Harley Benton CST-24T Paradise Flame

I normally wouldn't buy a guitar online without trying it first, but I couldn't resist this.. Been looking towards PRS guitars for the past year, and honestly can't afford one so this is my best shot at something near 'PRS like'. On a budget... Amazing but it comes with some flaws...

Right out of the box, the finish is astonishing. The guitar was well packed, for not having a case or gigbag, which is totally normal for this price point. The amount of clear coats on this thing is insane. Great binding and overall finish, vivid colours on the burst. Over actually really amazing.

Plays great out of the box. Only did some minor tweaking on the truss rod and bridge height to personal taste. Ok fretwork for the price and the neck plays great. It's a bit sticky because of the glossy finish, that's totally sandable.

The best part is the sound.. I'm surprised by the stock pickups (Roswell) and I was very eager to try out coil splitting for the first time. They came installed very low, almost under the pickup plates. Measured at around 8k, these pickups, along with the push pull coil splitting will bring you anywhere between crystal clean fender cleans and some heavier gibson humbucker tones.

Now comes the weird part.. The Wilkinson floating bridge. The trem arm came uninstalled (great), and it just wouldn't fit in the bridge. I'm aware of the Wilkinson mini hex screw that is installed on the back of the bridge to adjust the grip on the trem arm. It wasn't closed. It was the hole in the metal plate on top. I finally had to drill it half a millimeter wider. The whammy bar is hard to use, unlike my Stratocaster floating bridge which is basically the same system with springs. It stays better in tune though than on a Fender.

The electronics seem to have been poorly soldered, but overall clean. Luckily it's a case of too little solder, not like a total mess where the pots are all covered with too much solder.

The three way switch failed after a couple of days, there was bad contact with the bridge pickup. Resoldered but will replace it soon with something better as it doesn't seem to be of overall good quality.

Overall total bang for your buck!! You get a beautifully finished guitar with a great array of sounds. To me it's an everyday guitar and I bet it'll stay like that in the future!