Harley Benton CST-24T Ocean Flame Reviews

Surprisingly good for the price!

Got this based on the videos online. Wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. Replaced the pickups, which were fairly easy to do, been playing it ever since. Sounds great, looks beautiful, couldn't ask for much more!

Suberb value

Can't really say much more. The finish is beautiful, my guitar was well set up and didn't really have anything bad to say. Hard to imagine other brands coming even close at this price.

Fantastic!!

Great right out of the box!! One of my favorite guitars!! Quick shipping and well packed.

PRS Needs to Up Their Game!

I've always wanted a PRS style double cut kinda like Carlos', but I never could justify the higher price. The CST-24-T looked quite promising, and the beautiful ocean flame color sealed the deal for me. I have absolute NO problems with the guitar itself; it is very high quality, and every well constructed and finished. My only complaint is the excessive neck size IMHO. Build the CST24-T with a copy of the Gibson 60's era Slim Taper Neck, and you would then have PRS/Gibson perfection in one package.

The coil-split feature is great for those who use it, and the coil splits with both pickups gives the same tone you get from Page's Telecaster on the solo to "Stairway to Heaven," a TRULY CLASSIC rock solo not meant to be played by raw beginners.

First Harley Benton!!

This was my first Harley Benton guitar I bought, it was recommended to me by my guitar teacher. After receiving it I tuned it up and started playing, and in my eyes it is definitely worth the money, I’m new to guitars so checking the set up etc is not something I know how to do so I’ve just left it how it is.

This guitar sounds pretty good I like the humbuckers aswell as the single coil split option, this guitar is heavy compared to what I’m used to. If you’re used to playing a LP style guitar you’ll probably be fine. The paint work was nice a few little things that wasn’t 100% but for the money can’t complain.

Beautifull guitar, sounds nice but weigth a ton

Need to change the tuner because do not stay in tune. Some frets are sharp like a knife.

Harley Benton CST-24T Ocean Flame

Awesome all round guitar ,also bought locking tuners for it, as it has a tremolo system just to keep it in tune ,very happy :)

Impressive!

The guitar arrived on time(fast) played fine out of box just a little tuning fit and finish are spot on sounds good. for 248.00 plus 80.00 shipping to U S it was still an super deal compared to a import of the same style from a American manufacture. ( I wont say there name) all in all I highly recommend this if you are looking for this style guitar but have limited funds (who doesn't) it compares to instruments costing much more. It is much nicer than I expected !!!!!

Shocked!

I was not prepared to receive such a well put together guitar. It was in tune when I pulled it out of the box all the way from Germany. I only had to make minor adjustments to help it stay in tune even better. Great guitar. Thank you.

Everyone should own one.

So I have owned this guitar to a number of months now and here is my summary.

I love it! It plays wonderfully!

The fretboard feels good.

The neck has kept its shape.

It stays in tune.

Here is what makes it NOT 5 stars: It is too heavy, not so bad you cant play it but its got weight. I don't love that the white binding turned more cream but its completely fine. The fret ends are clean but not perfect. All and all the best thing in my opinion is that this guitar is amazing!

It is not perfect. It shouldn't be expected to be perfect. But its very, VERY, close!

Didn't expect it to be that good!

The guitar is just awsome. Everything works perfectly, the sound differs a lot from my old Lead Star (which is exactly what I amed for), is sort of "oceanic", if it makes sense :)

The finnish and building quality are great.

I bought this guitar primarily for studio work, but pretty sure it would look and work great in live performance too.

Would highly recommend this instrument for advanced musicians, as well as for beginners.

Good news, and the bad news.

This guitar is beautiful. The neck is great. The Wilkinson tuners and tremolo work function well. If you don't like a neck with a high gloss finish, this might not work for you. Myself, I like it.

Now, for the bad news.

First off, the volume pot didn't work. Turns out the low side connection on the pot was not soldered to ground. Problem fixed.

The guitar just sounded muddy to me. It lacked clarity and brightness. I tried all of the regular tricks, such as playing with pickup height and the value of the tone pot, to no avail. I finally replaced the pickups with some g.m. 59ers, and now the guitar sounds great.

Also, the volume pot is a cheap, dime-sized pot. That I will be replacing. Now, this will probably be my favorite guitar.

