Harley Benton CST-24

Que dire, la guitare a pas mal de défaillances esthétiques (a 249 euros, c’est limite mais bon passons pour une PRS style guitare finalement vraiment pas cher).
Je l’ai en version P90, les micros sont ok (passable mais typés P90) pour le reste la lutherie est comment dire, ... de la chaîne vietnamienne si vous voyez ce que je veux dire ni plus ni moins, aucunes passion là dedans.
Les frettes à finir, aucuns réglages, manche bizarre mais jouable, mécaniques passables, vibrato a oublier, malgré plusieurs réglages, ça tient pas.
Je la garde parce-que au final c’est vraiment pas cher et que j’aime le style et le typé P90 des micros.
Mais ne vous attendez pas à avoir la qualité d’une pelle à mille balles, indonésiennes mexicaines ou coréennes, c’est pas ça.
On peut jouer avec oui. Ça s’arrête là

Disclaimer : despite the poor note and harsh review, I decided to keep this little guitar because it looks cool and feels nice to play after some work on the frets and neck

So, I ordered two of these to be sure I could choose the one I prefered between them. Right out of the box they were both bad, like barely playable at all.
It was interesting comparing both of them though, and I'm pretty sure either they we made on different factories or the consistency of the build is non existent. Here are the main differences I found :
- The fretboard was made from two completely different woods : the one I kept has a nice dark fretboard (that was completely dry, so I had to hydrate it), the other one had a horrible orange fretboard that matched horribly with the black body
- The necks were completely different in shape : the one I kept is more of medium D shape, the other one was more of a skinny shape
- The one with the orange fretboard was way heavier, the one I kept is pretty light
- The one I kept projects a little less unplugged, but the difference is small

Now why the bad review ? Here are thye negative points :
1) The fretboard job was awful on both of these, the action was VERY high and it was impossible to get it lower because there were many high frets which would generate buzzing in many places on the neck.

On the one I decided to keep I filed many frets to get them more level and a decent action : not very low but definitely playable. Also, I dont feel the frets sticking out on the sides of the fertboard, which is good.

2) The pickups are pretty dark, and felt very weak when the guitar arrived. I raised them and it definitely gave them more punch making them better fitted for my style of music (heavy stuff) : adjusting the height is definitely an easy trick to get the pickups sounding better. I will definitely change them in the future.

3) The split is completely useless : it sounds weak and dark

4) The neck seems to be quite soft : the neck bends work really well, but I'm not sure it's a good thing. Also, the neck gets flatter when you take off the tension on the strings, so beware if you're making fret adjustments

Neutral points :
1) The finish is alright, it's not really good, it has some splatches of paint on the binding, but for the price it's defintely OK

2) The tuners were bad when the guitar arrived, but after using them a bit they became more smooth and the guitar stays in tune fine

Finally, the positive points and why I decided to keep it :
1) It looks really cool : it's funny because I wanted a black PRS with the nice carve and binding, and it's actually almost impossible to find ! I was really glad when I found this little baby that fitted exactly what I was looking for !

2) Not counting the fret job, it's actually comfortable to play : it's slimmer than my LP, and lighter too, the neck feels good and not too thin, it has some meat to it which is good. It's a little neck heavy, but wth a good strap it stays in place alright

3) It's cheap so I can actually experiment on it with no worries, especially on the setup and fret leveling parts (I still would recommend doing heavier stuff with a real tech, but I like to tweak a little bit myself)

As a conclusion, I'd say stay away from this guitar if you're looking for something that's great to play right out of the box, since the fret job was very bad on both of the ones I got. I would not recommend this one to a beginner. If you're OK with taking it to a local tech to make a good setup, then it's a pretty attaching little guitar.
Also, I could have been purely unlucky by getting two bad models, so there's that. In the end I still decided to keep one of them, so it's not that bad

Avec quel ampli ou effets utilisez-vous cette guitare? Pour quel style de musique et de jeu? Je joue avec un ampli BOSS Katana 100 e/ou un POD HD5000. Je joue plutôt pop, rock, voire très rock.

Quels est votre avis sur la lutherie, l'électronique et la finition de l'instrument? La guitare tient-elle l'accord? Son manche, sa touche et sa forme sont-ils adaptés à votre jeu? La guitare est très belle d'aspect, le vernis est nickel. J'ai un petit défaut de peinture en haut sur la table mais à ce prix c'est très acceptable (sur une PRS je l'aurais renvoyé ). On retrouve le confort d'une PRS c'est bluffant. Elle tient bien l'accord faut voir qi les mécaniques tiennent dans le temps, le chevalet fait son oeuvre malgré qu'il soit "cheap" est peu réglable, car le sustain est très bon.

Les sons clairs, crunchs et saturés vous conviennent-ils dans les différentes positions de micro? Le spectre est-il équilibré? Les micros Wilkinson sont un peu dans les graves mais ça se corrige facilement. Par contre ils sonnent bien rond en clair et en disto, c'est vraiment du bon son. On peux passer en split pour plus de possibilité facilement.

Le petit moins : la prise jack un peu dure au début et qui remue au bout de quelques temps. Remplacé par une neuve c'est nickel maintenant.

A s'offrir sans hésiter, à ce prix on ne peut pas être déçu et même très surpris en bien.

Novembre 2017 modifications : convaincu par la lutherie j'ai décidé d'investir. Donc : remplacement du chevalet par un Graph Tech resomax NW2 (métrique), des mécaniques Gotoh SG 381 et des micro Di Marzio Paf 36 (DP 223 et DP 103), le tout pour une valeur d'environ 250 euros. Avec la guitare on toujours sous la barre des 500 euros et on a du lourd du très lourd . Je ne regrette absolument pas d'avoir écarté la PRS SE qui fait pâle figure à côté de ma HB modifiée.