Harley Benton CST-24 Paradise Flame Reviews

Good for the money, but not perfect!

Pros: - look - fretboard - pickups Cons: - frets - coil tap/split - pickups My guitar got damaged shipping, chipped head stock. But nevertheless: The flamed maple veneer looks stunning, the fretboard is very dark, and the bindings give extra class points! The neck is a bit on the slimmer side, no sharp frets, but the frets are definitely of poor quality… they sound like sandpaper while bending! Guitar arrived in great condition, action is a little high, and of course there are no buzzing. Have not spent time lowering it so I can not promise what happen when you do it! The electronics works perfectly, the knobs, output jack, pickup selector feel sturdy and durable. The humbuckers sounds great for clean, crunch, all the way to classic rock. But no more! With more metal oriented sounds they become muddy and lack definition! The coil split actually does something, but it is not great at all. Definitely does not sound like a single coil. All in all is a really good guitar for the price! For a beginner is all you need. For more experienced player is a solid foundation to build your spare one/side project!

Good guitar

Very good guitar obviously some cosmetic problems but other wise all Good

OUTSTANDING

Simply the best available anywhere near this price. Beautiful, no issues, would buy it again in a heartbeat. The CST-24 is a better guitar than I will ever need. A little about me. Played guitar as a teenager. I'm retired now and can afford any guitar I want, but why spend more money just for name? If Harley Benton had built this guitar back in the 60s and 70s, we would see pros using Harley Bentons now.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY IS OUTSTANDING

Watched reviews on youtube and thought i'd take a chance on the CST-24. After playing for 33 years and never finding a guitar worth running under $200 i was totally blown away.

Being able to play a screaming radiohead chorus then switch out to single coil and clean tone the bridge and not loose any quality in the tone is nuts.

is it as good as a 1500 guitar in build quality? No but its way closer than you'd expect & its tone is there...which is brilliant.

Great price

Great guitar for the price I wanted a prs style guitar on a budget and that’s what I got very good value for the money would buy again

Muy bella

Tiene un acabado muy bonito, un sonido con mucho cuerpo y ganancia, asi como muy cristalino gracias al Push pull.

Una gran compra y un gran producto

Super Impressed

This guitar plays great out of the box !

Great fret finish , very fast neck.

Action was set perfect for my taste.

Intonation was a little off on the high E but this was not a problem to correct.

Definitely a winner at the price point !

Guitars just price shouldn't be this good

Can't afford a high-end guitar that looks exactly like this one? No problem. This guitar plays looks and sounds just as good as the original from a more expensive company. Only downside, I did need to have the frets filed, they were sharp and bit me, lol. Otherwise this thing rocks!

Love this SEXY guitar

Feels great playing and sounds even better.

One of my favorite guitars

I Love this guitar. Initially I wasn't too crazy about the color when I got it but it has grown on me. Maybe it's because the guitar is just so great to play.

It feels really good and set up perfectly. It's one of my favorite guitars to play and often a go to in my collection.

A wonderful PRS-style guitar

Harley Benton continues to impress with it's lineup of designs. This guitar plays great, sounds great and is pure eye-candy to look at. The overall build and playability quality are far beyond what the price tag says and is comparable to guitars costing three or four times as much.

Best Guitar for the Money

I've played several guitars of similar design and this one by far blows away the competition for a third of the price. Guitar was setup perfectly out of the box and all I had to do was tune it and start playing. Couldn't be happier with the purchase and will be purchasing more in the future.

AMAZING! (after a few adjustments)

Pros:

The body of this guitar looks amazing. The neck feels (and plays) great. Humbucker tone is very good, especially if you roll off the tone and volume a bit. Split sound is fairly good as well. The quality of this instrument for the price is incredible. I would place the overall quality at almost double the price tag.

Cons:

I had to tweak some things pretty much immediately upon receiving this guitar. My neck pickup kept cutting in and out. Also, it was playable but definitely needed a setup. I lowered the action and re-soldered a wire and it plays and sounds amazing.

Very impressed.

Required a fret polish for smooth bends.

Action was great right of the bat.

Bridge might need replacing since it produces a wolf-tone on the D string from time to time.

Overall, if you take the time to take it to a luthier it's a wonderful instrument.

Nice guitar - color off a bit

Guitar quality was much nicer than I thought it would be. I've gigged it out over a dozen times now and it's rock solid.

