Harley Benton CST-24 Black Cherry Flame DLX

The Harley Benton CST24 in Black Cherry Flame ... Where should I start? Let's start with the Pros because they outweigh the cons definitely. It's a great guitar for the price. Finishing awesome, playability good. That was the short version.

Pros: Beautiful instrument that feels way more in value than you pay for it. It was properly packed and just minor tuning needed (although making the way from Germany to the UK). The sound out of the box is way better than any other instrument in that price range I have played so far and can hold up with Fender Mexico versions or Epiphone Custom Shops. The intonation was almost spot on. No string buzzing or anything like that. Action was really low and the neck itself is really fast. Great.
Get one! Especially this finish is very beautiful.

Cons:
There are, as expected, a few issues that need to be addressed in an honest review. The tuners are not good. You can turn them and turn them and maybe at some point something happens. But replace them aftermarket with some Graphtech locking tuners and you are fine and it doesn't break the bank. The nut was in a weird angle and the cutouts for the strings haven't been done properly, so the high E-string almost popped off when bending a full step. the B-string ... similar. The fretboard is dry, but nothing that a bit of lemon oil couldn't fix.

Summary:
I wish that sort of quality would have existed when I started playing guitar 25 years ago. I had to deal with a Strat copy from our local dealer, that was more expensive, had the weight of a Jazz Bass and never stayed in tune.
What Harley Benton offers here is great value for money and specially as a beginner or someone that likes modding guitars - this instrument is a fantastic starting point.

Great Instrument for the money! I have sent this one back, although I prefer the look of it. I have a Amber Flame as well, that did not have the above issues and I will give the CST 24 HB a try as well. Let's see which one makes the cut.

The customer service of Thomann is outstanding and quick and the HB Team answers every question about the instrument before you buy and within 14 days (in the UK) you can send it back at no cost (if the guitar is not damaged by you) if you don't like it.

In general, it is a very well-built guitar for 1/5 of a price of an original custom SE 24 model - that was the main reason for me to try this instrument.
Out-of-the-box it wasn't absolutely flawless. Frets were not polished, several frets had relatevely deep notches, obstructing from bending the high E-string, seemed like someone on the factory in Vietnam levelled the frets by a hammer after the strings had been attached;-) Lacquer on the back side of the neck also was't perfectly polished with some hand prints on it. Fretboard was absolutely dry with spots of glue here and there... So before plugging the guitar into my amp I had to spend a several hours polishing frets, sanding and lemonoilng the fretbord.
Anyway, overall build quality of the guitar body and neck is really good, its nice to hold it in your hands. The body is just beautiful, the guitar is considerably lighter than a full-body LPs, all frets access is easy, neck is quite slim and narrow compared to mentioned above prs SE, very playable, I should say. Tuners are OK, they do the job.
If you decide to buy this guitar pay attention to a very 'specific' prs-type bridge setup: before you try to adjust string action by large coin-slot bolts be sure you fully unscrew small black mensuration-setup screws! And by the way you can't properly setup the action before you complete your scale length setup - when you move the bridge the string action changes. So the whole procedure of of setting up this guitar can take an hour of your precious time.
Pickups are not an absolute junk, they are quite decent, but sound a bit weak compared to traditional Dimarzio or SD humbackers, and for sure, being coil-splitted do not sound like real single-coils. The guitar gives you a lot of different intonations, a lot of room for experiments, but you can't substitute a LP and a Strat by this one guitar.
To wrap it up, its a great value-for-money guitar, reasonably priced - not only for beginners, with no real competition in its price rage. Just keep in mind its price and your expectations will be met when you receive it :-)

***UPDATE***

Thomann sent me a new wraparound bridge. This new one works way better than the first one. The adjustable saddle for the B and G string stays in place and I no longer have notes choking out. I LOVE this guitar now. Thanks Thomann!

I fell in love with this guitar the moment i saw it. I wanted a relatively inexpensive backup guitar to have on hand. I will start with the "pros" but please continue reading, because there were some major "cons"

PROS
- Beautiful guitar. The second I unpacked it, I knew it was something special. There is no way this guitar only cost $240 (with an additional $80 shipping....WOOF)

- Decent sounding pickups (for the price). A little boxy and flubby, but definitely usable.

- It played real smooth right out the box. Had to do a couple minor adjustments, but who cares? It came from Germany in the middle of winter. You have to expect it to move a little.

- Tuners aren't locking, but they do a decent job.

- The single-coil tap is a cool feature. Many options.

