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What is it?
A budget relic guitar is honestly not something I ever thought I’d have to review, yet here we are with the Harley Benton ST-62HA. The new Aged series from Harley Benton marks something different, giving guitar players pre-worn electric guitars that still carry that value-for-money ethos but look like something that came out of a custom shop.
Relic guitars are divisive; there’s no doubt about that. They’re also typically very expensive, so Harley Benton’s move to capture that part of the market with a budget option is an interesting one. I imagine there’s a portion of the guitar community that will be really happy to pick one of these up, especially when they look at the price tag.
Very much channeling the spirit of Rory Gallagher, Mike McCready and John Frusciante’s iconically beaten Stratocasters, this model comes in at well below the $250 mark. It’s got an American alder body and a caramelized Canadian maple ‘C’ profile neck with a laurel fretboard, which in turn is fitted with 22 nickel silver, medium jumbo frets with dot inlays.
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It’s packing the classic 25.5-inch scale length and a 12-inch radius on the fretboard for a more modern feel. Kluson-style tuners adorn the headstock, with a synchronized tremolo system at the other end. A trio of Isola single-coil pickups sits alongside a master volume control, two tone controls, plus a 5-way switch for all those iconic S-type tones.
Specs
- Launch price: $238 / £214 / €249
- Made: N/A
- Type: Six-string electric guitar
- Body: Selected American alder
- Neck: Caramelised Canadian maple, C profile
- Fingerboard: Laurel, dot inlays, 305mm radius
- Scale length: 648mm (25.5″)
- Nut/width: Graphite, 42mm (1.65″)
- Frets: 22, premium 2.7mm medium jumbo, nickel silver
- Hardware: Kluson-style tuners, synchronized tremolo system, aged chrome hardware
- String spacing at bridge: 52mm
- Electrics: 3x Isola VT-ST Alnico 5 single coils; 1x volume control, 2x tone controls, 5-way switch
- Weight: 3.1kg
- Options: Light relic available (LA models)
- Left-handed options: N/A
- Finishes: 3-Tone Sunburst (as reviewed), Black
- Cases: Not included
- Contact: Harley Benton
Build quality
Build quality rating: ★★★½
Despite looking like it fell down the stairs and skidded across the factory floor, the ST-62HA is very nicely put together.
The neck pocket is snug, and in spite of the aging, all of the hardware is very robustly applied. It feels relatively lightweight to my hand, and comes in at 3.1kg on the scales. It’s a bit lighter than the TE-62LA I also reviewed, which is to be expected with the cutaways, sculpting, and perhaps a little less paint.
The body features all the typical S-style comfort carves. There’s an armrest and a belly cut, and the edges of the body are all rounded off. The body aging is pretty egregious, and I have to say I don’t think it looks that great. The main problem is that the wood underneath is totally fresh, so it really doesn’t give that worn look that’s done much better on the TE-62LA, where the wood looks darker where the paint has been removed.
It looks like someone picked it off, whereas if you look at a genuinely worn guitar, the damage is quite different in appearance. Using Frusciante’s Strat as an example, the paint at the armrest blends into the wood as it’s worn down over time. On the ST-62HA, there’s a harsh line between the paint loss and the wood itself, which is not how it appears on a guitar that’s actually been worn down from years of agitation.
That said, there’s no gloss on the finish, making this a guitar that will age more quickly through natural use. If you want a relic guitar with a head start, then this might not be a bad shout. It’s hard work, but you could definitely scrape more of the paintwork off yourself and refine the aging.
The lack of wear on the fretboard is an interesting choice, too. This is present on the ‘Light Aged’ maple fretboards, but not here on a guitar that’s meant to be more heavily aged. Wear on a dark wood fretboard is a lot less obvious than that of a maple ‘board, but it would’ve been nice to have something here, like slightly discolored inlays. The obvious newness of the neck sticks out like a bum note in a solo classical piece.
The reverse of the neck is pre-worn. It looks pretty realistic when compared to my over 20-year-old Squier Strat, but is a little too even across the neck.
The hardware, on the other hand, is really nicely done for the most part, giving an authentically tarnished look. It would be nice to see a bit of extra wear (as you get in real life) on the bridge saddles, but overall it’s pretty convincing.
Less convincing are the pickup covers, all three of which appear to be in different states of age on the review model. The bridge pickup is pretty much totally yellowed, the middle has a lot of white still showing on it, and the neck pickups cover is mainly yellow with a touch of white showing through. The knobs and toggle selector feature a similar yellowing, but the pickguard itself is mainly white, too, which means the aged components stand out even more.
This is a $250 guitar. And I think trying to get a decent relic at this price is going to be difficult for any manufacturer. The problem is it just doesn’t look particularly good.
It also appears that the Black-with-maple-neck version of the ST-62LA has fretboard wear and darkened body wood, so if you want a budget relic that looks the part, it seems like a much better choice to me.
