Harley Benton CST-24T Black Cherry Flame

I ordered this to the States and that was the first concern was it getting here in one piece. It arrived in perfect shape so that concern was over. After a little set up and string change to my preferred strings this thing sings. I love that it has the P*s kinda look but isn't all together trying to be exactly like the P*s. It's got it's own thing and pulls it off elegantly. I was expecting a just slightly less quality version of what the guitar is based on from the hundreds of reviews I watched before ordering this since I couldn't be there in Germany to actually pick one up and play it for myself. The humbucker option is smooth and highly useful and I'm super surprised at the single coil split. Most guitars struggle with getting that right. Even the Prs's but I actually get it right on with this guitar. I have a couple of Strats and the CST24t nails that single coil sound. At least it seems to for me with my amp set up. Nice option. I won't have to bring 2 or 3 guitars to a gig. Bring this one and do a simple toggle switch and/or pick up split and I'm there. I'm Major picky about tone and feel so it nails both those departments for me. I can also say this is the very first guitar with jumbo medium frets that I actually like with these frets. I was going to have them brought down by a really good Luther I know here when I got it but cancelled that plan. It's weird how I definitely feel the frets predominantly over the wood from the fret board and I usually like feeling closer to the fret board itself but this feels natural enough as is and it takes me in new directions which I really like. I could go on about this guitar but that'd make this review really long. Just beautiful finish. Pretty flawless on this specimen. It doesn't make you want to stop buying Prs's. I have a Prs and plan to buy another one. If anything it makes me want to buy more Prs's and Harley's. I got a couple more Harley's picked out too now that I see they're level of quality. Be back soon;-)

This is the second CST-24T I have bought. The first was a blue one but I sold it after a while because I wasn't really happy with the pickups and didn't want to spend much more upgrading a ¤222 guitar.
Learned recently that they changed the pickups to Roswells and read good reviews so took a chance on another one.
Definitely a score. Beautiful guitar and the pickups are lovely. No urge to 'fix' anything....well, not much anyway. These pickups to my ear are very similar to the Duncan Jazz/JB set....no bad thing. The coilsplit sound is typically thin and weedy....half a humbucker is NOT a good singlecoil...so I wired in a resistor (about 4Kohm) in the grounding wire and now you get one and a half coils, sort of, when split which sounds better. This is easy and cheap and should be standard practice when they wire up a guitar in the factory.
The guitar arrived amazingly well setup for a budget guitar. Frets were nice and smooth. I've had new Gibson's that were worse. It was even intonated properly! But as I'm fussy and do guitar setups a lot anyway I gave it another gentle fret polish and worked on the nut and vibrato. Lemon oiled the fretboard. It wouldn't stay in tune very well out of the box but after smoothing and lubing fretslots and adjusting screws and stuff the vibrato works great and stays in tune really well. Plays great now.
The workmanship and finish is REALLY
good. My girlfriend even wants to have the guitar hanging in the sitting room so she can look at it! Love the deep red and black finish.

The only negative I have with this guitar....and other Harley Bentons I've bought...is the weight. Way too heavy. Not a huge issue with me this time as I own other lighter guitars to use onstage and will just use this one sitting down, but I would've preferred it to be less heavy.
Harley Benton should sort this issue out and get a supply of less dense timber for their products.
But other than that I'm very pleased with the guitar and would recommend it.

Bit of background - I've been playing for 56 years (yes, I'm that old).
For most of that time I played classical but, since losing strength in my left hand following an accident (barrés are difficult), I've been playing electrics for about 15 years.
I really only noodle for my own amusement now. Blues (BB et al), contemporary arrangements, multi track compositions.
I fancied a guitar with a whammy bar (I refuse to call it a tremolo when it's really vibrato).
I saw this one, got good vibes about Thomann support and Harley Benton value so gave it a go.
I've given 5 stars across the board - but there was a problem with the frets.
First off, for the money, the finish is superb. The flame maple join on the table isn't as good as my Gibson SG Supreme - but then it's about 1/10th the price.
Tuners aren't the best (wouldn't expect them to be) but they work fine and the guitar stays in tune (full marks to the bridge for this too).
I stuck a bit of pencil graphite in the nut slots - that sorted some slight sticking I had initially.
The Roswell pickups sound great, there's loads of tone control and the split coils work well.
The BIG problem I had was the frets. Above the 12th they were pristine. Below the 12th they were mostly scratched (some quite badly). One or two spots weren't properly crowned.
While waiting for a response from Thomann (it was weekend) I lost patience and decided to sort it out. Polished and crowned where needed and did a full setup.
There was a bit too much bow on the neck and the bridge pickup was way too low.
Intonation was very good - only one string was very slightly out.
The guitar now plays like a dream. As good as, or better than any I've ever played.
The tremolo (oops, I said it) works very well. I've seen people say it only works downwards. Wrong - it works both ways fine though I did have to adjust tension on the block.
When Thomann responded they were very good. Offered to replace the guitar but by then I'd done the work and couldn't be happier.
We negotiated a discount which left me satisfied and happy to recommend both the guitar and Thomann.
Full Marks!

This guitar made in Vietnam is the best inexpensive guitar I have ever played and this is by far the best value for money.
The arched flamed maple top with "black cherry flame" finish is almost perfect. The neck has a high-gloss finish that doesn’t feel sticky. The attractive binding is not only on the body but also on the neck. The frets were perfect and it plays great all the way up to the 24th fret.
Its warm tone has plenty of sustain, supported by two Roswell humbuckers controlled by 3-way switch. The double coil pickups can be split using a push/pull tone knob, increasing the range of available sounds. Thus, CST-24T can cover almost any genre
of music- blues, rock, fusion, funk and even heavy metal.
The Harley Benton CST-24T stacks up very well against the PRS SE electric guitar which is a much more expensive guitar.
If you dont like humbuckers and you want single coil tones then check out the Harley Benton CST-24T P90 version, it’s also a great guitar for the same money.
The only problem with my guitar was the fretboard - it was dry and the colour was lighter orange (jatoba) instead of dark brown.
Overall I would recommend this guitar to anyone who's looking for a budget instrument with a great value.