Cheap Strat Showdown - Harley Benton VS Jet Guitars 

Which was your favourite? Jet Guitars or Harley Benton?

Strings are so inexpensive, it would make more sense to replace them both with new strings when doing a comparison like this. After all, who leaves the original strings on for long? The guitarfetish/slick '51 T-type I have coming boasts that it has "D'A'ddario strings, but BFG about that - if it has NYXL then maybe worth bragging about. The fact the Jet has a roasted neck and bone nut makes you wonder why more expensive guitars don't have them too, including very expensive Fender guitars (listening Fender?). Nice comparison, but the strings thing was annoying, and made comparing their sound less useful.

It's good for Harley Benton to get some competition in this price range. As others have said, HB have started caramelising/roasting more necks (my TE-52 has a really good one) and Jet have started satin finishing their necks. Stratalicious!

Thanks for telling us how to tighten the jack socket. I have a G&L Legacy strat that I bought secondhand around 5 years ago. The jack socket was loose from day one, however I would just tighten with my hand. So it was always coming loose. I took your advice, and tightened it, it seems to be ok. Thanks again

Great review-very well thought out and top marks for focusing on the most important aspects for typical buyers of these entry-level guitars. I've been playing for about 30 years and have a few expensive guitars, but my favourites seem to be "budget" guitars that I've modded. I'm thinking about getting one of the Jet JS-400s to replace my Artist Guitars ST-type guitars (got both the SSS and HSS models with and without roasted maple neck). Great guitars, but I just cannot help nudging the volume pot as I play. I was thrilled to see the Jet JS-400 has roasted maple neck, 2-point trem, HSS pickup config (all pickups will be changed) and, most importantly, master volume/master tone control layout with a little more space between the high E string and the volume pot.

The roasty-toasty neck on the Jet was stratolicious.

Not strats but I have a HB TE-52 tele and the neck finish/fret ends etc are incredible. Much better than my Fender tele. Probably the best finished neck I've ever played.

I've tried the Jet JS300 with satin rosted neck today for the first time and - oh boy - I immediately fell for it! Amazing cheap guitar! The neck is just fantastic.

Stratolicious... I like the look of the Jet with that roasted maple neck. I particularly enjoyed the two guitars side by side comparison. Great concept and very informative. Can we have more, especially at the budget friendly end of the market! 👍

Hey Andy, you'll be happy to hear, that Jet has changed their gloss necks to satin necks on their JS-300 and JS-400 guitars. I'm not sure about the others however.

Just found your channel, and I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm a classical player, so I don't know anything about electrics, but you give enough detail that I might actually learn something! Well done.

Great great review. Very thorough and objective.

Great breakdown, you hit the major differences which is greatly appreciated, subbed, thanks!

I own both a Jet and a HB T types .HB is fine but the roasted maple neck and bone nut are a game changer and love it .

Hey Andy! I have a Harley Benton HB335 love it so coarse would go for the Harley Benton. Good video comparison. 👍🏻

They seem pretty equal (outside preferences, mostly). I think I'm going Harely Benton. Lower price, awesome customer service, great warranty & if I spend the same as I would on a Jet, I then get some sweet upgrades. Thank you, great comparison & excellent playing. Wish I had learned the output jack rule of thumb earlier. Yikes I have one to repair from turning it and busting wires.

Those are some stratolicious guitars right there! Thanks for the great informational content!

Wow! These so called “budget” guitars sounded amazing compared to 30 years ago. My squier strat that I bought in ‘85 didn’t even sounded this good! Tough one, I’m familiar with Harley Benton but never heard of Jet guitars until I hit this channel. They both sounded great for the money. I’m kinda leaning toward the jet simply I like the finished more on the jet instead of HB. But they both sound great!😌🎶👍🏾

I'ver just taken delivery of a stratiliscous Jet JS300 and yes the neck is now satin and feels really good. It is a stunning guitar for the money. The pickups are good but I think change them. Even paying extra to change the pickups doesn't chnage the fact that it's still an inexpensive great strat

