CST-24HB TOL Tobacco Flame : Lovely guitar - fantastic value

I purchased this Harley Benton CST-24TOL along with a number of other HB guitars, 5 in all.

For the record, I have been playing guitar for over 30 years as a semi-pro and have a number of expensive Fenders, Gibsons, Brian Moore etc .

I was really blown away by the quality of this guitar when I pulled it from the box, the finish is great, and although the flame top obviously can't be right up there with the likes of PRS it is still a respectable effort. The neck is quite comfortable, if feels ...grippy...but not too chunky..I have small hands so I prefer smaller necks but I've played this guitar for a few hours no problem. The frets are quite well finished, no sharp edges, and seem quite polished. The action was slightly higher than I prefer but I easily lowered the bridge a couple of turns to adjust that, no fret buzz , I can bend strings higher up with no choking. I changed the strings immediately to 9-42 set (came with 10-46) and oiled the fretboard at the same time.

I checked the truss rod and it seems to be at the end of its relief so If I wanted to straighten the neck I wouldn't be able to unfortunately, hopefully I won't need to.

The hardware is fine too, good tuners, reasonably good pickups (Wilkinson) not too hot but definately good for blues, rock, jazz and even a bit of twang in the middle position. All in all, well pleased with this guitar and I will probably buy one of the other Harley Bentons PRS alike..Harley Benton CST-24T Paradise Amber Flame to go with it.

I'll do some other reviews on the Harley Bentons I got too...there were some other crackers! Well pleased with this one.