Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame

After doing my fair bit of research and coming to a personal conclusion that there isn't something exclusively as a 'perfect beginner guitar', but its all a matter of personal choice and most importantly the available budget to spend towards said guitar.

My initial options or favoured choices were more inclined towards the Fenders, and other bigger name brands, due to their quality, etc. But couldn't justify some of the prices keeping in mind I had to still keep aside enough money for a good amp, and other miscellaneous expenditure towards my first set up.

Until one of my friend mentioned Thomman, so I found my way here and was truly surprised and impressed. Went through all the offerings in ST and T style guitars, zeroed in on this model and then went back to the internet to check a variety of reviews and demos on YouTube, which only gave me far more confidence in taking a chance with Thomman's offerings.

Made the purchase, bid my time and it finally arrived.
Beautiful finish with no issues, dents, chips, etc, aesthetically the guitar is on point.

Functionality: no sharp frets, came with good quality D'Addario strings, and just overall well set up. The final check was done thoroughly. I will be changing the nut eventually, I'm sure it will only improve the instrument. The Roswell pickups are great, and oh the sound and tone from this guitar, does way more than what I expected it to.

Go to YouTube yourself check out videos from a bunch of reliable sources (there are quite a few) < my purchase surely confirmed that personally>, and read the reviews from other purchasers here as well.

Take a chance if you feel like going for a ""budget guitar"", and on receiving this well crafted instrument you'll soon realise it is and does what its supposed to as a guitar.

Best value for your money, by a country mile.

And then what, just plug in and surrender your offerings to the altar of music, whatever be the kind your into and enjoy playing.

Before ordering this guitar i was a little bit worried that it might be too heavy for me. I watched reviews on YT and heard people say that it was a heavy instrument. 4 K plus. Thomann must really love me because my copy only weights 3.2 kilo's. It's a light guitar in my book. And it feels like it....It came very well & safely packed as always...it arrived absolutely flawless...no dents, stains, wrong binding areas No sharp fret ends. nothing. The glossy finish is spot on..the flame on top looks gorgeous.
The pics on the Thomann page shows that the side and back of the guitar look brownish...this is not the case on my copy. It's beautiful black gloss. The neck has the same color. Glossy black. it's a great feeling neck. Fits perfectly in my left hand and feel fabulous. The tuners feel sturdy and of good quality. The Wilkinson trem looks and feels good too. it's not 'stiff' feeling at all for my liking and it bends just right for me. When strapping the guitar and putting it round my neck it feels really well balanced. Lovely to hold...I could have it hanging there for hours without any pain. The pickups sound great...both give a good sound. Humbucker mode is my favorite...sounds fatter and the tones generated are top! When applying the push-pull mode one goes into single coil..the humbuckers split..this makes the sound a little thinner...but still good sounding. The CST is the 4th Harley Benton electric guitar i bought in one year. It's definitely the best. It is also one of the nicest guitars i have ever played on...among them guitars which have cost a lot more. I have been playing it for two days now...the only thing i did was lowering the saddles a bit and align them a little more to the neck 'curve'.....I am very, very happy. An absolutely stunning buy!

PS: 3 days later...i now have the pickup height set-up according too PRS's advice for a model like this guitar...this results in a much better sounding coil-split mode...the overall sound became better.

I have ordered this guitar in July 2022. I ordered it to Armenia with standard delivery method, so it took about a month for the shipment to arrive - to me it seemed like an impresive time frame. My only recommendation is to share more realistic approxinmate delivery dates, because it says 2-3 weeks basically, and though I was 100% sure that it can't be delivered within 14 days or even 19 days, it can be critical to someone. I have ordered another guitar recently with expedited delivery service (UPS Express) that promised my shipment to be delivered basically within 3 business days. And again, though I knew it was not possible (and I was right, a whole week passed already, and my shipment is still on its way), someone else can be really disapointed.
So, back to CST-24T Black Flame. All was good. Quality was impressive and I was really happy. The only issue was a tremolo bar - it looked like they accidentally put a wrong one to the bag: the bar easily falls out of the hole in the guitar and its position cannot be fixed in any way. It just hangs and dangles, risking to fall out at any moment, so it's simply impossible to use it at a concert or even at a rehearsal. Nonetheless, it was not a problem for me as I am not a tremolo user, but still spoils the overall impression.
Another problem is more significant. I own this guitar for less than 5 months (I received it in August and am writing this review in December), and my bridge pickup is not working. Actually, first signs of this issues appeared back in September and October already - the sound of the bridge pickup was intermittently disappearing or fading, but I was blaming my old cabel. So, about a month ago I bought a new cabel, but it didn't help. In the middle of November bridge pickup stopped working (well, it is working, but it sounds like gain and volume are at 0). I know that wire oxidation is probably to blame, and it can be easily fixed, but I just didn't have time to do it. But still it is very disapointing to face such issue with the guitar that is less than 5 months old.
So, though I really liked this guitar and was happy to own it, after all it seems like if you buy one for only 250 USD, be aware to fac some quality issues - probably not right away, but ater a few months very possible.

