Harley Benton CST-24HB TOL Tobacco Flame Reviews

Absolutely stunning

This is probably my favorite HB electric guitar (out of 14) - it’s nearly flawless. The frets are rounded & polished, there are no construction flaws whatsoever, and the stock p’ups sound really good; the fact that you can coil split them is a great feature. I’m going to lower the action a bit and might replace the nut, other than that it’s phenomenal right out of the box and the quality is well worth much MUCH more than the actual price. I own several multi-thousand dollar guitars, and this comes very close to them in quality and playability.

Wonderful guitar

It came almost perfect. Just needed a small adjustment. It sounds great and is very very beautiful.

Great Guitar But....

I found this guitar to be great quality and great looking also sounds good. my only complaint is that although the specs say the frets are Medium jumbo they are DHP30S which are 1.45mm high! I regard these as Extra Jumbo, I think a Medium jumbo is around 1mm high that is my preference (a world of difference I should have sent it back but it was too beautiful) For any new purchase I now need assurance that when specs say Medium jumbo they are not 1.45mm high.

Oh, what's the point ...

... just buy it!

Another absolute HB classic.

It was the best packaged Harley I've received (presumably because it's pricier than my others?). The box had polystyrene lining the inside of the entire box - all four sides, bottom and top pieces - not just the usual corners and neck bit. The guitar was wrapped in the white, polystyrene-like fabric and that was then wrapped in a clear, plastic bag. A bit like triple-cooked chips and we all know how great they are.

Fit and finish was totally flawless. The Tree of Life neck inlays were perfectly, err, inlaid. No gaps or glue or misalignment which some older reviews have mentioned. The body binding was perfect. It has the standard issue "perfecto necko" (I'm trademarking that) for which Harleys are becoming known.

For the first 15 minutes of playing, I was a bit uncertain of the neck as it's a 350mm and most of my others are 305mm. Thirty minutes later and I'd decided you'd have to prise it from my cold, dead hands before I was letting this go.

The DC-DLX Tesla pickups are really great but these seem equally good but have a much more vintage character which suits the vibe. I think the coil split is more effective on these in terms of changing the character rather than just thinning out the sound. They also don't seem to drop the volume as much as the DC. The range of the tone knob seemed wider on these pickups as well.

I'd never experienced this body shape before and they never looked like a particularly comfortable guitar to me but with the hollow body reducing the weight and the curvy shape, it's VERY comfortable. I thought it had a belly cut but when I checked, it was nowhere to be found, making the comfort factor even more amazing. It seems a little bit slimmer than most so maybe that's what makes you feel so at home.

Regrets? I've had a few but then again ... anyway, personally I would have preferred the fretboard to be a bit darker but only to show off the Tree of Life inlay better. I'd also have liked the neck to have had cream binding to match the body. I'd prefer the coil split to be on both knobs so you could independently split the neck or bridge but this is rarely done and my DC-DLX Gotoh is the same. Anything else? Um, it didn't come with a guitar cable as has started happening (and strangely on the more expensive models). The Allen keys were in a clear bag whereas some of their guitars now come with a little black plastic pouch. As you can see, I'm struggling and I really had to push myself to mention these.

Yes, it's on the more expensive side for HB. It's twice the price of my TE62CC SFG. I love my TE62 so is it really worth the extra? Ab-so-lutely.

This review took longer than it should as I wanted to check something mid-way and couldn't put it down. Like I said at the beginning - just buy it already!

Excellent for the price

I was a bit apprehensive ordering this. I figured with the additional scope of the inlays on the neck, the rest of the fit and finish would suffer...I was wrong. Frets are nice and level, and polished well. The edges are polished without any sign of damage on the fret board.

The TOL inlay is very well done here, shocking for a guitar of this price point. I don't see any sign of filler or glue. The f holes are just 'ok'. Not completely even and some roughness to one (like an accidental swipe with some tool perhaps) but these are trivial and aren't visible except up close inspection. General finish is 8/10 I'd say.

