Harley Benton CST-24HB Tortoise Flame

I have made this into an excellent guitar and, if you have the ability, it is an excellent buy. If not it is a bit disappointing.

I have an HB Strat copy which cost a bit over £100. That has an excellent finish, a really good sound and is generally very good quality but needed a fret polish and a bit of setup. This cost very nearly £200. Again it has an excellent finish, a great sound, looks fantastic for the price and is mostly of very good quality. However it not so much of a bargain.

The problem is that although I'm fine with polishing the frets and doing a bit of setup I'm not so happy that, for quite a bit more money, I'm having to file and recrown some frets. When I first received it it was buzzing halfway up the fretboard. I let it settle for a few days and did a setup. The action was very low so raising it and tweaking the truss rod for a little more relief sorted out most of the buzzing. But the second and fifth fret were still causing problems and I had to do a bit of work on them.

The guitar looks great. OK, there isn't the depth to the veneer you would get on a PRS but I think it has some depth, so it's not a photo print. And as soon as you step back from it it looks amazing. The sound is warm and versatile, though the coil split doesn't add as much as I'd hoped and it doesn't have as much of a hollow body sounds as a 335. The tuners do the job, even if they don't feel particularly inspiring. All in all a great addition to my collection, now that the frets are sorted.

As I said, it is not a big deal if you have the skills and the tools but I could see it being a big problem for newer players. I guess the real problem is that my first experience with an HB was so good it set the bar very high. Having spent more money I didn't expect he quality to be worse. That said, now that it is sorted it looks, feels and plays brilliantly. I'm glad I bought it and would buy it again.

I just wanted to sound a word of warning to less-experienced users

LONGER TERM EXPERIENCE

I've had this for about ten months now. For most of that time I didn't use it. Every time I went to it it needed setting up again. It seemed that the wood needed to season a bit more. After about eight months (having tried it in between) it seemed that the neck had finally settled down. I have set it up and not needed to change it since.

I'm playing and recording with it now and It's a comfortable and versatile guitar. It's a great intermediate step between my big semiacoustic (Vintage VSA500) and my solid PRS SE II Santana. Very pleased with it now and intend to keep it and use it more.

Pros: The Body and finish is beautiful. Flawless. The pickups are great clean...so-so with gain. The guitar sustains amazingly well.

Cons:, the bridge is missing the tiny hex screw that locks the bridge in place on the treble side.
Seeing the guitar came with Wilkinson Pickups and not Roswell as advertised, I think I got an older one with one of the first attempts at crafting roseacer...lots of dents in the treated wood at the 1st fret. numerous imperfections in shaping up the fretboard and at the base of it. Dry as a bone. A little fretboard treatment improved it, but the feel of it is like it is made of a plastic composite. Not sure how heat chemically changed maple in this fashion.
The nut was atrocious on the treble side. Looking down the fretboard from the bridge, It is sloped too low to the right, so much that whomever cut the nut just put a notch in the E string to barely hold in place. The B string was a little better, but not by much. The result? Sitar noise with open string because the slot could not be properly cut with so little material on the treble side. I was surprised this was present on a guitar that spent a week in quality check.

I DON'T want to send this back. I sent an email asking for them to send a new nut and a locking screw, and I would fix it myself. Still waiting for a simple response to this after a day.
In purchasing this guitar, I reminded them I am in the states and that I'm not expecting perfection for spending 264 dollars shipped but expect a playable guitar with a reasonable amount of flaws. I also said future purchases would be based on the quality. Sorry, I can't buy anymore sight unseen from Thomann after my experience. This guitar spent a WEEK in quality before leaving...and the nut is awful.
Hopefully, I am sent a nut and the tiny locking screw, so I dont have to go searching all over creation for the right size for both.

I'm sorry I had to post this review, I wanted so badly to post a five star, yet the nut almost had me giving this a two. I mean, this is the MOST BASIC QUALITY CHECK, NO?

