Harley Benton CST-24HB Tortoise Flame

I was once lucky enough to own a guitar very similar to this made by a well-known company in the USA. It cost me well over two thousand British Pounds - and I bought it secondhand! Unfortunately, due to financial circumstances, I had to part with it (in exchange for a much-needed car!) Now I have bought the Harley Benton CST-24 HB Tortoise Flame, it almost feels like I have my valuable guitar back - at a tiny fraction of the price. I won't say it plays as well as my old Hollowbody guitar because, in fact, my new Harley Benton CST-24HB actually plays BETTER. Straight from the box it was excellent and now, after a minor adjustment to one of the nut slots and the truss rod by my friendly luthier, I have a great-sounding, beautiful guitar with a superb action. It balances perfectly on a strap with no neck-dive (often a problem with semi-acoustic guitars). This time, no work at all was necessary on the frets - they are excellent. The Wilkinson pickups are becoming widely recognized as a very good humbucker and have the classic alnico humbucker sound (in fact I prefer them to the sound of the pickups of my American guitar). There are no unwanted noises or microphonic problems and, unusually for a cheap guitar, the master volume and tone controls function perfectly, with a smooth taper and no loss of treble when the volume is reduced. The tuners are excellent, the graphite nut is better and more elegantly shaped than the rather ugly one on my US guitar. Generally, the finish is top class, with a flame veneer top and bound F-holes (my US guitar had unbound F-holes). The main difference can be found inside - my US guitar had an arched flame maple back and the internal construction under the bridge was a work of art to rival a top class violin. The Harley Benton has a more typical central block construction and I must confess the internal finishing looks a bit rough if you look inside the F-holes with a torch and a magnifying glass. However - this is the important thing - this construction means it works better as a functional electric guitar at high volume. Interestingly, the acoustic sound is almost exactly the same despite the internal differences, so I wonder if all the craftsmanship of the US guitar was really necessary for any purpose other than to persuade overpaid guitar-fancying American dentists to part with more of their money. I am much more than happy with this guitar and I have already urged Thomann, bearing in mind the instrument's excellent acoustic character, to offer the same guitar with an adjustable bridge and piezo saddles. I am sure a lot of guitarists would find such a guitar extremely interesting if the price is right (which I am sure it would be with Harley Benton). Once again, I am astounded that a guitar of this quality can be done for this price. My local guitar shop proprietor and my friendly luthier both agree. In fact I had a bit of trouble retrieving it from my friend the luthier, who is a big fan of arch-top F-hole guitars and seems to particularly like playing this one! I am not at all surprised that the CST-24HB Tortoise Flame is out of stock until September and I urge anyone interested in this type of guitar to get hold of one as soon as they are available again. It is also available in cherry sunburst with "tree of life" fretboard inlay, but I think I prefer this finish and the interesting little cross-shaped fret markers. I have been playing guitar for nearly fifty years and back in 1980 I reviewed guitars professionally for a magazine. This is the second CST-24 I have bought from Thomann in less than a month. Harley Benton does it again!

