Mn
Excellent for the price
I was a bit apprehensive ordering this. I figured with the additional scope of the inlays on the neck, the rest of the fit and finish would suffer...I was wrong. Frets are nice and level, and polished well. The edges are polished without any sign of damage on the fret board.
The TOL inlay is very well done here, shocking for a guitar of this price point. I don't see any sign of filler or glue. The f holes are just 'ok'. Not completely even and some roughness to one (like an accidental swipe with some tool perhaps) but these are trivial and aren't visible except up close inspection. General finish is 8/10 I'd say.
Wiring is good, and the switch and pots work as expected (no noise turning the pots or cutting off from the switch position)
Intonation is slightly off in the default bridge position with the truss set (neck almost flat). About 5 cents at the 12th fret across the board. That is a good consistency though as you could move the bridge back slightly with the set screws (which are missing). This is something I don't like about wrap around bridges in general is the lack of fine adjustments possible, but for this particular guitar pretty good and correctable.
Random thoughts...
Stays in tune pretty well, but could benefit from better tuners, I think.
Balanced, not neck heavy.
Sound is subjective of course but I think it sounds great and has a lot of versatility with all the coil splitting you can do. Pickups aren't as hot as my EC1000, but is not really a critique, just a difference. Plays pretty well and no string buzzing with the action set typically (kind of middle of the road factory settings).
At the end of the day, you get a lot for your money with this brand, at least from my limited experience. I'll definitely order again.
The TOL inlay is very well done here, shocking for a guitar of this price point. I don't see any sign of filler or glue. The f holes are just 'ok'. Not completely even and some roughness to one (like an accidental swipe with some tool perhaps) but these are trivial and aren't visible except up close inspection. General finish is 8/10 I'd say.
Wiring is good, and the switch and pots work as expected (no noise turning the pots or cutting off from the switch position)
Intonation is slightly off in the default bridge position with the truss set (neck almost flat). About 5 cents at the 12th fret across the board. That is a good consistency though as you could move the bridge back slightly with the set screws (which are missing). This is something I don't like about wrap around bridges in general is the lack of fine adjustments possible, but for this particular guitar pretty good and correctable.
Random thoughts...
Stays in tune pretty well, but could benefit from better tuners, I think.
Balanced, not neck heavy.
Sound is subjective of course but I think it sounds great and has a lot of versatility with all the coil splitting you can do. Pickups aren't as hot as my EC1000, but is not really a critique, just a difference. Plays pretty well and no string buzzing with the action set typically (kind of middle of the road factory settings).
At the end of the day, you get a lot for your money with this brand, at least from my limited experience. I'll definitely order again.
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a
Good guitar with a fantastic look.
In general at first glance this appears to be a super fine guitar, but if you look closer you will find some glue residue around the joint of the neck and body. Not much, but enough to pull it down in my mind. The guitar is easy to play and has good but not perfect sound in my opinion. I had to sand a little on the edges of the frets to get these completely smooth with the fretboard, but then it became very super smooth and very good to use. Single coil push / pull function pulls up again. The guitar is semi acoustic and you can practice without an amplifier. It took mee a few weeks before the intonation settled, but it ended 100% at the end. All in all, a good guitar at a reasonable price that I can recommend.
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H
Beautiful tree inlay on neck
Beautiful guitar. Sound/pickups are pretty good. As with my TE-40 (and soon my new 62 Strat VW) i will need to spend a lot of time and energy filing the fret sprouts. I can live with the trade-off for the inexpensive guitar (which other wise has HIGH quality) and the consistent fret sprout issues. The instruments are easily worth the investment in time and money. I have five so far.....so I'm a fan.
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X
Very good...but...
I am not judging this guitar based on its price point...it's simply a very good guitar hands down. It has a nice woody hollow-body tone and the neck is flat and fast. My only complaint is the badly black-shield-painted wood inside the F-hole...this spoils this beauty of a guitar when you look closely. The shield paint is uneven, scrappy, and was obviously done through the F-hole. Moreover, the wires are not well hidden. I don't care about the price... these things are easily fixable. Please, Harley Benton, keep your standards high and get it right.
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R
Another winner from HB!
Excellent craftsmanship! Amazing quality and features at an accessible cost. It easily holds its own against guitars double and even triple the price. Hardware is solid and the pickups are surprisingly good. Thanks Thomann and Harley Benton, you ROCK!
