Harley Benton CST-24T LH Paradise Flame

Well my Harley Benton CST24 LH ( left handed ) arrived this afternoon. I decided to buy it after watching the great reviews of the guitar by Henning Pauly on youtube.

The guitar was VERY well packaged and it was delivered on the day quoted by Thomann.
Upon opening the boxes and taking off the plastic cover etc I was very pleasantly surprised by the overal look of the guitar.
It felt very solid and not at all cheap. The color was much darker than expected but for me this was a plus! It is a rich dark cherry color.
The thick transparent laquer definately helped give it the PRS look although the "flame" is nowhere near the 3D depth or quality of real PRS or Gibson, but it still looks really nice.
The neck felt nice although the fretboard looked very dry and a little light in color, not black, more like a greyish color. (Maybe a coating of lemon oil will help).

The action of the guitar was quite low and without buzzing and the guitar was basically still in tune out of the box, it also seems like the intonation is pretty good too straight out of the box.

I Tested the electics by plating through my Roland cube 80XL to be sure that the electronics were working ok and again I was pleasantly surprised with how nice it sounds. It is bitey and yet still warm.

Thomann told me that they didnt do a left handed version with the solid bridge and so I had to get the tremelo version ( but I wont be using the tremelo ).

If you keep in mind how much the guitar costs, my first impression is that it is amazing! You certainly get a lot for your money. I hope they make more of these models in different colors and available for us "lefties".

Yes there are a number of small "faults" in the finish, but nothing that will disturb me so much that Id want to send it back. ( it looks like the masking tape was not applied very well in places on the edging before spraying the guitar.

So..... To summerize my review and give my first impressions.
I got a very pleasant surprise and I didnt think that Id get a guitar of this quality for such "Mickey Mouse money".
It looks great, sounds great, plays great and hopefully stays in tune ( time will tell ).

It is now on a guitar stand in my living room and I cant stop looking over at it :)

Köpte denna gitarr av nyfikenhet. Priset väldigt lågt. Den kom efter 4 dagar, vilket jag tycker är mycket bra. Mycket bra packat och gitarren kom i perfekt skick. Kvalitets instrument, såg jag direkt. Inget fel alls utan spelar väldigt bra! Halsen rak, stränghöjd perfekt och inget "fret buzz". Intoneringen väldigt bra!
Gitarr i den här prisklassen.. Jag är imponerad och mycket nöjd!

I got this item yesterday, and spent a couple of hours "fettling" it. It looks really good and I could only find one blemish, on the side of the headstock, but you have to be less than 30cms away to be able to notice. Whilst quite playable straight from the box, I adjusted the tremolo springs and the tremolo arm locking screw, located on the block, by pushing the arm down to make it accessible. This was a little fiddly, but the system works well now. If you jam something like a couple of beer mats between the tremolo and the top of the guitar, it makes the job so much easier. I lowered the string height as well as the intonation at the bridge. The fretboard benefitted from some lemon oil, too. The "action" is fine, but I'll do some work on lowering the nut slots, which are just a little high. Once this is done, I'll change the strings. The ones on it on delivery are really very dull, and so I can't do a review at this stage on the sound. I think that they are .009's, and I use .010's usually. All of these jobs are quite usual on a new guitar, especially a budget item, so don't be put off by this. In my view, this guitar is excellent value for money.

Okay, let me start off my saying you don't need to spend $1000 for a good guitar. I love this guitar. Everything about it I love, I love the Flame Top, The pickups, the neck, everything. I'll start with the flame top, it's absolutely beautiful to look at. Next, the pickups, the pickups have such a bright sound to them and I love them so much. The bridge, usually in the past I had wrap around bridges and tune-o-matic bridges which were a pain, this bridge is awesome. Along with this, the action, at least for me, of this guitar is amazing. The neck: the neck is perfect for me, I prefer fatter necks, Not really a big fan of thinner necks, This neck was perfect for me, that's just my personal opinion. The neck also had no fret spurs on it at all which was awesome. Tuners: The tuners are great, this guitar rarely goes out of tune. you can bend so much and the tuners never let go. In the end, I give this guitar 5/5 stars because it deserves it 100%. Never let name or price influence you. Just because it's not name brand or expensive, does not mean it's a bad guitar. I paid double what I paid for this once and got a piece of garbage. (Dillion les paul junior) so I highly recommend this guitar for any of you lefties who want a PRS style guitar but can't afford the $800 - $5000 sticker price. (P.S. I haven't used the tremolo yet. Haven't really wanted to but I'm sure its awesome)