Harley Benton CST-24T Paradise Flame

I recently purchased a CST24T Harley Benton. I was extremely pleased with it except for a few minor things. I really don't like the telecaster knobs on this guitar - they are too tall to look good on an arch top. This cheapens the appearance of a good guitar - they should be using "speed knobs" and mine have already been changed (amber looks best!) The guitar I received did not have the Indian Rosewood fingerboard specified, but a smooth ebonol (man-made ebony substitute) fingerboard. As I actually prefer ebony fingerboards to most rosewood, I was prepared to accept this change to the advertized material. The frets were not perfect and needed some work to seat, level and polish them, but I guess this is to be expected at the price. There was one small wiring issue which meant I had to postpone the guitar's first gig - the earth wire from the tremolo claw had not been threaded through the tunnel from the trem cavity or connected to the electrics, which caused the inevitable loud buzz through my high gain Laney amp. After I took the guitar home and finished the factory's soldering work for them, I took the CST24T on another gig and it performed excellently all night (two and a half hours gig, non-stop, all on the new guitar.) My back-up instrument - a PRS SE EG with EMG pickups - stayed in its case all night! I doubt anyone will believe this, but it actually happened - a guitarist in the audience came up to me afterwards and said "those (big name American guitar company) guitars are really costly, but they're worth every penny, aren't they?" He honestly thought I had been playing a "real" USA-built guitar. I am now extremely pleased with the guitar and I have ordered the hollow-body version. I have owned many guitars with this appearance, some made in the USA, some by the USA company's Korean production and some made in Asia and marketed by a well-known wholesaler in the UK. This, in my opinion, has more of the flavour and quality feel of the USA guitars than do any of the others. The important things - the finish, the Wilkinson pickups, the operation of the volume and tone controls, the lovely smooth Wilkinson trem and (after the frets were smoothed and levelled) the action of my guitar are all excellent - no upgrades urgently needed. Very playable and so nice to look at I am still taking it out of it's case just to take another look. Owner satisfaction is so high it's easy to ignore how little I paid for it - there is an old saying (usually to justify paying a stupidly high price) "quality is remembered long after price is forgotten". With this guitar, that saying is still correct. One small suggestion (although the electrics are surprisingly versatile as the tone and volume actually WORK on this guitar) - if they used the four-wire Wilkinson humbuckers and a push-pull tone control for split-coil sounds it wouldn't cost much more to produce and would bring it even closer to the performance expected from this type of guitar. Surely this could be done and still keep the guitar incredibly affordable. Verdict - I'm very pleased. Thanks Thomann.

So many people have already said just how good this guitar is, it seems ridiculous to say more, but hell this thing is good. And it 'is' worth saying more, because people should know the quality is constant. Having said that, I think mine must be of older stock, that or the manufacturer has gone back to rosewood fret boards, because mine is definitely 'not' ebonol, it's rosewood. And, it came exceedingly dry and undernourished. Soon sorted with lemon oil though. The body of mine is one piece mahogany, no lamination and is finished in a translucent rose' red, as is the neck which is 5 piece affair with scarf joint, with a lovely shallow d profile, which I like. Again set up was questionable. I'm not that bothered as I do my own (as should everyone), but if you aren't up to this and don't know how, remember to factor in the price of a set up at your local guitar tech or dealership. My CST24-T came with super lite XL string on, my god are they light? 9 to 41 (41???). Anyway as usual who ever put the strings on didn't 'lock' them off (again) so slipping strings is what you get, and no chance on earth of using the trem without total loss of tuning. This is all incidental as the guitar is amazing after a good set up. And you do need to do one. The CST24-T is a time machine, yep! I lost 4 hours with it, you just can't put it down. I own a CS custom as well and was delighted that the CST24 is voiced so differently (you 'can' get those Santana tones). It has a much brighter voicing with its PU's than the custom, but it can still do lovely bluesy tones. The pots work well allowing for good tonal changes and the volume is smooth, allowing clean sounds from my valve amp to break and dirty up nicely as the volume is increased.
As for looks. Well...... Mine is a lovely honey mustard colour running out to a gorgeous rose' translucent red. I was worried I may have got an 'acidic' or 'toxic' looking one (I've seen a few on YouTube) but all is 'very' well it looks stunning. The only thing (aside from the set-up) I have done is change the chrome knobs for 'amber' speed knobs and swap out the 'black' toggle switch cap for cream to match the PU surrounds. And, once the lemon oil has fully dried in (about a week from now) I will be putting on my 'bird decal' fret markers to complete 'a certain look'. Thomann. Your a great company, keep doing what you do. All the best to your team, except that guy who does the set-ups. I saw him on Rob Chapman's YouTube vid. I'm learning German as fast as I can, I'll do his job and lock of the strings properly :)) (only joking) (Or am I)

First, the bottom line—the Harley Benton CST-24T is simply an awesome instrument. For the price, you cannot find a comparable guitar on the planet. Period.

That is a bold statement, but it is true. Let me explain.