Hi there geek. Good review. Both are much better than what was available when I was starting out. Hek I would like to have one now.Rock on

Have recently bought the jet 300 tele. Satin neck, it feels amazing. For £150 it’s flawless, reckon the js300 is now satin too, seriously thinking of getting one

Stratilicious! I might be the only non guitar player watching, but I just love listening to the technicalities of an instrument I've enjoyed others playing all my six plus decades! I'd always assumed that the more a guitar costs the better it must sound, but thanks to Andy I'm learning that's not necessarily always so🙂

I’ve a couple of Harley Benton guitars and a HBbass all good also a Sire Larry Carlton tele type which is awesome better than my player series strat. I’m off to get a jet strat next possibly the 400. Great comparison thank you for this love your great revues.

Great video. Having watched other reviews on You Tube, I have been surprisingly impressed by Jet guitars. However, I wanted to see a direct comparison with a similarly priced guitar of equivalent quality. The Harley Benton was a good choice and after your review, I found it difficult to choose between the two. They where both impressive for budget end guitars, but if I was in the market for one. The JS-300 would win, although the ceramic pick-ups would be the first thing to go and a set of Ernie Ball strings fitted.

Wonnderful video! The Jet guitars I played all had wonderful necks!

I preferred the tone of the HB. But could have been the strings on the Jet? I'd probably go with the Jet because of the neck upgrade. Good video. Thanks.

Great comparison. Just what I was looking for

I just got a lefty Jet JS400 as I was swayed by all the hype surrounding the brand on here. Their profile seems to be higher than any other budget brand. I'm initial impression is this guitar is comparable to instructions to higher end Squiers. I like the sculpted heel, but some of screws in scratchplate and string tree were a bit wonky, so QC isn't quite there. As to playability, the guitar felt great (satin neck) and it sounds great through my Blackstar.

Stress delicious - might try the Jet as I am wanting to try to learn how to adequately set-up my own guitars. Enjoy this - thanks.

You put a lot of work into that and it showed, for the name alone and the '50's early 60's vibe it fires in my head daddio it's got be be the Jet, it's surfalicious, it's hydrolicious, it's statolicious lightning! 🌩

Just bought the Harley Benton ST-20 WH Standard Series (white) for $77 American on April 25, 2024.. Yes, I did pay more for shipping than the guitar cost all the way here to Missouri USA (Kansas City), but I could only afford one guitar. Early days, but I am encouraged.

The Jet all day long, it was straight stratolicious!

Hi Andy, I have an HB35+ which I love, I’m not really an ST lover but I think I’d prefer the look and playability of the JS300 Stratalicious 😃

Great job. Thank you so much. (Apparently this is my second comment. I made one 3 months ago.) I began listening to your video in the garage listening on my Android. But I decided to switch to my laptop so I could give you my comments. That's a sign of respect to your good work. I have been playing guitar for 8 months. I am 73 years young :) I practice/play/research 2-3 hours a day. Great to be retired. I purchased two Jets at the beginning of my guitar journey: a Jet JS300 and a Jet JS400. Why? Dave Simpson demo'd them on RU-vid and many of us would buy whatever Dave plays (he's great). Here are my beginner thoughts on the Jet JS300. (I have never touched a Harley Benton.) 1. Cheap strings. I purchased my two Jets from a vendor in Oregon, USA. I always felt the strings were a bit odd. Now that I am more experienced. I know the strings are too cheap, just as you said in your video. I need to replace them with good strings and I think the Jets will sound even better. 2. Neck. Yes, the necks are awesome until a dry Chicago winter attacks them. Then a bit of fret sprout. Then I started humidifying my guitar room and putting my guitars in the shower after a shower (yes, that helps). Now the fret sprout is reduced, almost back to normal which is to say very good. 3. Tuners. I have read elsewhere that the Jet tuners are cheap so that plants a predisposition in your mind that the tuning is average at best. All I can tell you is that my 1990's Harmony H80T seems to keep better tune than the Jets. 4. Resale value. At one point my wife convinced me to sell a few guitars. I tried selling the Jets on Facebook and Craigslist in Chicago, IL USA. I went down to 1/2 of retail price and then stopped trying. I wasn't about to give my Jets away. 5. 60 Cycle hum. It's my JS300 that taught me that strats often have "hum". Musicians learn to deal with that. Oddly again, my 1990's Harmony H80T ($50 on Craigslist) has no 60 cycle hum at all. Weird. Lots of good things: 1. They are pretty. 2. My local guitar shop loved them. He thought of becoming a dealer. 3. Pretty as heck. 4. Easy to play. Fender tells us that 90% of all beginner guitarists quit before the end of their first year. Most beginners (or their parents), need to consider what they can sell the guitar for if the guitarist quits guitar. My guess is you can get more for a Harley Benton beginner strat than for a Jet beginner strat. So that's it. Your video convinced me to love my Jet, change the cheap strings to good strings, and keep on playing. I'm not worried about the tuners since I'm not in a rock banc banging on a guitar. And, since I am moderately deaf, I normally can't tell the difference from one pickup to another. Sorry Guitar Geek, I don't even know your name. But you do great work with your videos and your viewers thank you for that work.

