Harley Benton ST-25TH Firemist

First, the good: The neck is beautiful and fits snug in the hand. Very comfortable to hold and it appears as though there has been some minor fretboard edge-rolling. The locking tuners look high-quality and the stainless steel frets are a great appointment (had I not encountered what will be discussed soon). The pickups sound fine. The finish is quite nice too. Excellent price. You won't find another guitar like this for what is being asked for.

Now, the bad: The strings above the 10th fret buzz (and a couple below) rattle like crazy. I counted up to 14 high frets when tested with my fret rocker, which explains why the amount of fret buzz and choking that this guitar gets is unbelievable. I have never experienced such negligence from Harley Benton before and am stunned how this could have ever passed quality control. I looked to see if the frets were possibly popping out of their cavity and they are all seated properly. In addition, the action is not low and the truss rod is properly tuned. The issue is clearly with the leveling of the frets, which makes it practically unplayable. I tried raising the action, but in order to adjust it to the point in which the buzz sufficiently disappears the strings are so high off the body that the instrument cannot be played in a way comfortable to the fingers. I am very disappointed with the state that this instrument arrived in. I want to love it, as I do my other Harley Benton guitars, but in it's current state and for the current price I cannot come to bring myself to give it more than 2 stars.

I ordered the TE version in the same order and have encountered no such problem with that model, so I suspect I got unlucky with the ST.

I've been playing this guitar for a little over a month now and I have to say for the money I've spent on the guitar it plays and sounds unbelievably good. After a little bit of waiting for the guitar to arrive (month and a half) my first impressions were excellent, the setup was fine, the guitar was very comfortable, the neck and finish were beautifully done (roasted maple neck and the awesome firemist finish which definitely looks better in person). I had two minor problems at the start, the first one being the tremolo bar which was pretty hard to pop into the bridge hole (a fair amount of force was needed, despite me being scared of breaking it I managed to do it). The second problem/annoyance was the plastic protective foil (for some reason a double foil was applied), which was pretty hard to remove from the guitar, as is the case with many strat-style guitars (you need to remove the knobs).
As for the sound, I am REALLY impressed with the pickups, the neck and middle singlecoils sound very nice, but I am most impressed with the hot rail style humbucker in the bridge position, it kicks really hard (and also has a coil split mode).
Everything mentioned so far indicates that this guitar is definitely a steal for the price (oh and yeah, did I mention it has locking tuners?), which I certainly have to confirm, but I am sorry to say I had one major problem with the guitar - its tremolo system has very bad tuning stability (regardless of no usage of the tremolo bar). I've spent an additional 50 euro for a professional luthier to fix it, which he managed to do partially, but still, now in rehearsals I don't have to tune between each song, but between every two songs. It seems like eventually the only solution is to block off the bridge to turn it into a hardtail. Don't know if this is a problem with that bridge in general or if it's a QC issue, but yeah...
To conclude, if it wasn't for the problematic bridge, I would certainly say that this has to be the perfect guitar to get. If you're on the verge of buying this guitar, definitely go for it (while you still can, as it is limited edition, until the end of the year I believe).

Pros:
- nice "exotic" firemist finish
- very comfortable to play and beautiful roasted maple neck
- very solid sound, awesome hot rail humbucker
- locking tuners
- very good price point (Harley Bentons are known for it, but this is outrageously good)

Cons:
- bad tuning stability - garbage tremolo system
- annoying (double) protective foil
- waiting times for the 25th anniversary models

I have bought many Harley Bentons, some being pretty good, but this is by far the best one I have ever owned, and the first that's compelled me to write a review. Some things to know: the color is almost like a copper more than a gold, but I also find it really unique being that color. The pickups are pretty decent, but if you are picky about pickups, you may want to change them (I almost always do). Also, I am not sure if they are all going to be this way, but the flamed maple neck on mine was ultra flamed, more flamed than I've seen on any other guitar in person before, but I probably got somewhat lucky getting one with such stellar flamed maple. The stainless steel frets are crazy smooth and shiny. I've gotten stainless steel frets before that were still scratchy, but these are not like this, Harley Benton seems to save their best materials for these.

I now have 5 Harley Benton's. For over a year I'm been searching for a ST style guitar and even thought about building my own super ST. Then I seen the coming soon Harley Benton video and decided to hold till I seen what was coming. So glad I waited. I couldn't build my own and even come close to this quality and price. You can tell they took extra special care of the 25th series guitars. To my shock the steel frets were even polished and I own a Fusion, HP42 and they need a little work and I love those. Why the 5* even though if sound is 4/5 well for the quality and price I would give 6*. Hats off good work you earned my repeat business, even if I do stare at it more than play it. Piece of art is added bonus.

Kinda lost for words tbh. This is my very First Harley Benton. And first Strat style guitar too. I usually play Les Paul’s, the expensive original type. So this was a big departure for me. But the 25th Anniversary line got my attention and I decided to go for it. To say I’m impressed is a big understatement. I literally can’t put it down. Definitely worth the 3 week wait . It is flawless. Great setup out of the box, I literally haven’t changed or altered a single thing. Usually the first thing I do when getting a new guitar is to take off the stock strings, apply some lem oil to the fretboard, treat her to some new strings and do a bit of a setup on it. Well, someone has beat me to it. I seriously can’t believe what’s in my hands at this price. If it was twice the price it would still be great value (Don’t Tell Thomann 😉) Apart from the amazing finish, and how it’s so versatile I think my most favourite part of it is the neck. It’s amazing. I had never played a guitar with a baked flamed maple neck and now I want it on ALL my guitars. You literally can’t stop playing it.
I really hope they don’t introduce this line of 25th Anniversary in different colours or I’ll have to put my hand in my pocket again. The Gary Moore Pink/Red Strat finish would be sick on this guitar
Would I recommend it? Yes, in a heart beat. I’m actually trying to convince myself not to buy another on
I would like to shake the hand of the guy responsible for this line of guitars. Truly amazing 🙌

Got mine in December 2023.

