Harley Benton CST-24T Paradise Flame

I normally wouldn't buy a guitar online without trying it first, but I couldn't resist this.. Been looking towards PRS guitars for the past year, and honestly can't afford one so this is my best shot at something near 'PRS like'. On a budget... Amazing but it comes with some flaws...

Right out of the box, the finish is astonishing. The guitar was well packed, for not having a case or gigbag, which is totally normal for this price point. The amount of clear coats on this thing is insane. Great binding and overall finish, vivid colours on the burst. Over actually really amazing.

Plays great out of the box. Only did some minor tweaking on the truss rod and bridge height to personal taste. Ok fretwork for the price and the neck plays great. It's a bit sticky because of the glossy finish, that's totally sandable.

The best part is the sound.. I'm surprised by the stock pickups (Roswell) and I was very eager to try out coil splitting for the first time. They came installed very low, almost under the pickup plates. Measured at around 8k, these pickups, along with the push pull coil splitting will bring you anywhere between crystal clean fender cleans and some heavier gibson humbucker tones.

Now comes the weird part.. The Wilkinson floating bridge. The trem arm came uninstalled (great), and it just wouldn't fit in the bridge. I'm aware of the Wilkinson mini hex screw that is installed on the back of the bridge to adjust the grip on the trem arm. It wasn't closed. It was the hole in the metal plate on top. I finally had to drill it half a millimeter wider. The whammy bar is hard to use, unlike my Stratocaster floating bridge which is basically the same system with springs. It stays better in tune though than on a Fender.

The electronics seem to have been poorly soldered, but overall clean. Luckily it's a case of too little solder, not like a total mess where the pots are all covered with too much solder.

The three way switch failed after a couple of days, there was bad contact with the bridge pickup. Resoldered but will replace it soon with something better as it doesn't seem to be of overall good quality.

Overall total bang for your buck!! You get a beautifully finished guitar with a great array of sounds. To me it's an everyday guitar and I bet it'll stay like that in the future!

I recently purchased a CST24T Harley Benton. I was extremely pleased with it except for a few minor things. I really don't like the telecaster knobs on this guitar - they are too tall to look good on an arch top. This cheapens the appearance of a good guitar - they should be using "speed knobs" and mine have already been changed (amber looks best!) The guitar I received did not have the Indian Rosewood fingerboard specified, but a smooth ebonol (man-made ebony substitute) fingerboard. As I actually prefer ebony fingerboards to most rosewood, I was prepared to accept this change to the advertized material. The frets were not perfect and needed some work to seat, level and polish them, but I guess this is to be expected at the price. There was one small wiring issue which meant I had to postpone the guitar's first gig - the earth wire from the tremolo claw had not been threaded through the tunnel from the trem cavity or connected to the electrics, which caused the inevitable loud buzz through my high gain Laney amp. After I took the guitar home and finished the factory's soldering work for them, I took the CST24T on another gig and it performed excellently all night (two and a half hours gig, non-stop, all on the new guitar.) My back-up instrument - a PRS SE EG with EMG pickups - stayed in its case all night! I doubt anyone will believe this, but it actually happened - a guitarist in the audience came up to me afterwards and said "those (big name American guitar company) guitars are really costly, but they're worth every penny, aren't they?" He honestly thought I had been playing a "real" USA-built guitar. I am now extremely pleased with the guitar and I have ordered the hollow-body version. I have owned many guitars with this appearance, some made in the USA, some by the USA company's Korean production and some made in Asia and marketed by a well-known wholesaler in the UK. This, in my opinion, has more of the flavour and quality feel of the USA guitars than do any of the others. The important things - the finish, the Wilkinson pickups, the operation of the volume and tone controls, the lovely smooth Wilkinson trem and (after the frets were smoothed and levelled) the action of my guitar are all excellent - no upgrades urgently needed. Very playable and so nice to look at I am still taking it out of it's case just to take another look. Owner satisfaction is so high it's easy to ignore how little I paid for it - there is an old saying (usually to justify paying a stupidly high price) "quality is remembered long after price is forgotten". With this guitar, that saying is still correct. One small suggestion (although the electrics are surprisingly versatile as the tone and volume actually WORK on this guitar) - if they used the four-wire Wilkinson humbuckers and a push-pull tone control for split-coil sounds it wouldn't cost much more to produce and would bring it even closer to the performance expected from this type of guitar. Surely this could be done and still keep the guitar incredibly affordable. Verdict - I'm very pleased. Thanks Thomann.

