Harley Benton CST-24 Paradise Flame Reviews

Good guitar for the money

This very good guitar for the money. But like low priced product there are also cons - the nut is complete garbage and there are some fretboard cracks (not big). Both are repairable – the nut I replaced with TUSQ black one (almost direct fit). The cracks on the fingerboard are not big and maybe caused by the wood died out. For now it is treated several times with lemon oil and maybe later I’ll decide if there is need to fill them with rosewood dust + superglue. Other than that the guitar is amazing and nice. No complains for this price.

Incredible

This guitar is so much fun to play, versatile and sounds beautiful!

CST-24 Hardtail

Very nice guitar, nice figure in flame maple top, came in tune, nut nicely cut. The neck, bridge & intonation will need re-setting but in whole a lot of guitar and Craftsmanship considering the price point. Pick-ups work better than expected. The shipping box was quite crushed and bruised during transit, but the guitar itself was just fine. Overall quite impressed. Took 6 days to clear payments and then 10 days from shipment to delivery, not bad considering 1/2 way around the world literally. Well done Harley-Benton...

a much darker colour than appears in photos much more black grain

dissapointed at first but used to it now

More than expected !

Insane good for the money ! I think on of the top instrument for the Harley Benton brand. I just used lemon oil for the fredboard cause it was too dry and change the strings with some elixir 10s !

Buy it !

Third time Lucky

Yep, this is my third HB and compared to the other two I am blown away by the quality to price ratio of a this Harley Benton. I feel like this is one that they should have hand picked to send out for reviews it is that flawless and good right out of the box, the biggest surprise of all.... 2 piece body and the heaviest guitar I have 4.3kg and I have a lot of guitars, 52mm wide and 22.7mm thick at the 12th fret. This time the finish and overall workmanship is perfect, all strings Intonated perfectly, yes you read correctly all strings. It is very resonate and sounds great unplugged, the pickups sound good as with the other two but still lack in the coil split mode. Not that it needs it but I am sticking a pair of Pearly Gates in it soon, otherwise everything else stays the same. Highly recommended brand for anyone like me who makes a hobby out of Scheiße in Rosen verwandeln.... ;)

Good guitar for the price point but required significant 'setting up'

The guitar came very well packaged. Out of the box the guitar has a few blemishes on the finish due to some 'bleeding' through of the lacquer but nothing major. The action was extremely high and the neck had a significant back bow, however this was all easily corrected by lowering the bridge and adjusting the truss rod on the neck. There were a couple of high frets causing buzzing and 'fretting out' these needed filing down and crowning.

In all, out of the box this guitar was okay, however after setting up and filing and crowning the frets the guitar is excellent. Really pleased with the sound and versatility of the Roswell pickups.

If this is an average example of this model and you are able to do basic guitar set ups and fret work, this could be a great guitar for you with no added cost other than your time. However, if you are new to playing guitar or unfamiliar with doing basic set up's and basic fretwork you would need to have this done professionally which would add significant cost.

HB CST-24 is a lovely runner

I have been trialling this cheapy cheerful axe for 2 months now and I have say, with my right hand on my left heart, it's a brilliant runner! I have some high end expensive gear in my arsenal at home and I bought this with the HB-20R amp to use while I'm working away for 3 months to save damaging my good gear during transit.

As an all rounder I cannot fault it. Still with the original strings supplied this monkey can handle drop D and flat tuning without buzzing. The clean tone when using the bridge pickup is lovely and rich, although using the coil tap with the neck pickup for overdrive is only reasonable, if a little hollow. That could be compensated for with a different amp but that's not what we've come to read about is it?

I haven't adjusted the action at all, it's a LITTLE high but I've kept it that way to avoid any buzz buzz when downtuning. It feels lovely for lead or rhythm and I genuinely enjoy playing it for hours on end.

For the price this guitar is outstanding. I would be equally as satisfied with this beast had I paid double the asking price. The finish is lovely and the switchgear is all solid and good quality.

As a result of my brief bromance with the CST-24 I now have another HB in my home collection (the semi hollow CST-24 in Charcoal Flame) and my only change will be to fit new pickups (Seymour Duncan SHPR-1s), as the standard ones could use a bit more depth.

In summary I'd recommend this guitar to any and everybody. If you need a cheap travel guitar or you just don't want to spend £800 on a PRS SE then get one of these. I'm more than happy with mine.

Curiosity got the best of me

Ordered online, from US. I was pleasantly surprised to see it arrive 25th. I had a PRS Custom 24, sold it years ago, and missed it. I do not play professionally, so I was not about to purchase another PRS.

I did want a 24-fret, humbucker-equipped guitar, and the HB CST-24 fit the bill exactly. I've always like the traditional yellow to red sunburst, so Paradise Flame was the guitar for me.