First, it is a beauty. It is a PRS SE-style guitar, but with its own looks.

Second, the fit and finish are stunning. It isn’t just made from “Mahogany” (there are many lesser-quality woods lumped into the general category of Mahogany) the body and neck are made from the Swietenia Meliaceae species of Mahogany, also known as Honduran Mahogany. This is the original and highest quality of Mahogany used for guitars. This is what is used by the finest guitars builders around the world. It provides a resonance and sustain that is unbeatable. The recesses around the neck give you easy access to all 24 frets for playing the higher registers. The flame maple top is well-figured and beautiful. The black flame version is awesome as well, but the paradise flame version better-suited my individual tastes. Not a scratch, chip, dent or blemish. Just a beautiful instrument.

The DLX machine heads are smooth, solid and hold tuning very well. The graphite nut is perfectly cut and slotted. And it has been shaped and finished so that is almost feels like it is part of the neck, with no overlap or hard edges—A key indicator of attention to detail. The Wilkinson WVPC tremolo unit consistently allows deep dive bombs and comes back to perfect tuning every time. The neck is a modern “C” shape and is effortless to play.

The fretboard is made from Jatoba wood, also known as Brazilian Cherry. This is very hard wood (2690 on the Janka hardness scale) and an outstanding material for a fretboard. It is actually slightly harder than Rosewood (2620 on the Janka hardness scale). Great playability and wears well.

I guess I have been the most impressed with the fret work on this model. Clearly, extra attention has been paid to this part of the guitar’s construction. There are 24 medium frets with smooth ends and absolutely no fret sprouts. Fret leveling and setup were spot on.

The Roswell pickups are awesome. Full, well rounded tone, and crystal clean tones. If you just HAVE to have other pickups, great. Go spend your money. They will cost more than this entire guitar costs, but if you must, you must. But I’m telling you, take this guitar as-is to play any gig and everyone will be impressed. Even the coil split tones are impressive. I love it.

Lastly, I can’t say enough about how well Thomann takes care of its customers. They set up every guitar before it is sent to you. It came out of the box with a low action, tremolo set, perfect neck relief and with spot-on intonation. AND the strings were loosened for shipping to take all the tension off the headstock. All you have to do is tune it and play. And Thomann has the best warranty on the planet. They take care of their customers and that means a lot to me.

Honestly, if you can find a new guitar with this level of quality for this kind of money ($235 shipped to my door) then buy it. But I bet you won’t. I live in America. But I buy my guitars from Thomann.

Although the paradise flame on my guitar is more "Heritage flame" than is shown in the Thomann website and other versions on YouTube I have got to be fond of it and in view of the positives which in the main go beyond five stars I can't knock any stars off in any category.
My guitar is not heavy. At 3.5 kilos it is lighter than my latest st62 at 3.7. I think that a lot of the criticisms of this guitar come from comparisons with PRS guitars. Obviously it is not as good as a USA PRS. Years ago I had a USA custom 22 and that was even lighter than this cst24. I have played several PRS se guitars and they all played like many Korean guitars. They tend to have a smaller distance between E and E at the nut so the strings sort of run down the middle of the neck. This guitar is closer to a USA PRS in that respect. My PRS had a wide fat neck which I prefer whereas this is shallower than that; much more of a speed neck. However, my neck on this guitar does not have a scarf joint neck. Obviously USA PRS don' t either but other cst24 that I have seen on YouTube definitely do. My cst24 has a central piece of slightly darker mahogany that runs the length of the whole neck down the centre it is very rigid especially bearing in mind the slimmish neck. Either side are two lighter pieces again continuous without scarf joint. In my opinion this is better than the Gibson one piece neck system.
I have set the vibrato to float and its fine. You can't lift up much but it does warbles and normal vibrato as it should.
The pickups are good. The tone cap is 47 nf which is a compromise so that the coil split sound is not too bright but I intend to swap it to either 22nf or maybe 30 ish as this will tame the slightly muddy neck pickup on high gain settings.
That's it really, it handles like very comfortable strat but much faster with much better access to the (24) frets and with a blistering humbucker sound especially on the bridge pickup. The neck looks and feels classy and the fretwork is faultless. The transparent grain on the back of the body is PRS class.
Maybe I have been lucky but I have ordered a black flame P90 cst24 which I hope arrives before brexit - a bit of an optimistic hope in view of the latest covid border holdups but fingers crossed!

This is an amazing guitar, I am really surprised abut the quality, I have also the blue one with P90s, which I love because it has a very unique sound, tons of attitude, but this one feels more expensive, better finished. I don't what is it, maybe they have done some changes, as technically it is the same guitar with different pickups and different color, but feels even better. I don't put 5 stars in sound because the coil split when in single mode drops too much volume, but the full humbucker sound is very nice, I don't feel upgrade is needed at all. But, if you are into p90s, do not think it for a second, the sound of the p90s version is lovely, never mind the feeling of the guitar, if I have to chose one, is the p90s version for sure.