Playability
Playability rating: ★★★★½
The neck here is equal to that on much more expensive instruments
Harley Benton is onto a winner when it comes to its guitar necks. The neck here is equal to that on much more expensive instruments, providing awesome playability for not a lot of money. This guitar features a classic ‘C’ profile that feels immediately familiar as soon as I pick it up to play. It’s comfortable up and down, and the flatter, 12-inch radius makes it feel very playable.
The action measures 1.5mm at the 12th fret with my finger on the first fret of the low E string, and although there’s room for improvement, it doesn’t hold me up in the speed department. Lead licks and legato come very easily, and the medium jumbo frets offer a nice platform to play against, providing that tried and tested middle ground of fret size that suits a variety of playing styles.
Sliding my hand up and down the neck, I can feel the frets a little against the edge of my palm. They’re not sharp, but the guitar would be more comfortable with a little work to get the frets feeling buttery smooth. My overall impression is that this is a fantastic playing guitar, especially as it’s so keenly priced. The only limiting factor here for any style of playing is technique rather than any limitation inherent in the design.
I’m not usually a fan of six-screw tremolo designs, but this one isn’t bad. It has the typical lack of fluidity you get from this design versus the two-point design, but using it doesn’t send the guitar completely out of tune (although deeper dives do knock it out), which is nice.
Even without locking tuners, I find it holds tuning pretty well. Generally, every string is out of tune by the same amount. For more subtle vibrato, it does a fine job.
Sounds
Sounds rating: ★★★★☆
Plugging the ST-62HA into my audio interface with my favorite Neural DSP plugin, Tone King set to a clean sound with some spring reverb and tremolo, I set about putting the guitar to the test sonically. It’s wired to vintage specs, so the neck and middle pickups both have a dedicated tone control, while the tone knob has no effect in position 1, as the bridge pickup is wired straight to the output jack.
Consequently, the bridge single coil is a little brittle-sounding to my ear, and there’s no way to control it other than amp controls or an EQ pedal when I play it clean. It’s very full on, especially as I get further up the fretboard where the high-end moves towards harsh territory. Thankfully it’s a really easy mod to apply one of the tone controls to the bridge pickup if you were to buy one of these.
Moving to position 2, I get that classic S-type quack. The ability to roll-off the treble a bit is much appreciated here, and I can get a much more usable sound out of it. Ditto with the middle position, which is really full sounding and ends up being one of my favorite sounds this guitar can do.
Again, I find the bridge pickup to be very bright
Again, in position 4 I feel the need to roll off the tone a bit as there’s a bit too much high-frequency stuff going on. It’s coming from a touch of sharpness in the neck pickup sound, and doing this makes it much warmer and rounder sounding, getting rid of what feels like excessive brightness to my ear and making it more like that classic S-type neck tone.
Moving onto some distorted sounds, I switch up the channel of the amp sim and add a simulated King of Tone overdrive pedal into the signal chain for some more aggression. Again, I find the bridge pickup to be very bright, and it gets pretty harsh further up the fretboard. You can really tell these are cheaper pickups just by that. It’s not terrible, but that slight harshness in the high end is more noticeable with the gain up.
It’s a similar story in positions 2, 3, 4, and 5. The addition of a drive pedal means I need to roll off even more via the tone knob to make it less brittle and icepicky in the highs. But with this done, those classic S-type tones are all accessible; you’ll just need to augment your amp and effects a little bit to compensate. There are some really great sounds here, especially when you factor in the low cost of the guitar.
Verdict
Aesthetics aside, this is a really playable electric guitar, slightly let down by the electronics. The neck profile is incredibly comfortable no matter what your preferred style, and the guitar was well set up out of the box. The pickups unfortunately sound quite cheap rather than punching above their weight, so while they’ll be fine for beginners, those with a more learned ear might look to upgrade them.
There are some weird choices with the relicing here
There are some weird choices with the relicing here that appear to have been solved by the black, maple neck version. The fresh wood beneath the removed paint and a fretboard with zero wear on it make it look like a much more obvious attempt at stolen glory than the other models in the range. It means I can’t help but recommend the version in black versus this one if you want a relic’d guitar that actually looks the part.
Guitar World verdict: If relics are your thing and you want one on a budget, I’d recommend getting the black, maple-neck version of the ST-62HA. For me, the 3-colour sunburst just doesn’t hold up due to some poor visual-design choices. It’s got a really playable neck profile and is well put together, and there are some great sounds here if you’re willing to chop and change your settings. Overall, this is a solid but flawed guitar that’s let down by the lack of attention to detail in the looks.
|
Test |
Results |
Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Build quality |
Very well put together, but some curious choices in the relicing. |
★★★½ |
|
Playability |
An incredibly playable guitar that punches above its price point. |
★★★★½ |
|
Sounds |
Some great sounds here, but you need to tweak them. |
★★★★☆ |
|
Overall |
A solid guitar let down by design choices. |
★★★★☆ |
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