I was once lucky enough to own a guitar very similar to this made by a well-known company in the USA. It cost me well over two thousand British Pounds - and I bought it secondhand! Unfortunately, due to financial circumstances, I had to part with it (in exchange for a much-needed car!) Now I have bought the Harley Benton CST-24 HB Tortoise Flame, it almost feels like I have my valuable guitar back - at a tiny fraction of the price. I won't say it plays as well as my old Hollowbody guitar because, in fact, my new Harley Benton CST-24HB actually plays BETTER. Straight from the box it was excellent and now, after a minor adjustment to one of the nut slots and the truss rod by my friendly luthier, I have a great-sounding, beautiful guitar with a superb action. It balances perfectly on a strap with no neck-dive (often a problem with semi-acoustic guitars). This time, no work at all was necessary on the frets - they are excellent. The Wilkinson pickups are becoming widely recognized as a very good humbucker and have the classic alnico humbucker sound (in fact I prefer them to the sound of the pickups of my American guitar). There are no unwanted noises or microphonic problems and, unusually for a cheap guitar, the master volume and tone controls function perfectly, with a smooth taper and no loss of treble when the volume is reduced. The tuners are excellent, the graphite nut is better and more elegantly shaped than the rather ugly one on my US guitar. Generally, the finish is top class, with a flame veneer top and bound F-holes (my US guitar had unbound F-holes). The main difference can be found inside - my US guitar had an arched flame maple back and the internal construction under the bridge was a work of art to rival a top class violin. The Harley Benton has a more typical central block construction and I must confess the internal finishing looks a bit rough if you look inside the F-holes with a torch and a magnifying glass. However - this is the important thing - this construction means it works better as a functional electric guitar at high volume. Interestingly, the acoustic sound is almost exactly the same despite the internal differences, so I wonder if all the craftsmanship of the US guitar was really necessary for any purpose other than to persuade overpaid guitar-fancying American dentists to part with more of their money. I am much more than happy with this guitar and I have already urged Thomann, bearing in mind the instrument's excellent acoustic character, to offer the same guitar with an adjustable bridge and piezo saddles. I am sure a lot of guitarists would find such a guitar extremely interesting if the price is right (which I am sure it would be with Harley Benton). Once again, I am astounded that a guitar of this quality can be done for this price. My local guitar shop proprietor and my friendly luthier both agree. In fact I had a bit of trouble retrieving it from my friend the luthier, who is a big fan of arch-top F-hole guitars and seems to particularly like playing this one! I am not at all surprised that the CST-24HB Tortoise Flame is out of stock until September and I urge anyone interested in this type of guitar to get hold of one as soon as they are available again. It is also available in cherry sunburst with "tree of life" fretboard inlay, but I think I prefer this finish and the interesting little cross-shaped fret markers. I have been playing guitar for nearly fifty years and back in 1980 I reviewed guitars professionally for a magazine. This is the second CST-24 I have bought from Thomann in less than a month. Harley Benton does it again!

Pros:
- nice and solidly made instrument,
- weight,
- beautiful colour and outfit,
- very good staying in tune,
- perfect feeling while holding the instrument in the hands,
- probably the best guitar neck of all Harley Benton electric guitars,
- unbeatable price in this class of the instrument.

Cons:
- pickups,
- 3-Way blade switch.

Even with a cursory glance, it is clear that this instrument has more positive than negative characteristics. However, the sound of the pickup in this case is quite a problem, which especially comes to expression in the dirty mode, while the clean sound are O.K. - nothing spectacular, but also not bad. If you decide to replace the pickups, taking into consideration the average price of 80-150 € per piece, in that case the price of the guitar would rise to 449-589 €, which, even in the most expensive variant, is about 2.5 times lower than the PRS SE Hollowbody II ( without any modifications this guitar is almost 5 times cheaper than PRS, which is the world record).

The guitar has an extremely pleasant feeling when playing, the neck is literally perfect, regardless of whether you have a smaller or larger hand, and it is so light that you can practically forget that you have it hanging around your shoulder.

Conclusion: if you are a fan of hollowbody guitars and if you don't mind a slightly undefined and muddy tone during overdrive - don't hesitate, this is the guitar for you. Even if you decide that you want to upgrade the guitar with other pickups, you'll still be in a winning position because you'll have a guitar with a more comfortable neck than the PRS SE Custom, so the only possible conclusion is that Harley Benton literally pushes the boundaries when it comes to the availability of instruments to everyone. If there was no above mentioned pickup issue, the rating would be a pure five stars, which could not be compromised even by a very hard 3-Way Switch, which requires a smaller setup by yourself or your favorite luthier.

Recommendation: After receiving this guitar, smear the neck with lemon oil - it will be softer, smoother and more pleasant to play.

I like my Tortoise Flame HB quite a lot..... Now.

I have to consider the affordable price of this guitar when I start to critique it, but was it value for money ? Having seen plenty of online reviews of this model and purchased other H B products, I knew there was an element of chance. So I'd hoped to get lucky.

