Harley Benton CST-24T LH Ocean Flame

I'm fan of Harley Benton left handed Electrics. I have 5 and will definitely be buying another as soon as they release a CST-24T LH in Black Cherry Flame finish. ( even with having to do my own setup and tweeks )

This CST-24T LH was made in INDONESIA .
Out of the box inspection: Visual defects: Rasp file scrape over top edge of neck binding and lighter scrape on corner of fretboard at High E string, at the 1st fret, for the full width of the space between nut and fret . A 2nd visual defect was a small 1/8" brush stroke of yellow discoloration on the right side of the neck binding at the 5th fret.
Setup: Guitar was painful to play out of the box after tuning. Last fret action was 5mm on the high E and 6mm on the low E.
I lowered the last fret action to 1.2 on the high E and 1.5 on the low E.

String height at 1st fret- horrible
Measured with a digital string height gauge starting with Low E .028mm,39mm,68mm83mm95mm70mm. I got out my Chic-yu brand nut slot files and began filing the slots. In the end I had lowered the slots to: Starting with Low E: .28mm, .30mm,. 32mm,.20mm,.19mm,21mm

Neck Relief: Neck initially was dead flat, I adjusted the truss rod and added relief to .2mm

Fret ends: Nice and smooth, no fret sprouts
Fret Levelness: High spot and Low E at 10th and 22 fret ( getting buzz ) at 1.5 mm last fret action on this string.
All other frets sound clean .

Will eventually be doing a precision fret leveling as done by Sam Deeks on YOUTUBE ( Good info source ,check it out )

Note on nut filing- the nut feeling like hack sawing thru rubber, because of this, there is no controlling how deep you file ( I had to fill a few slots with CA glue and black rescue powder and let cure overnight then re-file the next day. I have a new Tusq PT6642LO going on when I figure out the best method to cut through the gloss clear coat the HB sprays up against 3 sides of Graphite nut.

Tremelo: I dont normally use one, and have not tested how much it affects staying in tune, but if I have noticed the bridge would benefit from a slight flat milled into the surface just below the bridge. An observation I noticed was the high E saddle had to sit right down onto the bridge surface in order to achieve 1.2mm High E last fret action.

Summary: Would I buy another Harley Benton-Yes
Is this CST-24T worth $230 US Yes

Bottom line: None of the defects I found were impossible to correct.

About me: I work as a Quality Technician , getting ready to retire soon and enjoy playing my collection of Harley Bentons and Epiphones

Wow so much more than I expected.
Best value guitar I’ve ever bought.
Had to make some slight adjustments.
The tonal variety from this is excellent, one of my faves both pickups on & split a little slap back and instant twangy Gretch .
I was thinking I would have to swap out the pickups, but no way I’m keeping these babies.
The finish is awesome.
The fretboard was a little dry but some lemon oil sorted that out.
If you’re not a brand snob check out HB you’ll be surprised.
Thanks Thomann I’ve already ordered my next Harley Benton.
And it’s great they haven’t forgot about us lefties, something the big boys should take note of.

First of all, as a lefty it's hard to find any decent guitar that isn't black, let alone with a beautiful finish like this. There was some hesitation ordering online, especially from the USA but I heard good things and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did.


The guitar arrived quickly and I must say, the HB CST-24T LH is stunning. Fit and finish were perfect. The outer box had been torn completely through by the shipping company but the guitar was unaffected. The inside box was pristine.

The guitar sounds exquisite. I purchased all these extra tools expecting to need to do some work, at least on the frets and I didn't have to do anything. Frets were in perfect shape with no scratchiness and nice smooth ends.

Can't say enough good things. It's a beautiful guitar at any price, let alone around the $200 USD mark. Well done, Harley Benton and Thomann.

absolutely beautiful looking finish on both the body and neck, i personally prefer a matt finish neck but its still nice and doesn't cause your hand to stick to it after awhile of playing.

the sound from the Roswell pickups are pretty good for the price and the coil split is pretty good from what ive seen, I don't occasionally use it tho.

the strings included originally aren't too bad but as with all my guitars I swap out the strings straight away.

all in all this guitar is great for the price and plays and feels amazing, would 100% recommend.

I'm a Leftie, and I've had this version for 2 weeks. The colour has a hint of turquiose, but still is beautiful. As others have said, the finishing is not quite as good as a £1,000 guitar, but, hey, for £200 who's complaining; from a yard away it looks fantastic. I have gigged it, and it looks great in the photos taken then. The neck is made of 5 pieces of wood; three for the main length, a scarf joint at around the 2nd fret, and a piece to make up the heel. I had akready tried the PRS SE Custom. That had a 3 piece neck, and the finish and sound wasn't worth the extra £800 in my opinion. I already have the Paradise Flame CST24 LH, which I use the vibrato, and for this one, I have blocked the tremolo cavity to make it a hardtail.
It arrived in tune (!) with a straight neck, but the frets needed a polishing up, as the strings were scraping on them when bending. I also carefully lowered the action at the nut using the proper files (don't try it with a bread knife!) and it plays very fast.
One disappointment is the tone pot. It's either all on or full off, no in-between tonalities, so I'll have to change it. The tuning pegs are not great quality, but they keep it in tune. So if you changed them, and fitted a better tone knob, you'd have an exceptional guitar.
If you have a problem with the name on the headstock, then get over it. PRS eat your heart out.

I really cannot say enough good comments about the CST-24T LH. I fell in love as soon as I removed the lid from the box. The color on the flame is stunning. The guitar was set up pretty well out of the box and even came in tune after the trip all the way to the midwest of the US. It sounds and plays extremely well. The neck is very thin, which is a big bonus to those of us with smaller hands. All of the reviews you see online are completely correct. I have found a few small areas under the clear where it looks like they didn't clean it well enough before they shot the clear coat. There are a few areas on the binding that didn't get scraped well enough before the clear also. However, this is nitpicking folks. This guitar is phenomenal. For $250 shipped to my front door, this is the steal of the century.