I own a number of both of these guitar brands and find the Jet guitars much better sounding & playing guitars

Great comparsion, well done! Whenever I see such a nice person from the UK, I find it sad that you have left the EU. It's like good friends left me...

Do you want to compare the guitars or the strings? Change the strings on both guitars before testing. When both guitars have the same strings you can make a more accurate test. I just looked on the Trhomann site, the Harley Bentons now come with a roasted neck too.

Ive just bought the Jet JS300 and in my opinion the neck alone is worth the price of the guitar. Im hoping to use it as a modding platform but first on my list is to try to 'flatten' the black gloss finish 👍The neck on mine is more satin than glossy perhaps Jet have changed their manufacturing process ? Stratilicious

It's amazing how good entry-level guitars are these days! I have a HB beatbass and it's great. My first electric, in the 70's wouldn't stay in tune 😢 This is a splendid review. It really got down to the important observations. I do wonder if the Jet would have sounded different with better strings. I know this was an out-of-the-box review, but putting better ones could have revealed more about the capability of the instrument. I'm in the stratalicious club and will definitely look at more of your vids.

Very good review. I just purchased the new Harley Benton ST-62CC with the Pau Ferro fretboard in Lake Placid Blue. Very nice indeed. 148€ euros. Stratolicious!!🤓

I have the js 300 and the pick ups are fine , they sound fantastic tbf

I'd liked to have seen the strings on both guitars replaced with a set of same stings on each. Because if you order a cheap guitar your going to change the string out of the box anyway.

I have the jet. The neck is great as is general construction. You will want to swap the pickup's. So worth fracturing the extra cost into you decision

Hello there. Great interesting review. I own a HB ST-62 and I don’t use it so much. I’m a old beginner but I have 5 electric guitars. Three HB and one Epiphone SG and one Ibanez. I just love my HB CST-24. Ok 👌 have a nice evening.

Chears to have Long Term fun I'd prefer the jet, change strings and probably mess arround with pickups since there are cheap & good once available these days. Maybe change the switch while playing with pu's. Good Base for playing with mods. Thanks for Your honest opinion and the work you've put in. Wish You a merry x-mas and a heavy rockin' New Year 😂🎉👍

You make me want some tea.. and maybe a scone.. - Thanks for these videos - always a pleasure to watch

Stratalicious! I liked the Harley Benton more. I have the 25th anniversary HB strat and it's really nice for the price.

I don't mean to geeksplain the Geek, but for the beginners watching here's a correction: The radius doesn't have to do with degrees (7:33). The mm or inches refer to the radius of a circle. The higher the number the larger the diameter of the circle. And if you cut a piece of the circumference the width of a fretboard, the piece taken out of a larger circle will be flatter than that taken out of a smaller one. Thus, larger/smaller radius translates to flatter/curvier (?) fretboard. Also, strats with radiuses above 9,5" are just wrong, imho. Not stratalicious at all.

