Harley Benton CST-24T Ocean Flame

This is my 4th HB guitar and I can't find much to complain about any of them so maybe I was just a bit unlucky with this one.

It's is a very nice, feature-rich guitar for the guitar, but it does have a few flaws - or at least mine did.

Most of these aren't major problems and I found I could fix them quite easily and cheaply.

To start with, the fretboard was quite dirty and very dry. A few applications of lemon oil sorted it out no problem.

I then noticed that the nut was a bit wonky in terms of positioning - at least 2 mm off-centre and quite poorly cut. I will likely replace it.

The intonation on one of the strings was impossible to set far back enough without cutting the saddle screw spring in half with wirecutters. Maybe the bridge was installed too far forward.

The tone knob also doesn't feel very linear to me, it makes a dramatic difference in the lower third of its range then I can't hear much difference after that.

The binding around the neck was quite poorly installed, and rough looking in a lot of places.

Having said that, the finish on the body and neck is perfect. Absolutely stunning. It's more of a turquoise / peacock greenish colour that tricks your camera into thinking that it's blue!?

The stock pickups sound great and it's definitely a fun guitar to play.

I would absolutely recommend it if you can afford to take it for a decent setup or are able to fix the type of problems yourself that I listed above.

I must have the worst luck with Harley Benton guitars. A few weeks ago I received and immediately returned a TE90FLT ..... totally unplayable and looked as if it had been lying about the shop for a while, volume and tone controls didn't work and when they did the whole pot including the innards turned round and round. Anyway, not to be put off I put it down as a one off but lost faith in the model hence I got a CST 24 instead....... Almost unplayable! I've had to buy a new nut which I wil have to replace as it's far too high and the action is awful. I decided to change the strings and the ball ends wouldn't come out of the bridge for three of the strings until I removed the saddles and poked them through with a long thin screwdriver. I have watched sooooo many reviews on you tube with more than positive reviews so I guess I just have bad luck. In November I got a HB fretless J bass which is absolutely fantastic and I'm waiting for a BZ4000NT which wont be in stock for 6-7 weeks and I'm really hopeing it's the same quality as the fretless J bass. Believe it or not I'm thinking about buying another HB guitar because it can't be strike three......... Can it?

The appearance of this model is simply mesmerizing. Tiger stripes add chic, the fittings shine. But if you are looking for versatility and a cross between les paul and Stratocaster in this guitar, then this is clearly not your choice. This is a stand-alone guitar, it will not replace everything in one and will not be universal. Buy it with an understanding of this. Also, unfortunately, my copy was, to put it mildly, not perfect. The first string did not want to stay in the nut, and the neck rings on some frets. This nuisance has overshadowed my feeling of this guitar. There is always a chance to get such a thing from any brand, you should understand this. My English is as imperfect as my copy of this guitar. I'm sorry about that.

First impressions, it is beautiful and the finish is flawless.
Neck is poker-straight with the most comfortable neck-joint/cutaway I've ever played.
I lowered the action, tweaked the intonation and changed the strings to my preferences.
Pickups sound great, even for metal, and they clean up well rolling off the volume knob.

The bad: The cheap plastic nut needs work. I can see that the strings are binding in the slots. Had to tune after every song at band practice, even without using the trem.
In 30 years, I've only played guitars with locking nuts, so I'm used to the thing staying in tune no matter what.
The push-pull pickup splitter knob hardly makes a change. This was my main reason for getting this guitar
as I'm in a cover band doing all styles of rock. I suspect it's the low-budget pickups...
I could fix all the problems, but I just don't want to sink any more money into this thing.