Harley Benton CST-24T LH Paradise Flame

I got this item yesterday, and spent a couple of hours "fettling" it. It looks really good and I could only find one blemish, on the side of the headstock, but you have to be less than 30cms away to be able to notice. Whilst quite playable straight from the box, I adjusted the tremolo springs and the tremolo arm locking screw, located on the block, by pushing the arm down to make it accessible. This was a little fiddly, but the system works well now. If you jam something like a couple of beer mats between the tremolo and the top of the guitar, it makes the job so much easier. I lowered the string height as well as the intonation at the bridge. The fretboard benefitted from some lemon oil, too. The "action" is fine, but I'll do some work on lowering the nut slots, which are just a little high. Once this is done, I'll change the strings. The ones on it on delivery are really very dull, and so I can't do a review at this stage on the sound. I think that they are .009's, and I use .010's usually. All of these jobs are quite usual on a new guitar, especially a budget item, so don't be put off by this. In my view, this guitar is excellent value for money.

Okay, let me start off my saying you don't need to spend $1000 for a good guitar. I love this guitar. Everything about it I love, I love the Flame Top, The pickups, the neck, everything. I'll start with the flame top, it's absolutely beautiful to look at. Next, the pickups, the pickups have such a bright sound to them and I love them so much. The bridge, usually in the past I had wrap around bridges and tune-o-matic bridges which were a pain, this bridge is awesome. Along with this, the action, at least for me, of this guitar is amazing. The neck: the neck is perfect for me, I prefer fatter necks, Not really a big fan of thinner necks, This neck was perfect for me, that's just my personal opinion. The neck also had no fret spurs on it at all which was awesome. Tuners: The tuners are great, this guitar rarely goes out of tune. you can bend so much and the tuners never let go. In the end, I give this guitar 5/5 stars because it deserves it 100%. Never let name or price influence you. Just because it's not name brand or expensive, does not mean it's a bad guitar. I paid double what I paid for this once and got a piece of garbage. (Dillion les paul junior) so I highly recommend this guitar for any of you lefties who want a PRS style guitar but can't afford the $800 - $5000 sticker price. (P.S. I haven't used the tremolo yet. Haven't really wanted to but I'm sure its awesome)

pros:
1. its a bang for your buck
2. the material quality is actually good
3. its a versatile guitar cause its has the split coil
4. To me the finish is very beautiful
cons (at least for me)
5. the bridge is very nice~. It stays in tune like a champ
6. the stock strings where good for a guitar at this price
As for cons:
1.Seeing other reviewers, it sometimes comes with some minor errors.
For example, the 1st fret of my guitar was fairly low than the other frets. that means i can't play the 1st notes without having major buzzes.
Also, the tone pot was not very usable as it wasnt very consistent when i turn it (like at 1 to 9 its the same and at 9 to 10 has a very drastic tonal change)
2. Personally i like satin finish necks as it doesn't stick to my hand.
3. its fairly heavy for me but i guess they couldn't make it any lighter.
4. the truss rod cover was a little bit flimsy in my opinion

But all in all, its a very usable guitar!

I so wanted a left-handed version of the CST24-T I could taste it. Well it was finally offered and arrived today. Better than I could have wished for. Absolutely beautiful finish a few minor flaws as expected in its price range. Setup out of the box was spot on except intonation of 2 strings no big deal. No fret buzz anywhere plays like a dream. Sound is stunning and it came with a nice unexpected surprise. Coil Tap switch. This is my second Harley Benton but surely not my last. Highly recommend you won't be disappointed. Another surprise it only took 6 days to arrive in western New York State.

A friend of mine told me what great value Harley Benton guitars were, and whilst checking out the left-hand models, I came across the CST-24T LH. I fell in love with her immediately and ordered one. She needed a little setting up when she arrived, but so did my Fender Stratocaster. And the guitar? There is only one word to describe this little gem - beautiful. She looks great, feels great, and (very important, of course) sounds great. The workmanship is as good as on any of my more expensive guitars, and I personally have no issues with Wilkinson pickups. Indeed, this has now become my guitar of choice. I just love it. It is fairly heavy - as heavy as my Les Paul - but I like some weight to my guitar, and the PRS-style body sculpting is very comfortable, allowing easy access to the high end of the 24 frets. At around £195, it is incredible value for money. Even if you are a purist Gibson/Fender/PRS/Rickenbacker guitarist, just give this one a try. You will not be disappointed.

Esta es mi octava guitarra HB adquirida de la generosa gente de Thomann, la más cara a la fecha, y saben qué, vale cada centavo (incluído el por demás oneroso costo de envío!:-7)!

La apariencia es rutilante, el contraste entre los colores de la tapa de maple y el reverso de caoba le dan un toque único, todo esto rematado por el ribete que hace juego con el borde del diapasón y los marcos de los humbuckers, es una sinfonía mágica e inspiradora.

Hablando de las pastillas, se defienden bastante al tener un sonido muy moderno y afilado, preciso y muy brillante, hasta en el neck.

No le cambiaría nada (en el corto plazo:-7), y claro por demás está decir que el proyecto que tenía de adquisición de su "original" de los pajaritos, queda postergado esta vez sí ya para el larguísimo plazo!

Let's get the negatives out of the way first. When this arrived, it was virtually unplayable. Now I understand, it's a leftie, so whoever's doing the setups probably can't give it a play to see how it feels, but I mean the strings were lying flat on the fret board, the neck was bowed and the trem was set hard against the body so it took an almighty force to even move it.

The paint job on the front of the guitar was fine, but there were flecks of "dirt" under the finish on the back. It felt like a real "Friday afternoon" job.

If this was my first experience buying a guitar, I'd have been totally gutted.

However, in less than an hour I had the neck sorted, action and intonation set up nicely, and the trem (whilst I still keep it flat) is set perfectly for a little downwards warble.

And once that was done, wow! The guitar sounds brilliant, plays great and stays in tune. And it looks great. The finish isn't perfect, the binding is a little uneven, but from more than 6 feet away no one's going to notice that, and frankly these minor blemishes are more than made up for by the quality of the instrument.

Oh, and one last thing. When it arrived the top of the headstock had poked through the packaging, denting the wood and removing about an inch of finish and paint right on the top "point". That's certainly not Thomann's fault, but they were awesome at getting it resolved. I didn?t want to return the guitar as I live in the Canary Islands and it took two weeks to arrive, so they offered me a discount on the price which I can put towards the repair. Customer service was excellent, friendly and swift.

As for my star ratings above, I've marked "quality" as 3 stars, but this is to reflect the small imperfections (even building a guitar to a price I think they should be able to spray it somewhere where there isn't crap floating about that gets under the finish). However, in terms of playability and reliability, it scores a 5.

I love my Harley Benton CTS,
Everything I wanted in a Guitar I can Afford.
The CTS Guitar has Passed all My Major Check Points - Perfect String Alignment from Nut to Bridge and along fretboard, Good Neck Angle, Smooth Quiet Electronics, oh and Good Looks, the finish is nice!
The Body is Solid, just under a LP weight, Good Sustain and I have the String Action Low. The Pickups have Clarity and a Decent Tone from Wilkinson's and the single coil split. A Solid smooth shaped bridge which is good for the palm rest..
Things I have adjusted are Saddles String Height, Nut Height, Slight Truss rod tighten, and Leveled a Couple of frets. 90% were o.k
Delivery Well Boxed and Delivered in 13 days from Germany to Australia.

Thank you Thomann the Lefty Specialists!!!

Anthony