Harley Benton ST-Modern HH Deluxe DS 2026 - Hardtail 2 Humbucker Guitar

Last year in 2025 Harley Benton launched for a quite short period the ST-Modern HH (Tom Delonge /Blink 182 style guitar) and it was discontinued after a few weeks. Nearly 1 year waiting is over for the NEW 2026 Harley Benton ST-Modern HH and this time with AlNiCo 5 standard output humbucker instead Ceramic high output in 2025 and some new finishes. After setting up the neck relief and intonation it plays quite well, I can feel sharp fret ends but not directly while playing it. So far my first impression is good. The bad plastic smell comming from the pickguard I hope it will disappear in a few days. Locking Tuners are a nice plus but again like on the ST-Modern HSS the lenght is too high, would be great if Thomann/Harley Benton would change this. Just shorter, no staggered tuners needed, only shorter :-) Anyway so far I found following issues: 1. pickguard smells like the plastic was reacting with the protecting foil 2. little paint crack/broken in neck pocket area 3. e-string side little sharp fret ends starting from 12th fret 4. after intonation setup the hardtail bridge plate showing a lot of scratches from the screws (keep this in mind, this will happen on almost all black painted bridges) 5. after adjusting the intonation on E-string, there is no more space for further turns of the screw left 00:00 - UNBOXING 00:44 - VIEWs 02:27 - WEIGHT Check 02:43 - PICKUP Reading 03:24 - CLEAN Sounds 06:57 - DISTORTION Sounds - Rock 08:36 - DISTORTION Sounds - Metal 10:25 - DISTORTION Sounds - Stoner/Retro/Rock 10:50 - DISTORTION Sounds - Doom SUBSCRIBE:    / @fritzsguitars   @fritzsguitars #shredguitar #metalguitar #Isolapickups #hardtailbridge #sound #tone #budgetguitar #guitarreview #guitardemo weight: 3,4 kg Pickup reading: ATTENTION - MISTAKE IN THE VIDEO --- bellow the real values Bridge 8,4 kOhm Middle 4,2 kOhm Neck 8,1 kOhm Specifications from THOMANN: Harley Benton ST-Modern HH Deluxe DS Body: American alder with tapered heel and sculpted rear body contouring Bolt-on neck: Roasted Canadian maple with laurel skunk stripe Double action truss rod with adjustment wheel Fingerboard: Laurel Dot fingerboard inlays with side market Neck profile: Modern C (neck thickness at 1st fret: 20.5 mm, at 22nd fret: 22.5 mm) Compound fingerboard radius: 305 mm - 406 mm (12-16") Scale: 648 mm (25.5") 22 Premium Silver/Nickel 2.7 Medium Jumbo Frets Nut width: 42 mm Graphite nut Pickup: 2 Isola Hydrazine Alnico 5 Black Open Humbucker 1 volume control 1 tone control with push/oull function for coil split Single-ply black pickguard Hardtail bridge with strings through body Machine heads: HB Black hardware Strings: Harley Benton HQS EL .010 - .046 Colour: Desert Sand (NO METALLIC) high-gloss