New Harley Benton Day! Would construction like this bother you if the guitar still looked good (from a distance) and sounded good? Have you ever had a guitar like this? Let me know :)

I think you should have started the video by saying this whole guitar has a price of a single PRS humbucker :).

Man, when you said the F holes were bad, I didn't expect it to be THAT bad

I’ve got this HB guitar. Very pleased with it. The “cosmetic” issues, in my case aren’t even issues at all. It plays wonderfully, and it’s very bery versatile. For this kind of money... best buy I’ve ever made. Best regards

I have 4 HB's, and one came with issues like that. I sent an email, and Thomann took it back without any hassle and shipped out a nearly perfect replacement. It's a QC issue, but you don't have to live with it. It is a new instrument, and Thomann stands behind what they sell.

I appreciate that you buy these instead of asking for them to send you one. I feel like that really allows us to see a realistic representation of their product and not a cherry picked version. I just wanted you to know that wasn't lost on me! Thanks for the awesome content!

To be fair, the F holes on my Epi Dot look like they were done with a bread knife and finished with a magic marker. There's also a nick in the edge of the finger board. It's still a very playable guitar though.

I have 3 HB guitars, and they’re all awesome. The fit and finish is very close to perfect on all of them. Remember these are very inexpensive guitars.

How about, take the binding off the f-holes, sand those edges and paint them black. Reward yourself for this fiddly effort with a beer bought from the $1750 you just saved.

I got a "B" stock CST24T. The guitar got here in 3 days & the guitar had no flaws, even under LEDs. Eventually I will be putting a set of Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates.

Send it back! I have several of their instruments and none have the defects you are suffering with.

Short and sweet, thank you for doing these types of videos, especially with your attention to detail!

Thanks for your honest and blunt reviews! Keep everyone to a higher standard, my man! Peace from Cowtown, AB.

I'm a bit on the fence with these super-affordable guitars. On the one hand it's great that it's even possible to buy a beautiful instrument for this little money. It surely puts instruments in player's hands that would not otherwise have them. On the other hand, these guitar factories must be absolute sweatshops, to be able to crank out guitars at that price-point. For me, making music is somewhat... sacred, for lack of a better word. An escape from a sometimes ugly reality. I like to think that the making of my guitar hasn't been someone else's ugly reality, but with H-B (or other super-cheap instruments), there can be no doubt about that. For the past few months, I've had a mighty craving for a semi-hollow electric, and almost pulled the trigger on this exact model. I've since decided to save a bit more and buy something really nice next year - when picking it up, I want to think "this is special!", and H-B wouldn't give me that.

Thomann obviously isn't sending those to you for free 😆. Nice to see an unbiased review.

I enjoyed your analysis Darrell you always provide a balanced, practical insight mate!

At the end of the day it's how it sounds, the Bentons are satisfyingly close. You can buy a Benton and a very good tube amp for hundreds less than one PRS

I think you should take a look at a brazilian brand called "Tagima". They have some nice products, and I think you're gonna like it!

Hi Darrel, I always appreciate what you have to say. For many years, I've been a fan of genuine rather than knock-offs (or clones) having owned a fair number of the originals. But things are changing on the quality front these days, especially with the Chinese products which 20 years ago couldn't even get the lettering straight on their instruments. I would say that the clones, especially recent Epiphones, are really getting closer to the experience of the original article with the Gibson name on it. It isn't true with all the models, but if you go through the product line I think you'll find there are some models that once they've been "finished" at the dealer (or your own setup), you will find the playing experience very satisfying and realistic both in feel and sound. This is new for me to say, but has been my experience in the last 5 years and seems to be getting better. Summary: it's coming to the time when we will no longer be able to say, "You just can't get the genuine experience from a clone", because in today's market, there are a few clones and semi-clones that are coming into their own reality, in my opinion anyway, for whatever that may be worth (or not). You are valued. Thanks for all you do.

Really appreciate your videos and the time that goes into them!

That looks nice as hell from far away. Good video man. I appreciate the honesty.

YESSS THANK YOU, we need more harley Benton content

LOVE your brutal honesty!

This *IS* the one I was waiting for you to review, THANK YOU very much. Realizing it has issues, it's still the guitar I want on my very limited budget. Thanks to you, at least I will go in with eyes wide open, and who knows, with HB's spotty QC, I may be pleasantly surprised!

I've been using a HB CST-24 for 3 years now as my main guitar. It's awesome considering the $230 price tag. It's obviously not a high end guitar, but it does the job great! Also did I mention it's freakin beautiful?!

I can't believe Darrell only has 624k subs?.....this channels so awesome!

I've got that exact same one and I love it. No complaints from me.

LOL... when you said "... I'll take one for the team..." really cracked me up! 🤣

TY for the honest review(s) Darrell, love your channel bud!

I am a drummer but love your vids. I have been thinking for a while of buying a guitar (just for fun) and HB CST-24 grabbed my attention. Thanks for the great review, you are amazing!

"I'll take one for the team, no problem" LOL!! Love the channel!

Darrell, thank you for a great channel. But even bigger thanks for all you have taught me. Your fan and friend, Jerry

Thanks for the demo and comparison. Stay safe DB!

You got me into HB man, they are probably wondering why all of these people from our postal codes are ordering these!