The Pros. It looks great. Lots of comment online about the colour not following the Thomann catalogue too well and a few people being unhappy with instruments shipping brighter/lighter in colour than the photos. I was hoping for this ! The photos make the Tortoise Flame look a little sombre and muddy, I was hoping for something warmer, richer and that's what I got. I was once a professional photographer and I know how difficult some hues are to record, even in this digital age. It looks to me like Thomann have tried to address this issue, some of the detail shots look colour manipulated to correct. But for me, I am very happy with what has arrived. The flamed maple top is nice, not to strong and well "book-matched", so it does create the "illusion" of an old classical instrument, which I like.

It sounds nice, middle position gives a nice rich colourful tone. But sound is so objective, what amp, settings, strings, playing style. Plenty of range available with pick up selection and coil split. I'm no expert but very happy and I do think the semi hollow body has something quite different, to say my SG, so a nice addition to the collection. The fret board and neck are nice to play, I like the subtle decoration on the fret markers which have been reasonably well done. Machine heads feel fine, look good.

The Cons. On arrival I just got the sense this guitar was not brand new. Maybe it had been demo'd or something, very slight scuffs and traces of polish caked in corners, as if it's been re-buffed - badly. The neck pickup surround ring was cracked in several places, not sure if due to over-tightening or an impact. But I couldn't look at it while playing.

Thomann were as efficient as usual, very fast to send me out a replacement part - plus goodies, for my inconvenience. While changing this piece I did discover additional holes, failed attempts to get it right in the factory. You don't want to look to closely inside these instruments.

I was surprised how high the action was on arrival. My own past experience and comment from others suggests that Thomann inspect and set-up before shipping, I'm not convinced in this case despite the QI label. So as soon as I tried lowering the action I found why, 3rd fret very high. Someone down the line has set this guitar up to a point just before a fret buzz and left it at that with way too high an action. I don't think it should have been let through, even for ¤220. The fret was correctly pressed home so I got stuck in and "dressed" it level. Now after much tweaking of truss rod and bridge height I have achieved an action which for me is enjoyable to play. However the bridge is as low as possible on the high e side, so nothing left if I wanted further adjustment. Another shame is the cut on the end of the fret board between last fret and pick up, "chewed" I think would be a better description.

If I were the designer of this instrument, I would have sat with the prototype, played it, looked down and realised that the view into the lower "F" hole is seriously spoilt by the guts - back of the position switch and wiring. Not attractive and no attempt to disguise, spoils the classical instrument illusion. It would have been much more elegant looking into a dark empty void. Re-position the switch above and behind tone control or up on one of the wings, Les Paul style maybe. And If I ever want/need to service or change electrics, how does that work, there is no service cover on the rear. This is a point I was aware of before buying, but I am intrigued to know how it was assembled in the factory ?

To sum up. I am happy with this guitar (at this price), it's nice to play - now, and looks great from a distance (more than a couple of feet). Should I have had to put the time in sorting it out?* - no I don't think so. Did I get lucky ? - no not really. Will I buy further Harley Benton
instruments ? - yes, probably.

*I know that Thomann have a very fair and efficient returns policy. I could have declined and asked for another. But it is a bit of a hassle organising return shipping, you need patience whilst without your new "toy" and there is always an element of 'the better the devil you know'. So in this instance the tweaking was within my ability, I had the time, and now I like the end result.