Pros - Great specs, features. Good sounding pickups especially the hot rails. Tremolo was setup great out of the box - moves both ways comfortably.
Cons - QC could be slightly better. Hardly any flaming on the neck and sharp fret ends.

Overall I dont think there's anything in the market, at least from the big name brands that compares to this at the price. I would easily put this above a Squier CC and perhaps even a MIM. The tremolo & bridge pickup were standout and exceeded my expectations in just about every way.

The only thing lacking perhaps is in the QC department. My piece had hardly any flaming which was a huge dissapointment. It's only aesthetic but Thomann should check for flaming if it is part of the specs. The other thing that bothered me was fret ends which were sharp. There's no fret sprout and they are levelled/polished well. But the fret ends could use a little more filing and rounding.
This is not a perfect guitar, but it is a great value instrument that you can use as a professional gigging musician also.
Also the color is pretty rare for strat style guitars and gets a lot of attention from others. It definitely stands out in a sea of sunbursts, whites, reds etc...
The softcase is a great addon too. It's not super premium but is very usable and has a good subtle design. I would have liked a little more padding, a more snug fit and some more hardness on the bottom.

Harley Benton is onto something here. Just fix your frets and make sure the flaming is good in every piece and you have a winner. Also next time skip the lanyard, it's totally useless. Instead give a tshirt perhaps.

My 3rd HB, first Strat-type of any brand. It feels great, and i find no cosmetic or playability issues. Nice fretwork and love the rolled edges of the fretboard. Well set-up on arrival and, as always, very well packed to survive the shipping from Hans-Thomann-Straße to Hawaii!

Two issues i have and both involve the volume knob. It's way too easy to turn accidentally while playing as it's right beside the bridge pickup. I understand this is a common Strat problem so not unique here, but an improvement if not moving the knob a little farther away from the strings would be to add some friction so i can't turn the volume off with a strum.

Second is that the volume knob is also the push-pull selector for coil splitting the bridge, which, when pulled up into the split position, suddenly makes the volume WAY more in-the-way for my strumming hand. It's a tree standing up right beside the strings at the bridge pickup. (Ok, adds about 4mm)

Perhaps this is something most Strat players like are have well-acommodated. I'm thinking i may want to swap in an S-1 switch so that the volume knob doesn't sprout so high when coils are split, and then addressing the turning ease with either some frictional addition, or hoping a new S-1 volume pot has the resistance built in.

I like this guitar a lot and will willingly put some time and $ into tweaking it to my preference.

Over the years I have attempted to buy various Harley Benton guitars, but sadly have encountered so many quality control problems. Notwithstanding this, maybe because I am optimistic and on paper the HB line offers some great features, I keep giving them a second chance. I was really excited by this latest 25th anniversary model, and was also encouraged by all the good reviews that talked of great fretwork etc, but on receiving it, I again was badly disappointed with the really poor quality control.

The frets are just awful, with sharp fret ends, incredibly rough fret surfaces and high spots all over the fretboard. I have good skill in guitar repairs and can do most work setting up a guitar (including leveling frets and cutting nuts). But there comes a point, no matter the cost of a guitar, where it is not worth spending the time and effort trying to rectify a basically poor guitar. My last purchase, the Gotoh SG HB model, had a number of problems, including a ridiculously high cut nut, but I decided it was worth the effort sorting out that guitar. On this present ST-25, the fret and nut work is so bad that I am not prepared to do the work regardless of the reasonable cost of the guitar itself. Thomann quality control should be ashamed of itself letting this guitar through! The action was also way too high, but couldn't be lowered to a reasonable height because of all the high spots on the frets. I am so disappointed as I was really excited by the package of features and looks of this guitar! Over the years I have ended up returning more HB guitars than I have kept, and the ones I have kept have all needed work.

I have lost confidence in HB sorry and am unlikely to purchase another HB guitar! I appreciate that the guitars are well priced, but value is not just about price, it is a combination of price and quality, and I simply don't have faith in HB quality anymore. The low price is meaningless, especially if you don't have the skills to do the repair work yourself and have to pay a guitar technician £100 to sort out the guitar. This is simply not a good business model for Thomann, and I am sure most customers would be prepared for say £10 or so being added to the price to ensure good frets and consistent quality control. I know HB can do it because some models like the Fusion seem to be consistently of a high quality.

So, in conclusion, buy with caution and don't be surprised if you receive a real donkey of a guitar. Not a great way to celebrate 25 years!

Ok first off let me mention that between my wife and myself we own over 10 Harley Benton guitars. She ordered me the JA25 and she got the ST25 for herself. Let’s start with the strat. First off the Low e buzzez so bad she can’t play the guitar it’s just the one string and it’s all up and down the fretboard, First HB we ever got that’s gonna need a professional set up. Second the neck was terrible authentically you can barely see the figuring in the wood. It looks like a baked neck hardly any flame at all. Now the JA25, neck looks pretty good much better then the Strat and no noticeable fret buzz but the 3 way toggle arrived broken and I when I plug the guitar in I just get static and hum the guitar can’t be played heck it’s impossible to even tell what position the selector knob is in. When I contacted Thoman about the switch they asked for a video of the guitar, pics of the box, pics of the mailing label and an estimate to have it repaired. After I sent all this info it took them three days to respond, they told me to have it repaired and they would pay up to 90 us to reimburse me!! WTF. I am supposed to fork out another 100 bucks and then trust them to reimburse me? Terrible policy Thoman and needless to say I am done with these guys. The customer service used to be good not anymore. And the QC. Is garbage now as well.