CONS
- The wrap-around bridge...Good concept. Poorly executed. There is a saddle for the G and B string that can be adjusted more to correct the intonation. If that saddle is slightly out of place in a clockwise manner, my B string notes choke out when I bend. I have to carefully line up this saddle, tighten it WITHOUT knocking it out of alignment, in order to keep my B string from choking out. It took A LOT of time and money to figure out this problem. Also, I've tried FIVE different replacement wrap-around bridges from Amazon. NONE of them work for various reasons. So, you are at the mercy of the bridge they give you. (I've been trying to buy extra bridges from Thomann to have as spares, but I'm having no luck)

- There must have been something funky going on with the press that was stamping out my frets because several of them had a slight gouge running down the middle. I had to have my guitar completely releveled before I could really play it (another $75 added to my cost)

- Not only was the bridge intonation saddle wonky, but the bridge itself feels cheap and lightweight.

- Difficult to find a hardshell case for this guitar. Had to buy one from Thomann. $65 case (nice) with a $60 shipping fee (BOO).

So, in closing...

This guitar is FINALLY in working conditional after a LOT of headache, confusion, and sacrifices. I thought I was getting away with a steal ($240 guitar).

But, shipping fee ($80), case shipping fee ($60), fret relevel ($75), frequent trips to my guitar tech to fix the bridge ($75), with the additional time and energy put into finding a replacement bridge...I'm not sure I would buy this guitar again. Every time I've ever purchased a guitar online without playing it, I've been burned. And it kinda happened again.

Just get ready to bury a LOT of time, money, and energy into this guitar if you buy one.

P.S. Now that I have the bridge situation figured out (even though I'd still like a replacement bridge) , I dropping in some locking tuners and some Seymour Duncan JB and Jazz pickups. It's a tone monster now. A $240 guitar is closer to $700 at this point (gulp)

I recently decided to get back into the guitar after a 15 year hiatus and picked this up as a supposedly cheap and cheerful 're-entry' level instrument. I have been pleasantly surprised by the level of quality here though and my only regret is that this level of quality was not available when I first started playing!
The range of tones and sounds you can get out of this thing is superb, the coil split feature just puts this thing on another level in terms of its flexibility and I think I'll find it difficult to go back to a guitar without that feature.
So far the fixtures and fittings have not given me any trouble though I may replace the machine heads eventually but I am by no means in a rush to do so.
Looks wise the guitar looks fantastic in the flesh and the flamed top is just gorgeous. The cream coloured trimmings really compliment it and it just looks cool, so you really feel drawn to pick it up and play when you see it which is important I feel!
As far as negatives go, there are some minor finishing flaws to the cream binding on the body and a small, but deep scratch on the neck but nothing that bothers me too much. There is also a bit of excess glue on the fret board around some of that binding there but I expect this will come out easily enough when I get around to cleaning and treating it.
Overall, for the money? You can't really go too far wrong with this thing.

I play guitar mostly at home and I've always imagined some kind of good guitar that will play pure tones as a strata and also have a stronger tone for heavy metal.
I changed more budget guitar because I'm not a professional musician, but none met the above criteria.
My choice however fell on Harley Benton 24 without any tremolo, because of its favorable price and its excellent appearance.
After two days of use, I can only say that I am amazed by the quality of the production and the tone that this guitar can play.

pros :
Excellent tuners, veary good pickups, comfortable neck, excellent electronics, push/pull: coil split, and of course incredible look.

cons:
Well, they do not have much, it may be harder for a longer gig, its weight is 4.38kg, but since I play most in the house, it's not a flaw.
They could have been better off polishing the frets.

I would recommend this guitar to everyone because there are so many options for both pure sound and distortion, a truly versatile guitar.
I know that some people complain about the quality of these guitars, but I can say that this is not the case for me.
I can only say that the guitar is phenomenal.

Hi guys,
This guitar is fantastic. Sound is there and it is absolutely a flawless beauty... The red is perfect and my daughter is positive she gets this one lol... (she is 6 months old hehe and never stops staring at it:)
Anyway, I have a few PRS guitars including a nice 30th anniversary pillowtop purple beauty. This guitar gives it a run for the money and sound quality. Thomann has again proven that a guitar does NOT need to cost in the upper hundreds or thousands to be solid, well built, great sounding and more...........
VEry pleased that all three guitars I bought (and had shipped to the USA for a whopping 35 dollars....) are all three in great shape and no flaws to speak of. So... conclusion.. very affordable , (i got mine on sale for under 180 dollars), great sounding, great looking and you do not have to worry about playing it and getting those little dents and scratches.... considering you can literally buy 20 of these and still not pay what a private stock PRS goes for.... save your money, buy better amp and great pedals. Then go to disneyworld on vacation with all that cash you saved....