So many people have already said just how good this guitar is, it seems ridiculous to say more, but hell this thing is good. And it 'is' worth saying more, because people should know the quality is constant. Having said that, I think mine must be of older stock, that or the manufacturer has gone back to rosewood fret boards, because mine is definitely 'not' ebonol, it's rosewood. And, it came exceedingly dry and undernourished. Soon sorted with lemon oil though. The body of mine is one piece mahogany, no lamination and is finished in a translucent rose' red, as is the neck which is 5 piece affair with scarf joint, with a lovely shallow d profile, which I like. Again set up was questionable. I'm not that bothered as I do my own (as should everyone), but if you aren't up to this and don't know how, remember to factor in the price of a set up at your local guitar tech or dealership. My CST24-T came with super lite XL string on, my god are they light? 9 to 41 (41???). Anyway as usual who ever put the strings on didn't 'lock' them off (again) so slipping strings is what you get, and no chance on earth of using the trem without total loss of tuning. This is all incidental as the guitar is amazing after a good set up. And you do need to do one. The CST24-T is a time machine, yep! I lost 4 hours with it, you just can't put it down. I own a CS custom as well and was delighted that the CST24 is voiced so differently (you 'can' get those Santana tones). It has a much brighter voicing with its PU's than the custom, but it can still do lovely bluesy tones. The pots work well allowing for good tonal changes and the volume is smooth, allowing clean sounds from my valve amp to break and dirty up nicely as the volume is increased.
As for looks. Well...... Mine is a lovely honey mustard colour running out to a gorgeous rose' translucent red. I was worried I may have got an 'acidic' or 'toxic' looking one (I've seen a few on YouTube) but all is 'very' well it looks stunning. The only thing (aside from the set-up) I have done is change the chrome knobs for 'amber' speed knobs and swap out the 'black' toggle switch cap for cream to match the PU surrounds. And, once the lemon oil has fully dried in (about a week from now) I will be putting on my 'bird decal' fret markers to complete 'a certain look'. Thomann. Your a great company, keep doing what you do. All the best to your team, except that guy who does the set-ups. I saw him on Rob Chapman's YouTube vid. I'm learning German as fast as I can, I'll do his job and lock of the strings properly :)) (only joking) (Or am I)

First, the bottom line—the Harley Benton CST-24T is simply an awesome instrument. For the price, you cannot find a comparable guitar on the planet. Period.

That is a bold statement, but it is true. Let me explain.

First, it is a beauty. It is a PRS SE-style guitar, but with its own looks.

Second, the fit and finish are stunning. It isn’t just made from “Mahogany” (there are many lesser-quality woods lumped into the general category of Mahogany) the body and neck are made from the Swietenia Meliaceae species of Mahogany, also known as Honduran Mahogany. This is the original and highest quality of Mahogany used for guitars. This is what is used by the finest guitars builders around the world. It provides a resonance and sustain that is unbeatable. The recesses around the neck give you easy access to all 24 frets for playing the higher registers. The flame maple top is well-figured and beautiful. The black flame version is awesome as well, but the paradise flame version better-suited my individual tastes. Not a scratch, chip, dent or blemish. Just a beautiful instrument.

The DLX machine heads are smooth, solid and hold tuning very well. The graphite nut is perfectly cut and slotted. And it has been shaped and finished so that is almost feels like it is part of the neck, with no overlap or hard edges—A key indicator of attention to detail. The Wilkinson WVPC tremolo unit consistently allows deep dive bombs and comes back to perfect tuning every time. The neck is a modern “C” shape and is effortless to play.

The fretboard is made from Jatoba wood, also known as Brazilian Cherry. This is very hard wood (2690 on the Janka hardness scale) and an outstanding material for a fretboard. It is actually slightly harder than Rosewood (2620 on the Janka hardness scale). Great playability and wears well.

I guess I have been the most impressed with the fret work on this model. Clearly, extra attention has been paid to this part of the guitar’s construction. There are 24 medium frets with smooth ends and absolutely no fret sprouts. Fret leveling and setup were spot on.

The Roswell pickups are awesome. Full, well rounded tone, and crystal clean tones. If you just HAVE to have other pickups, great. Go spend your money. They will cost more than this entire guitar costs, but if you must, you must. But I’m telling you, take this guitar as-is to play any gig and everyone will be impressed. Even the coil split tones are impressive. I love it.

Lastly, I can’t say enough about how well Thomann takes care of its customers. They set up every guitar before it is sent to you. It came out of the box with a low action, tremolo set, perfect neck relief and with spot-on intonation. AND the strings were loosened for shipping to take all the tension off the headstock. All you have to do is tune it and play. And Thomann has the best warranty on the planet. They take care of their customers and that means a lot to me.

Honestly, if you can find a new guitar with this level of quality for this kind of money ($235 shipped to my door) then buy it. But I bet you won’t. I live in America. But I buy my guitars from Thomann.