Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Black Flame

Due to circumstances over Covid-19, last year I had to sell my beloved Ibanez JS1 (one of the first 500 made). It was a beautiful instrument and probably the finest axe I will ever own. Someone got a bargain and I wish them well with it. With finances a little better this year, and missing not having an electric, I wanted an inexpensive instrument to futz around with some ideas and get playing again. Having always gone for Strats in years gone by the JS1 Floy Rose wasn't my favourite personally. I also always liked single-coil clean tones but didn't want a Strat neck after having the Ibanez for so long and thought I'd take a gamble on the CST24T P90. I reasoned that as long as the neck is okay I can always upgrade hardware as finances allow.

Well. The CST24T P90 has come as a complete surprise. It arrived detuned by a semitone or so, brought it up to pitch and the intonation is pretty much bang on! It most certainly doesn't look like a ~£200 instrument and played fine straight out of the box. The pickups sound good to me, pots are nice and firm. The nut wasn't cut very neatly but fitted correctly with no snagging. The vibrato seems fine and am confident it will float okay when I get around to it. The tuners do their job and are the only thing I am considering upgrading at this point but will do for now. There were a few 'imperfections' on the binding but no big deal. The JS1 had its 'flaws' as well. In fact, every instrument I have ever owned has no matter the price!

The frets could do with a dressing but nothing major and I wouldn't have been disappointed if the tuners/trem needed replacing immediately but this will more than do its job for a good while which is a result. An absolute bargain. Pleased as punch!

I wanted another P90, and than this model came about. No need to buy the black one and change the pickups :) When I had scratched together the money I ordered one. Reviews are good, as this one will be also.
But first:
A nasty little scratch on the back of the headstock and dirty and damaged looking fretboard startled me when unpacking. After just playing for a few hour the fretboard looks ok, even nice. Two things are important:
1 it’s so nice I played for three hours. Tuning keeps ok-ish for now, better tuners as on my old 2016 cts. Wood is more lively, like it responses more. Necks is nice for me and frets have no sharp edges. Sound is warm but present at the neck, bridge is a bit more nasal, bitey, but not too thin. Middle is more open. Good with chorus. Wilkinson trem is good as always. Looks nice ;)
2 Always play and perhaps clean first..... first view is not always the best way to judge.

Conclusion: such a nice guitar, weight and resonance of the wood will always be different, so I was lucky.
Might sell my other cst..... ** yep, sold it.
Sound is good, p90 is thicker as my singlecoil Teles and strat, bit warmer and less raunchy as my jazzmaster. Also more to my liking as the humbuckers a have and had. To me those pickups were all to “smooth”.
I will try 47 or 22 capacitors, to see what it does. It’s a bit woolly now with tone turned down. ** It became 22's. Strong lows, not woolly anymore. and us made pots. 500V and 250 T.
This CTS24-P90 looks as good as on the pictures. Even better in my house ;) Very very good.
Update 22 aug 2019: Installed nickel locking tuners a while back. Easy tuning and better looks ;). Gave nut some attention for smooth string action. Such a beautiful and nice guitar! Dynamics AND fast player ;) .
Update may 2020: put a tonerider vintage p90 in the bridge. Because I really balanced the Roswell’s 6 screws I didn’t think the sound would be better, but man... thight! Just like I remembered the expensive les paul I once borrowed a few weeks. The neck Roswell suddenly sounds more like a semi hollow guitar, compared. Still nice and balanced. When I get my hb35-plus, I guess I’ll have to buy the neck tonerider. So when that happens I’ve upgraded the cst for €150,- and it will be (is already) so worth it.

I can be very succinct about this guitar: how on earth can a company produce such an incredible guitar at such a ridiculously low price (retorically speaking) Also, how are companies such as Fender, Gibson and PRS still in business?

The flame top isn't book matched, the tuners aren't locking and the neck has a few very minor imperfections, but that's all I can whine about. Not like I would expect all of that at this price.

Right out of the box, the instrument plays fantastic, it looks really groovy and those P90's are my newfound Gods. These are so good. Really well balanced EQ, nice in-between in terms of output, with the neck pickup having just slightly lower output. They respond really well to picking dynamics and with both pickups selected, you can actually get a really nice uhmmmm.... Satch-like tone? I have no idea what to call it, but it reminds me of Joe. Also, sustain for centuries.

To summarize: I look through Thomann's site for extra guitars to add to the growing arsenal, but every time I play this guitar, I can't help but think... why would I? This is the closest I've ever gotten to getting a cure for my Guitar Acquisition Syndrome (G.A.S.).

Edit: I've switched out the stock pickups for Seymour Duncan's Antiquities, and now I can say that the stock pickups are OK, but proper pickups like these Antiquities sound infinitely better. Still, those prices added together is still a low price for something that sounds this fantastic!

First things first: I receive my product almost 1.5 months later. Maybe it was because of the pandemic, I don't know...

Guitar finish quality: It is not a top-notch finish. It has grayish tiger stripes on the top, but not even AA quality in there. Yellow stripes (binding) around the body are not even and there are some blemishes here and there... It can't be seen from a distance but from the player's point of view, they sure look ugly.

