Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit CST-24 5-stars Reviews

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!!

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

Brilliant

Very pleased with the kit. Very good value.

CST-24

Very nice kit, awesome neck sounds great 👍

Good sustain

I was surprised by the quality of the resulting instrument. Mostly by the sustain it has.

The pickups were fine. I have no intention to change them.

My intention was to stain paint it. But it turned out quite a hassle to sand the humidity sealant.

I stringed it with 10-46 HB value strings. I had to adjust the truss rod after the winter.

This thing rocks!

Great kit

Overall woodworking is very good. All holes match up nicely. It plays and sustains suprisingly good!

The only complain is that provided screws are somehow labelled, but I managed to use them correctly with trial and error approach.

Magnificent Bargain

Had my concerns..but I was wrong...this is a great kit...superb value for the money

Awesome kit for gift

Best kit for guitar lover as a gift

Worth it

I finished assembling today after a few days or sanding and staining and now looks & feels great. The only improvement would be if the screws it ships with are more clearly labeled. There is a bag of screws for assembly and you (for some) kind of have to guess which ones go where as the instructions don't say and the photos don't always make it obvious. I also needed to bore out the hole for the toggle switch a bit with a file. But it can be done pretty and it's well worth it in the end. Recommended

Great value

I decided to add this kit to my order of a fretless bass because it was inexpensive and I could better value from the shipping costs. I was sceptical about such a low priced kit but I'm really impressed with the result. I found it easy to assemble, plug in pickups eliminating the need for soldering and everything fit together well. The back cover plate had some screw holes that didn't line up but that doesn't bother me. Bit concerned about the fixed bridge that doesn't allow for intonation adjustment but the intonation seems fine, I might replace it with a cheap aftermarket bridge but happy with it so far. I'm amazed at the action, it plays like butter with no fret buzz with a low action and smooth edges on the fretboard. Really happy with the sound. It's comparable if not better than more expensive instruments. My only complaint is the pore filler on the wood which you have to sand off to stain the wood so I left it as is, I don't mind the raw timber look anyway. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase and consider it good enough to go with.

Got 5 Harley Benton going for the 6th they are so good

Best guitar you can buy for the money I have bought five so far and all arrived in perfect condition keep up the good work

Great guitar for the price

I bought the guitar for my wife to carve on it and make a fully personalized guitar. Really nice guitar for the cost. I recommend.

Make it your own

Similar design to PRS body, and neck and body matched perfectly easily assembled perfect for the amateur Luthier to get started on seeing how guitars are put together.

Start a new hobby

want to start a new hobby building guitars? This is the kit for you. With easy to follow instructions and simple assembly. Building this guitar will help alleviate fears and anxiety of building a guitar. Also the price is right.

Wow!

Turned out better than expected! I mean wow!! I turned this into the 6-String of my dreams without dropping $3+

E-Gitarre Selberbauen relativ einfach

Ich wollte eine spezielle Farbe und im Prinzip auch mal eine E-Gitarre mit "CST" Scale ausprobieren. Die Beschreibung ist hier aber widersprüchlich. Ich glaube es sind auch 628mm und nicht 635mm, aber ich habe eine andere Bridge verwendet, daher bin ich nicht ganz sicher.

Das Holz vom Body ist relativ weich und kam auch schon mit paar kleineren Dellen ( klein in den Außmaßen aber sicher zu tief zum Schleifen ). Für mich noch im akzeptablen Bereich, aber wenn kein Selbstbausatz dann hätte ich es eindeutig als B-Ware bezeichnet. Dafür ist die ganze E-Gitarre relativ leicht ca. 2,8 kg besser geht's nicht :-)

Wenn man nicht von Bausatz abweicht, ist die E-Gitarre denke ich in 1-2h Zusammengebaut. Für die Wartezeit zwischen dem Lackieren sollte man aber insgesamt paar Tage einplanen.

Bindings am Hals gefallen mir nicht, aber gut. Bünde sind auch etwas kantig, das wird noch etwas eigene Feinarbeit brauchen der Hals an sich ist aber gut.

Ein Schnäppchen, wenn man was Individuelles will und nicht sofort nach dem Auspacken losspielen will natürlich.