from which country it comes from (unless you want to support a specific country economy, which is also fair), the reality is that we all have our preferences but also our pre judgements, and we always want more and better, and it’s not always the case when we shop in the “entry price”… I hope it makes sense.
@@Spidouz it does make sense. the reason many people come to this channel is our host appears genuine and he attempts to find budget/cheaper instruments which can also play well. by nature of how it works- cost of material, cost of labor, cost of craftsmanship and training , smuggled wood bypassing international timber laws, local labour laws, a historic name etc all adds to cost. now because it is rare to find a quality instrument at lets call it a budget point - our host has a significant audience because thats what he does and does it well. -:) if cheaper instruments all were great - this channel wouldn't have an audience.
Hi Elmo,
Five weeks ago i bought my Harley Benton ST-Modern Plus, i have an Olympic White and i love it.......
What i did after half an hour of playing, i installed Harley Benton roller stringtrees and that improved the stabillity even more.....
And i stuck a foam pad under the humbucker to stop it from wiggeling......and installed a treble bleed, now it's perfect and i play gigs with it👌👌👌
@@geoffreyalder7275 Unfortunately, the ST Modern Plus LPB I received (exactly the same as Elmo’s) wasn’t good at any price! It was unplayable due to major QC issues that I’ve listed in another comment under Elmo’s video. I returned mine to Thomann.
I bought the 25th anniversary strat. It’s very good. But looking to see a comparison with it and the st modern.
Tell it like it is Elmo! I don't get the hate for affordable gear no matter which brand. If it's good, it's good! You can catch a bad one from any name, send it back and get on....🤷♂️🎸👊🏼🎸🙏🏼
Their choice for the compound radius is a blocker for me (would like to see a straight 9.5 or 10" radius model). I think they are going after the Schecter Nick Johnston-style models.
I'm currently feeling very mixed between this and the Jet JS-450 that I haven't seen you review in a video yet. It specs much closer than the Jet JS-400 which is part of why I'm conflicted. With a slimmer neck, locking tuners, etc it would seem a more fair comparison. Any change you'll get your hands on one for your impressions?
Hi Elmo, I'm just wondering why your trem arm has a white tip and the one on the thomann website doesn't??
I think it came with two.
Great video, will you be reviewing the Donner Hush series?
Thank you for this great review. Do you have plans to review the Harley Benton SC-Custom III FR VBK? A LP-Style with Floyd Rose. I'm very interested in your opinion for this guitar.
Thanks! No plans at the moment.
Love mine.
HAHAHA That whammy-gasm was so fun to see.
I bought a st62. It was buzzing all over the neck. I returned it. The fusion pro series are great though
You'd give an honest opinion even if you'd get sponsored video. Question, how does that trem model works with palm muting? It's designed differently than the more ordinary trems.
What do you think of that color "lake placid blue" of despair? 😁 nice video
🤣 Thanks!
@@MrPolevaulter Sorry 😅😃
Great video .....this is guitar is the better the harley benton ????
I hope they do a tele version of this guitar. How does the neck compare to the js 400 neck. The jet has the best neck I've felt in my little girly hands 😂😂 I don't get on with fat necks.
I prefer the Jet neck.
Hyvä arvostelu kitarasta. Olen etsiskellyt edullista kohtuu laadukasta kitara toiseksi soittimeksi. Kiinteä talla ollut mielessä mutta jos tämä pitää vireen varsin hyvin niin ei väliä. Strato oli eka kitarani mutta se oli heikkolaatuinen.
im looking at the white one of these, gotta sell some of the other guitars i have because i simply have too many i dont play
How much does it weigh? Looking for something extra light
Here's what I want to know... What is your daily driver guitar? When you're not filming a video, or doing a review, or looking at something new. When you're just playing for your own pleasure, what do you reach for? And will it be this one?
"In stock in 6-8 weeks"
Not surprised that they've sold out.
Yeah.
Mate! as a left handed, (this very model is available in LH!) im quite stunned. that "torture" at the end is crazy, how much did it stay in tune? tbh it doesnt even matter bcos from locking tuner + normal trem combo it isnt expected to stay in tune after this even if its a very expensive one. doubt that a suhr would stay in tune... but all in all for left handed guys slowly the bentons are the only guitar that worth considering in this prc range, and even one up. other brands just kick lh players in the gut where they can. benton even managed to get the color combos right again. this, the most expensive burst, and the pink. its a nice choice. unlike ibanez who go out their way to present hte most shitty, boring and cheapie colors they can.
also babitz trems are good they should be better than wilkinson. i was looking into them for left handed tremoloes
thx for the review and heads up!
If you were to purchase a Fender with the same specs and materials, then it would be in the thousands, and I am sure of that. I would prefer to have more guitars like this than only a couple of really expensive ones and have decent collection. Saying all that I am not a famous guitar player but just someone who loves guitars.
Hi praise Elmo!
The problem with this guitar is that there is the g&l legacy tribute for the same price and although this one has better specifications, the g&l has an American bridge and pickups...difficult decision
I have the G&L. It doesn't have the stainless steel frets, which will last forever
Hey , how is the neck compared to an Ibanez ? Harley benton always looks good for specs but the necks are always so big that keeps me away.