This was my first ever Harley Benton and also very first buy from Thomann. As a beginner, I was not fixed on any particular make of guitar as long as it was a humbucker as recommended by my teacher and within my expenditure limit of $300. The Harley Benton CST 24 HB Tortoise Flame initially caught my eye from just its looks alone. I researched it further and when I saw a B-Stock priced under $200 on the Thomann site and talked to one of their agents, I decided to pull the plug and placed an order. It arrived at my door in exactly five days later, well-packed in its original box inside a larger carton with absolutely no external or internal damage whatsoever. Kudos to Thomann for its solid packaging and quick shipment of the order.
I have to say that, having seen the messy finishing of the guitar shown in Darrell Braun’s YouTube review and the even more shocking experience narrated by All Things Guitars of a B-Stock order in which chunks seemed to have been cut out of either end of the fretboard, I was somewhat anxious. However, when I took out the guitar, I simply was blown away by its stunning beauty. Except for the issues I will come to later, the finishing was perfect without significant noticeable blemishes, scratches, painting sloppiness, glue remnants or black color varnish matted on the fingerboard or the headstock. I could not feel any sharp or protruding fret edges; the inlays were well set; the selector, volume and tone knobs, toggle switch and cable plug were all firmly fixed in place, nothing loose or wobbling about. The CST 24 HB looks and feels small but is for me exactly the right size. From other buyers’ reviews, it seems to vary in weight from 3.6kg up to 4.2 kg (which is quite a surprising difference for an item of identical specifications) but mine is exactly 3.0 kgs which is quite light and very tolerable. I plugged it in and all systems – volume, tone, toggle switch and pull coil split built into the tone control - were working. On the other hand, even as a novice, I could see that the string action was quite high and the guitar also arrived badly out of tune. This was however nothing to worry about as I had decided that I would take the guitar a tech to check it comprehensively, replace the bridge so that the strings could be intonated and adjusted individually, polish and oil the fretboard which arrived somewhat dry, change the strings and set it up properly, all of which was done.
I have now had the guitar, playing it almost daily, for nearly three months since it came back from guitar tech. Wonderful! The thin neck fits well in the hand and makes for fantastic playability as I can run my hand fluidly up and down without any of the grippiness I experienced when I experimented with some guitars at a guitar shop. At this stage of my guitar journey, my sound demands are not that complex, and I will not pretend to any technical assessment of the pickups, but let me say that I play the guitar mostly in clean mode through a practice amp and it crisp, clear, brilliant and well balanced in all tones without any humming or rustling. I think it has excellent range as I can cover very satisfactorily pretty much all the rock, bluesy, jazzy and African sounds that I am practicing. There is a very apparent drop in feedback when the coil split is engaged but frankly this is a function which at this stage is not so critical for me, the primary options being more than enough for me. On the other hand, the fact that, being semi-hollow, the guitar can be played acoustically quite adequately is a big advantage as I can practice very late in the night without having to plug it into the amplifier and risk going to war with my family or neighbours! It is a guitar which really has so much flexibility and maneuverability. You can even imagine interacting with it as flirtation a pretty, nimble coquettish beauty!
So, have I had no issues or problems at all with the guitar? Well, there are five main drawbacks that I must highlight. Probably the most serious one is that from about the 21st fret, access to the frets is quite cramped. The 22nd to 24th frets are virtually unreachable on the low end of the fretboard which is quite a bummer because a lot of the African lead sounds that are an important part of the repertoire I am building is played in that register. I had even thought that these last frets were incorrectly spaced but the guitar is in perfect tune down to the very last fret. It is also clearly not a problem with the guitar’s cutaways so I have a feeling the problem is with the heel of the neck having been set too far out. Secondly, at the 15th fret, both tone and sustain on the B string are deadened and dampened out considerably. Dead spots are in fact the third problem, this time with the tuners. While, on the whole, they do their job, they all have some spots which when you turn the machine head, there is no response. This makes it quite difficult to tune precisely, especially from the D to the high E strings. Tuning stability as a whole could be better and I have to tune the guitar pretty much each time I play, especially the B and high E strings. Then, when the coil-split is engaged, the sound is noticeably weaker and thinner, certainly is not like the quality of a single coil as I see demonstrated in single coil guitar tests. So, if this is not just an unlucky draw in my particular guitar, those who may be thinking of buying the guitar because of this particular attribute of the coil split need to look out. Finally each of the frets from 2nd to 24th on the high-end of the fretboard has a noticeable dimple as if they have been grooved or shaved out. This is nothing as serious as the case I referred to earlier reviewed by All Things Guitar and there is no sign that they affect the way it plays at all but, even as only a visual defect, this is an important issue to mention and may well be the reason why the guitar was returned.
What then are my conclusions? Without doubt, for its visual magnetism, I would buy another CST24 HB. Beyond looks, even with the issues highlighted above, I believe that I have got a very good guitar both for the price I paid for it and in its own right. Going by my experience and also the reviews that I have seen, I am definitely bothered by what appears like a very high variation in quality in Harley Brent guitars apparently of the same brand and specs and, if I was allowed a humble recommendation, it would be that Thomann should invest in ironing out all these quality slippages and quirks. Speaking for myself, if this was to imply an additional $50 to the price of the guitar to guarantee that each one would not have any of what can be quite serious quality gaps, I truly would pay for it. All notwithstanding, I am quite happy with the CST24 and am sure this will not be my last purchase of either a Harley Benton guitar or from Thomann.