After reading multiple reviews on many web sites and You tube,i was unsure weather to buy this or not .complaints about the quality of finish and the trem only dives and cannot be pulled blah blah...... I decided I would give it a try.
Having many guitars in my collection some of which are high end instruments this was a bit of a comedown ,as i wanted a PRS style guitar ,that sounded pretty much like a PRS but with out the price,as it would not be used very much ,only on special tunes.....
It arrived,
Pro's
not a scratch or blemish
no fret sprout
straight neck
no dead spots on fret board
tuners (un named) worked without dead spot and really smooth
CON's
fret board a little dry
trem only worked in dive mode
small screw that clamps the wiggle bar to the underside on the trem......missing

conclusion
Immediately removed the back plate,loosened the two screws that hold the trem claw, removed the middle return spring and threw it away,loosened the 6 screws on the top of the bridge so the trem floats and bingo fully working trem ala Stratocaster so please dont take any notice that this is an only dive trem .it isn't it will work both ways with a little fettering.
spent about 1-1/2 hours adjusting the intonation and string height as well as putting some small strips of felt on the trem springs to stop what sounded like a reverb unit when the wobble bar was used and obviously making minor adjustment to the trem springs and tension this thing plays absolutely perfect.If you do buy this guitar which I highly recommend .just spend a couple of hours on fine tweaking and you will love this.

I have been playing for many years and as a Female I get somewhat surprised looks or massages but being around guitars all this time I can do pretty much most things on my instruments so please dont be afraid, if a woman can do it,.... so can you good luck and enjoy

PS I have temporarily fixed the wiggle bar, as Thomann will be sending me the missing screw,made a phone call to them with follow up e-mails both ways . customer service so far excellent.

About me:
Been playing for over 35 years, average at best. Mostly a 70s rockhead, Stones, CCR... I can play anything if you don’t mind it sounding like Chuck Berry….Ha Ha…
I have about 20 guitars (only 1 acoustic..) Some good - USA 72 Deluxe Tele, PRS SE Custom 24 Exotic Top, Ibanez S series, some not so good – the wife has a Hanna Montana Washburn… crazy woman…

I recently bought the HB CST24HB and TE-70 Paisley and loved them so much that I followed up by buying the CST-24T Black Flame and the TE-90QM Trans Red.

Review of the CST-24T Black Flame:
Pros:
This guitar looks amazing.
It has a slim neck that plays fast. The action is low, <1.5mm@ 6th.
The coil split is very usable and the tones are excellent – full to grit.
Very versatile guitar that handles cleans through to JCM800 very well.
Cons:
The trem bridge only dives.
Finger board was a bit dry... no big deal.

When comparing this guitar against the PRS SE Custom 24 Exotic Top:
I love the PRS, the quality and feel.
I love the HB, the quality and feel.
The HB has a slimmer neck (think almost Wizard II) than the PRS but both feel excellent.
I think the HB has a better tone range, the coil split on the PRS is something I do not use (just does not work for me).
Both handle Hi-Gain quite well and clean up nicely.
The PRS is a touch quieter on Hi-gain... maybe...
The PRS tremolo works very well; the HB only dives. I’m not really a trem guy.
Both stay in tune very well.

Conclusion:
100% recommended.
If I knew how good this guitar is, I would never have bought the PRS.
Is it a better guitar than the PRS SE? Hard to say, they are both excellent instruments. The price makes it an easy decision though.

I am just a casual guitarist and wanted a PRS style guitar to add to my collection. Had it for 6 months now and it is my go to instrument as it playes so easily and with good range of sounds.
PROS: the guitar is stunning, the flamed maple is lovely and understated with the black flame, so to appreciate you have to get close and be interested. Also love the blackness and not faded grey which the original PRS is. Well finish, high gloss, good fittings. Pick up are certainly 'Hot' but you can dial them down to smooth things out. excellent service during the ordering and the delivery stages.

