Harley Benton CST-24 Paradise Flame

This review is for the previously made in Vietnam model I bought in November 2019. Can't say if the current Indonesian build is similar or as I would imagine better based on the other Indonesian made guitars I use & love. Very keen to try out this new model & see if it's better than the last, because the one I have is awesome & a steal at the price! If you're thinking about it, do it. You can always return it if you don't like it. Thomann is great like that!

Like I said above, it's an awesome guitar for the price. Well worth a look as a beginner or an established player.

Pros:
The price!
Great looking guitar! In some lighting angles it dazzles.
Came reasonably well setup in standard tuning & handled being dropped into C# DADGAD with not too many intonation issues.
Pickups handle some nice cleans & heavy tones through my amp & amp sims in the studio, split sounds good too.
Frets were of a reasonable finish, no cut fingers or other issues.
Comfort cuts & shape of the body are really nice.
Great mod platform but also really fun to riff on as it is.

Cons:
For a guitar in this price range you have to adjust your expectations despite it looking incredible on the website it probably won't come as nice as you see it here. The one I received is a looker don't get me wrong, but not as good as the one pictured. So keep that in mind & you will be very happy when yours arrives.
The overall finish is a bit rough.
Binding is not super neat. Painting on headstock was poorly taped in places. To be expected in some instruments in this price range.
There are a few marks & dust spots in the wood under the finish in 3-4 places. These cosmetic flaws are only obvious if you look really closely.
Frets were good but needed a little polish to play optimally, an easy fix.
Single coil sounds are a bit weak, but sound great with a volume boost in the mix.
Tuners aren't great, you can get by with them but worth looking at a replacement set at some stage.

Overall a solid instrument for the price. One of my favourite guitars despite it being one of my cheapest! Has some cosmetic flaws & needed a little love to get it to my liking but very happy with it. Most new guitars will need a setup to your liking, worth the time if you know how to do it yourself or spend a little extra at your local guitar tech to get it running nicely. As always with a Harley Benton, get your hands on one & see for yourself

Where to start.... There is not a single bad thing I can say about this guitar , but I will go over what I found on unpacking the guitar. First off it arrived here in NZ just a little over a week , customs took a few days because I had duty to pay, but still got the guitar in a good time frame. Right out of the box it was pretty much in tune which tells me someone checked out this guitar at Thomann before it was sent, top marks for that Thomann. The pup's are great for me I love the bite they have and the sound is awesome, they were also set at perfect height and no adjustment was needed. The action was a little high for my taste but it took just a few seconds to adjust it to my liking and retune. The frets are perfectly level and there is no choking or dead spots what so ever and I have the action set pretty low , If I could point to anything at all I would say the frets need a quick polish to make them perfect or I could just play it for a week or two and that would also do the job..... The tuners work OK but at this price point you can't expect perfection and there not perfect but hold the tune and iv'e had no problem with them. The nut is placed and cut perfectly and alignment with the bridge and pickups is spot on all strings pass directly over the center of the pickup ploes ( it bugs the hell out of me when they don't) The binding looks great and I can't report any color blead over that some others have reported. There is no body flaws at all no dings or scratches or any imperfections for that matter, it looks the way a new instrument should. All praise to Thomann for there quality control. I only have 2 other guitars to compare to, one is a 1991 PRS SE EG which is a really nice guitar and my goto for pretty much all my playing , the other is a fender strat made in the USA that cost $3500 that I never play because it is crap and does not feel right ...at least to me ...... This Harley Benton is far better and more playable in every way...... Price is NOT a good indication of if the instrument is a good one (I learned that the hard way) I would definately recommend a harley benton to any guitarist and for this kind of money you would be an idiot not to at least try one, sure you might have to do some minor work to make it your own and get the setup you like but you have to do that with every guitar....... all I can say is go for it and buy one today.