First time I've ever bought a guitar without trying it out first. For the money I don't think anything can compare. I've owned dozens of guitars including a lot of high end vintage instruments. Right out of the box this thing was ready to play. Action, intonation, neck, frets were all fine, didn't have to adjust anything which is rare. I managed a music store for several years and almost all the guitars we got in had to to be professionally set up. Pickups and electronics are also great for the price. If your the guy that is gonna be picky about finish imperfections such as a few places on the binding where you can see some bleeding of the color from the wood stain, which was just a couple on my instrument, then maybe you gotta complaint. The tuners are a little stiff but work fine, no slipping. I've played many guitars at a much higher price bracket that didn't compare. My first Harley Benton, but definitely not my last. UPDATE: So i've had the guitar for around three months or so and I have decided that I will upgrade the tuners. They seemed to work fine at first but now I'm starting to notice like dead spots or jumping up or down all of a sudden when I'm trying to tune. Haven't had any other issues thus far and I play almost every day. UPDATE... Started have a little problem with keeping in tune when doing a lot of bends. Switched the nut for a bone one, problem solved. Not a big issue for me but if your gonna have to pay someone to do this for you it's something you should consider. It still remains one of my regular players and one of my favorites.

I was blown away when I first saw this guitar. I did not expect such a deeply flamed top. Stunning.
For this price point you have to expect a few minor finishing flaws which there are if you really look close. But all I care about is playability- as in a straight neck with level frets with a low action. Check, check, and check. The fact that it is beautiful is a bonus. This is my 3rd HB guitar. I put in a request for a good quality one with the previously mentioned attributes and they delivered. Did I just get lucky or did this actually get picked for me? Either way I am a happy (guitar-playing) camper.
Set-up out of the box was....well the neck relief and action height were good, but it was not even closely intonnated properly. Takes some patience and time but I was able to set the intonnation and now it sounds spot on.
Lastly, compared to the PAF Roswells in my SC-Custom, these HAF's are definately higher output but there is a mid/treble harshness to them that I'm not in love with. Ok for now but I will likely upgrade the pups. I hate the idea of spending as much on pups as I did on the guitar but for this one I surely will.

I was looking for an upgrade from my 2004 Harley Benton Les Paul (which is still decent to this day) and was checking out guitars in the low mid-range, pricing-wise. I compared Epiphone SGs, Squiers, cheap Fenders and such, the only requirement I had was 1 humbucker, so fatstrats and the like were taken into consideration. After much research I found EytschPi42's review of the CST-24T on Youtube and came to realise that this guitar is about as good as you can get below ~450EUR (i was looking to spend more than this, originally), and that it's so cheap you could still upgrade the pups and easily stay within budget.

The model I received has 5 minor cosmetic flaws, none of which were enough for me to even consider sending it back: the saddle isn't perfectly flush with the neck (~1-2mm too short), a couple of fret-ends could use smoothing off, the center-line in the paintjob running up the middle of the guitar isn't aligned with the bottom strap-pin, the wood on the back is showing some minor damage underneath the paint (looks like someone put it down too hard before the strap-pin was attached), and there are two minor indentations on the tip of the bottom horn, it looks like someone stabbed a toothpick into the clear coat twice.

The Wilkinson pups seem pretty decent for the price (no buzz except some at really high gain) but will be replaced anyway so I didn't test them too extensively. The guitar arrived playable, but I will need to re-do the setup, seeing fret-buzz at the low frets and high action at the high frets, nothing extreme, though. This leads to the next point:

I would go against EytschPi42's recommendation and actually get the version with the tremolo, simply so you have a bridge that's easily adjusted. The wraparound bridge provided with this model is adjustable to a degree, but I suspect it's a large part of the reason this guitar didn't come set up as well as it could have been. I will update once I've re-done the set up, but for now let's just say that you could block off the tremolo and have an adjustable bridge, or you could buy this version and spend another 120EUR on a more adjustable wraparound bridge if you can't get the guitar intonated properly, I guess the choice/risk is yours- if I had to do it again I'd spend 40EUR more for the trem to save 120.

Lastly, I can't confirm what I've read and seen about Ebonol fretboards, mine isn't pitch-black, doesn't look plastic-y, it simply looks like really dry rosewood, which is fine with me. Mine also doesn't have any glue or other residue on it, only some minor scratches along the bindings (can't feel them, only see them if you look very closely).

All in all I am frankly ecstatic to have such a nicely made body to work with, I don't see how it could get any better at this price point.