CST-24HB Tortoise Flame : Not Bad With Proper Expectations

I ordered this hoping for more of a PRS look than what I actually got. Curves/carves were not as prominent as the pictures show, so the PRS aesthetic was lost to me. After putting those feelings aside and just looking at it from a quality perspective, it did look pretty nice, although there were quite a few glue drops inside the guitar, easily visible through the F holes. The F holes themselves looked okay if you don’t look at them from the side, as there was gunk visible on the underside of the top just inside the F holes.

As far as playability, it felt fairly nice. Nice thin neck, and the frets were in good shape. The tuners were pretty stiff, and there was a noticeable buzz on the G string that was not from the frets, so something in the saddle may have been loose. Pickups are not high output so they will need a bit of a boost if you want a heavy sound, but they sound decent clean.

All in all, it’s not a bad guitar. After tempering my expectations, I decided it was a nice guitar for the money, but not for me (though I ultimately couldn’t quite get over the difference between the pictures and what I got, subtle as it may have been, as I see that as false advertising).