Wiring is good, and the switch and pots work as expected (no noise turning the pots or cutting off from the switch position)

Intonation is slightly off in the default bridge position with the truss set (neck almost flat). About 5 cents at the 12th fret across the board. That is a good consistency though as you could move the bridge back slightly with the set screws (which are missing). This is something I don't like about wrap around bridges in general is the lack of fine adjustments possible, but for this particular guitar pretty good and correctable.

Random thoughts...

Stays in tune pretty well, but could benefit from better tuners, I think.

Balanced, not neck heavy.

Sound is subjective of course but I think it sounds great and has a lot of versatility with all the coil splitting you can do. Pickups aren't as hot as my EC1000, but is not really a critique, just a difference. Plays pretty well and no string buzzing with the action set typically (kind of middle of the road factory settings).

At the end of the day, you get a lot for your money with this brand, at least from my limited experience. I'll definitely order again.

Great Guitar and for under $300

Guitar came very quickly and in excellent shape. Very impressed with the guitar

They don't mention that this guitar has stainless steel frets!!!

Wow...just wow...this guitar is a steal at the price! I took mine into a luthiers and he was amazed it had stainless steel frets. He couldn't believe what I paid for it. He said he'd charge more for a stainless steel refret than I paid for the guitar. I absolutely love this guitar! The tuners are great...the pickups are beyond expectations -no need to swap them- and the there is a good sweep on the tone pot...I can't say enough about this PRS copy...get one...see for yourself

Seriously sweet guitar

I went into this with no expectations. After shipping, tax and duty, I've paid just under 500 Canadian. And worth every cent. Beautiful guitar, very will finished, and decently set up. All I plan on doing is installing a graphtech xl nut, my choice of strings, lower bridge slightly, and 1/4 turn of tension on truss rod. A quick clean and polish I do to all my new and used guitars, and ready to rock. The Roswell pickups are outstanding and fret work is pretty perfect. Surprisingly good guitar and quality control looks to be excellent.

Good guitar with a fantastic look.

In general at first glance this appears to be a super fine guitar, but if you look closer you will find some glue residue around the joint of the neck and body. Not much, but enough to pull it down in my mind. The guitar is easy to play and has good but not perfect sound in my opinion. I had to sand a little on the edges of the frets to get these completely smooth with the fretboard, but then it became very super smooth and very good to use. Single coil push / pull function pulls up again. The guitar is semi acoustic and you can practice without an amplifier. It took mee a few weeks before the intonation settled, but it ended 100% at the end. All in all, a good guitar at a reasonable price that I can recommend.

PRS who?

A really well crafted instrument. Sounds great. Stays in tune, beautiful fretboard inlay. Smooth fretwork. Reqlly decent electronics for an inexpensive guitar. Love it

PRS who??

Wow...a guitar this well-built and this beautiful for such a low price.

Out-of-the-box setup was nearly perfect (I only needed to tune the G-string slightly) and the overall build quality is much better than I've seen in several "review" videos. The pickups are good, the tuners are great and the overall stability of the guitar is terrific. The "Tree Of Life" fretboard inlays and the flame top really take this guitar to the next level in terms of aesthetics.

Beautiful tree inlay on neck

Beautiful guitar. Sound/pickups are pretty good. As with my TE-40 (and soon my new 62 Strat VW) i will need to spend a lot of time and energy filing the fret sprouts. I can live with the trade-off for the inexpensive guitar (which other wise has HIGH quality) and the consistent fret sprout issues. The instruments are easily worth the investment in time and money. I have five so far.....so I'm a fan.

Very good...but...

I am not judging this guitar based on its price point...it's simply a very good guitar hands down. It has a nice woody hollow-body tone and the neck is flat and fast. My only complaint is the badly black-shield-painted wood inside the F-hole...this spoils this beauty of a guitar when you look closely. The shield paint is uneven, scrappy, and was obviously done through the F-hole. Moreover, the wires are not well hidden. I don't care about the price... these things are easily fixable. Please, Harley Benton, keep your standards high and get it right.

good for starting

good for starting as 1st hollow body guitar.

but this one come with small fret bzzzz and bad machine head .

something a liuter can fix in few minutes of work.

by the way I'm happy with this guitar.

