Harley Benton CST-24T Emerald Flame

175

Electric Guitar

  • Deluxe Series
  • Meranti body
  • Arched flamed maple top
  • Set-in Meranti neck
  • Roasted Jatoba fretboard
  • Pearloid Dot fretboard inlays
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • 24 Blacksmith stainless steel frets
  • Neck and body binding
  • Scale: 635 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Graphite nut
  • Pickups: 2 Roswell HAF AlNiCo-5 open coil humbuckers
  • 3-Way switch
  • 1 Volume and 1 tone control with push/pull function for coil split
  • DLX chrome hardware
  • Wilkinson WVPC tremolo
  • DLX machine heads
  • Colour: Emerald Flame
Available since February 2017
Item number 402126
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Colour Emerald Flame
Body Mahogany
Top Maple
Neck Mahogany
Fretboard Roseacer
Frets 24
Scale 635 mm
Pickups HH
Tremolo Standard
incl. Bag No
incl. Case No
B-Stock from 222 € available
279 €
All prices incl. VAT
In stock
In stock

This product is in stock and can be shipped immediately.

Standard Delivery Times
Delivery free of charge expected between Thursday, 21.03. and Friday, 22.03.
1

A good first impression can work wonders

Harley Benton CST-24T electric guitar with arched maple top and Roasted Jatoba fretboard

It is hard to say for certain just how much a player has to spend in order to get their hands on a really good guitar - after all, it always depends on their personal expectations. One thing that is certain, however, is that the quality of the affordable instruments coming out of the Far East is now such that musicians now get significantly more for their money than in decades past. The price-performance ratio offered by the Harley Benton CST-24T (shown here in its Emerald Flame finish) is a prime example: Just 30 years ago, players would have had to spend much more and content themselves with a far inferior instrument, so those just starting out on the guitar today can look forward to doing so on a solid, high-quality instrument - all the more so since their budget can now stretch to a suitable practice amplifier and other accessories like a gig bag, spare strings, and more.

Electric guitar Harley Benton CST-24T with set-in Meranti neck

A modern classic

It is obvious where the Harley Benton CST-24T takes its stylistic cues from, but this guitar still exudes a character of its own. The CST-24T features a meranti body with an arched maple top and flamed maple veneer together with a meranti neck and a fingerboard made from roasted jatoba. The latter boasts a full 24 medium stainless steel frets and pearloid dot inlays, and both the fingerboard and the front edge of the body are adorned with cream-coloured binding that matches the matching pickup rings perfectly. Harley Benton has not cut any corners in terms of hardware and electronics either, which is reflected in the CST-24T's Wilkinson WVPC vibrato system and Roswell HAF AlNiCo-5 open-coil humbucking pickups, which are governed by a three-way toggle switch, master volume control, and master tone control (which also includes a push-pull function for coil splitting).

Beauty meets practicality

It has to be admitted that guitarists have two main things in mind when they look for a new instrument, and the first of these is definitely the way it looks. The Harley Benton CST-24T thoroughly delivers the goods here, and if instruments from Harley Benton were not already renowned for their incredible price-performance ratio, the wealth of features that this guitar brings with it despite the budget-friendly price could surely set a new record in terms of value for money. The second thing guitarists look for is a combination of playing comfort and a good amplified sound. Needless to say, the Harley Benton CST-24T does not fall short here in any way, and the guitar's excellent sound and impressive versatility make it an ideal instrument for starting out and playing those first concerts.

Harley Benton guitar CST-24T headstock

About Harley Benton

Since 1998, the Harley Benton brand has been catering for the needs of numerous guitarists and bassists. In addition to an extensive range of stringed instruments, Thomann's house brand also offers a wide choice of amplifiers, speakers, effect pedals, and other accessories. In total, the range includes over 1,500 products. Built by established names in the industry, all Harley Benton products combine quality and reliability at attractive and affordable prices. The continuous expansion of the range ensures that Harley Benton always provides new, exciting, and innovative products that keep players perfectly in tune with the musical world, day after day.