Stratolicious. I bought a Jet JS300 before seeing this video. I do enjoy the Jet. But I have come to realize thar resale value is a factor. Since beginners do trade-up, you might discuss trade-in value when comparing guitars. But great analytical video. Thanks.

Good review! Would be nice to have a comparison of JS-400 since it has a 2.0 bridge, I'm in between buying a JS-400 and a Harley Benton ST62 to do some mods, it's hard since we cannot easily test them.

This was a stratilicious comparison! Thanks for the weights, btw. That's perhaps the most rarely talked about aspect on guitars (understandably so because it varies so much, but it's still nice to put a number on it IMO).

I bought a Jet JS450 for 300 Euros. One of the screws on the locking tuners was bent, but all work fine. There's imperfections on the binding. The color is quite different to the pictures. Play-ability is amazing. Sound...I have planned on changing pickups as soon as I get the guitar...and haven't done so yet, as I quite like the sound of the pickups.

Can't beat the HB Warranty.....have about 10 HB guitars and all needed just little"touches" but have several guitars at 10xs the price that had fret sprout . Cheers Andy and keep on keepin on!

Very comprehensive review of all relevant info

How DOES one write stratelisious? Let alone define it? Fun word, fun video. I prefer the sound of the Harley Benton, sprouting fretends can be dressed, boards can be rolled. The trem might need replacing, but seems to work ok. I know where I'd spend the extra ££ as well, on a nice cheap overdrivrive pedal.

Great video! Haven’t tried the HB, but did buy a Jet JS300 a few months ago after seeing your unboxing video. Unbelievable as I’ve bought pedals for more money!

Mr Guitar Geek, you do the best job to compare guitars. i have four different types of HB-Guitars. i wonder how they reach such high quality for the money. my favourite is the Harley Benton SC-400 SGT Les Paul, it costs 115 euros and at the beginning it goes out of tune but now it stays really good in tune.

That was a stratalicious video!! Thank you.

I may go with the Jet. Love the bone nut and roasted maple neck. The new ones have two single coil and a humbucker which gives some interesting options, but not TRUE STAT sound. Even so, the clean sounds are where the difference are. After you add some gain or a pedal, it's hard to tell which guitar is being played (Since my hearing is not so great). Great comparison. I didn't hear you complain about the bridge screws (Maybe I missed it) on the HB. Several players have mentioned it. Since I do a lot of palm muting, that might be an issue. Since I haven't seen an HB up close and personal, I don't know how much of an issue or if they can just be swapped out. "CHEAP" guitars is a relative term now since most are made with CNC machines and can be quite well put together. So, Strataliscious - if that's how you spell it LOL

I've got them both. The JS300 arrived yesterday so I can report my impressions when I changed strings. The HB is really good guitar but it has problems with tuning stability and shielding.

Just bought the sunburst JS300 strat for $199, well worth it. Great neck on it. Looks classy, sounds good. Killer deal.

Stratolicious review! Thanks :) Wanted to clarify tho - doesn't Harley Benton use now so called Caramelized Maple on these guitars, so it's more like the same as the roasted one on the Jet guitars?

The Harley B has the alnicolicious pickyups but the Jet has the roasted necky. Harry B has the D'addario's but Jef has the solid jacky. In the sphere of strats they are, stratovariously, splendiforicious!

I am a big fan of budget guitars (for modding). I ordered a Jet JS450 (love the look) on April 1st - and haven't gotten it yet. I also bought a second hand unfinished Harley Benton DIY Les Paul kit - with a bolt on neck. And to my surprise, its sustain rivals that of my 2 Epiphone Les Pauls. The switch and controls aren't great - so I am soldering my own electronics and will use Seymour Duncan P90s. The nut also needs work, but for 68 Euros and absolute steal.

I just use some fine grit sandpaper or steel wool on glossy necks to make them satin.. Easy fix!

One question, do they both have SSS routed body or SSH routed body (could switch to a humbucker in the bridge) or a swimming pool routed body (basically you can do whatever you want with the pick up, install 4 if you want)?

