Harley Benton CST-24 BK

Let's face it. For 169¤ you won't get a perfect guitar. There are some flaws in the finish. The wooden binding which actually is an unpainted part of the thick maple top could had been done better. The masking before painting is a bit sloppy and at the top side cut out you can see part of the mahogany body in the "binding". There's also a small section of the binding that shows burn marks from the routing.The rosewood fretboard and the fitting of the frets are not visually top quality. You might get lucky and get a flawless guitar but I wouldn't count on it.

The big WOW comes when you pick up the guitar and plug it in. The way it feels and sounds is mind boggling. The sound this guitar offers shouldn't be possible at this price range. The mahogany body with the maple top and the WHHB humbuckers gives you a Les Paul kind of warm tone. The push-pull pot allows you to split the humbuckers into single coil pickups which makes the guitar very versatile. The guitar works for everything from classic rock/blues to metal. The wraparound bridge also delivers a great sustain. I never even contemplated that a bridge could be comfortable. Well it is. Try it and you'll understand. The neck is also very nice to play.

The rest of the hardware including tuning heads and pots feels like good quality. The action is acceptable. I might be able to lower it but it's low enough for me. There's no fret buzz either which usually is to expect from low budget guitars.

My rating is based solely on the performance of the guitar. The price tag of 169¤ is the big bonus. I doubt you'll find a better guitar for twice the money.

En mycket vacker gitarr i högblank svart med en faktisk riktig lönntopp, inte fan'er. Ovanligt lätt är den också, bra för axlarna.

Hittade bara en fadäs, det var i greppbrädan, dom hade fyllt i en skråma med filler, men det syns knappt? eller känns.
Den var hyfsat inställd vid leverans men man ändrar det till sin egen preferens ändå så det kvittar.

Wilkinsson PUpsen låter bra, lagom tryck i dom med bra separation. Har visserligen ändå bytt ut dom, för att testa ett par andra jag hade liggande. Kanske byter tillbaka senare?

Vet inte om det bara är en känsla, men blir inte strängarna lite lösare med wraparound stall?? Inte mig emot iaf.
Stämskruvarna är också ok, men bytte dom ändå till Gotoh Magnum låsbara, hade dessa också liggandes ;-)

Volym o tonkontroll (pushpull) är ok, men där blev det också en ändring. Blev push-push på båda.

Alla ändringar är inte nödvändiga men tycker man om o skruva gitarr är det bara ett nöje, speciellt på en sådan här skönhet!

Kan rekommenderas starkt, tror inte man blir besviken.

Rock on!

This quickly became my go to guitar, just looking at it makes me wanna play. Cheapest guitar in my collection but without a doubt the best build quality. The only negative thing is the tiniest blemish on the edge of the fretboard that's bearly noticable.

Beautiful gloss finish all over. Neck feels good, not sticky at all.
Tuners are pretty good, holds it's tune with no issue.
Frets all feel good, no sharp edges or anything and pretty good polish aswell.
Graphite nut and coilsplitting are nice extras, especially at this pricepoint.

I might change the pickups in the future or atleast the bridge pu, they sound good but i would like something with a bit more oomph but this is just personal preference. Some reverb and a boostpedal handles this for now.

All in all a great versatile guitar, well worth the money. If you're looking for one guitar to rule them all or maybe it's your first this is a great buy.

Also it is simply beautiful.

Since I bought this guitar I've also purchased an actual PRS guitar (which cost three times as much). Now, the actual PRS has the best pickups I've ever heard, but apart from that the quality of these two guitars is very similar, and the Harley Benton is by far better looking (it's inspired by an even more expensive PRS than what I have...). So, this Harley Benton looks amazing, but is it a good guitar ? Yes, I think so! I have tuned mine is C# standard with Ernie Ball Skinny top heavy bottom strings (10-52) and I have no fret buzz problem. It stays in tune just fine (I've had to change the tuners on another Harley Benton guitar, but the ones on this model seem very good) and it sounds very decent, although the pickups are very high gain and not very subtle.... but that is ok for the kind of music I play with it. You can always swap them for better pickups and have an absolute beast of a guitar for much cheaper than what it looks and sounds like. One little hardware flaw: the pickup selector has a tendency to flip back into the middle position at the slightest touch. It's not really been a problem while playing (it's out of the way), but that's not the way a pickup selector should behave and it might get worse with time and not stay on other positions... In conclusion, this guitar plays great, looks great (I even prefer its headstock design to the PRS one!), sounds fine (not bad at all, but nothing special) and it is incredible value for money. This is my second Harley Benton guitar and certainly not the last one.