Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Black Flame

Beautiful guitar, but....

The guitar I received had sadly been built a little wonky! The nut was too far toward the high E and the bridge was also too far over, this meant the high E was too close to the edge of the fretboard and it made it uncomfortable to play. I had to return it due to this problem which was a real shame as it looked and sounded great.

Hard to beat

Three weeks now since taking delivery of this guitar, so time for a review. First up build quality and finishing are pretty much as good as you would expect from a guitar five times the price. But at this price level it's the final touches that you are likely to need to do yourself, so a fret polish, lemon-oil the fretboard, tweak the set-up (didn't need much) and you are away. My one complaint - the guitar seems to have been assembled by the Hulk on a bad day, By which I mean the screws were tightened to within an inch of their lives. The neck claw was screwed all the way in to the wood, making the trem bridge unmovable - and as for the bridge why oh why oh why does the trem arm tension screw have to be so inaccessible? Sort it out Trevor! The pickups sound great - always preferred P90s to humbuckers, and these are really gnarly and mean when you crank them. I've actually replaced the tuners for locking types and the top nut with an ivory graphite one, which I think looks smarter with the neck binding. I'm thinking of adding a second volume pot, or a single blend pot with master volume, but that's a job for another day.

Gorgeous looks, great playability and superb value for money

Delivered ahead of the quoted time and in perfect condition. Out of the box the finish of the guitar, given the price point, was excellent. Flawless paint job, no fret spout and a great fretboard, one of the best I’ve ever played. Plugged in, no disappointments there. Plays and sounds much better than the rice point would suggest. Recommended.

Totally great

I love the color ,the guitar,and it sound good, the quality is best, highly recommend

Wow

Very good guitar. Prices are incredibly affordable. Needs set up but overall very impressed

Good quality instrument

Very good P90 loaded guitar, classic P90 punchy sound. The pickups are "reverse-wound, reverse-polarity", so no hum in middle position on high gain settings. Quality is fine, except for the tuners that did not hold the tune at all. Easy change, though. In total very fine guitar.

Fun P90 guitar with a nice shape

Got a made in Vietnam model. It has a bit thinner neck than the Indonesia CST24 with humbuckers, and the frets are not as big.

The pickups are great, they are really whats setting this guitar apart from other ones with similar price. If you are looking for a P90 guitar this or the singlecut 450 are probably your best bet.

Color came a bit darker than on images, but it looks great.

All in all a nice comfy neck and a good sound for the money.

Replace the tuners and you got a nice looking nice sounding guitar for cheap.

Surprisingly fast

Opened, played, enjoyed

Will buy many more

Expectations far exceeded!

An absolute bargain - don't overthink this, just get it.

I will upgrade a few bits and pieces here and there, but I knew this before I purchased the guitar. Tuners & the nut are fine as is, but I just prefer better.

Playable right away - set up quite good but a few tweaks to get it just right needed.

Exceeded expectations and most certainly not disappointed!

Due to circumstances over Covid-19, last year I had to sell my beloved Ibanez JS1 (one of the first 500 made). It was a beautiful instrument and probably the finest axe I will ever own. Someone got a bargain and I wish them well with it. With finances a little better this year, and missing not having an electric, I wanted an inexpensive instrument to futz around with some ideas and get playing again. Having always gone for Strats in years gone by the JS1 Floy Rose wasn't my favourite personally. I also always liked single-coil clean tones but didn't want a Strat neck after having the Ibanez for so long and thought I'd take a gamble on the CST24T P90. I reasoned that as long as the neck is okay I can always upgrade hardware as finances allow.

Well. The CST24T P90 has come as a complete surprise. It arrived detuned by a semitone or so, brought it up to pitch and the intonation is pretty much bang on! It most certainly doesn't look like a ~£200 instrument and played fine straight out of the box. The pickups sound good to me, pots are nice and firm. The nut wasn't cut very neatly but fitted correctly with no snagging. The vibrato seems fine and am confident it will float okay when I get around to it. The tuners do their job and are the only thing I am considering upgrading at this point but will do for now. There were a few 'imperfections' on the binding but no big deal. The JS1 had its 'flaws' as well. In fact, every instrument I have ever owned has no matter the price!

The frets could do with a dressing but nothing major and I wouldn't have been disappointed if the tuners/trem needed replacing immediately but this will more than do its job for a good while which is a result. An absolute bargain. Pleased as punch!