Pick-ups quality: okay, there is nothing wrong with it! I am very pleased with them. Very bright, punchy, warm sound; right in between a Gibson and a Fender sound.

Neck quality: the fretboard surely could've been better. The binding that surrounding the neck has some hollow points in between, and there are some minor cracks on the neck wood. It can be fixed by some gluing and applying some oil. The nut is a very, very ugly, cheap-looking plastic so it must be changed!

TL;DR: so overall, I don't have any regrets but surely I won't consider buying this guitar if I've known better...

Totally sold on this guitar...it arrived in 4 days and does not disappoint. Well dressed frets, quality machine heads and a monster trem block that puts a Fender to shame. It has a great sound, mellow mid volume and growls when turned up and mine has excellent build quality. Don't be put off by the low price, this guitar is worth double and treble. It's comfy to play and has a finish to die for....I have Fender and Gibson's, but I'm definitely buying more Harley Benton's.....would have given 6 stars if there was the option....no bull.
Update - 3 weeks in and it's playing in nicely. I changed the knobs for black marshmallows (speed knobs like on a Les Paul) and it looks classier....I have hard-tailed the trem unit as I don't really use it and the saddles don't scratch my hand whilst playing muted style. The wood grain and colour of the back of the guitar is stunning....overall, I'm really impressed with this guitar...and I have now ordered a swamp ash HB strat ....

I already had a CST24T Paradise flame with twin Roswell humbuckers. This is supposedly a black flame P90 CST24T. It is really an opaque black guitar with a bit of transparent flame on the front. The flame competes with the usual finger prints on black guitars. I hoped the finish would be more like my charcoal black semi hollow CST-24HB.
The neck is the usual fast "Nice Slim Neck" and more so than on the CST24T and apart from the nature of the finish is the thing I like the least about it.
The quality of the construction and indeed of the finishing is as good as that on guitars costing three times as much. Its not light but not very heavy either. The balance between the P90s is perfect. If only the neck were more full in the hand it would be the perfect jazz/blues guitar.

I've never owned a PRS-style guitar before, and never a guitar with P90s either, so this was something of a gamble for me. The reviews from others (and some excellent YouTube videos) convinced me that the craftsmanship of the guitar would be solid, and having had it in my hands for the past few hours and having had a close inspection, I would agree.
I did have to slightly adjust the truss rod and lower the action, but that's more about personal preference than anything.
Two things worthy of note though - I was really disappointed in the finish on the back of the body/neck. The photos imply that it's translucent, with the mahogany grain showing through with a slightly brown tint. The one that arrived today is solid black on the back of body/neck, which has really detracted the asthaetics for me.
The second thing is that the guitar was listed as "Available Immediately" when I purchased it on the 1st, but it wasn't dispatched until the 6th and then it took 6 days to get here. Not a major issue, and I appreciate that we're living in unprecedented times, but not ideal to have a guitar travelling for a week in a carboard box.
Would I recommend the higher priced Harley Bentons - absolutely. Would I say that this guitar is worth the money - on the evidence of today's arrival, I'd say it's worth more than the asking price. I've had many G&L's over the years and I have a 2008 Fender USA Standard Strat, so I'm used to playing guitars that have been well put together. I'm looking to get hold of one of the Fusion T series in the future, as they look to be great value for money, but as for my first PRS-style P90 guitar, it's overall a positive start.

This guitar showed up a few weeks ago and I was instantly stoked at the overall package. The finish is gorgeous, the neck is glossy but quite playable, and the pickups sound pretty good through my Fender Blues Jr.

Once I got a little time on it, I realized there were a few issues that it shouldn't have with it being a new guitar, regardless of price point. The nut was cut so low that I had to get pliers to pull the low E string out of it and all four of the wrapped strings (EADG) were set so low in the nut that there were big issues with tuning stability. Several frets were high and needed some work to get it playable and all of the frets needed to be polished. There were a few that needed to be filed on the ends due to fret sprout, but I live in the mountains with low humidity, so I expect that to happen on most guitars. The bridge was almost maxed out on height on every string to be at a playable string height across the fretboard. Finally, the truss rod needed to be adjusted about 1/2 turn to get the neck straight, but that could again be due to my area. There are a few areas of the finish that aren't perfect, but I don't care about that so I won't address it.

Overall, this is a decent guitar and once I replaced the nut and gave it a decent setup it's enjoyable to play. No issues with the electronics and I'm overall happy with my purchase, but I don't think I'll buy a Harley Benton guitar again.

The good
- Beautiful, well made guitar
- Great pickups (with some room for upgrades)
- Wilkinson bridge is a great plus
- Neck is comfortable, frets are smooth
- Besides the D String, the intonation was on point

The ok
- Tuners are ok, it's the kind of tuners you find in budget guitars
- Wiring works, but could be easily improved (but I wouldn't bother unless it would stop working or if I changed the pickups)

The bad
- The nut is catching on the B String when I use the tremolo


It is a great guitar, plays nice, sounds good, looks incredible and is comfortable.
The issues are so small and can be easily fixed with some pencil lead and a setup.