1) The guitar I've got is visually very different from the one, that is in the pictures. I have read, that I am not the only one, who encountered this problem. Shame on You, Thomann
2) Quality of product is very good. Guitar have nice, glossy finish. Binding around the body have some flaws, but looks good. You can find some visual defects here and there, but they are so tiny, that it's hard to spot them. There are some greater issues with star inlays, the small ones have some holes and missing parts, but it is noticeable only if you look for flaws. In all, guitar is beautiful. It has nice forms and great looking headstock. Kind of looks like well known P.. guitars :)
3) Guitar has one of the best tuners I have encountered. The nut seems like is made of Tusq. There is weird wraparound bridge used in this guitar. At start it seemed ok, but, when I lowered action, the intonation suffered. And there is no way to adjust intonation for low strings, only B\G is adjustable.
4) The pots and the switch seems fair quality. They work. Pickups are great. They seem a bit dark, but EQ fixes it. Sound output is very high. By my mind, coil split is useless.
5) Overall sound of guitar is beautiful. It has long sustain. Overall guitar is very loud. It tries to overload\overdrive any amp I've tried with it. The interesting thing is that sound comes slowly and fades out as slowly as it came. I's perfect for atmospheric music. The guitar sings to me, always I pick it up. I love it.
6) Guitar has fairly beefy neck, but it is quite comfortable. The glossy finish is not the best for fast playing, but fast satining made it better. Fretwork is fairly good. I couldn't find any fret end sticking out, but fret leveling job could be better. It came with reasonable action and no fret buzz. When I lowered action, some fret buzz appeared, but I haven't found fret that's causing it. It is so small, that I live with it, for now.

Overall: guitar is beautiful, it sounds great,plays great. and costs very reasonably. For little money you get great instrument. It's shame that it doesn't look like in pictures.

EDIT:
I was wrong about bridge. There is a way to adjust intonation on lower strings. I found some screws against the bridge posts, that should do the job. Haven't tried this yet.
I was curious about that fret buzz after lowering the action. I found some 5 or 6 frets, that sticks out. If you like low action, then get ready for fret leveling. But actually in that price region any guitar will have similar issues, so it's still worth it and I still love this instrument.

I was a little worried after seeing some reviews of the latest Harley Benton's. I was concerned about the manufacturing being moved to Vietnam and the new Roswell pup's.
I had seen mixed reviews when I placed my order at the end of March 2018, but I decided to order and hope for the best.
My background , I am a tool and die machinist by trade and a hobbiest musician who plays for fun.I also own a Fender Deluxe Stratocaster and I purchased a Harley Benton SC550 at the same time I purchased the CST-24HB.
Even though I am a novice guitarist my twenty plus years being a tool and die machinist gives me the ability to offer more than just personal thoughts and feelings on how an instrument feels.
The Pros:
The fit and finish is absolutley wonderful.There is no doubt it was setup and inspected before leaving Thomann.The frets are level and the neck feels and plays great.The electronics work as they should and the push/pull gives great options.I am happy with the Roswell pup's. I can get the classic rock and blues that I wanted.
The cons:
While it is completely playable as is I did polish the frets and I will retrofit some locking machine heads in the near future because I am keeping this and I prefer them.
The bottom line is I am very pleased with the purchase.

I'm semi-pro with 50 years playing. I wanted this guitar to give me a semi-acoustic option with rounder sound.

Guitar came with no imperfections in finish or electronics. Neck set properly, relief was correct - no buzzing. Frets are slightly lower profile than I prefer, but not a real issue, they were finished well, and with no sprout. The pickups were not adjusted for height very well, neck pickup was too hot, and the bridge too low. Once I evened this out, they are very nicely balanced, although I'm not sure I'll be using the split position very much. It's a nice feature to have in your back pocket, but this guitar is definitely meant to be a humbucker, not an S-type.

I'm not completely convince with the tone control roll-off. Seems to fall off from bright to low too rapidly, so I'm not sure if the pot is capped and resisted to assist in high end loss, but this is not a real issue for me either, as I can compensate with eq in my chain.

Overall playability is excellent. Very smooth with no fight anywhere on the neck.

The guitar is absolutely stunning to look at (with the possible exception of the weird pointy headstock, thank God it's black!). Nice flame, rich dark brown overall, better looking than the Thomann pics on product page.

I'm looking forward to many years playing this fine instrument. Exceptional value. Looking forward to more Harley's in my collection!

Harley Benton was an unknown brand to me; but after extensive research via YouTube & the web, I?ve been impressed by the overwhelmingly positive response to the range of HB cheap-as-chips guitars.
The reviews of the CST-24HB were generally glowing, and on screen this one does look to be a real corker ?but really how good can a guitar like this be for such a low price? .. were the reviews all just too good to be true, I asked myself??

I?ve been thinking about getting one of these for a while .. hmmm, but do I really need another guitar? (I?ve already got 12 electrics!); anyway I finally bit the bullet and ordered No. 13 as a late Xmas gift to myself.
I was a little anxious that it would not meet my, by then, quite high expectations ? much to my relief, I was not disappointed: 1st impression: WOW!; Gorgeous! What a cracking looking guitar!

On closer inspection, I was pleased to find it was cosmetically perfect with a very good set-up out of the box (though the partially corroded (but still in-tune!) strings needed replacing).

