Harley Benton CST-24 BK

As per usual with Harley Bentons, this guitar showed up in excellent form. The action was perfect (in my opinion), intonation was great, no rough frets or unfinished areas, and ready to play right outta the box.

Upon plugging it in, I was amazed by the quality of the pickups. They express a really nice glassy clean sound and they hold a good solid and even overdrive. I have used this guitar live a few times now and it has been amazing. I know the pickups are stock, but they are seriously impressive.

The volume and tone pots are great high quality, sensitive and responsive for their size. The guitar hardware itself is immaculate and would rival most mid-high range guitars out there.

I play in a variety of different tunings, from E standard to Drop A and the tuners on this guitar handle the different tunings and string gauges perfectly. They hold their tune exceptionally well.

My only gripe with this guitar was a little part of the binding on the top curve gets slightly wider than it should towards the neck. That is literally the only bad thing I have to say about this guitar and I really had to nit-pick to come up with that one.

All in all, I feel like a bit of a thief for getting a guitar of this quality at the price I bought it for. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I have no Idea how HB make a profit on these guitars! - I'm just glad they exist for those of us who, like me, love quality guitars but operate on a very small budget!

Thank you Harley Benton and thank you Thomann! :)

This guitar is amazing!!! When I received it, the intonation was spot on. The strings were almost in tune! The playability is great!!! The neck seems wider than I'm used to, but this is a good thing because I'm a beginner. After receiving it a couple of days ago, I finally plugged it into my amp today and it sounds excellent! Now for the bad, which is totally NOT Thomann's fault. Thanks to Covid-19 slowing everything down worldwide, from when I placed the order until I received it, was over a month. Having said this, my gut told me the longer it took DHL/ US Postal Service to get the guitar to me, the more chance of it arriving damaged. Sure enough, my gut was right! The box was grossly mishandled and the headstock broke through 3 layers of protective cardboard. NOT COOL! A piece about a quarter of an inch of wood and paint was chipped right off the headstock! I've since repaired it with wood filler and black paint, but it's not 100%. Oh well! I can live with it. This guitar is a fantastic buy!!! But BEWARE of crappy shipping if you're a long distance from Germany!!!

So i have owned this guitar for years now and i often play it iv modded it to look like the Mike Shinoda Black and white Meteora guitar (linkin Park) once it had a fret level and full setup its up there with my fave guitars to play its a keeper

the pickups are fine sounds great mine are uncovered now tho!!......and adding locking tuners and an adjustable bridge was necessary for drop tuning but the stock parts are fine if you're in standard tuning

i love this thing that much Im tempted to buy a second to do my own custom paint job and interesting hardware


set up out of the box 5/10 the frets weren't level was buzzing needed some TLC but that's OK i knew that going in.
so sound id rate this for the price 9/10 doesn't need pickups changing its lovely
visually looks (before i painted it) lovely black calve top 10/10 (id give mine a 20/10 after my paint job wish i could add picture here ;(

Once again Thomann really did not let me down,
after reading reviews I expected a really nice guitar,
Wow! When I unboxed this creation I really was blown away.
1. Looks. Beautiful not a blemish, no dings.
2. Set up. Never have I received an instrument that has been set up so well, (felt like it had been set up for my personal liking.)
3. Playability. SUPERB.
4. Value. Just wish She who must be obeyed will let me buy
the trem version, FABULOUS.
5.Sounds. Love the lot.
In all fairness this guitar makes me angry at myself for spending so much money on Big brand guitars Gibson,
Fender,even Epiphone, when I could have bought more guitars from Thomann
BRILLIANT as usual THOMANN.

I'm very happy with my CST-24BK. Impossible to beat at this price point. It's a nice heavy guitar with a great feeling wide neck. People complain about the Wilkinson pickups, but they're fine for me.

Don't listen to those people who say their $180 guitar outplays a $600 PRS-SE or even a $2000 PRS. That's not true. But for the price, you're getting a very well made, excellent playing instrument. Heck for one PRS-SE, I can get three of these ... one to leave in every bedroom. ha ha

I'm a big fan of HB instruments. I get a big bang for my buck.

The neck has a smooth feel, no fingers running across fret ends, fit and finish are very smooth. The looks are every bit as beautiful as the pictures on the website. The sound is very very good, I had heard other Harley's played on videos but actually playing it through my amp i was impressed. I thought i might need to change pickups but after hearing them they will do just fine.

It's hard to find a con for a great guitar in this price range. No it won't play like a 3k prs, but it most definitely plays and sounds better than an 800 dollar prs se.

I have no problem recommending this to anyone who wants a prs style guitar and doesn't want to spend thousands to get it.