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A
Lovely surprise
On receiving the Harley Benton CST-24 TOL I was impressed by the quality and overall finish no nasty surprises.
I only play the guitar for my own enjoyment, just the odd jam sessions with mates, I have a number of guitars costing between 15 to 20 times more and can honestly say the gap is not that great between how they play and sound.
I made a few adjustments lowered the action plays great,
if you are thinking of purchasing a Harley Benson and unsure, its a cracking product really good value for your money guitar.
I only play the guitar for my own enjoyment, just the odd jam sessions with mates, I have a number of guitars costing between 15 to 20 times more and can honestly say the gap is not that great between how they play and sound.
I made a few adjustments lowered the action plays great,
if you are thinking of purchasing a Harley Benson and unsure, its a cracking product really good value for your money guitar.
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b
Really good for the price
Summary
If you want a good cheap guitar, this is probably one of the best you can get.
About me
I've been playing guitar for a few years now. Apart from the CST-24HB TOL I own a Fender Blacktop HH stratocaster, to which I will be making comparisons in this review. I've also played/tried several other guitars in the past (mostly strats).
Order & Delivery:
Before ordering this guitar, I was torn between the CST-24HB TOL and the Ibanez AS53-TF, so I sent an email to Thomann to ask some questions about the guitars which were not answered by the product page. I did not get a reply to this email, which was a bit of a letdown, but in the end I decided to get the CST-24HB TOL. The delivery of the guitar took about a week, which was fair, considering there was a weekend and a holiday in between. The guitar came really well packed, with the guitar's own box inside another larger box.
Features & Quality
Overall:
This guitar definitely has the looks. If you ever wandered into a guitar shop and realized that all the cool looking guitars cost a fortune, then this is a nice alternative.
Balance:
Due to the hollow body, the guitar is light, but also quite top heavy, which felt different compared to the blacktop which is like a massive chunk of wood.
Color & Design:
The guitar looks good, both up close and at a distance. The tree-of-life inlay doesn't looks as amazing as I thought, but it looks decent.
Scratches & Imperfections:
Nope, not on the one I received.
Headstock:
It doesn't look bad, but I feel like this is the part I like the least, maybe I'm just too accustomed to strats.
Tuners:
In the past I've owned a similarly priced Squier Affinity strat, which had to be tuned often. This is not the case for this guitar, as it seems to hold the tuning alright. It should be noted that I'm not super bothered by the strings being slightly out of tune so I generally don't tune the guitar if it's still more or less correct.
Nut:
Seems a bit cheap compared to the blacktop, but I don't know much about nuts so take that with a grain of salt.
Neck:
The web page says its a c profile neck, I guess it is. It is quite a lot thicker than the blacktop strat, which I think has a modern c profile neck. I can't compare, but I'd also be inclined to say that it's a bit thicker than a normal Fender c profile neck. It's not chunky though.
Fretboard:
Decent, the inlays are fitted well into the fretboard.
Frets:
These feel cheap. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's like the metal feels cheap and prone to decay? There are no sharp frets and they seem to be well leveled. There is no fret buzzing.
Action:
On my blacktop strat, I have the action set really low, so I'd say the action was normal? I plan on lowering it and might update the review if there are problems.
Electronics:
Seem mostly okay, although some things should be noted. One knob was a bit loose and needed to be tightened. The pickup switch feels cheap and wobbles around a bit when moved. The cables and electronics are visible through the f-holes, although it doesn't bother me.
Bridge:
Seems okay.
Sound
The pickups sound good for the price. The coil split works. I often noodle while unplugged, and it has more volume than a normal electric guitar, although it doesn't replace an acoustic.
If you want a good cheap guitar, this is probably one of the best you can get.
About me
I've been playing guitar for a few years now. Apart from the CST-24HB TOL I own a Fender Blacktop HH stratocaster, to which I will be making comparisons in this review. I've also played/tried several other guitars in the past (mostly strats).
Order & Delivery:
Before ordering this guitar, I was torn between the CST-24HB TOL and the Ibanez AS53-TF, so I sent an email to Thomann to ask some questions about the guitars which were not answered by the product page. I did not get a reply to this email, which was a bit of a letdown, but in the end I decided to get the CST-24HB TOL. The delivery of the guitar took about a week, which was fair, considering there was a weekend and a holiday in between. The guitar came really well packed, with the guitar's own box inside another larger box.