This was my first ever Harley Benton and also very first buy from Thomann. As a beginner, I was not fixed on any particular make of guitar as long as it was a humbucker as recommended by my teacher and within my expenditure limit of $300. The Harley Benton CST 24 HB Tortoise Flame initially caught my eye from just its looks alone. I researched it further and when I saw a B-Stock priced under $200 on the Thomann site and talked to one of their agents, I decided to pull the plug and placed an order. It arrived at my door in exactly five days later, well-packed in its original box inside a larger carton with absolutely no external or internal damage whatsoever. Kudos to Thomann for its solid packaging and quick shipment of the order.
I have to say that, having seen the messy finishing of the guitar shown in Darrell Braun’s YouTube review and the even more shocking experience narrated by All Things Guitars of a B-Stock order in which chunks seemed to have been cut out of either end of the fretboard, I was somewhat anxious. However, when I took out the guitar, I simply was blown away by its stunning beauty. Except for the issues I will come to later, the finishing was perfect without significant noticeable blemishes, scratches, painting sloppiness, glue remnants or black color varnish matted on the fingerboard or the headstock. I could not feel any sharp or protruding fret edges; the inlays were well set; the selector, volume and tone knobs, toggle switch and cable plug were all firmly fixed in place, nothing loose or wobbling about. The CST 24 HB looks and feels small but is for me exactly the right size. From other buyers’ reviews, it seems to vary in weight from 3.6kg up to 4.2 kg (which is quite a surprising difference for an item of identical specifications) but mine is exactly 3.0 kgs which is quite light and very tolerable. I plugged it in and all systems – volume, tone, toggle switch and pull coil split built into the tone control - were working. On the other hand, even as a novice, I could see that the string action was quite high and the guitar also arrived badly out of tune. This was however nothing to worry about as I had decided that I would take the guitar a tech to check it comprehensively, replace the bridge so that the strings could be intonated and adjusted individually, polish and oil the fretboard which arrived somewhat dry, change the strings and set it up properly, all of which was done.
I have now had the guitar, playing it almost daily, for nearly three months since it came back from guitar tech. Wonderful! The thin neck fits well in the hand and makes for fantastic playability as I can run my hand fluidly up and down without any of the grippiness I experienced when I experimented with some guitars at a guitar shop. At this stage of my guitar journey, my sound demands are not that complex, and I will not pretend to any technical assessment of the pickups, but let me say that I play the guitar mostly in clean mode through a practice amp and it crisp, clear, brilliant and well balanced in all tones without any humming or rustling. I think it has excellent range as I can cover very satisfactorily pretty much all the rock, bluesy, jazzy and African sounds that I am practicing. There is a very apparent drop in feedback when the coil split is engaged but frankly this is a function which at this stage is not so critical for me, the primary options being more than enough for me. On the other hand, the fact that, being semi-hollow, the guitar can be played acoustically quite adequately is a big advantage as I can practice very late in the night without having to plug it into the amplifier and risk going to war with my family or neighbours! It is a guitar which really has so much flexibility and maneuverability. You can even imagine interacting with it as flirtation a pretty, nimble coquettish beauty!
So, have I had no issues or problems at all with the guitar? Well, there are five main drawbacks that I must highlight. Probably the most serious one is that from about the 21st fret, access to the frets is quite cramped. The 22nd to 24th frets are virtually unreachable on the low end of the fretboard which is quite a bummer because a lot of the African lead sounds that are an important part of the repertoire I am building is played in that register. I had even thought that these last frets were incorrectly spaced but the guitar is in perfect tune down to the very last fret. It is also clearly not a problem with the guitar’s cutaways so I have a feeling the problem is with the heel of the neck having been set too far out. Secondly, at the 15th fret, both tone and sustain on the B string are deadened and dampened out considerably. Dead spots are in fact the third problem, this time with the tuners. While, on the whole, they do their job, they all have some spots which when you turn the machine head, there is no response. This makes it quite difficult to tune precisely, especially from the D to the high E strings. Tuning stability as a whole could be better and I have to tune the guitar pretty much each time I play, especially the B and high E strings. Then, when the coil-split is engaged, the sound is noticeably weaker and thinner, certainly is not like the quality of a single coil as I see demonstrated in single coil guitar tests. So, if this is not just an unlucky draw in my particular guitar, those who may be thinking of buying the guitar because of this particular attribute of the coil split need to look out. Finally each of the frets from 2nd to 24th on the high-end of the fretboard has a noticeable dimple as if they have been grooved or shaved out. This is nothing as serious as the case I referred to earlier reviewed by All Things Guitar and there is no sign that they affect the way it plays at all but, even as only a visual defect, this is an important issue to mention and may well be the reason why the guitar was returned.
What then are my conclusions? Without doubt, for its visual magnetism, I would buy another CST24 HB. Beyond looks, even with the issues highlighted above, I believe that I have got a very good guitar both for the price I paid for it and in its own right. Going by my experience and also the reviews that I have seen, I am definitely bothered by what appears like a very high variation in quality in Harley Brent guitars apparently of the same brand and specs and, if I was allowed a humble recommendation, it would be that Thomann should invest in ironing out all these quality slippages and quirks. Speaking for myself, if this was to imply an additional $50 to the price of the guitar to guarantee that each one would not have any of what can be quite serious quality gaps, I truly would pay for it. All notwithstanding, I am quite happy with the CST24 and am sure this will not be my last purchase of either a Harley Benton guitar or from Thomann.