The guitar arrived in perfect condition, intonated and in-tune. A close inspection revealed no finish flaws, nor any hardware problems. The maple veneer was very nice. The action with 0.010-0.046 strings was a bit high, but I re-strung with 0.009s, and that feels much better. No high frets, no extra-long fret end overhang. VERY well built.

Roswell pickups? Never heard of 'em, but they sound very good through a Traynor BassMate head and Mesa 1-12" cab. Coil-split worked very well -- mid-position w/tap resulted in a satisfying Strat-like 'quack'. There was a significant drop in volume w/split, but I expected that. Half the windings, less sound -- makes sense.

All in all, an excellent guitar, especially at this price point.

Pleasently surprised

I had read many on-line reviews for this guitar so I decided to take a chance on it. The shipping box arrived very quickly. At first look I was concerned because the outside box was in very poor condition. I was expecting to find a broken guitar. However, the inner box had only a few signs of damage. The packing material saved the guitar. Upon close inspection of the guitar itself I found no damage.

The guitar is beautiful! It plays and sound incredible. In my almost 70 years I have owned many name brand guitars, Fender, Gibson, PRS, Epiphone and Rickenbacker. Now that I am retired I have bought a few budget guitars. By far this guitar outshines the rest. As a matter of fact I choose to play the CTS-24 over my Les Paul Supreme and Fender Strat.

I also build guitars and amps. There is no way I could come close to the cost or quality of the Harley Benton guitars. I do not know how they can provide such a quality guitar for the price. Well done!!

Nice guitar!

This is my first Harley Benton and I have more ordered! The guitar is beautiful to look at and it sounds great to me, both in humbucker mode and coil split and overall I'm delighted with it. I would have no problem recommending this guitar!

Edit: After a string change, some lemonoil and setup I am even happier!

Harley Benton CST-24 Paradise Flame

My first electric guitar. It looks nice, it plays nice and it sounds great!!! It's great value for the price. when it arrived the setup was good. after tuning it I could immediatly play it. I really love playing it and I would certainly recommend it.

What a pleasant surprise

I've been playing guitar for over 15 years now and seen instruments of different levels and this one is better than most of which i've played so far.

It came very well set up. Action is low enough for me, intonation is spot on and it even came almost perfectly tuned. Strings were a little rusty but i was going to replace them anyway.

Fretboard looks dark grey and is quite dry, a bit of oil did help but not very much. I guess that's the price of rosewood being banned.

The sound is just great a lot higher output than i was expecting but still clean even with gain cranked high up. Might be a little heavy on the bass but that's easily solved with EQ.

Now the looks. Top looks a little funny up close but doesn't bother from a distance. Some low quality paint work in corners but it's a clear coat so you won't see it unless you try to find the spot. Not the best polishing work either but as with the rest it's something you can only see up close under a certain angle.

To sum it up - best purchase of the year.

More than I expected.

I have bought 100 dollar and 200 dollar guitars in the past, and I was amazed how good this was. I was planning on getting new pickups for it, but now I'm not going to. Overall, I am really impressed with it. Great job!

Great Again

Cant beat them for the price.

A Seriously Good Guitar

I used to own the very famous guitar that this is obviously designed to look a lot like, and it was one of those that i always "wanted" to like... but could never quite manage it. It hung on the wall like a trophy: nothing "wrong" with it, but it never really shouted "PLAY ME" the way that a truly great guitar should.

Recently I found myself in need of a 24 fret guitar & having had good experiences with other Harley Benton instruments, I took a chance on this one.

The pics on the website DO NOT do this guitar justice... it is STUNNING! Out of the box, it needed a little bit of a set up - action & intonation. Don't believe anyone who says you can't intonate these wrap-over bridges correctly - you CAN, it just takes a little longer than on a strat or les paul. Truss rod & bridge adjusted, it now has a low-buzz free action & plays as slick as a greasy weasel.

Sound wise, it delivers too. I've put a video up on YouTube (search John Robson Guitarist) where I play it side by side with a "boutique" Carvin guitar costing around £1600 & this little Harley Benton acquits itself REALLY well by comparison.

It's a no-brainer... Just buy one!

Excellent

came with 10's put on 9's

intonation adjusts just fine

lowered the action via the bridge

Gibson quality

best

Value for money

Had this guitar for a while now looks as good as the day stayed in tune honestly for the money mahogany 3 piece nice feel not to heavey but not a cheap feel guitar very pleasing to the eye sounds great to I would recommend cheers

there isn't a better bargain

love the guitar.always wanted a prs style guitar, and at this price you can't go wrong.i'm not a pro so this is perfect for me.it sounded great out of the box.sounds and plays great.i'm really happy with it.i recommend this guitar

cst-24

this was my first harley benton but it wont be my last. a nice suprise