Harley Benton CST-24HB Charcoal Flame Reviews

Nice guitar, great sound, poor set up

Everything about the guitar fits my needs, only issue was set up. Out of the box the intonation was way out, had to take it to my tech to get proper set up.

Hard to beat for the money

I'll keep it short and to the point here.

Pros:

-Everything works fine with no issue.

-The guitar looks nice.

-Sounds nice and loud enough even unplugged.

-Setup and fretwork is good.

Cons:

-The pickups are honestly a little weird for this particular model and the neck pickup is so powerful compared to the bridge that it might be worth swapping the bridge and neck to compensate the volume difference.

-On very close inspection there are some minor imperfections to the finer details of the guitar but nothing that affects playability.

Great Guitar

Good tone and balance guitar

Pickup is enough

Great value for the price.

Is this a PRS? No. Is it close for a fraction of the cost? You bet. Nice fret work. Low action. Wonderful slightly dark tone from the Roswell pickups. I'll say it again: great value.

Very good

The design is perfect and the sound is great. Price is good

Better than I expected

I actually bought this guitar before I read any of the reviews or watched any videos about it on YouTube. I am pleasantly surprised. This thing looks incredible, and sounds just as good. It came perfectly set up, the pickups sound great, and it just stays in tune. Definitely recommended.

This is the complete package!

Awesome Neck : Check

Great Pickups: Check

Classy Looks: Check

Light Weight: Check

Guitar looks awesome from 10 feet (3 meters) away. Have checked some reviews and thought - manufacturing issues, it would be improved and the biggest issues are fixed, well…

Given the sound I decided to keep it and have a project guitar. I spent more that 5 hours by now.

So about the guitar:

• It has sound that I enjoy, like the coil split from hum to single, solid action on volume, very light on tone

• high action (~2.5mm on bass E) which wasn't easy to adjust - when lowered to ~1.6mm, I got a huge string buzz and frets had to be leveled to fix it (probably the reason why the action was high in the first place, and thrust rod was all messed up with paint)

• frets and fret-board was all "gunked" up and pretty rough, probably a polish-o-paint from the fret-board sides, neck-paint is cracked between fret-board and the neck, and lastly fret was roughed-up next to nut

• huge and sharp tool marks on the nice big head screws of bridge

• something buzzing - intonation slider for B & G string had to be hard tightened

• very ugly F holes - lining poorly done and with dirty marks, mess coming out of there on the blow, partially painted black with shiny wood showing

• I am suspecting product was the B-stock

Hard tail material

Very nice guitar for the price...The only problem I had is the material used on hard-tail and the type of compensation for G and B string . I have tried to set-up intonation as it was not perfect but with this type of hardtail it was almost impossible. Another issue I had with it : very soft metal used on screws - so you can easily demage the threads. So I will probably change the hardtail soon for better one, but it will cost some bucks, so count with it when purchasing. But overall it is nice-looking guitar with average pickups and good price.

Not bad

not bad at all for the price. great value and playability for beginners

Love and Hate situation

I would love to say that this guitar is something I was looking for. The small size and medium weight with a semi-hollow body. With the price rate, I should be very happy about the tone and its feature but there's some pain that broke my impression.

Here it is:

1. The finishing is very poor, there is some damage at the fretboard

2. Some point around the neck has a thick layer of color that affect my hand when playing. While other guitars (same brand) have no 1. and 2. which are the finished quality problem.

3. One of the washers in head tuner broke after 1st time I changed the string (within 1 month after I received). At least, Thormann sent me a spared part for this problem.

4. The latest problem, I can't turn the volume to silent. Now my guitar is always on after open the amplifier. I'm waiting for the response.

Some buzzing fret could be understandable.

I could understand the price range limitation if the other guitar from the same brand and price range has no problem at all (this one made in Vietnam and the other made in Indonesia)

I love some tone of it for the price and this guitar also has a long sustain sound, good for some sweet songs.

Just 3 months of barely use in at my home and some jam at practice studio.

Awesome Instrument

Aside from a high fret around 13/15, great guitar! Was not surprised by the high fret and the pickups are literally almost dead on the 85/15's that were in my PRS SE. Overall great guitar for beginners and a great guitar to mod for the player.

