Harley Benton CST-24T LH Ocean Flame

Wow so much more than I expected.
Best value guitar I’ve ever bought.
Had to make some slight adjustments.
The tonal variety from this is excellent, one of my faves both pickups on & split a little slap back and instant twangy Gretch .
I was thinking I would have to swap out the pickups, but no way I’m keeping these babies.
The finish is awesome.
The fretboard was a little dry but some lemon oil sorted that out.
If you’re not a brand snob check out HB you’ll be surprised.
Thanks Thomann I’ve already ordered my next Harley Benton.
And it’s great they haven’t forgot about us lefties, something the big boys should take note of.

First of all, as a lefty it's hard to find any decent guitar that isn't black, let alone with a beautiful finish like this. There was some hesitation ordering online, especially from the USA but I heard good things and decided to give it a try. I'm so glad I did.


The guitar arrived quickly and I must say, the HB CST-24T LH is stunning. Fit and finish were perfect. The outer box had been torn completely through by the shipping company but the guitar was unaffected. The inside box was pristine.

The guitar sounds exquisite. I purchased all these extra tools expecting to need to do some work, at least on the frets and I didn't have to do anything. Frets were in perfect shape with no scratchiness and nice smooth ends.

Can't say enough good things. It's a beautiful guitar at any price, let alone around the $200 USD mark. Well done, Harley Benton and Thomann.

I'm a Leftie, and I've had this version for 2 weeks. The colour has a hint of turquiose, but still is beautiful. As others have said, the finishing is not quite as good as a £1,000 guitar, but, hey, for £200 who's complaining; from a yard away it looks fantastic. I have gigged it, and it looks great in the photos taken then. The neck is made of 5 pieces of wood; three for the main length, a scarf joint at around the 2nd fret, and a piece to make up the heel. I had akready tried the PRS SE Custom. That had a 3 piece neck, and the finish and sound wasn't worth the extra £800 in my opinion. I already have the Paradise Flame CST24 LH, which I use the vibrato, and for this one, I have blocked the tremolo cavity to make it a hardtail.
It arrived in tune (!) with a straight neck, but the frets needed a polishing up, as the strings were scraping on them when bending. I also carefully lowered the action at the nut using the proper files (don't try it with a bread knife!) and it plays very fast.
One disappointment is the tone pot. It's either all on or full off, no in-between tonalities, so I'll have to change it. The tuning pegs are not great quality, but they keep it in tune. So if you changed them, and fitted a better tone knob, you'd have an exceptional guitar.
If you have a problem with the name on the headstock, then get over it. PRS eat your heart out.

I really cannot say enough good comments about the CST-24T LH. I fell in love as soon as I removed the lid from the box. The color on the flame is stunning. The guitar was set up pretty well out of the box and even came in tune after the trip all the way to the midwest of the US. It sounds and plays extremely well. The neck is very thin, which is a big bonus to those of us with smaller hands. All of the reviews you see online are completely correct. I have found a few small areas under the clear where it looks like they didn't clean it well enough before they shot the clear coat. There are a few areas on the binding that didn't get scraped well enough before the clear also. However, this is nitpicking folks. This guitar is phenomenal. For $250 shipped to my front door, this is the steal of the century.

I bought this already owning six "famous" electric guitars but wanted to see if the Internet reviews (all positive) were true. They are. This Harley Benton is beautifully finished, well set up and actually has a quality vibe about it. The pots have a firmness to them that is missing on many modern guitars. The sound quality is impressive, the frets are well finished and its overall appearance is of a quality instrument. I had a gig the day after it was delivered and was confident enough to take it and use it live. There is one area that I needed to be cautious about as being a 24 fret guitar the neck placement is marginally different to what I'm used to so needed some care when moving fast around the neck. Overall very impressed.

I'm delighted with the Harley Benton CST-24T and I think the features it offers is excellent value for the price.
Firstly, it really is a looker in the blue flame with different shades of blue according to the light. There is one minor imperfection in the varnish but I only spotted this after three months of using it so really not a big deal.
The sound from is great and the split coil feature is very useful to get lots of different tones.
My only niggles would be that I needed to tweak the set-up a bit as the strings were set very high, but this was easily fixed. The volume dial can also suddenly jump when you're maxing it.
I have not put down the guitar since starting to use it though, very happy overall!