Harley Benton CST-24T with Roswell HAF AlNiCo-5 open coil humbuckers

For full-on Rock and much more besides

When looking at the Harley Benton CST-24T's specs, design, and features, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that this is a guitar built purely for Rock music. But the limits to what this guitar can do are really only defined by the player: While packing plenty of power and punch, the two humbucking pickups also possess excellent dynamics and, thanks to the coil split function and the highly effective volume and tone controls, will also deliver a diverse palette of different tones to suit a range of musical styles. Fans of more progressive genres will also appreciate the high-quality vibrato system which, together with the guitar's graphite nut and die-cast DLX machine heads, allows expressive vibrato effects while ensuring reliable tuning stability.

175 Customer ratings

4.7 / 5

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140 Reviews

CP
Stunning!!! Another HB Super-Duper-Bargain!
Cuztard Pi 25.04.2017
Having just played this guitar at its 1st live gig and concluded to myself that it had been ?f***ing brilliant? I thought it deserved a review; so here goes:

A happy owner of 2 other Harley Bentons (an SC-Custom P90 Black & CST-24HB Tortoise Flame) (as well as owning many other more guitars from significantly more expensive brands) ... I'd been GAS'ing about getting a solid CST-24 with trem for quite some time. So when I finally got to see one "in the flesh" via the great video review that Cory Mura (thanks Cory!!) put up on YouTube, my mind was made up: the new Emerald Green CST-24T was the way to go!

And what a beautiful instrument it is! Let's face it, even until recently, one could only dream of buying a guitar with a custom colour like this that looked this good; never mind at this price!!

The original photos on the Thomann page did it a major disservice (hence my initial hesitation to buy) ... they've mostly fixed that now; their current photos are more accurate in terms of colour .. though still not 100% correct based on my guitar:

The top is a perfect, not-too-dark/not-too-light, real classy, deep, glossy emerald (with a well centred, perfectly book-matched, very pretty dark flame). The back, sides, lower cutaway and neck are a much darker green (not obvious from the Thomann photos) that shows off the mahogany grain very well under the transparent polished lacquer .. This contrasting use of different greens really sets off the top to look its best. ... mmmmm, GORGEOUS!! .. did I mention that ;-D

The body appears to be made of 2 (or possibly 3) sections and includes a belly-cut & lower cut-away shaping for easy top-fret access; everything appears to be very well done. The shaping and contouring of the body-top and the cut-away's is 'NICE' !

The neck also could possibly be a multi-piece laminate but it is well disguised under the dark green lacquer. The neck shape is quite different to my other HB CST24HB in that it feels somewhat thinner than the generally chunky-ish CST24HB (which is good news for the thumb-over folks out there) .. In any case, the neck is very comfortable. The position of the neck/body joint and the shaping of the lower cut-away certainly do give unrestricted access to those upper frets, even the 24th. Just be careful not to over-shoot by a few frets whilst playing and aiming for above the 12th fret .. it's easily done, trust me, I've been there .. whoops! LOL

The usual top notch service from Thomann, it arrived safe & sound in the UK 3 days after ordering, double boxed and well packed.

An excited check over happily found only a few very minor cosmetic issues with the finish here & there (only noticeable under very close scrutiny). Let's face it, at this price no-one should expect perfection, so a few minor, cosmetic-only issues are totally acceptable (and honestly folks, the few findings on mine are really very minor ... & totally forgotten about once you strap on this beauty).

Generally the as-received generic set-up was good and totally acceptable ... i.e. good to go:
- Strings (new) in OK condition (the odd small spot of corrosion here & there)
- Frets: 24 nicely polished & no sharp fret-ends. Not perfectly level but acceptable (see action details below).
- Fretboard: the usual 'dry' looking "roseacer" which actually has a nice grain-like appearance (it can be improved/darkened by application of a suitable wood treatment). Well fitted off-white pearloid dot markers & cream binding yield a tidy, attractive professional look to the instrument.
- Machine heads: no-name but work well, smooth & accurate to adjust.
- Nut: very well cut, with a low action at the 1st fret for all strings (~ 0.5mm clearance).
- String action: as received medium-low (see my set-up comments below)
- Controls/pots: smooth to turn; the push/pull switch on the tone control is easy to operate (see my set-up comments below). I love the master volume, master tone control layout of this guitar ... very practical!
- PU switch: OK. Note: The position of the switch takes a little bit of getting used to ... but it's fine after a bit of practise.
- Trem/Bridge: Excellent. It has a push in arm with friction positioning via a grub-screw. It came set-up floating (see my set-up comments below).
- Balances well on a strap; very comfortable to play; not heavy (~3.5kg); "ergonomic" is a good word for the overall design.
- Acoustic sound: bright with plenty of sustain (which bodes well for the electric sound)