1) The guitar I've got is visually very different from the one, that is in the pictures. I have read, that I am not the only one, who encountered this problem. Shame on You, Thomann
2) Quality of product is very good. Guitar have nice, glossy finish. Binding around the body have some flaws, but looks good. You can find some visual defects here and there, but they are so tiny, that it's hard to spot them. There are some greater issues with star inlays, the small ones have some holes and missing parts, but it is noticeable only if you look for flaws. In all, guitar is beautiful. It has nice forms and great looking headstock. Kind of looks like well known P.. guitars :)
3) Guitar has one of the best tuners I have encountered. The nut seems like is made of Tusq. There is weird wraparound bridge used in this guitar. At start it seemed ok, but, when I lowered action, the intonation suffered. And there is no way to adjust intonation for low strings, only B\G is adjustable.
4) The pots and the switch seems fair quality. They work. Pickups are great. They seem a bit dark, but EQ fixes it. Sound output is very high. By my mind, coil split is useless.
5) Overall sound of guitar is beautiful. It has long sustain. Overall guitar is very loud. It tries to overload\overdrive any amp I've tried with it. The interesting thing is that sound comes slowly and fades out as slowly as it came. I's perfect for atmospheric music. The guitar sings to me, always I pick it up. I love it.
6) Guitar has fairly beefy neck, but it is quite comfortable. The glossy finish is not the best for fast playing, but fast satining made it better. Fretwork is fairly good. I couldn't find any fret end sticking out, but fret leveling job could be better. It came with reasonable action and no fret buzz. When I lowered action, some fret buzz appeared, but I haven't found fret that's causing it. It is so small, that I live with it, for now.

Overall: guitar is beautiful, it sounds great,plays great. and costs very reasonably. For little money you get great instrument. It's shame that it doesn't look like in pictures.

EDIT:
I was wrong about bridge. There is a way to adjust intonation on lower strings. I found some screws against the bridge posts, that should do the job. Haven't tried this yet.
I was curious about that fret buzz after lowering the action. I found some 5 or 6 frets, that sticks out. If you like low action, then get ready for fret leveling. But actually in that price region any guitar will have similar issues, so it's still worth it and I still love this instrument.

This arrived with sky high action and frets all over the place. The fit and finish was not great with black spatters under the sunburst, overflowing glue marks and poor sanding of the f-holes. The good customer service at Thomann gave me a discount, as this should definitely have been a B-stock or not left the shop as it was.
After trussrod adjustments and some serious fret leveling, the guitar now plays great. Action is a bit difficult to get perfect with a fixed bridge, but I got it to a place which is comfortable. The best thing - the sound! I've had these Roswell humbuckers in a few other guitars and not enjoyed them, but they work really well in this guitar. Deep, mellow jazz and crisp bridge tones. It's also a comfortable shape for a hollowbody - not too big. All in all I'm happy with it now, but be prepared that you might need to spend some money/time setting it up and tweaking it.

I was a little worried after seeing some reviews of the latest Harley Benton's. I was concerned about the manufacturing being moved to Vietnam and the new Roswell pup's.
I had seen mixed reviews when I placed my order at the end of March 2018, but I decided to order and hope for the best.
My background , I am a tool and die machinist by trade and a hobbiest musician who plays for fun.I also own a Fender Deluxe Stratocaster and I purchased a Harley Benton SC550 at the same time I purchased the CST-24HB.
Even though I am a novice guitarist my twenty plus years being a tool and die machinist gives me the ability to offer more than just personal thoughts and feelings on how an instrument feels.
The Pros:
The fit and finish is absolutley wonderful.There is no doubt it was setup and inspected before leaving Thomann.The frets are level and the neck feels and plays great.The electronics work as they should and the push/pull gives great options.I am happy with the Roswell pup's. I can get the classic rock and blues that I wanted.
The cons:
While it is completely playable as is I did polish the frets and I will retrofit some locking machine heads in the near future because I am keeping this and I prefer them.
The bottom line is I am very pleased with the purchase.

I'm semi-pro with 50 years playing. I wanted this guitar to give me a semi-acoustic option with rounder sound.

Guitar came with no imperfections in finish or electronics. Neck set properly, relief was correct - no buzzing. Frets are slightly lower profile than I prefer, but not a real issue, they were finished well, and with no sprout. The pickups were not adjusted for height very well, neck pickup was too hot, and the bridge too low. Once I evened this out, they are very nicely balanced, although I'm not sure I'll be using the split position very much. It's a nice feature to have in your back pocket, but this guitar is definitely meant to be a humbucker, not an S-type.

I'm not completely convince with the tone control roll-off. Seems to fall off from bright to low too rapidly, so I'm not sure if the pot is capped and resisted to assist in high end loss, but this is not a real issue for me either, as I can compensate with eq in my chain.

Overall playability is excellent. Very smooth with no fight anywhere on the neck.

The guitar is absolutely stunning to look at (with the possible exception of the weird pointy headstock, thank God it's black!). Nice flame, rich dark brown overall, better looking than the Thomann pics on product page.

I'm looking forward to many years playing this fine instrument. Exceptional value. Looking forward to more Harley's in my collection!