I?ve been playing for >40 years so I consider myself an experienced Guitar aficionado; Let me confirm what other have said, this is an absolute bargain & a pretty fine instrument to boot! OK, there are a few niggly issues that I discovered after playing it for a little while; but IMO nothing major & nothing that can't be sorted out during a set-up.

Price paid worked out to be ~ £170 all in. I still can't get over it. An absolute crazy price for what you get!

Some details on my guitar for your information:
General build quality / Body: Very good.
Front book-matched centre line is well positioned. Very pretty flame top with a similar general colour to the graphic shown on the Thomann website. Not perfectly book-matched, as one side has slightly more definition than the other, but still very pretty. The dark brown colour of the 2-piece back, sides & neck, as well as the cream body "binding", are sympathetic with the dark'ish figured front.
The overall impression is that this is one hell of a classy, GORGEOUS looking well made guitar!

Weight: seems to be about the same as a Strat/Tele. i.e. 3.5kg / 7.5lb. It balances nicely on a strap & when seated.

Neck: medium ?D? shape that sits well in the hand (not as chunky as a Les Paul; certainly nothing to be scared of & soon gotten use to; but if you prefer a thin neck you will notice the difference; at least at first).
Inlays are unique & quite pretty, and nicely done. It has a somewhat plain looking, more grey than brown, light coloured (almost 'dusty' looking) rosewood fretboard; its appearance did improve IMO with the application of a touch of conditioning oil.
I do love the unrestricted access to the upper frets, though playing at the 22nd to 24th is still a bit of a challenge.
A little too much neck relief was present as received but I'm leaving that unchanged until after I put a new set of 9's on it.

Tuners: feel OK: smooth & accurate in use.

Nut: wow!!!!! ?. almost a perfect set-up with nice low 1st fret action (a real surprise as this is rarely evident on cheap (& medium priced!!) guitars!). All new guitars should be like this!!!!! I'm not even sure that I need to touch this during set-up.

Frets: medium size with an OK finish (they could benefit from a polish). A tidy fret job but ideally some attention is needed to some of the fret-ends where I can just feel a few sharp points/edges here & there (nothing really bad though).
I ran a fret rocker over the neck out of interest and OK there are some slightly uneven frets in several places along/across the neck (as expected & as usual) but nothing so significant that an acceptably low action cannot be achieved.

Knobs/pots: fine. Smooth movement & good taper on both volume & tone. The usual slight loss of treble when the volume is turned down is present (as usual) but this is down to my amp/pedals/leads set-up, not the guitar. Tone control rolls off the top-end as expected but is far too dull IMO when fully rolled back (sounds like a 22nF or greater cap to me .. I prefer 10nF .. I might change it at some point ... if I can access the electrics easily?)

Bridge: Intonation is perfect & I really like the feel of the, new to my experience, wraparound bridge under the right hand. Very cool!
However there was a problem with the B string slot on the bridge that resulted in an annoying sitar-like buzz. The HB "DLX GTB" bridge at 1st look seemed to be a close clone of the Wilkinson GTB wrap-over tail piece/bridge; but actually it is slightly different in size plus it has one significant design difference: it doesn't have the Wilkinson's string slot end-fill that creates a defined break-point ridge on the bridge. I did contact Thomann on this 'sitar' issue & after a bit of back and forth, they shipped me a replacement bridge; but by then I had decided that, rather than try to fix the original or wait for the replacement, I would upgrade to the Wilkinson (as it is not expensive: £18). In spite of having some different dimensions, the Wilkinson does perfectly fit into the same bridge bushings on the guitar. Problem solved!

f-holes: are nicely done, look very classy & are one of the main features that attracted me to this guitar (those & the PRS body shape & the flamed top); OK, if you peer into the f-holes, of course you can see the wiring loom and some unpainted wood in the inner nooks & crannies ? but nothing is visible from the front when being played. Good enough for me.
The acoustic tone is bright with a good sustain. The f-holes do not seem to make much difference to the acoustic sound (nor the acoustic volume)(as expected with this solid centre block type of construction).

Sound/Pick-ups: This is a real rock & blues machine as the PUs are very pokey. I mostly play single coil guitars (strat/tele types though I do have a couple with humbuckers) so when I plugged it into my amp which was set-up for my Strat .. WOW! ... what a big beefy bold full rockin' sound! Great! The bridge PU has a real middley-honk with plenty of bottom that drives the amp front-end to produce a full thick rock tone. I was surprised how good my amp sounded with this guitar! (well it has been a while since I've played a humbucker loaded guitar).
The neck PU has a more defined, almost acoustic guitar-like tone; great for clean sounds & strumming and a nice contrast to the bridge PU. I won't be changing these PUs in a hurry.
The only negative that I found with the electrics: there was an intermittent crackle from the electrics when I 'test' shook the guitar, that went away when I nudged the inner wires with a finger through the F-hole. Note: It does play cleanly when not being shaken. I do plan to remove the PUs & check the wiring in the body cavity (& determine how easy it would be to access pots/switches in order to mod the circuitry).

