Harley Benton CST-24T LH Ocean Flame

I'm fan of Harley Benton left handed Electrics. I have 5 and will definitely be buying another as soon as they release a CST-24T LH in Black Cherry Flame finish. ( even with having to do my own setup and tweeks )

This CST-24T LH was made in INDONESIA .
Out of the box inspection: Visual defects: Rasp file scrape over top edge of neck binding and lighter scrape on corner of fretboard at High E string, at the 1st fret, for the full width of the space between nut and fret . A 2nd visual defect was a small 1/8" brush stroke of yellow discoloration on the right side of the neck binding at the 5th fret.
Setup: Guitar was painful to play out of the box after tuning. Last fret action was 5mm on the high E and 6mm on the low E.
I lowered the last fret action to 1.2 on the high E and 1.5 on the low E.

String height at 1st fret- horrible
Measured with a digital string height gauge starting with Low E .028mm,39mm,68mm83mm95mm70mm. I got out my Chic-yu brand nut slot files and began filing the slots. In the end I had lowered the slots to: Starting with Low E: .28mm, .30mm,. 32mm,.20mm,.19mm,21mm

Neck Relief: Neck initially was dead flat, I adjusted the truss rod and added relief to .2mm

Fret ends: Nice and smooth, no fret sprouts
Fret Levelness: High spot and Low E at 10th and 22 fret ( getting buzz ) at 1.5 mm last fret action on this string.
All other frets sound clean .

Will eventually be doing a precision fret leveling as done by Sam Deeks on YOUTUBE ( Good info source ,check it out )

Note on nut filing- the nut feeling like hack sawing thru rubber, because of this, there is no controlling how deep you file ( I had to fill a few slots with CA glue and black rescue powder and let cure overnight then re-file the next day. I have a new Tusq PT6642LO going on when I figure out the best method to cut through the gloss clear coat the HB sprays up against 3 sides of Graphite nut.

Tremelo: I dont normally use one, and have not tested how much it affects staying in tune, but if I have noticed the bridge would benefit from a slight flat milled into the surface just below the bridge. An observation I noticed was the high E saddle had to sit right down onto the bridge surface in order to achieve 1.2mm High E last fret action.

Summary: Would I buy another Harley Benton-Yes
Is this CST-24T worth $230 US Yes

Bottom line: None of the defects I found were impossible to correct.

About me: I work as a Quality Technician , getting ready to retire soon and enjoy playing my collection of Harley Bentons and Epiphones

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.

This guitar is like getting two guitars in one. A guitar with single coils, and humbuckers. I have watched lots of reviews for this guitar. They say it's a good guitar for beginners. I've played very expensive guitars that don't play better or sound better. In fact some were inferior in sound and playability. The reviews were making there judgment on brand and price.This guitar is a good for any level player unless there guitar snobs Do yourself a favor buy one of these Harley Benton CST-24T I'm happy after months of enjoyment.