Very much only OK

Pictures do flatter this guitar, the flame is very basic and is clearly veneer/fake so really cheapens the look (I know it’s cheap but it screams it). Cheap feel to the neck, very cheap and loose knobs, the coil tap isn’t great and the sound was only OK.

This however is one of the earlier models so I know that the quality has improved since, if you’re looking at one of these, go for one of the newer more recent versions.

Difficult to set up and neck was scuffed.

Neck was scuffed from polishing and the bridge was incredibly difficult to adjust for proper string action.

great guitar for blues. good tones

Very good gutar

What best in this guitar — It looks fantastic!!!

Binding is white and not perfect strait, here and there are some paint job unperfections, but it's okay.

Wilkinson pickups are not bad, but after changing them to deusenbergs sound get more clarity.

Nutt was setted to low on 4 and 5 strings,so i replace it and after some fret job action on 12 fret is from 1.3 (1string) to 1.7mm(6 string).

Beautiful guitar at a beautiful price

I've always wanted a guitar in this style, but since I'm not making any money from music, I couldn't justify the cost. That made this guitar the perfect option.

It looks beautiful - the build quality is great, no issues that I can see other than some rough edges inside the f-holes but you can only see that if you really look from a few inches away. Guitar stays in tune extremely well.

The coil split feature is really nice and adds additional sound options.

One thing I have noticed is that the sustain seems to be really short when plugged in - the audio cuts off after a few seconds. I assume that's a pick-up issue but I've never seen that before on a guitar.

Besides that, this is a great guitar and well worth the cost.

Amazing quality for an Amazing Price!

I play in a 90s rock/grunge cover band and wanted something akin to a PRS but semi-hollow without the insane price tag. After watching countless video reviews, reading numerous opinions on forums, and talking to plenty of people in regards to this model, I pulled the trigger. Oh am I glad I did! The shipping was quick, the service fantastic, and the product? Where do I begin?!

The finish is gorgeous. Beautiful flame top and mahogany back. The gloss is smooth and mirrored with no flaws that I can find. The only, and I do mean only, issue with the fit and finish is some small black flecks of paint on the binding around the F-holes, but it's almost inside and impossible to see.

The feel of this is phenomenal. The balance is just right with a neck that's just comfortable. It's a cross between a nice speedy ESP neck and the slightly wider string spacing of a PRS. I can play fast when needed, and I don't feel heavy handed when I slam power chords.

Tone is beautiful. It's clear, clean, and smooth. The pickups are by no means high output or designed for high gain, but those tones can be coaxed out if you really need em. I ran it through the full range of tones that I use (sparkling clean to crunchy solos) and it performed beautifully.

Basically, if you're looking for a pro-level playing and sounding instrument with an extremely reasonable price tag, this is your answer. Resonant and smooth, this is the guitar I've been waiting for.

Great guitar for the price!

For reference I have been playing guitar for 15+ years. I used this guitar together with my Line 6 Helix LT.

This guitar is a lot of fun to play. Both pickups have a very distinctive sound, and on top of that the coil split gives you even more options to play with. I found myself using the neck, bridge and bridge split the most.

As for the quality, the stock pickups will be good for most guitar players: I have been using it for jam sessions and a couple of live performances since the guitar is SO light and so versatile. However, when I connected this guitar to my DAW for recording I realized that the bridge pickup is a bit fragile on the high end compared to my Fender Telecaster (I hadn't noticed before while playing "live"). But hey, we are comparing a 200 € guitar to a 1500€ guitar... This is not a fair comparison!

All in all, you get a semi-hollow guitar, with a great set of sounds that you will be able to use in 90% of the situations, very good sustain, light, great looking and with good hardware.

Looking for upgrading this guitar? I'd go for the pickups and tuning machines. But don't do it straight away! Firs familiarize yourself with the stock guitar, be able to "control" its sounds and features and then think about this upgrade, since the original package is already a bliss.

Excellent Axe

Very good and versatile guitar. I was worried about the action as I had seen some bad comments on this topic but it was good out of the box. playability is very nice and smooth. No problems with sharp frets or bad finish. However the inner painting in the f - holes could be better as it looks unfinished. The inlays are not perfectly centered in the width of the neck, apart from that very happy with the product.

The color is awesome.