A bit bigger
Is the guitar also better than the Cort G 260 OPN you tested?
Probably yeah, although that was a long time ago, so can't remember exactly.
I've watched probably 20 reviews of this guitar. I love the specs. It is really cool what they put into it. But in all reviews it simply sounds a bit cheap. Especially when it is compared against budget Fenders.Maybe I am wrong
I watched a review where he was playing in the middle of the neck using the neck pickup and it sounded JUST LIKE a Strat. With the stainless steel frets, that'll do for me! 👍
Nice guitar, a bit sad for you the neck has less flame than those from other reviews
The downside of buying it yourself, instead of getting it sponsored, maybe?
Is the freatboard edge really rolled?
Incredible playing as always sir! - Great vid too! 😎👍
I might have to eat my hat after what i said about the string trees! 😬🙈
But to be fair, mines will not stay in tune
Cheers! Yeah, I saw your video on it, but mine had no issues at all. I was shocked how well it stayed in tune.
@@MrPolevaulter I can see that! I was shocked too! 😂👍
Mine wouldn’t stay in tune either, any friction point between the tuners and bridge is going to cause tuning issues. Staggered tuners and no string trees would solve this.
Hi Elmo, great review and playing. I bought exactly the same ST Modern Plus in lake placid blue but unfortunately it was awful. The fret work was terrible, 9 out of the 22 frets were high causing fretting out and buzzing. All of the frets needed levelling and crowning. The neck pocket rout alignment was poor creating a really high action no matter how the truss rod or bridge was adjusted (could have been remedied with a big neck shim). The lacquer at the neck pocket was cracked, there was damage/ scuffing to the edge of the pickguard, and 2 screw holes under the pickguard had been drilled twice (the holes were left unfilled) presumably to try to align the bridge cutaway whiich was way out. This guitar shouldn’t have passed QC and it needed more work to remedy it than I was prepared to do so I returned it. HB are generally responsive and correct early production problems so I might buy another ST Modern in the future on the 2nd or 3rd run once the majority of reviews are favourable.
So how is the neck profile? Baseballbat or modern C (/D) ?
Jeeze Loise! My real floyd dont even stay in tune after that much abuse! Even you ripping the strings above the nut! 😅
😂
@MrPolevaulter I definitely read your name as a frech last name 😆 Mr. Polevalti'er ... Good day sir!
On another channel the reviewer mentioned that the Babycz bridge is not good for palm muting because the strings don't run on top of it. Can somebody verify?
S3 hard to find, this is new enough so it's hard to find here in the states.
Things evolve and Modern plus is not just a name😂❤. And who needs three knobs ?
Please please please make a review on sqoe stratocaster sest600
Add a brass trem block and watch the sustain last forever!
Already sold out at Thoman, by the way.
Yeah, seems so.
I bought a Harley Benton about 5 years ago, it sucked, but maybe they've gotten better...
Why on earth didnt they make the neck block transition uniform to the body? instead they have 3/4" of neck block sticking out, a lot of companies also do this!
They spend all that money on the bridge and then the cheapest of the cheap string tree's, come on Harley Benton lets have a Tusq nut and string tree's!
Hello ma, with unpronounceable name 😀 is their telecaster good ? Tnx
I've seen mixed reviews of this model but then that's often the case with HB. There are noticeably more unhappy customers from North America nowadays. (I don't understand why they would buy budget guitars from the other side of the Atlantic myself - seems a rather self defeating economy especially considering they have access to many more budget brands over there already).
If you are in Europe and the UK, Thomann's customer service is usually very good and they make returns pretty painless if you get a poor product.
I'm not in the market for one of these but I have bought four guitars from HB and a Jazz Bass and never had any problems with a single one of them in terms of QC. That could be blind luck but they haven't disappointed me and the only problem I ever had buying from them was due to a UK customs foul up that caused a rather long delivery delay and was obviously outside of their control.
As for the Jet JS400, yes, my son has one and it's also a really nice instrument even without considering the price.
Is it possible to take the humbucker cap off?
Probably just need to desolder it from the base plate of the humbucker.
Wow. I hope that Fender watch this. Not that they'll give a s**t. 🙂 Take away the name on the headstock and Made in.... wherever badge & the guitar market would look a whole lot different.
Actually a lot of people have given up on fender and especially epiphone and Gibson
Fender sell to brand sensitive customers. It is a common species, not compatible with ware oriented customers. Different market.
Same goes for most big names, they spend all their money on marketing instead of making their guitars worth the money they ask for. But the problem lies with all the dentists who actually pay the skyrocketing prices believing just because a guitars made in America that it’s worth 4 times the price
Yeah.
I found the frets to be too small for my taste. Jumbo frets like on the DC custom would be preferred. I sold mine due to this. Too bad because everything else was great about this guitar. Reminded me of the Schecter Nick Johnston Traditional HSS. And that guitar is a lot more expensive.