Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit CST-24

I have a lot of guitars but wanted to try “assembling” a kit. There are quite a lot about but this is the cheapest and with Thomann guarantees the safest bet. I liked the simplicity of the non-trem version and the fact that the headstock was pre-shaped and rather pretty. The tuners are cheap and what would spend money first to replace but they do work. the felt pretty rough so I took off the buttons, attached them to a drill, filled them up with light oil and span them backwards and forwards to try and bed them in. Workable. The nut is plastic and moulded, not cut. The neck pocket was slightly too big so I glued a shim of veneer to one side and that was much improved. The body looks quite nice and is coated with a pore filler sealer. If you want to oil or stain you will have to sand this off. A lot of work. I started to sand it in preparation for primer and paint but decided not to bother. It looks and feels very good especially with the binding. The pickups are pre-mounted in the rings but the ring screw holes do not match up with the pre-drilled holes. Easy fix. Same with the jack plate. All the electronics are cheap, pre-wired and have push fit connectors. No soldering required. The bridge was easy to install and cast for basic intonation with a slidy piece for the B and G strings. Overall intonation can be set with grub screws on the ear to post attachment. I have a lot spare parts: pickups, nuts, pots, caps, treble bleeds but in the end I decided to assemble it as it came to provide a datum point before modding and to see how it felt and sounded just how it came out of the box. I even used the strings supplied.
I was blown away by this guitar.
So were my sons. And my mates who I didn’t tell what it was. Should have seen their faces when I said it cost £75. I had to show them the listing on Thomann before they believed me.
The guitar is light, comfortable and a delight to play. The neck is gorgeous and worth more than the kit price on it’s own. The fret ends are good, no high spots and not rough. No work required. The fretboard sucked up a lot of lemon oil at first. All in all aside from the neck pocket it took about 90 minutes to assemble. I will be modding it but for now it’s actually a joy to play. You will need some basic skills to get the best out of the fit and finish but that’s what something like this is all about. It’s a learning experience. My friends 15 year old daughter loved and is going to order one to build with her Dad. Whatever happens it is so cheap who cares and if something is really unacceptably bad, send it back. Buy it, try, have fun.

So, I was oogling this kit for months and I finally managed to claim it. I am going to give a detailed review of the whole process of assembly.

First off, packaging. Very well, very securely done, except for a very small dent in the back, however with the roads and vehicles that drive around delivering packages in my country, I am surprised it's only one and is miniscule.
The wood is sealed very well, although I would put another 2-3 layers just in case, as well as to bring out the grain a bit more, but that's just my kink. Solid 4-5 piece body(dunno if i counted right).
Fittings and holes. Almost perfect. The neck went in like a glove and no work on it was needed. Holes for the parts were made perfectly, with the exception of the bridge holes, where I had to hammer them quite much, until they go all the way in. Seeing as hammering is even in the manual, again I see it as normal.
The neck itself is beautiful, no sharp frets, straight and beautiful. I only needed to touch the nut just a bit so the strings would fit more securely.
Pickups are different than the ones on the image. I got metal plated ones, instead of the waffles, however it was actually easier to figure out what goes where and how. In terms of sound they are extremely well for my taste.
I've read a lot of Harley Benton kit reviews that have the same grievances about not enough detailing on the wiring system and 'guess work' wiring. While true, in this case you can somewhat find your way by the length of the cables in correspondence with the holes, so not entirely a big deal.
There is only one thing that really irked me, and that was the strings packaging. They were bundled up and knotted so much and so tightly, that I had a very difficult time separating them, resulting in one string having a bend, that I somewhat fixed upon setting up. Still, it's not something that takes away from the quality of the guitar itself.

Overall, this is my first DIY guitar and the way it sounds, all stock and everything, is simply amazing. Everything is tight, solid and works well. For me, it's good to go as it is, and should I wish to upgrade, now I know how to do it.

I bought this kit with the intention of using only the body and neck. I replaced the pickups for a Seymour Duncan set and added inexpensive locking tuners. The supplied electrics were well soldered and worked well, but I swapped them as I wanted a push/pull coil split option (this is the only reason I reduced the 'features' rating from 5 stars to 4). Despite the body wood being quite soft and the bridge being quite light, it sustains well. The neck is beautiful. I didn't need to dress the frets or adjust the truss rod. I just cleaned it and added lemon oil. The wraparound bridge required only a couple of turns to set the intonation and the action is low and with no fret buzz at almost the lowest setting. I own 4 other guitars (all way more expensive) and this is by far my favourite. I was so impressed, I've ordered another, which I plan to paint and use the supplied pickups and electrics.

I am a reasonably accomplished guitar player and currently own too many guitars (including Fender, Gibson, PRS, Faith, Ortega, Ibanez). But I've fancied having a go at a kit guitar for a long time - and finally took the plunge. It wasn't too much of a gamble after all, as it costed around £95 including taxes.

And I must say, this Harley Benton has been brilliant! The build and wood quality is good, the electronics - including the pickups - are not bad at all. The neck surprised me - it's really good! The frets needed a bit of a polish, but that was comparatively minor.

Everything fitted together perfectly. Some slight confusion regarding the wiring of the volume and tone pots: I got them the wrong way round initially, but soon put them right when I realised what I'd done (the instructions were lacking information at this point).