Features & Quality
Overall:
This guitar definitely has the looks. If you ever wandered into a guitar shop and realized that all the cool looking guitars cost a fortune, then this is a nice alternative.
Balance:
Due to the hollow body, the guitar is light, but also quite top heavy, which felt different compared to the blacktop which is like a massive chunk of wood.
Color & Design:
The guitar looks good, both up close and at a distance. The tree-of-life inlay doesn't looks as amazing as I thought, but it looks decent.
Scratches & Imperfections:
Nope, not on the one I received.
Headstock:
It doesn't look bad, but I feel like this is the part I like the least, maybe I'm just too accustomed to strats.
Tuners:
In the past I've owned a similarly priced Squier Affinity strat, which had to be tuned often. This is not the case for this guitar, as it seems to hold the tuning alright. It should be noted that I'm not super bothered by the strings being slightly out of tune so I generally don't tune the guitar if it's still more or less correct.
Nut:
Seems a bit cheap compared to the blacktop, but I don't know much about nuts so take that with a grain of salt.
Neck:
The web page says its a c profile neck, I guess it is. It is quite a lot thicker than the blacktop strat, which I think has a modern c profile neck. I can't compare, but I'd also be inclined to say that it's a bit thicker than a normal Fender c profile neck. It's not chunky though.
Fretboard:
Decent, the inlays are fitted well into the fretboard.
Frets:
These feel cheap. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's like the metal feels cheap and prone to decay? There are no sharp frets and they seem to be well leveled. There is no fret buzzing.
Action:
On my blacktop strat, I have the action set really low, so I'd say the action was normal? I plan on lowering it and might update the review if there are problems.
Electronics:
Seem mostly okay, although some things should be noted. One knob was a bit loose and needed to be tightened. The pickup switch feels cheap and wobbles around a bit when moved. The cables and electronics are visible through the f-holes, although it doesn't bother me.
Bridge:
Seems okay.
Sound
The pickups sound good for the price. The coil split works. I often noodle while unplugged, and it has more volume than a normal electric guitar, although it doesn't replace an acoustic.
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B
This guitar is better than my 900$ Epiphone Brent Hinds
Pros
Sound is better compared to my 900$ Epiphone Brent Hinds.
Heavy stuff sound a lot better
Clean stuff sounds are a lot lot better.
Really comfortable
Frets are really nice with no rough edges.
Cons
Build quality is not bad but the finishing touches are really bad.
The Holes in the body are really rough.
Inlay is really badly glued. A lot of extra glue. Some parts of the inlay are black and brown for no apparent reason.
The body has many black dots under the lack.
Volume wheel rotates unevenly
Tuners rotate unevenly also
I would give 5 stars if the build quality improves.
Still I really like my first Harley Benton Guitar :)
Sound is better compared to my 900$ Epiphone Brent Hinds.
Heavy stuff sound a lot better
Clean stuff sounds are a lot lot better.
Really comfortable
Frets are really nice with no rough edges.
Cons
Build quality is not bad but the finishing touches are really bad.
The Holes in the body are really rough.
Inlay is really badly glued. A lot of extra glue. Some parts of the inlay are black and brown for no apparent reason.
The body has many black dots under the lack.
Volume wheel rotates unevenly
Tuners rotate unevenly also
I would give 5 stars if the build quality improves.
Still I really like my first Harley Benton Guitar :)
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G
good for starting
good for starting as 1st hollow body guitar.
but this one come with small fret bzzzz and bad machine head .
something a liuter can fix in few minutes of work.
by the way I'm happy with this guitar.
but this one come with small fret bzzzz and bad machine head .
something a liuter can fix in few minutes of work.
by the way I'm happy with this guitar.
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R
Great Guitar But....
I found this guitar to be great quality and great looking also sounds good. my only complaint is that although the specs say the frets are Medium jumbo they are DHP30S which are 1.45mm high! I regard these as Extra Jumbo, I think a Medium jumbo is around 1mm high that is my preference (a world of difference I should have sent it back but it was too beautiful) For any new purchase I now need assurance that when specs say Medium jumbo they are not 1.45mm high.
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