Worth the Wait - Beautiful Guitar

When I received the guitar from the post office, the box was was nearly folded in half. Taco'd. My heart sank. I was sure everything inside was damaged. That fear was relieved when I cut through the many layers of post office tape and got into the box. The cardboard guitar box was setting on top of the Gator hard-case and had an extra layer of paper stuffing which protected the guitar from the extreme damage on the outside. Whew! Close call! Not sure why they didn't place the guitar inside the guitar case for shipping... maybe if you order you can request it. But anyway, back to the guitar.

The first thing you notice is the tree inlay. It is beautiful. I read some reviews on earlier models which said that theirs was not very good quality up close. Well, the one I got is almost flawless. I think they are only available on the Tobacco flame model, hopefully they can expand to other models and colors because they are amazing. The inlays are completely flat against the fretboard and look great. You would have to use a magnifying glass to find any flaws, and then, you would have to be very picky. The tag on the back of the headstock indicates that mine was made in Indonesia (if that matters) I bet it would be hard to find a fretboard with this style and quality for less than the price of this entire guitar! The neck feels very comfortable, and the jumbo frets give everything a solid and precise feel. The fit and finish of the body is great. Again, very pretty. You can see a few wires through the bottom 'f' hole, but again, I am not too concerned with that - just stick a finger in there and push them out of the way.

The sound you get from the CST is great. Action very low. Lower than my tele, which just had a pro set up. Easy The bridge is kind of weird. Only 2 strings are intonate-able. Strings stay in tune. Again. I haven't done anything to set up this guitar, and probably won't need to. We'll see how it handles the climate change after a few months, but the build quality is so high, I don't expect anything drastic.

The short and long of it is: Want a semi-hollow body PRS-style guitar? Have about $250 to spare? Get one! (or 2!)

I'm in love

its totally gorgeous to look at, it feels great, its light as a feather it purrs, it screams, awesome. one niggle, Tuners! what is it with the Benton tuning pegs? really erratic quality on these, Locking ones going on it this weekend and then I will be a happy bunny again.

Lovely guitar

Does need a setup but really nice guitar. Looks great, sounds great.

I swapped the bridge for a Gotoh 510UB and it's perfect. The right radius for the bridge, low action, no fret buzz, and perfect intonation. Highly recommend this bridge for this guitar.

Go and get it

I was a in doubt for a very long time what guitar to order. I am playing for 45 years and needed a new guitar after a long pause....

For a long time I have ignored the HB guitars, since i have seen too many cheap copies, a waste of time and money. Till I discovered all the reviews of HB guitars and got blown away. I like jazz, blues and rock, so for the price decided to give it a try.

I opened the box and was surprised by the looks of this guitar. This one has the tree of life on the neck, it is amazing. There were no glue residues on the neck, very well done.

Playability was not great, but the neck was straight, 2 screw to adjest and it was playable. I brought it to a luthier and after that it had a perfect action.

The sounds on this guitar are amazing, since it has split coil. I can easily play John Mayer sounds on the neck pickup in single coil but also very good jazz and blues sounds.

This is an awesome guitar (for the money) if you are into blues, jazz and 70s rock.

very nice

my second HB is better than my first and it was wonderful, love these guitars

Probably my favorite guitar once set up right.

I'm a beginner with two strats prior to this guitar. I use it at home.

Once I got used to the chunky neck, I found out that this was actually my preferred neck profile! However, the guitar came with some major fret buzz from frets number one and two. After getting it dressed and lowered just a bit, it started to sound better.

I recently switched out the strings to Chrome flat wound strings. This, combined with thread tape on the bridge screws, removed the tinny sound the guitar had. It now sounds far far better and it's a real joy to play.

There were a few finishing issues (the tree of life inlay is recessed into the fretboard) but with the right strings and a bit of work it's a fantastic guitar. That's why I ordered another Harley Benton!