Harley Benton ST-62MN SB Vintage Series 'out of the box' set up

In this video I set up Steven's Harley Benton ST-62MN SB Vintage Series strat, sent direct from Thomann. This is an interesting guitar - just under the £100 mark.

I've had a few Harley Bentons in the past but this is the first one that I've noticed had been fret levelled in the factory. This is an important step for Thomann to take because it means that the buyer can lower the playing action themselves to a reasonably low level and the guitar will play.

However - it's a compromise. They've evidently levelled the frets with a 10 second going-over with a radius block and sandpaper. Nothing wrong with that except they've (understandably) not done the time-consuming part ie. re-profiling and sanding out & polishing the frets.

It's a sensible compromise given the price point. The extra playability is a big gain and when all's said and done it outweighs the VERY scratchy frets and their flat tops.

Steven wanted to give this the full RG treatment - including re-profiling and sanding / polishing. Since I was doing that I decided that I might as well do a light fret levelling as well to clean up some of the notes that were still a little zzzingy.

This levelling was revealing - and I show in the video that the fret dust after my precision levelling represents the difference between my 'strings on' method and the 'strings off' radius block method employed at the factory.

Interestingly, when I set a lower action the 1st fret actions were then too low, around about 0.1mm - resulting in fret-clatter on the low E and A strings on the first frets. This necessitated either shimming the original (plastic) nut or replacing it with a bone nut, which I did. It's a shame because someone at the factory got this nut *almost* spot on...but not quite.

End result is a very low-actioned strat with decent-sounding pickups. This is a perfect starter guitar to give to someone getting into playing and its also a great guitar to buy and set up yourself.

Видео Harley Benton ST-62MN SB Vintage Series 'out of the box' set up канала Sam Deeks