I was planning on changing out pickups but the Roswells are good enough that I am not swapping for now. The Roswells aren't top-notch... but they are pretty decent.

I Will likely change the tuners, but haven't yet because they aren't bad.

THe only grip was that my color didn't match the picture that well. I have an amber bursting to red... but the red is not very deep so it has more of a brown tiger effect than a sunburst effect. Pretty enough on its own but... not what I expected. However, the grain on the flame matched up the two sides much better than I would have expected.

It's very playable and holds tune well. Sounds nice.

I might change the pots out... they are the only weel point... they taper harshly.

Overall it was a fantastic purchase.

I bought one of these because I wanted to get a guitar with a humbucker, and this one seemed to have the features I wanted at a decent price. I can confirm that it did!

The build quality was incredibly nice, it had a very good weight and shape to it and the finish was quite beautiful, albeit perhaps not as bright as the picture led me to believe.

The sound was also really good, it handled both clean tones and more gainy stuff too thanks to those humbuckers.

Overall I think this guitar is worth your purchase. At this price range, there are barely any faults to find.

A lot of bang for the buck.

This was my first HB purchase, and I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised. Very good playability right out of the box. I did end up polishing the frets a bit, but other than that it was fantastic. I'd been looking at local music shops for over a month and this was much better than anything I had found in that price range.

Super Bang for Your Buck

My CST-24 is my fourth Harley Benton guitar that I have purchased and for me, everyone has been a winner. My CST-24 is by far the best one yet. I am no expert, nor do I gig professionally. I am somewhat of a beginner but I do know something about sound and quality and this one fits both wonderfully.

Pros:

Finish- outstanding, not a scratch on it.

Flame Top, not bad for 200 plus dollars. It doesn't compare to its cousin, but then again it doesn't cost $1000.00 either.

Pickups- to me, are outstanding, and with the split-coil option, the sound is fantastic.

Tuners- they work period. What else is there to say about that.

Neck- it doesn't look like its cousin's neck but back to my original point, it doesn't cost $1000.00 either. It is functional, straight and the nut is set just right for quick playing right out of the box.

Cons:

I bought the CST-24 hardtail based on some not favorable reviews of the "T" model and it does look like setting the intonation on the hardtail will be a challenge as the screws face forward under the strings. I am sure there is a way to do it and I as the blind hog will eventually find that acorn.

As far as being a modding platform, it's there if you want, but for me, the question is why? She plays like a champ through my Marshall 2X12 Cab and Orange Micro Terror, my Stage Right 15 Watt Tube Amp, and my little Fender L25 modeling Amp. So she stays the way she came from the factory. (Of course, I'm not really good with soldering anyway)

Even with the freight charge to the USA, it's a killer value, and for you players in Europe, it's a downright steal at the Euro price with free delivery.

All in all, a winner.

Amazing guitar, with a huge wow to it.

So I'm a beginner, I wanted a guitar that I'd want to keep picking up, but quality at the price. This is that guitar. It's flawless, literally flawless.

It feels light to me, solid too. The toggle switch seems fine, pots fine, coil split fine. The machine heads tune well and strike me as responsive. The tone and volume pots were smooth and responsive.

Something that struck me is that I cannot see a scarf joint in the neck, no joint whatsoever. I mention this as there is a scarf joint in the photos.

In terms of the flame finish, it looks close to the tremolo CST-24T version than the CST-24 photos. I think it is worth remembering you won't literally get the finish in the photo and they're all individual, which is great I'd say.

All the binding and top is perfect, machine heads installed perfectly, nut too. Everything is finished to perfection.

The frets look polished and are certainly very smooth to the feel and when examining them.

I really can't see a single thing to put in my review as 'cons'.

This is the 'cheap' guitar I wanted to get to keep learning on, but with an incredible level of quality at that price point. It looks expensive and feels expensive, maybe 4 times it's actual cost for sure.

Fret buzz

I bought this guitar, and I must say that the look is great...and that's all... it feels nice in the hand, BUT! it had fret buzz no matter what i do. I sepent two weeks trying different setups wothout succes. Then I brought it to the profesionalk luthiere, he made all he can, but the problem remained. I know it is cheap guitar, but it is meant to be played without those kind of problems, and fret buzzing coming from speakers...