Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute

At first I was happy with the delivery. At first glance, beauty. The guitar has weight. The guitar neck is elegant, satin and lightly tinted. It is pleasant and comfortable to the touch, straight as a bayonet. The frets of the guitar do not bite, wide, aesthetic. Kluson style machine heads are beyond praise. Nut TUSQ XL, although it does not have a label. The strings lie deep in the nut, but the top can be removed. Nut is set well.
There are no large gaps anywhere, everything is fitted. Still, a little tuning of the string height is needed. The pickups are a little high, but this is subjective.
It is not clear, but the edges of the pickguard do not have a chamfer. Will have to change.
The tremolo system is successful.
Potentiometers are good. 5-Way toggle switch is not heard.
In general, the body and neck of the guitar without flaws.
Sound like a stratocaster can’t be said anymore. It's good.
Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute is no worse than Squire, and in some places even nicer.
In the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the products of Harley Benton. I also bought a JB 75 bass, this will be written in another place. But also satisfied. I can advise friends.

I'm completely flabbergasted. It's my first ST style guitar and I'm delighted.

The guitar arrived amazingly packed, in great condition. The first thing I looked for was for flaws or problems. None. Everything looked well.

Great finishing. The arm feels silky and well polished. The tuning pegs work precisely (yet kind of a bit too stiff for my personal taste). The action is good off of the box and the tremolo works well without getting the guitar out of tune (I didn't push it to hard - it's also decked, not floating).

The frets are clean and well cut. The pickups respond well and the volume and tone knobs seem to work properly so far - they just look and feel cheap (at this price point it's not even a complaint, just stating how they feel). Everything's shiny and in place.

I've never owned or played in plenty of different guitars, but I can tell there is plenty of quality and that it gives way more than this price suggests.

It's also a Great replica of a guitar of a legendary player who I cherish a lot and now I can look across the room and see one that resembles his most iconic guitar.

The less good things are that I personally find the arm to be extremely flat, thick and wide - my hands are average size and I feel like the arm is tricky to play due to that. It could be that I'm used to play in C-style necks of my Superstar (which was also my first Electric Guitar).

When bending I also feel kind of a scratching, but it could be either the wood, or the frets needing some more sanding (even if I feel them to be super smooth and shiny).

It hums quite a lot, lots of static that give it that sound that I'm so used to listen in Hendrix's records. I really love this guitar. It looks and feels amazing, specially considering there are much more expensive options out there that I believe that might not make you feel like all the money you've invested was worth the penny.

Harley Benton are amazing for being able to provide budget instruments for players, enthusiasts and collectors that bring quality to the table as well!

Update: As mentioned below, I have contacted Thomann and submitted a photo of the issue. to their credit, they have given me a £50 credit on my account, which I have used towards another purchase.

Not sure if Thomann will publish this review, but I will write it anyway. Received this guitar on 29/03/2021. It was not in stock at the time of ordering, so was placed on back order, with an arrival time of late February. The QC label has a date of 05/01/2021, so I am assuming the the QC happened at the place of manufacture. This guitar looked like it had been preowned. The black gloss finish has numerous fine scratches all over it. The neck is not properly sanded, and is quite rough in places, and certainly does not have the fine satin finish shown on the Thomann web site. In fact the neck looks like untreated bare wood. I'm not sure why Thomann have allowed this guitar to be sent to a customer, particularly one that has spent alot of money with them. Prior to this guitar, I had purchased 3 others, all of which had no QC issues, and were all of excellent quality. So I am very disappointed with this guitar. I have emailed Thomann about these issues and await there response. Given the price of the guitar, it is not worth the hassle of having to sent it back. So I suppose I will probably have to accept it. As mentioned, I have other HB guitars, and one thing which is very apparent, is that the guitars made in Indonesia are much better quality in finish and built quality, than the ones made in China. I'm not sure why this is, but it is certainly the case. If this review is published, I will update it in due course.

Let me first say I returned this guitar for mainly one reason; the fretboard radius is more like 14". I love my strats with 9,5"-10,5" radius so I couldn't really play this guitar the way I can. The neck is simply too flat and wide. I couldn't really place my thumb over the neck and I have massive size 10 hands

Apart from that this guitar cannot get anything else but a 5 star review. Value for money is unbelievable. Sure the pots are a bit cheap as is the switch, but they work great. Pickups are very good too. Hardware is also surprisingly good. The frets were all in place, no sharp edges. Sure they need a good polish but that's it. The sound of the guitar is that of a typical strat. This guitar is at the same level as the top of the line Squiers or even cheap Mexico strats. Needles to say they cost 3x more. If you're looking for a budget vintage spec'd black strat you won't be disappointed. Keep in mind the radius though, some may like it, unfortunately I don't.

Also great support from Thomman staff, no problems returning the guitar. I have since ordered another guitar with a smaller radius and ash body for more "twang".