To really get the best out of a HB, generally you do need to perform some set-up work & this was true here. However, to be fair, my experience, having now bought 3 HB's, is that Thomann do a pretty good job setting them up so that the out-of-the-box condition should be good enough for a beginner ... but I'm just too fussy I guess; plus I do enjoy getting to know the guitar a bit more intimately by doing a full set-up ... which for this guitar was:

Remove strings; polish frets (not much needed here); treat fretboard surface; put on new set of 9's; set nut action (no major change needed here); set neck relief & string action & bridge saddle radius (I got it down to a clean playing low action: 1mm on 1st & 1.5mm on 6th at 12th fret); adjust trem (floating with approx minor 3rd pull-up on G string; very stable tuning with firm trem action & the arm stays where it's put ... what a great trem system ... other brands should take note, this is how it should be done!!!!).

After doing this set-up, the guitar played (& looked) as good as one costing 3, 4, 5 times the price IMO.

Played through my amp, happy to say it sounded very good, at least in isolation in my back room playing by myself. The stock Wilkinson pick-ups are usually totally acceptable with no real need to be swapped out; & this is true here. With the controls on full, the tone is full but still bright & clear.

But ... the tone control just destroys the sound when fully rolled off (it has a 47nF cap in there, so that's why ... much too large IMO). The coil-split works OK on both PU's and yields a much thinner/quieter/hollow tone that I found out later (at the gig) is just too far away from the full humbucker sound to be really useful (hmm .. a mod is required there me-thinks (a la PRS!). Also, there is the expected drop off of treble as you turn down the volume ... so I did modify the circuit to address these points:
: Change the 47nF tone cap to a 15nF: now the tone control can be used throughout its full travel
: Change to 50's wiring (i.e. tone cct after the volume pot) with the addition of a tapered treble bleed ("Frank Falbo mod")(180pF). Now there is no loss of treble and the Vol control has a great taper that can easily clean up a dirty amp. Very Nice!
: Not done yet but next time under the hood: modify the push/pull switch cct to have a "partial" (= not full) coil split (by adding a low value (= 1k & 2k) resistor to ground on the split coil in each humbucker; this hopefully should improve the 2 coil-split sounds).
Note: the original wiring was acceptable & tidily done ... 'though the pots & switches are very cheap types (but work fine .. for now)

So having now played my 1st live gig with this guitar, which I find is the best test of what a guitar sounds like (i.e. playing in amongst drums, bass, etc) I can say: it did not disappoint. It played wonderfully, stayed in tune perfectly, sounded excellent and gave me all the sounds I wanted (though I didn't use the coil-split sound much for the reason mentioned above) .... & of course, it looked stunning!

OK, for the sake of balance, here are the few negatives I could think of:
- Cosmetic issues: 1cm thin crease in the veneer in the top cut-away; a few odd tiny speckles under the gloss coat here & there; slight gap under the pick-up rings; light scratch on the body-back; some 'sharpish' edges on the nut; cheap looking truss-rod cover.
- Frets: some minor levelling issues identified by a fret-rocker (but do not hinder getting a great low action)
- Electronics: very cheap (but still totally functional) components; too large value tone cap (47nF!); bog-standard electrical circuit used.

Sorry, that's all I could come up with on the negative side.

Conclusion:

Irrespective of price: What a Great Guitar! But at this price ... unbelievable!! 5 stars all 'round.

The bottom line: GET ONE!!
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Good Guitar for the Money
Larry_A 07.07.2020
If I could give 4.5 stars I would. It is a great guitar but it does have its flaws.

Pros: Great finish. Great value for a decent guitar. After some work (see below) I enjoy it immensely as the sound and playability are awesome.

