Harley Benton ST-80FR HH ASB

I was skeptical of this guitar having read other reviews and watched several videos which seemed to suggest hit and miss QC. But for the money I thought it was worth a "risk" even if just for the Floyd Rose. Upon opening the box I was very pleasantly surprised, the paint and finish is excellent, no scratches, no defects that's I've seen so far and the fit and finish is almost perfect. The fretwork is great, I do agree than the rounded ends near the low-E could be troublesome as an upward bend or push can make the string drop off the fretboard. For me this was easily rectified after a bit of playing you get used to it.

The pickups sound fantastic for the price point, the bridge pickup is high gain and really has a growl, all strings sound distinct and not muddy, I expected way worse! The bridge pickup is a little muddy but rolling off the volume gives some clarity. The bridge is good, the only issue I have with it is the tonearm feels sloppy even when tightened all the way, it has too much play but I think this is a problem with the thickness of the tonearm to where it seats in the bridge, easily rectified with some PTFE tape. Other than that, the setup was out of the box almost perfect (for me), action is great, frets are not sharp, polished well, the bridge was perfectly parallel to the body when in-tune, the intonation is absolutely perfect between 0 and 12. The intonation setup I was surprised by, having owned many Floyd Rose and floating trem guitars in the past they are notorious for bad intonation.

The trem has 4 springs on the claw, in earlier reviews I saw people complaining about stability and return from divebombs causing issues. Mine has no such problems. The knife-edges on the trem seem find, no weird noise and no skipping.

All in all, I am extremely pleased with my purchased. It was delivered to me in Bulgaria with zero issues and no damage. Thank you Thomann!