Stratoliciousm, i have a fender s, a gibson lp but im loving my HB tele, its a great guitar for the money. 125 uk gpb, on the 3 in your vid, id prolly go HB for the smoother neck

Statolicious video!! I hope I spelled that correctly, if there is a correct way to spell it. I think that the Harley Benton guitar is the better deal. Spending more $$$$ for the Jet, plus the price of new pups, shipping, tax, and instalation, puts the Jet in the price range of a better class of guitar, but, without the resale value of a more well known brand. In other words, you will lose a lot of money if you try to sell it on. Thanks for the video, and the fact that you didn't use a pedal board, or loads of effect and processors so we can actually hear what the guitars sound like. I know I've made up my mind...... I'm buying a Tokai.

The glossy neck would be a no go…but nothing you couldn’t fix with a bit of sandpaper. The Harley sounds to me more strattilious, but I wonder how the Jet would sound if you put new better strings on it.

Hey Andy! Do you also review acoustic/classical guitars?

I've just bought a stratolicious JET-300 (left-handed) guitar to initiate myself in this highly addictive hobby and while I can't compare it to any other one, I was advised by someone who's worked in radio music production for 30+ years so I trusted his advice, and I am very happy indeed. I have the surf green one and a mini amp in the same colour, all very vintage, which is totally my thing. The retail price is 199€ but I bought it for less.

a VERY small drop of Loctite on jack screws mostly helps your Stratolicious

Good review and statolicious 👍

Those are some really heavy stratolicious guitars :) Guess shipping must be expensive at about 3,6 tonnes per guitar :) Would probably go with the HB out of these two

I much prefer the HB, on sound samples it really surprised me, it doesn't sound like a budget entry level guitar. Oh by the way, Stratolicious!

good review Andy .I bought the stratalicous js 400 after watching your first review.im delighted with it.as you said a fantastic mod platform.i also bought 2 Harley Bentons to stay sane in lockdown.the build quality of the jet is far better than the Harley Bentons in my opinion.had to change the tuners, the nut,the bridges and dress the frets on both Harley Bentons.did nothing to the jet except change strings and I've put locking tuners on....because I like em not because they were bad.im retired now.ive played Strats for 50 years mostly USA.i still have a 57 an 88 and 76.i bought the jet for a more modern sound.im still uncertain about the pickups I haven't tried them at volume yet. cheers Andy.keep up the good work!

Great video. Thank you. Also, that's a brilliant Eric Morecombe impression at 14:45. 👓

I didn't have the same luck with Jet , bought my youngest son one of their basses for christmas . Volume pot was shot out , frets were like razor blades down the sides of the neck , bridge was crooked and no where even close to centered . Had no issues with return though and even had the 80 bucks back on my card about 20 minutes after UPS picked it up . All in all I wasn't really expecting much for 80 bucks , and if it hadn't been for the volume pot , I probably would have done a fret job on it and centered the bridge .

A flatter radius could be good because it is a little less demanding on the equality of fret work.

I've been playing the Jet JS400 for a year now, which is like the JS300 but HBB, I've had very expensive Fender Stratocasters, so know good guitars, the Jet is great, I replaced the single coils, which were ok on the Jet, but with Iron Gear, Pig Iron, tuning great, but the trem springs, not good, after a few months, changed them, a cheap fix, the neck and playability is superb, it's now main single coil gig guitar.

Interesting... so Jet is a perhaps a better upgrade platform but the HB sounds most stratilicious out the box. You do pay a bit more for the Jet so the interesting question is you buy something further up the Harley Benton range, like the ST 90 which is closer in price to the Jet and only a touch more expensive, do you get the best of both? Roasted maple and bone nut is tough to beat at that pricepoint though!

6 bolt tremolo systems are going be stiff, but no need for tremolo setter or lock that you will need with a floating 2 bolt Floyd Rose. The biggest advantage is the Jet's volume knob is further away from the bridge pickup where the HB the volume knob is way too close even Fender make's that mistake. The Jet pickups has more clarity.

