ST-Style

The universal first-upgrade for any S-style — bright, balanced tone that brings out basswood midrange and masks stock-pickup harshness. Most HB buyers swap to Slinkys before even finishing a song through the factory strings.

EXL110's slightly brighter top-end complements Harley Benton's budget single-coils, adding presence the stock strings lack. The other default alongside Slinky in the EU budget community.

Pure nickel vintage feel in a lighter gauge for softer bending on HB's wider flat radius. Turns a budget Strat clone into something responding closer to vintage Fender spec.

Unconventional: $25 hand-wound pure nickel on a sub-$150 Strat clone. The Harley Benton ST-Style is Thomann's house-brand entry-level S-type, and standard budget-guitar logic says match cheap guitar with cheap strings — spend the $15 on basic Ernie Ball Slinky or D'Addario EXL110, save the rest for pickup upgrades. Nearly all Thomann customer reviews and r/guitar budget threads follow this reasoning.

But Phillip McKnight's YouTube budget-series, Darrell Braun Guitar's 'strings vs pickups' upgrade tests, and the German-language Bonedo.de reviews have repeatedly shown the opposite: DR Pure Blues on a stock HB ST-Style outperforms many pickup swaps in blind A/B tests. The hand-wound pure nickel construction smooths the harsh top-end of HB's ceramic pickups (a consistent complaint across Thomann feedback), adds midrange body the basswood lacks, and creates the warm compressed character people describe as 'expensive guitar feel.' What you get: guitar sounds two price tiers above its sticker, pickup complaints disappear without modification, upgrade path clarity (you stop wanting pickup swaps). What you sacrifice: $25 on strings for a $140 guitar (psychologically difficult), string life (DR Pure Blues dies faster than coated), and the opportunity to build pickup-swap skills early.

Best for EU budget players who will keep the HB as primary gig instrument; skip it if you plan to upgrade the guitar entirely within a year.