Harley Benton ST-62 HOT ROD vs. ST-20HH Active Sound Demo

[@Anfiro33]

Thanks again! Shipment on the way, he is excited and says he is well aware and motivated to put in the time for practising mainly doing it correctly no matter the quantity he will have time for, he will not be skipping forward too fast and we have found many good things on youtube for learning and exercises. Of course he will also just play around a little as well and like you say maybe a song or two aside the practising to learn how to play. We have an old neighbour not to far away were we used to live that play guitar with music as a hobby who gladly will help us set up the guitar and probably more to help him. Glad to hear you own and use the P1 yourself which just assures that it was a smart purchase. I looked at the gtrs guitar but quite expensive and like you say then also always limited to that one guitar. Velcro solution to attach to guitar not covering qr code I knew already. Good luck to you with your guitar playing and hope you get more subscribers and have positive impact on others like for us 😀 !!!

[@fritzsguitars]

:-) If it was a help, than I m glad to help you.

[@Anfiro33]

Excellent comparative sound demo. Very helpful! Buying my son his first electric guitar and he likes 80s-90s rock all kind of different rock sounds such as Bon Jovi, Kiss, Aerosmith, ac/dc, Toto, Survivor, Dire Straits, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Nirvana. I was not sure between HH or HSS pick up configuration. Now I am convinced the ST-62 Hot Rod HSS will cover most sounds of bands he like and will try to learn to play ( eventually as he is a conplete new beginner with only keyboard playing experience) Seems more value to spend the extra money on the ST-62 instead of cheaper ST-20. Thanx a lot 😀

[@fritzsguitars]

Thx! Humbucker in the bridge is always a good choise, I also like single coils in the middle and the neck but in bridge position single coils are not my taste. Sound options he should have enough. MOST IMPORTANT: the guitar should get a good setup... action, intonation, without even high price guitars would not play well and your son would lost the interesst.

[@Anfiro33]

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated! Good point that most important will be a good setup and HSS for variety options. As he is a complete beginner 16 years old, would you recommend just to go with the st-20 to start with? Would you say it is thinking ahead too much and wont make a difference for learning ( without need to upgrade further ahead ) to spend more money on for example ST-62BK Hot Rod or ST-70 Black Paisley. What would you recommend?

[@fritzsguitars]

I also had an ST-20 which I replaced in the bridge position with an Roswell SHR hot rail / dual rail humbucker... same as in the ST62 hot rod. Great guitar the st-20, but I needed to make the fret ends smooth by grinding/polish it with sand paper. ST-20 **PROS**: 1. no vintage saddles in the tremolo --> better comfort for palm mute playing 2. leighter weight 3. darker fretboard which looked like ebony / **CONS**: 1. maybe to smoothen the fret ends to get rid off the sharpness 2. additional money and work to replace the bridge pickup --> at the end the price will be like equal to the ST-62 3. ugly bright white pickguard... replacement with mint or even black would give them better look --> additonal money and work 4. electronic wiring like Fender --> no tone control on bridge pickup --> additional work with soldering if you need tone control for bridge pickup. ST-62 **PROS** 1. Roswell SHR hot rail humbucker already in the bridge 2. my example showed no sharp fret ends 3. the overall look was great, for my taste no need to change. / **CONS** 1. same wiring issue no tone control on bridge pickup 2. vintage saddles on tremolo not much comfortable for palm mutes 3. to lower the action the screws standing out the saddles which reduced playability for me --> needed to replace them with shorter screws. 4. action and setup was a nightmare, I even needed to shim the neck to get better angle for low action between 12th and upper frets. OVERALL you are buying low budget guitars, means its like lottery to get an good one out the box, often they need a little setup and care to make them great playing instruments. If you are able to do this or you know a good luthier how will not charge you as much as one of these inexpensive guitars cost, go for it.

[@Anfiro33]

@@fritzsguitars Really thanks for pointing out differences. However the st-20 is also available with HSS configuration, would you then say that the ST-20 is good enough? Sanding frets that are sharp isnt an issue but changes to the neck itself is not something one would like to do. If the neck is noticeable thicker on the ST-62 from 12th fret i suppose the ST-20 will be easier to play. His hands are not so big either. Also looking to buy secondhand modelling amp and hopefully be able to tune the bridge position from the amp (?) Looking to buy Line 6 spider iv, 15 w or something similar. Thanks again 😀

[@fritzsguitars]

I think go for it ST-20 with HSS, humbucker as the name says will make less noise while playing with distortion/gain instead of single coils... further a high output humbucker can help to get faster overdriven/distortion tones but even with low output humbucker... just adding more gain... Neck ST-20 is thinner overall than ST-62. Standard screw lenght of the saddles often are 8mm, see that you have some in 6mm for the setup, easy to replace and no screw will hurt the hand. Check out ***Mooer Prime P1***, not an amp, its like an multieffect with amp and speaker simulations + drum beats + tuner + audio interface for recording on computer or even on phone/laptop... all what your son will need and you will like it cause it´s silent when he is playing via headphones.

[@Melle-i3o]

The ST-62 Hot Rod sounds way more Heavy

[@fritzsguitars]

Roswell Ceramic high output single coil humbucker