Hi Andy! Cheers from Canada! I wonder how the jet would do compared with a Hb that has a roasted maple neck? Edited.... Stratalicous! Or is it stratalishus! 🤟

I really liked the sound of the HB, but it does need finishing touches to get to that *stratilicious* playability

I must have had over 10 guitars in my life. The one I bought mid 70s is an Ibanez SG that sat me back some 850 guilders at the time. Nowadays 400 €. For its time an expensive one. Fender and its far below D brand Squire I gave away. Also some Italian jazz guitars were given away. I bought a BC Rich and that was the best guitar I bought since the Ibanez, so that one stays. I played on some HB and they are quite nice comparing price and quality. But as Ry Cooder once said; 'I play on any piece of wood with 6 strings. In the end it all comes down to the talent of the player'. And yes, he is right. I played on no name guitars far better than Fender Telecasters made in Mexico sold well over 1 thousand bucks.

... STRATOLICIOUS! Just bought a black JET Guitars JS-300 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ .

Both guitars weigh over 3 and a half tonnes?! WOW 😳 As a side note, I'm 40 this weekend and getting my first guitar. I think it's gonna be the Jet JS400 with some new slinky strings and a fender lt25. I was gonna go fender affinity, because I bought my son one a couple years ago and was impressed by how it was ready set up etc, but the Jet's just seem nicer for the money, plus they do a surf green option 🤘

I really love the Stratolicious Harley Benton. I’m going to buy one.

The new Harley Benton ST and TE models are all Canadian Roasted Maple necks for 2022. Coincidence? I think not. I'd love to see a comparison of the jet and the new one

I wonder if there's some variation in the same models. My HB tele has a neck that appears to be identical to the one in this video. My HB st-62 has a thinner roasted maple neck. The tremelo is also ridiculously stiff on mine, but I'm more used to playing my tele, so I usually forget the trem is there anyway.

I have several cheap strats with MAJOR upgrades because I like to see how close I can get to the American standard. You can get pretty close if not just as good with the cheap strats from h.b. and squier, so I'm guessing the jet would be the same

Stratalicious! You could have helped the comparison by putting some daddarios on the jet. That would have been superstratalicious califragilistic!

Jet guitars where there even in early 00s, as well as flight (flight actually were making electric guitars also, not only ukuleles)

Hmm, well it almost seems like the best, stratolicious model would be combo of the 2. Listening to the two guitars, it seemed that the HB's Alnico pickups in the JS300 would be an excellent choice. But didn't you do a review of the entire Jet line? I'll have to watch that again but I think you liked the JS400 a lot. Keep up the good work. Cheers!

Cool video and comparison, I prefer the HB although I'm not really a strat fan, or a guitar player. Just a born again guitar learnerist! STRATOVARIOUS! ... damn even fkd that up :) ☮☮☮👍👍👍🤘🤘🤘

Stratalicious my man. I honestly liked both of them for different reasons. But overall, I'd get the Jet because it was far better in term of actual function. Cheaper sound, but less maintainence needed to get it 'right'.

Just bought a HB ST62 MN VW ... Vintage Series Body: Basswood Bolt-on neck: Vintage caramelised canadian maple Fretboard: Vintage caramelised canadian maple Neck profile: C Fretboard radius: 305 mm (12'') Scale: 648 mm Nut width: 42 mm Graphite 22 Frets ''Double Action'' truss rod Pickups: 3 Roswell STA AlNiCo-5 vintage ST-style single coils 5-Way pickup selector switch 1 x Volume and 2 x tone controls White pickguard Chrome-plated deluxe hardware Synchronised tremolo system Kluson style machine heads Strings: .010- 046 Colour: Vintage White high gloss

Jet issues can be solved with some super fine sandpaper to make the neck satin, and new pick ups. Jet because you said it played better and that is the whole point of a beginner guitar, to learn how to play.

Thanks!!!!!!

Stratolicious evaluation. My choice would be Jet. Already enjoy my JT-300 (tellyish) so I may be partial.