Harley Benton ST-JAMster SCA

Bought this as a gift for my friends son who wants to play guitar and he's so happy about it. The built in AMP and the ability to listen to tracks and play along is something I couldn't even dream of from a guitar when I started playing 28 years ago. This is the only guitar anyone starting out should even consider buying. - Needed fretwork on arrival, but what can you expect for 129 euros with a built in amp. No big deal.

Highly reccommend.

For the price is is a bargain

Packaging is excellent double boxed and very sturdy.

>Guitar is on heavy side about 3.5kg. 22 frets.

The guitar is beautifully finished, stunning candy apple red metallic colour. No blemishes great quality. Neck 22 frets is well set up and has good low string action.

Frets are well finished and it plays well.

Tuners. Adequate but not the best. I found they were not stable for tuning.

Tremolo badly set up, three springs make floating trem impossible. I removed centre spring and adjusted the claw. I can now do the Jeff Beck upwards trem pitch with ease.

Sound, the pickups are adequate but not amazing.
Not a great deal of tone from any of them, neck pickup just doesn't work well, does not have that Strat distinctive neck tone.

Volume pot, works well


Tone pot, kills output sound too much, not great.. I discovered that if you push it down it can select different intensity to reverb and delays This feature is not well described in manual.

Built in active effects.
Clean OK.
Clean +Reverb. Weak reverb only small room size and not powerful.( see note on Tone pot push selector)
Overdrive not a great sound
Distortion weak fizzy
Distortion + Delay. Good the best of all the settings but not loud enough.

Difficult to know which effect has been selected.

Effects in general
Reverb much to weak small room size with no good use. Should be a plate or spring type reverb with medium hall size and 50% in sound mix. Reverb fails on this guitar. See notes on hidden tone control selector

Delay is good but only available on Distortion setting.
The delay like reverb should be available for all sound settings and a tap tempo adjustment for delay.

Overall the guitar is well priced and works well with headphones especially distortion+delay setting.
Used with a conventional amplifier the guitar in passive use is obviously built to a tight costing, it sounds cheap. Nowhere close to Squire Classic Vibe sound for example.

I think better pickups and option for Reverb and Delay adjustment would make this a very useable guitar.

The Audio output mini jack does not work. A mystery.

An input to take sound from phone or Bluetooth audio input would make this so much better.
Overall I give it a 7 out of 10 score based upon great visual appearance.

Hope my feedback is of use.

David Jeffreys.

I am very impressed with: the finish, looks, feel, neck, weight and playability. It was ready to go right out of the box. I LOVE the color. The built-in effects sound pretty good, once you get used to them. Play around with the settings and learn how to control the tones. I like the design. I think it's especially good for new players, a travel guitar or messing around at home. Probably not ideal for a pro or performer, but I don't think that's what it's intended for.

NOTE: the 3.5mm "stereo output" according to the specs and video(s), is actually an INPUT for playing along with backing tracks, etc. It's clean, so it will not be affected by the effects. This is a really cool feature that was mislabeled in marketing and the included paperwork that came with the guitar.

Only had the guitar a few days. Guitar has a lovely candy apple red glossy finish. Looks superb with no noticeable paint issues. Frets level and no sharp edges! Built in sound effects disappointing. Passable for headphone practice but very quiet (ok for beginner to play around quietly). Pickups through amplifier much better than inbuilt tones! Overall, a lovely looking guitar, playable out of box when tuned, smooth neck but inbuilt effects not great!