Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit CST-24

Great for learning about this, but has some issues.

I'll start with what i like, the wood is high quality, the frets are done pretty good, but they need some polishing because they're scratchy. Pickups sound decent and pickup selector and pots are great. But the worst part is the nut is cut horrendously. The E to G strings are a bit too close and the B and high E strings are very far apart from eatchtoher and the rest of the strings. It gets points off due to that.

Good stuff

This is a fun little project that is not a complete gimmick at the end of it all. You can actually pay it and it is surprisingly OK right after assembling it. Pickups are surely cheap and on the noisy side, but they work. The nut was cut and installed surprisingly good. So were the frets. I did not need to do anything with them. Great experience wit hthis kit in particular. Much better than the LP (single cut) kit - they are miles apart in quality.

Great product

I like the set a lot. I definitely will put all together and it will become a great guitar!

Just Outstanding

I'm a tech with over 40 years experience (plus a gigging musician for longer than that). My grandson has been messing about with a mini-Squier Strat for a couple of years and now at the grand old age of nine has decided to take it seriously, The kit seemed to be an ideal way of providing him with a decent full-sized first guitar and the experience of building and setting up his own instrument. Ideally, this is close enough to being right straight out of the box, but with the option to upgrade and really set up properly as a first project. For instance job one is to do the same sort of fret dress and polish that I would do to a Gibson. Likewise he has learned about the characteristics of pickups and the "stone age" nature of the control circuits. As we go on he'll update the electrics (Bourne pots and Spague caps) with possible pickup upgrades leading to full and partial coil splitting and series/parallel options (maybe even convert the single conductor pickups to quads!). All this without the stress of killing a really expensive instrument or part. The simplicity of the design, with the solid construction and decent hardware would give an end result 2-3 times more expensive than complete and off the shelf, with the pride of construction thrown in. Even better is that there is understanding and pride in the build with an end result that goes well beyond some of the tat that my generation had to struggle with. The bonus here being a friend who has laser etched the body with an image of Iron Man in the nano suit from Endgame (YUSS!!). It really was worth that extra cost!!

Fun product

A fun quick build and good value. I assembled as stock and the result is a perfectly serviceable guitar with a surprisingly good neck - straight, decent frets and no sharp edges. I may upgrade bits over time, and will disassemble soon to give it a proper finish. For the money, better than I expected.

Two octaves on each string.

The body is light, and the neck is very playable. No fret sprout, and all the notes play cleanly. All of the hardware and electronics work fine, tuners work, pickups sound good. I'm in the process of replacing them all anyway, sort of as a learning process. Good fun. My only issues were a couple of the inlay dots falling a millimetre or so, and one of the neck screws being a bit delicate. Overall, super value for money.

Ottimo kit

Ottimo kit per iniziare, senza tremolo ci sono meno problemi nel montaggio. Manico ottimo, corpo e componenti più che buoni. Unica pecca le viti, mancano indicazioni su quali usare e sono di scarsa qualità.

Amazing Bang for the Buck

I bought this guitar with intentions to be me cheap mod guitar. But holy smokes. This is awsome. When i got it and assembled it i couldnt put it down for a good 3 Hours. Afterwards i dissambled and stained it a nice purple. I gotta say getting the protective sealant of was tough. You realy gotta sand it well. But its worth it.

Pros:

Good quality

Great looks

Good electronics

Sounds great

Surprisingly good tuners

Cons:

The neck isnt super stiff but thats fine

Good fun to assemble, not to play!

Great fun as a project, but will it not tune! intonation is out and no scope to adjust it.

Really not for anyone wanting a fine instrument.

It is a toy really.

Good for the price I suppose.

Brilliant

Very pleased with the kit. Very good value.