Harley Benton CST-24T Vintage Sunburst

My only other guitar is the Squier 70s Thinline Tele. I bought this mostly to have another one to play around with, and for the different specs (24 frets, vibato, split coils), and maybe it's because that one's a bit older, but I'd say this beats it in several categories for less money.

Build
The body is well put together and doesn't seem to have any glaring flaws in the finish (though there is a barely perceptible scratch from the "push-pull" cardboard tag I can't unsee). I didn't exactly buy it for the looks, but the sunburst looks better IRL, if a bit tacky.

Playability
The neck is pretty slim and comfortable (for me), and access up to the 19th fret is good, but the neck juts a bit into your hand above that. A problem is the frets poke out a fair bit on the thumb side. It's not noticeable to me, but it might need filing. The frets also feel a bit "scratchy" to play, though maybe it just needs a polish and oiling. That aside, it is quite easy for me to pull off bends and pull-offs, especially in the higher frets.

Hardware
The tuners feel fairly solid. Better than my Squier Tele. More solid and responsive; on the Tele I would sometimes have to wiggle it back and forth before it would tune properly, but not here. The knobs aren't too stiff or sloppy, the pots are responsive, and the pickup selector is good. The jack is annoying, though. I've plugged it in ten times and it's come loose twice, though that's not unusual.

As for the vibrato or "trem", I've never used one, but I wanted this for slight warble effects and to adjust chords while I'm playing them. I haven't spent much time figuring out how to adjust it, but I have it fairly "tight", and it stays in tune with bends and vibrato fairly consistently.

Sound
I'm not going to be able to tell you too much. It sounds like a guitar. I would say the pickups are good, if a bit "growly" for my tastes. When I flip to the bridge, with high gain it sounds very brittle with the tone knob on full, and on the neck it sounds a bit dark with it below a "7"-ish. The volume also cuts off the treble a bit steeply and doesn't get that quiet even on low.

That's not to say it sounds bad or lacks tonal variety. I do think you can get some really solid sounds here if you play around with the controls, you just have to use the tone knob. The split pickups sound really nice, especially together, but I do prefer the bridge humbucker for most tones. I got a capacitor in case I want to do a treble bleed mod or cap swap, but I don't think I need to right now.

Overall
Again, really solid guitar. I'm just going to recap the major cons

-loose jack
-frets can poke your hand
-pickups need a little coaxing to sound their best

Most of those can be fixed, anyway, so I'd say it's worth the money.

This is my 2nd CST-24 I've bought. This one also is impeccably built. The intonation was perfect, action set decently which I lowered. Amazing stainless steel fret work and the ends are rounded perfectly all the way up, both ends. I did have to polish them, which I always do anyway. I did put PAF pups in the other one, but so far have left the Roswell's in this one and they sound nice for rock/blues. I replaced the tuners w/ locking tuners as they didn't quite hold tune. The nut was cut perfect, the Wilkinson 2-point bridge is perfect. It has an Alpha 500K linear taper pot on the volume which is very nice. It plays like a dream and looks amazing too! This is far above the quality of a beginner or novice guitar and I recommend it to all players. I use them and other HB's and I play 2-3 nights a week.

I've had this for just under a week now and I have to say I'm very impressed. It arrived 3 days early, extremely well packaged and in flawless condition.
The guitar itself looks fantastic, love the vintage look, no marks, blemishes anywhere and no sharp / uneven frets that others have mentioned.
I did the usual set up - polished the frets, lowered the action, fixed the intonation ( which was only off on a couple of strings) and oiled the fretboard.
I have to say this guitar plays and feels 3x what I paid for it. I never quite "got on" with my PRS.. this is lighter, the neck feels better and the pick ups (Roswells) sound great. I plan on upgrading the tuners to something a little meatier but that's my personal preference. For the money I don't think you can find better. This is a great solid guitar for beginners and intermediates alike. Don't let the price fool you. Absolute bang for your buck - right here!!