Playability: Out-of-the box, it plays very well. Action was medium-low i.e 1.5mm 1st string at 12th fret to 1.75mm 6th string 12th fret and the strings ring out cleanly all over the neck.

Conclusion:
Whenever I've bought a new guitar, whatever the price, there have always been a few niggles that needed to be sorted out to for it to meet my needs and that is also true of this one.
Is it perfect? No. This particular guitar would certainly would benefit from a full check & set-up. However I should say that, apart from the annoying bridge problem on my guitar which Thomann effectively did resolve for me, the guitar with its as-received set-up is still totally acceptable & good to go.

At the ridiculous price being asked for it, you really have to ask yourself why would you not buy one! Even if you were to factor in the cost of a professional (or D.I.Y) set-up & tweak, this would still be a super bargain guitar.
I wish such guitars as this one were available at this price to my younger self when I started playing (This one shockingly would cost just £11 in 1973 when I paid £43 for my 1st new electric guitar, a crappy Eros plywood ?Les Paul?-alike, ... you do the math ... 'nuff said).

Features: 5 stars (deserved just for its beauty, that's even before you play a note)
Sound: 5 stars (Very subjective but I love it)
Quality: 5 stars (Not perfect but at this price far far above expectations)

Would I recommend getting one ?. Absolutely YES!!!

I play mostly blues and some rock. I watched some reviews online and most of them were very complimentary. To my ears, the tones were right in line with what I was looking for, however, since I live in the United States I was very nervous about ordering a guitar from somewhere in Europe because if something went wrong, I may have challenges getting it back to Thomann. I decided to give it a shot. It took almost a month to get to me (during the holidays) and when I received the box, it was quite mangled. When I unboxed the guitar, I was extremely happy to see that the guitar was in good condition, except for the pointy end at the top of the headstock, which had been broken. The guitar played well and the tones were better than I had hoped. The guitar is beautiful and the neck is a nice D shape, which I like. I can get good blues, rock, jazz and country tones out of it. I did notice a dry fretboard and rusted strings, but those are easily fixed. For the price I paid for it, the guitar is quite impressive.

I just bought one last week and received it in California from Germany in three days to my doorstep. Opening the box, I was apprehensive however the guitar was flawless in everyway cosmetically. The strings were a little high and the intonation was a little off, both of which are easily fixed. It plays better than my Gibson 335 unplugged and the pickups are fine. I'm going to have a luthier work on it that costs about $60 and it has become my favorite guitar around the house. I've been playing on stage for the last 15 years with a 1998 fender Lonestar Stratocaster which is much heavier so am thinking about switching. Moving from Texas special single coils to split humbuckers will take some practice, but that's what fun is all about. If you like this guitar don't hesitate. I am thrilled with it.

This is my third HB guitar and again I am so impressed with what those guys in Vietnam have built.

Like anyone who buys guitars over the internet there is a bit of caution when the delivery van draws up at your door. With the current virus scare I was especially nervous. Quick spray of the external box opening to kill any bugs was my first step. Careful shift into the garage where I unboxed my treasures and returned to the house to wash my hands ! On unwrapping the guitar I was so so delighted to see a beautifully finished guitar that matches the web site photos and description.

Cons? Hahaha. If I have to nitpick ..... When I next change strings I will "finish off" the end of the fretboard where it almost touches the neck PUP as I can see where a dab of my model paint will tone it to match the fretboard playing surface. That same paint will be used to coves a couple of very small areas inside the guitar where (I suspect) the dark paint was eased off when installing the wiring.

I need do nothing else as it was delivered almost in tune - I was impressed with the tuners and after an afternoon of trying it out it has stayed very close to being in tune.

Did I say it is gorgeous??????????????

Beautiful guitar that sounds awesome. With all things, there is a value for money equation that needs to be made. This Harley Benton CST-24 HB offers incredible value. And did I mention that it sounds awesome? Out of the box, the setup is perfect. I did slightly adjust the intonation to my preference but not a big deal as this has to be considered normal for any new guitar. I also changed the strings to my preference (9's) and oiled the fretboard. Again, normal for any new guitar whether it costs 150 or 1500.

I love the weight. Very light, yet does not feel cheap. Great tuners. The knobs and switch feel good to me. Overall a wonderful guitar. Highly recommend.