Harley Benton Electric Guitar Kit CST-24T

Ik heb me dit bouwpakket besteld en het was op 3 dagen hier. Wanneer ik de doos opende zag ik dat alles heel degelijk verpakt was en het zal misschien aan mijn ervaring liggen,ik stel mijn gitaren altijd zeg af,ik ben eraan begonnen en na 3.5 uur was ik erop aan het spelen. Ik kan het niet begrijpen dat ze zo een goed product kunnen maken voor zo een lage prijs. Mooie body, prachtig afgewerkte nek met zeer goede frets,heel goede humbuckers en zuivere potentiometers. Na alles gemonteerd te hebben moest ik wel de zadels van de brug afstellen,de actie regelen alsook de intonatie. Aan de trus rod heb ik heel weinig moeten doen,de curve van de nek was goed. De electronica installeren was zeer gemakkelijk en alles werkte zoals het moet van de eerste keer. Het hout van de body vond ik zo mooi (rengas) dat ik besloot om dit zo gewoon te laten,later kan ik de body nog altijd in een gewenste kleur spuiten. Dan de klank....deze humbuckers klinken van zeer clean tot heel rauw,bijna een natuurlijke crunch,veel hangt natuurlijk af van de instelling van de versterker,ik speel op een Vox AC30 head. Ik kan enkel maar enthousiast zijn over deze zelfbouw gitaar en kan ze alleen maar sterk aanraden aan iedereen die zelf een gitaar wil bouwen. Voor € 99 heb je een gitaar die heel goed in elkaar zit,mooi oogt en nog eens zeer goed klinkt en de nek laat zich heel goed en comfortabel bespelen. Top product!!

First off, the end result is a guitar that sounds good and looks good. It is quite nice to play too, and will be better when after a little work on the frets, which are good, but could do with a polish and removal of a few sharp ends.

The kit arrived very well packaged, with the neck, body and hardware in three individual boxes, with bubblewrap providing further protection.

There were two instruction books supplied (one in German and on in English). It said "Singlecut" on the front, but the photos were correct for this model, and it provided a very easy step-by-step guide for us beginners. The only issues we faced with the build were with trying to work out the correct screws to use in each case, as it wasn't always clear from the photos and written instructions. But it's not rocket science either, and can be figured out.

Pros:
- Everything went together as expected with no drama
- Wiring is very easy
- Korean pots and switches actually feel great, unexpected in this price range
- Frets are good and level
- The pickups sound good, nothing to complain about for this price

Cons:
- The nut is very low already, but the notches are very shallow, so not much can be done about it, but it does seem to work okay
- The bridge isn't all that easy to set up, particularly adjusting the heights of the saddles is somewhat awkward.
- Instructions could be a little clearer about the screws to be used in each case.

Overall, this is a good kit, and I would recommend it. And the guitar is nice.

In many ways it is better than I expected (of course, as a cheap kit, it has some flaws)

Positiv:
- first of all, it is quite cheap
- the neck is surprisingly good, nice wood, very smooth surface (very tempted not to change there anything)
- the fretwork needs only minimal adjustment (minimal levelling and polishing), the fret ends are really smooth (no need to work on that)
- the wood of the body has quite nice grain, and even it is made of 3 (or 4?) parts it is not so easy to spot the changes
- the electronic parts are easy to install
- the sound is acceptable

Weak spots:
- the sealer doesn't seem to cover the body fully and it is not very smooth on the curved surfaces, so a lot of sandig work is needed for every kind of finish.
- the fretboard wood is very dry and with open pores, takes a lot of oil
- the provided term feells very cheap, with thin, light block (changed is to a 2 point Harley Benton (Wilkinson) trem
- the routing is not bad, but could be more precise, had to make some minor routing for the neck pickup (levelling screw reached the bottom of the cavity). The holes for the neck pickup frame is a little bit too close to the neck (the neck was "bendig" the pickup frame), had to drill new ones app. 2 mm closer to the bridge
- the provided strings are not great, but I only used them for the first assembling (test assembling before I do the finishing).

Overall, it was fun to work with so far, looking forward for the finishing work and a little bit of modding (already done the term, maybe better tuners, would also try other pickups .

It was a defected body with post holes routed too big for the ferrules, poorly routed bridge pocket, neck holes in wrong position and missing neck screws. Asked for help to the Customer Service, they refused to change the body and asked me to glue ferrules with superglue...
Unbelievable...
Neck was nice but the body was trash.
Had to ask for a refund, i am gutted because i was really looking for this project.