Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute

I have owned this guitar around one week and my initial impressions are quite positive! I'll just dive right in. The Alder body feels weighty without being heavy and the contours are chunky. Chunkier than my St-62 vintage. The horn cuts on the 57 are thicker and the arm and belly contours aren't as pronounced as the 62 which lines up with the original design specs of the Stratocaster from those respective years. The neck feels nice and satin and has a c profile but feels fatter than the thinner neck of my 62. The 57 feels a bit better in my hands. The fret edges are fantastic for such an inexpensive guitar and the strings that came with it feel quality. I know Thomann has been known to use D'Addario strings. I have not looked at the ball ends to confirm but they came on my 62 as well. The nut feels like plastic and the slots look deeper than they should be but my string height at the first fret looks fine. The nut itself has bits of flash coming out of it. You can tell it was not filed with any great care. My 62 vintage nut looks like plastic as well, but the overall look was clean and the slots looked filed with precision. The 57 suffers in this area. Since I will be changing it out anyway it is not the biggest factor to score from, but it does stop this guitar from being perfect out of the box minus setup.

As with any inexpensive HB guitar the hardware is fine but not premium. The tuners are Kluson style and so far, seem to be good. The guitar holds tune as well as any can without locking the tuners. Not much slippage once the strings get broken in. The bridge and trem system are probably the weakest part of the entire guitar. Cheap metal that is serviceable but probably the one part NEEDS to be upgraded. The trem block is shallow and made of cheap metal which is terrible for sustain and resonance. On the 57 the trem arm is pop in not screw in which is nice, but the arm is a bit loose in the slot. If Thomann put Wilkinson trem systems in by default it could easily raise the quality of this guitar. Luckily, it is cheap and easy to upgrade so not a huge deal breaker.

Now on to the meat of the thing which are the pickups. The Roswell SK52 Vintage for the neck and middle are wonderful. They sound full and robust in position 4. The neck pickup is very well rounded on its own. My 62 has a ton of low end. The 57 has more balance. I haven't played with the True Vintage bridge pickup much, but it is very bright and really punches out the high end. I bought the 57 because I was hoping it would offer a bit of a different sound profile than the 62 which it does. The differences aren't massive, but they are there. Having both makes me feel like I have my single coil S-type sounds taken care of. The other factor of course being that it looks like David Gilmours famous black strat, a guitar I have wanted since the year 2000. Obviously, this is from a barebones aesthetic point of view, but it is fun, and the guitar looks incredible for $200 USD. In order to truly replicate the Gilmour approach requires at least modding in a pickup blending switch and changing the trem arm for a 4 inch size. With all that being said this guitar can't be beaten for the price. Alder body, maple neck and true spec vintage pickups is a win for everyone. I wish Thomann would take these specs and make different colorways outside of the tribute lineup. I love the 62 series, but the thicker body made of Alder is a huge selling point over the thinner basswood bodies. All in all, I am extremely pleased with this purchase.

Breaking it down into the categories that Thomann does first being the features. The Tuners are great they really are and the trem system works fine though the trem arm has to be in purdy tight for it to sit still. The neck is satin and there's no gloss on the fretboard like yer older fenders. The nuts not plastic it seems more like a Tusque or bone nut not entirely sure it aint plastic though and the only real drawback which is the cavity for the truss rod... its fugly like its just a hole... a dirty hole.
Secondly the sound and this'll be mainly the PU's but they aint flat but they aint fat either it's kinda really subjective but this aint the guitar to play some Clapton on let me just say that. It sounds kinda nice though theres very little hum and the PU's arent really shitty but if you want to add a mid boost kit or if you want a fuller sound this aint it.
Thirdly quality like most of Harley Benton it's shockingly good these pieces of kit are easily the best for the price
To summarise this guitar for me is easily the second best i own my first being my ML2 which is insanely good. It feels nice and came setup great with no fret buzz or anything like that... dirty strings though... needs new strings... I have spare strings thank god.

I'll be honest, I mostly went with this one for the looks. I always thought a maple neck, black pickguard on black gloss strat looked awesome, ever since I first saw David Gilmour with one. My justification to myself for buying it was that I didn't have a guitar with a tremolo arm.

Features-wise, it's solid for what you pay. The pickups don't buzz horrifically when plugged in like most single-coils at this price point do (they buzz, sure, but not too bad). The neck is comfortable, frets weren't sharp, the action and intonation were decent even out of the box. Slightly weird that the tremolo arm just sticks in there, no screw threading, and it doesn't have a very large range of motion, but not a dealbreaker. The tuning machines are surprisingly good-quality for the price point as well. Ultimately, I got it for the looks, and it delivers in that regard. A friend who'd been considering getting a Tele-thing, similarly for aesthetics, tried it out and was impressed; he ordered from Thomann on his phone right then and there.

This is my third instrument from Thomann and for strictly financial prudence's sake, it probably *should* be my last, but I doubt it! Consistently impressed with all three of them.

So being a DG fan thought I'd pick one of these up as saw reviews online which mostly concluded good guitar for the price point.

Have to say I agree. Finish is nice - nut and neck both fine on initial inspection, the Roswell pickups do enough, guitar was well set up out of the box and seems to hold tune well enough.

I can see how people might buy this as a modding platform but I'm happy enough as is.

Shame I wont be sounding much like the maestro though......

Service provided by Thomann was very good. Would be glad to recommend.

A bit of background first; I'm a working drummer who has always played a bit of guitar, but never seriously. Recently I decided to get into the guitar seriously. I've owned a Gibson Sonex since 1983, but I've always wanted a strat. A guitar player friend suggested HB.

Overall, I'm quite happy with this guitar. It looks beautiful, and the finishing is pretty good, except for the frets. The ends are a bit sharp, and they could also use a good polishing.

Sound wise, the guitar was unplayable upon delivery due to a strong back bow. I had to tighten up the truss rod quite a bit, which was a first for me. From there I just had to adjust the intonation and all was fine.

The guitar sounds good, but there are a few spots where weird overtones creep in. Tuning stability isn't the best. Aggressive bending or moderate whammy bar activity will put it out of tune in no time.

Having said all this, I can't put this guitar down. I've put in more practice in the 4 months I've had this guitar than I have in the last 10 years. It's a blast to play, and it certainly has all of the classic Strat tones. I'd say it's even good enough for bar gigs and home recording.

Overall, it's great value for the money, and I already have my eye on a few other HB guitars.

After a few days of testing I might say that considering its price, the guitar fulfilled my expectations. Here are some pros and cons which might help you decide which cheap strat-like guitar you want to buy.

+ Overally good manufacturing
+ Very decent fretjob, not common in this price range
+ Knobs and pickup switch do what they are supposed to do
+ Exceptional tuning mechanism - holds the tone over days

- Whammy bar wouldn't fit in the hole. When I finally managed to screw it inside for at least a few turns, it was obviously stuck in the position and wouldn't move at all, making tremolo useless.

If it weren't for the whammy bar, the guitar would have received 5/5 for quality from me. As I only use the guitar for home practice, I can't really tell how good it is for gigs, but it certainly is a good choice for both beginners and advanced players. Moreover, "raw guitar" might be a good starting point for further upgrades.

Not to forget to mention, when I unpacked the guitar, it was actually tuned. However, one string was out of the nutbone. This was probably a mistake made by the setup team.