Harley Benton CST-24 Black Cherry Flame DLX

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....

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.

I have listened to and read many product reviews of this guitar before I decided to purchase one.
NO REGRETS - buy one !!!!
There are people who have written ridiculous reviews with the most unrealistic comments about tiny imperfection of the paint finish or glue spots and dry fingerboards - GET REAL you guys you are not buying a ¤3000 guitar - these guitars are real value for money - yes they are made to a price range - but the build quality and features exceed the price and represent a first class purchase - my only comments about the the guitar would relate to the pick ups - the hum buckers are a little wooly/bass and I prefer the coil tap position - but I would not be changing the pick ups - no need to with the numerous effects available
In conclusion - a lovely guitar played good out of the box - intonation OK - changed the strings to 9s - lemon oiled the finger board - NOTHING wrong with the guitar to want me to send it back - BUY ONE you will not regret it - enjoy

Either I'm incredibly lucky and got a prime specimen or HB upped their game a bit because by the looks of it, it's really nice and I don't hardly anything to complain on!
It has a birth mark on the lower left section but I don't mind! And the only other thing I noticed was a little bit of red left over on the binding, nothing much!

-Coil tap standard on the guitar!!! Even tough it doesn't say anything on the web page.
-Frets all nice and level, no fret buzz
-No glue or any other stuff left over on the fretboard
-Fretboard is not as dark as I tought it was gonna be looks nice and doesn't stain the fingers but is a little dry, nothing a little lemon oil can't fix!
-One solid piece of mahagony for the body, I can't see any joints or other pieces! :O
The guitar stays in tune really well, and as far as I can hear, no intonation problems at all! I initially wanted the trem version but I watched EytscPi42's review and decided against it. And also it's cheaper!