CONS: two main gripes.
First - Out of the Box the nut was hideously setup, with about 3mm play to the first frett, when string held at the second frett! Don't think this had been through Thommans fabled QC, which is a shame as that was something I was looking forward to. Anyway, I set about the nut with some files and finally got it down to acceptable play, at which point everything settled in well and is easy to play.
Second: 2 of the tuners are not as 'slick' as the other 4. They tend to stick and take significantly more effort to move. This was slighly improved when I tightened the locking nuts on the top, that were loose, and lubticated them, but still a long way from my Epiphones and fender tuners on my other guitars.
So overall good, excellent service during the ordering and the delivery stages, just a shame that it appears to have missed the QC and set up stage in the Thomman factory.

Pros
From far away it's a beautiful guitar

Cons
The totally blind quality control.
The distance from the 6th string to the neck is ~ 6mm, which makes playing the guitar uncomfortable. At the same time, the strings are noisy at all frets from the 6th to 24th.

When playing, the springs create additional sounds.

There are a lot of problems with the quality of the finish on the guitar: smudges of varnish, curve painting, paint on frets.

The noise from the humbuckers is similar to my telecast with single pickups.

I took the guitar to a master for finishing, and unfortunately, a miracle did not happen. He made an additional shielding from noise, pierced frets to get rid of ringing noise, but ... more or less the same issues.

In general, the main purpose of a guitar is to play music. This guitar out of the box does not allow you to enjoy this opportunity.

If this is your first guitar - everything is OK, but if you had more or less good guitars in the past - do not make my mistakes because of the positive reviews on YouTube.

UPD: Depending on the weather, the guitar changes its geometry. When wet, the strings lower and do not produce sound. I lift them, then it gets drier and they are too high =)

This is probably my worst guitar ever.

After finding a few reviews online and seeing the noise surrounding Harley Benton Guitars. I was very curious to see for myself what they were like. I was not disappointed.
Ordering the item was a breeze and was delivered in less than a week to Canada! After opening the box and removing the covering. I was quite blown away by the very beautiful flame top. After inspecting the guitar, there was no issues to be found with fret work, finish, joints, or even loose parts (knobs, switches and jack) that I often find with in store bought items (PRS, Epiphone and so forth). The guitar was even in tune and intonation was perfect! A bonus in my books!
The sound of the Rosswell Pickups have a unique vibe. Lots of output to push genres from blues to various metal tones. But not too harsh where it loses clarity and response. And the coil split adds a extra variety to the sound.
Overall the guitar is well above expectation and honestly, I prefer it over the feel of many of the PRS SE models. And I have owned a few!
I will be certainly be looking forward to my next HB purchase.

I wanted something different from my Gibson Les Pauls so took a punt on this.
Perfect finish although has a slightly blue tint in daylight which is actually quite attractive. Build quality more than I could have expected with nut, frets, neck and intonation absolutely flawless (and I really tried to find fault). There was a slight fret buzz but before I got my tools out I gave it a couple of days to settle in and that has gone, just the action on the treble strings could come down a smidge.
Pickups are a bit harsh on my usual amp settings but after a bit of EQ tweaking they are sounding great for all kinds of tones.
In conclusion I'm no longer in the market to pay what this guitar should retail for and am astounded by what I received.

Got my guitar today. It was very well packaged. Played it right out of the box without even having to tune the strings.

I had been looking to buy a PRS SE Custom which costs $780 plus taxes. Then I came across Harley Benton guitars. At first I was skeptical but boy o boy I am glad I took the chance.

Pros: This guitar plays better than the PRS SE Custom. The finish is flawless. The coil tap feature is very useful. Finally the neck is fast and the action is just right, not too low or not to high.
Finally the price is unbeatable. I will be ordering two more.

Cons: I cannot think of any, just that once you receive the guitar, tape the frets and polish them with mothers metal polish and you will have a guitar that plays as good if not better than guitars five times the cost.

I would suggest if you are in the market for a guitar, then buy this one as you will not regret it.

Don't listen to any negative comments people have left as I can tell you I played several guitars in Guitar Center here in USA all from $200 to $2000 and can guarantee you that this was as good if not better than all of them.