Stunning guitar

This guitar is awesome. It plays great and sounds great and is absolutely beautiful. The pictures online don't come close to showing how nice several models look.

Beautiful look and sound

I just received my guitar and it's just gorgeus. Really nice colour and plenty of tones. Pickups sound to good to be true and the overall

experience does not match the price.The only flaw i found was a small hit behind the neck but i guess i was just unlucky. If you want a new budget guitar you should definitely have this piece of art in mind

A fine machine!

Will always now consider HB's as an option. Plays well sounds good and an excellent finish. The action which some players found a little high on some HB's ( usually easily adjusted) was not apparent on my CST 24T

One of the best guitars you can buy for this price

The guitar is beautifull and sound phenomenal the only bad thing I have to say it's that the nut wasn't properly cut and the 6th string has some buzzing and it feels like it's almost slipping out but that can be fixed.

This was my main guitar before i moved out of the country.

Good but obviously not a PRS

This is my 4th HB guitar and I can't find much to complain about any of them so maybe I was just a bit unlucky with this one.

It's is a very nice, feature-rich guitar for the guitar, but it does have a few flaws - or at least mine did.

Most of these aren't major problems and I found I could fix them quite easily and cheaply.

To start with, the fretboard was quite dirty and very dry. A few applications of lemon oil sorted it out no problem.

I then noticed that the nut was a bit wonky in terms of positioning - at least 2 mm off-centre and quite poorly cut. I will likely replace it.

The intonation on one of the strings was impossible to set far back enough without cutting the saddle screw spring in half with wirecutters. Maybe the bridge was installed too far forward.

The tone knob also doesn't feel very linear to me, it makes a dramatic difference in the lower third of its range then I can't hear much difference after that.

The binding around the neck was quite poorly installed, and rough looking in a lot of places.

Having said that, the finish on the body and neck is perfect. Absolutely stunning. It's more of a turquoise / peacock greenish colour that tricks your camera into thinking that it's blue!?

The stock pickups sound great and it's definitely a fun guitar to play.

I would absolutely recommend it if you can afford to take it for a decent setup or are able to fix the type of problems yourself that I listed above.

Punches well above its weight

I ordered this guitar in Ocean Flame last Thursday night (Chicago time), and it arrived in just four days (Monday afternoon). After unboxing it, I took a little time to adjust the action (simple enough) and remove the center vibrato spring (simple enough). A couple of little tweaks, and it was ready to play.

This thing roars! The humbuckers are full and warm without being muddy, and it has that Telecaster "quack" when you engage the coil taps without managing to sound shrill. The one I ended up with is actually pretty lightweight (about nine pounds), which is a pleasant surprise.

It's also absolutely stunning to look at. The translucent blue paint shows off the flame maple top, belying the fact that it's a veneer, and the mahogany wood grain is clearly visible throughout the rest of the guitar.

My only real gripes are with the vibrato system. It simply does not want to stay in tune. I attribute it more to the tuners than the vibrato itself, and with the tweaks I made, it may yet settle down and stay in tune okay (I can get it to work well enough if I divebomb it a few times to knock it out of tune, then retune), but for now, it isn't very useful. This is a minor gripe, however, and is ultimately fixable with a few little tweaks. I may also put locking tuners on it eventually, but it isn't a priority right now.

For what I paid ($330 shipped), it's an insane value. I've played a few PRS SEs, and this easily holds its own with those in my opinion. All in all, I really couldn't be more happy with this!

Great instrument so far

I only use it to play at home and it is pretty unbeatable for the price. Kind of disappointed with the color though. It looks like some kind of navy blue in the pictures, but the one I got looks like a teal blue. Not ugly whatsoever, but really not as expected.

Amazing instrument

in short, amazing sound, playability and build quality for a guitar at this price point. It has become my main instrument from the day I got it while my previous guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Studio which was more than than 4 times pricier, has been sitting in its case ever since. The only issues I've had are related to the tremolo arm, the first one being the difficulty to mount it tightly in the bridge (I haven't managed to do it using the included small allen key) and the second concerning the guitar getting out of tune with heavy tremolo use. However, both of these problems can be solved with a good setup so I don't think they are that important. In the end, I consider it one of my best buys, just like the previous Harley Benton instruments that I have bought, and I would easily buy another one!