Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame

This guitar is one of the best buy you an find! quality is over expectation!
i use it with a drop D as Mark Tremonti and never lost a tone on it, the only down part to me is the stick of the tremolo that is not fixed as a screw but other than that is a stunning guitar and very versatile for any typer of rock or metal, well eccept if you play really heavy, other wise this is the guitar for you!

It looks great. The flamed top on the body and finishing were flawless. Most of it feels well built and sturdy. The nut is a plastic one. Feels pretty good on your lap, but right out of the box everything under your fretting hand felt a bit clunky. The neck is ok, but the frets stand out quite a bit and you really feel them. This is probably a personal preference, but I found it a bit disturbing. The tremolo is stiff as hell, at least with all the three springs. I haven't gone through the trouble of trying to adjust it - I just removed the bar. But what really made me shove the guitar into the corner of forgotten instruments were the pickups. I mainly play hard rock, heavy metal etc. and the sound was just too thin, metallic (in a bad way) and sharp. Not a nice sound at all. I kinda anticipated this and was prepared to buy and install new pickups. I ended up buying the Seymour Duncan hotrodded set (Sh4 and Jazz), and that really transformed the guitar. So, it's not perfect but if you upgrade some parts, you get a really nice PRS clone. My total investment with the guitar and better mics was ~540 EUR.

The guitar's aesthetics are wonderful, can not get tired of looking at it.

Unsure if it's my playing or if all guitars are to be this way but there is slight buzzing on the frets especially the 4 lowest pitch ones, E and A in particular. I'm not a one to diagnose it and I don't really have anyone to show it to so I'll let it be. That's probably the only downside with it.

My amp is a crock of shit bought from a now bankrupt company like 12 years ago for 60¤-90¤ish and even through it, it sounds good to me, I can't imagine what it'd sound like on Katana 50 / 100. Prolly good enough for gigging even.

I have owned a Squier strat in the past so it's the only thing I can compare it to playing-wise... This feels rougher to play--I'll probably try lighter strings--and it produces crisper sound as opposed to the very soft/blue-y tone my Squier produced. Perfect for metal and rock I suppose.

It really is a solid guitar, zero regrets!

After doing my fair bit of research and coming to a personal conclusion that there isn't something exclusively as a 'perfect beginner guitar', but its all a matter of personal choice and most importantly the available budget to spend towards said guitar.

My initial options or favoured choices were more inclined towards the Fenders, and other bigger name brands, due to their quality, etc. But couldn't justify some of the prices keeping in mind I had to still keep aside enough money for a good amp, and other miscellaneous expenditure towards my first set up.

Until one of my friend mentioned Thomman, so I found my way here and was truly surprised and impressed. Went through all the offerings in ST and T style guitars, zeroed in on this model and then went back to the internet to check a variety of reviews and demos on YouTube, which only gave me far more confidence in taking a chance with Thomman's offerings.

Made the purchase, bid my time and it finally arrived.
Beautiful finish with no issues, dents, chips, etc, aesthetically the guitar is on point.

Functionality: no sharp frets, came with good quality D'Addario strings, and just overall well set up. The final check was done thoroughly. I will be changing the nut eventually, I'm sure it will only improve the instrument. The Roswell pickups are great, and oh the sound and tone from this guitar, does way more than what I expected it to.

Go to YouTube yourself check out videos from a bunch of reliable sources (there are quite a few) < my purchase surely confirmed that personally>, and read the reviews from other purchasers here as well.

Take a chance if you feel like going for a ""budget guitar"", and on receiving this well crafted instrument you'll soon realise it is and does what its supposed to as a guitar.

Best value for your money, by a country mile.

And then what, just plug in and surrender your offerings to the altar of music, whatever be the kind your into and enjoy playing.