Before assembly, I sanded everything down (to remove the waxy finish on the body and neck) had a go with some water based dyes (blue and grey for the top, blue for the headstock and a "saddle tan" stain for the neck, sides and back). The neck, sides and back were then covered with a satin lacquer. The top consisted of a blue / grey stain graduation, followed by finishing oil: 3 coats, ultra fine wire wool, 3 more coats, ultra fine wire wool, to a total of 15 coats of the oil - then plenty of buffing. Then the whole lot coated with a microcrystalline wax polish. And buffed - a lot!

Other items: for good measure I used copper foil tape inside the body for the shielding and even managed a "mother of pearl" inlay in the headstock.

And now playability: this is the most surprising element of the lot! Once I'd set the assembled guitar up (with a nice, low action - no string buzz) , it played incredibly well! The jumbo frets enable a very easy string bend and vibrato. It's fun and it puts a smile on my face when I play it! So much so, that I've sold one of my other guitars to make room for this one!

For the price it's amazing! And the service from Thomann was as efficient as ever.

I've just finished assembling mine so my impressions are fresh.
The good:
- instructions are good and easy to follow
- the overall assembly only took me an hour and a half but I bet it can be faster
- Sound is great
- Looks are great!
- low action and very easy to play

The not so good:
- some of the holes are drilled badly and there are pieces of wood that need to be removed
- the pickups switch is a bit short and I've had to remove the inside nut other I couldn't install it (This might be a result of me being a noob)


Overall I'm very impressed with the whole package and I'm looking forward to ordering the next one.

Recommended!

A really enjoyable first experience of building a guitar from a kit. Having read other reviews, I was prepared to spend a lot of time sanding the body to get a great finish and bring the best out of the grain.

I used a ‘mouse’ electric sander at first, and 120 and 240 grit sandpaper. Then switched to hand sanding with 600 grit, and finally 0000 steel wool. I didn’t stain the body - wanted to keep it a natural colour. Used Tru-Oil on it, cutting back after every 2 or 3 coats with 0000 steel wool. I put 11 coats on, and then let it hang from a curtain pole in the spare bedroom for 10 days, to cure fully.

After that, it took me only an afternoon to fit the hardware, pickups, electrics etc. I am a beginner - never done anything like this before.

I put a set of Fender strings on it (9s, for the record) as the supplied ones didn’t look brilliant, and were twisted into one big tangle.

I let the strings bed in overnight, then adjusted the truss rod, bridge height and intonation the following day. Plugged it in, and it worked just fine.

So, I think it’s fair to say that sanding and finishing the body is 80% - 90% of the work involved here. You do need some patience, and you do need to get every last bit of that sealant/lacquer off the body before doing anything else to it. But the results are worth it. It looks stunning.

I didn’t need to buy any tools - all that was needed were some metric sized spanners (10/12/14mm) and small and medium cross head screwdrivers - all of which I had in my tool box. Allen keys to adjust the truss rod and bridge are included in the kit.

After a couple of days settling in, it plays nicely. Very easy to get a nice low action with a few minutes spent adjusting the truss rod and bridge. And it’s a joy to look at it and think “I made that”.

I finished it a couple of days ago, and I’ll be ordering a second one (different model) from Thomann in the next few days. That’s the strength of my recommendation.

I'm a tech with over 40 years experience (plus a gigging musician for longer than that). My grandson has been messing about with a mini-Squier Strat for a couple of years and now at the grand old age of nine has decided to take it seriously,
The kit seemed to be an ideal way of providing him with a decent full-sized first guitar and the experience of building and setting up his own instrument.
Ideally, this is close enough to being right straight out of the box, but with the option to upgrade and really set up properly as a first project. For instance job one is to do the same sort of fret dress and polish that I would do to a Gibson. Likewise he has learned about the characteristics of pickups and the "stone age" nature of the control circuits. As we go on he'll update the electrics (Bourne pots and Spague caps) with possible pickup upgrades leading to full and partial coil splitting and series/parallel options (maybe even convert the single conductor pickups to quads!). All this without the stress of killing a really expensive instrument or part.
The simplicity of the design, with the solid construction and decent hardware would give an end result 2-3 times more expensive than complete and off the shelf, with the pride of construction thrown in. Even better is that there is understanding and pride in the build with an end result that goes well beyond some of the tat that my generation had to struggle with. The bonus here being a friend who has laser etched the body with an image of Iron Man in the nano suit from Endgame (YUSS!!). It really was worth that extra cost!!

I have not built this kit yet but I needed to comment on packaging. This is my second order from Thomann and as with my past experience it was flawless. The kit arrived to me in NC USA on stated date in excellent condition. When you submit your order and you initially see the shipping costs to USA it can be a little off putting. When product arrives you realize even with shipping it is a bargain when compared to what is available state side. I know it sounds a little “fan boy” like but the packaging alone makes it obvious how this company and its staff Care about their customers and products. I have received items from other places that were far more fragile and were not packaged half as well. So in conclusion if the shipping costs or worry about it’s trans Atlantic journey are holding yo back put it out of your mind and order. I have not started the build yet but will comment on that as well. Thank You to the people at Thomanns!