Cons: Some setup was done before I received it (double octave was perfect at 24th fret) but the action was way too high for me so I lowered that a bit. The neck was dead straight with no relief so I loosened the truss rod a tiny amount also. There were some fret buzz issues that I had to sort out afterwards, but now the guitar plays well and I am pleased. I didn't like the tremolo much. I have seen pictures where people have simply removed the arm, but I also disabled the mechanism by wedging a smooth stone from the beach into the deep cavity area in the back. That in turn improved the un-amped resonance...I am happy with the result. Other issues are that the width of the nut is slightly less than the width of the adjoining neck so there are sharp ridges on either side, and the position of the neck and the bridge are just slightly off centre as evidence by the lay of the strings along the neck and the lean to the right of the bridge hardware.

Otherwise it is a good, inexpensive guitar. Weighed in at 7 lbs, 1 oz.

No doubt I will be buying another Harley Benton in the near future.
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WOW!
Sam1234 25.01.2023
I absolutely love love love this guitar!
It's my very first HB guitar that I have bought but it'll definitely not be my last. It's gorgeous, it sound amazing and has awesome features.

The choice was between this colour and a Paradise Flame but I am very glad that I picked the Emerald Green one. It's absolutely gorgeous with a stunning finish and I cannot complement it enough! Put it together with a purple strap and you have a perfect quirky "The Joker" finish.

Let's get serious though for a second, there's a lot of good reviews out there, both on the website and on Youtube and I can only tell you that they are telling the truth. My guitar when it arrived already had a very good action, no sharp frets - and get this: it was in tune! -
I just took it out of the box and started playing and couldn't put it down.
The pickups are great and I love the pull-push switch to get a single coil out of a humbucker. Rock, Metal, Blues and Clean, this guitar can do it all.

I am seriously happy with my purchase and together with my freshly ordered Boss Katana MKII 100, there's no song, no genre that safe from us anymore.

Listen to your gut, it's always right and get this guitar! ;-)

Disclaimer: Get it at your own risk because you may become addicted to this guitar. :-D
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excellent quality price compromise
michiak 16.03.2021
at first I was skeptical like many about this brand, but thanks to the many positive reviews I decided to give it a try. i own gibson ls custom and prs custom 22 so i can get a clear comparison. the low price doesn't means: guitar for beginners, because it is not. I mean .. any guitar can be for beginners, but this model is a guitar model, period. it's not a clone, it may look alike, but it's totally different. I believe that the goal is in having hit the exact compromise between quality and price. we cannot expect the custom model quality, the resonance and the materials also. there are aesthetic and paint defects and many, inside it is roughly , there are detachable pieces of wood inside. the resonance is a bit stopped (some structural problems are present,obviously compared with a 2000euros and more guitar) but it recovers with the roswell alnico 5 pickups which are similar to the duncan jb-59. and above all the split coil feature is in line with the modern market.
but, if I think about 25 years ago when I started playing, with the few savings of a few occasions I was only able to afford an ibanez GIO (used) that I kept up to over my 18 years that gave me tendonitis. bolt-on neck that was double C in profile, which I'm still cursing. i'm seriously i hate low cost ibanez guitars.they are wrist-breaking guitars. in late '90 years there were no harley benton set-in in mahogany with thin neck, split humbuckers and with these various colored paint finishes, so the kids today who want to start have a great luck. really. besides adult people like me who already have high level models who want a guitar for free time and to leave in the car without anxiety, this model is centered. in short, a guitar for everyone at the correct price.
I personally bought it also as a hobby and have a little fun editing and experimenting. I performed a pickup change, I inserted two gibson 490r and 498t humbuckers that I had free, then all electronics changed, a quick setup, neck cleaning with lemon oil, string change, truss rod adjustment (it was slightly up-bow), intonation, and the guitar took a lot more sustain. the roswells are still great I put them on another mid level guitar with floyd rose and they sound really good for what they cost.
painful notes:
the whammy bar is unusable. it doesn't hold the tuning in any way .. I don't think it's a bridge problem, but maybe some mechanics, later I'll change them and let's see what happens.
the frets are not the best, they scratch a little, I have filed them a minimum and it goes better, these too can be changed and see what comes out.
the next goals for future models i think are to improve a minimum the finishes, the mechanics and the frets, with 30 euros more you could buy a real jewel.
for the moment i'm having fun with cst24-t, i can't upload a picture but it's very lovely to see this model with 490/498 gold pickups. thanks thomann.
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