You should have compared the sound really, the review seems more focused on the cosmetic side of things more than anything else. I own a strat version and my dad has a hollow body telecaster, he's been playing for decades and played some of the best gear you can imagine and he loves it. For that money they are amazing guitars. Mine wasn't perfect when it came from the factory it needed a setup and the nut slots were too shallow, but after a bit of work, it blew my MIJ and MIM strats out of the water and they are both very good guitars the MIJ especially, I couldn't believe it. The finish may leave a little to be desired in some areas, but when it sounds better than my branded guitars, I couldn't really care but thats just my opinion. It would have been really interesting to see how it held up sound wise against the PRS! ( that PRS is lovely btw :D )

You are one of the very few reviewers that really know how to do a proper review. I can't thank you enough for that. I am sick of reviewers that think they've covered what was needed to pass on only to find when I check further or see the guitar in person their recommendations fall way too short. You're my go-to-guy for dependability. Helps that you're also a fellow Canadian and I can understand what the H you're saying too... Thanks again from A Canuck in Latvia! ❗🎸🥇👌💯

Thanks for your insightful review as usual, Darrell.

Honest and impartial, thank you!

Cool, can't wait for H-B to make the Piezo version!

PRS is on another level when it comes to the quality of their instruments. Even the SEs. Love my Tremonti Signature. (USA)

I literally just bought this guitar and you put up a video, awesome!

Hi Darrell, in Thomann’s defence.. I’ve been buying from them for a few years and I can’t fault the quality of anything I’ve purchased. I had one quality issue and the customer service was nothing short of excellent with a replacement part sent within a week. The Harley Benton range is targeted to make the expensive guitar experience available to those on a budget and the prices are very reasonable. Thanks for the excellent content as always 🤘

I recently bought a Harley Benton acoustic and it's absolutely perfect in every way. Shame that their QC isn't up to scratch across their whole network of suppliers.

Hi Darrell. I own real tele, strat, prs se. Harley Benton guitars are not going to be the same, BUT they're fun to buy! I bought a cst24t last year, and maybe got lucky. Couldn't find flaws in construction/finish, guitar felt good in hand, neck was comfortable. Looked gorgeous. Soon became apparent that the tuners were crap, and pickups underwhelming, so I replaced them with affordable replacement parts. So, final outlay £190 guitar, £30 pickups, £18 tuners =£238 or 410 Canadian dollars. AND I'm very happy. When I was a kid you would get firewood for this kind of money!!

I have the exact same guitar. I received it in 3 days in Toronto. I love the guitar and I have over a dozen Fender, Gibson and Schecter guitars. I polished the frets and installed locking tuners. Mine had none of these issues.

If you are willing to risk another try, perhaps look at one of their Fusion series.

Hey Darrell After watching your review of this guitar, I have just bought one 😊 it’s a B stock item and I honestly can’t find any flaws on it. The guitar arrived today, I set the tuning and plugged it in, WOW it’s amazing. Thanks for your budget guitar reviews 👍

Awesome honest review. Love your channel!

Im glad you chose this model to review and critique. I've seriously been contemplating buying one. The little things like the fret work and the F holes, well I always do a complete fret job and setup when I buy any guitar. And with the F holes, I think I could clean that up fairly easily. The blushing at the neck joint there isn't much that can be done. Looks like there was probably some glue around the joint and finished over. And the few minor chips and or finish crack I can always drop fill. And the nut I can file the edges and make it a little prettier, and use micro mesh to clean it up. Which none of this bothers me. I really enjoy doing that stuff. As it's my chosen semi profession after I retired from the ARMY. I know that when I see your review on these inexpensive guitars, it's honest because you have payed for them yourself. Where others talk them up because the talked said company to send them one for a review and they keep the guitar or piece of gear. So thank you for an absolute honest breakdown of this model. I'm pretty sure I will be ordering one very soon.

I would love to see you do a price point shootout where you pick a price, $500, for example, and then compare guitars from several brands in that range to see who is giving you the biggest bang for the buck.

Great video! I actually have 2 CST24Ts. There's a few flaws in there, and even though it isn't as good as a PRS, it's as close as some folks may be able to get, and for the money, it rises far above the endless pile of strat clones out there. Bummer about the F hole. That just sucks. It's a drag your experiences with Harley Benton have been like that. Even the b stock one I got was in better shape. But your reviews are always straight up and helpful, and for that we thank you!

Great review. I really brings home how much I love my PRS custom 22 ten top. It's a masterpiece. Like wearing a tux that feels like a comfy pair of sweats.

Its nice to see a review of these that point out that they come with flaws.

For me Harley Benton has some models that aren't really that great but some are just really good like se SC custom ii with the FR 1000. I have it and it is really good

I get a feeling that Darryl has a hidden metal head deep inside.

That's a beautiful guitar. I just bought a cst24t kit. I got it within 5 days, and it was PERFECT. The body was great. The neck was really well done. Frets were nearly perfect. I'm painting it right now. Which is a slow process if you do it right. I can't wait to get it together, with the premium parts I ordered for it, separately. Nice demo as usual.

I always had best experience with Thomann's service. Very fast, very customer oriented. I got an SC450 plus, installed some Tonerider pickups and it sounds really good.

I have the previous series with the cross inlays and rosewood fretboard. Honestly I didn’t have all those quality issues, maybe it is just a matter of luck. Suggestion for review is the Harley Benton Amarok 6 with EMG active pickups.

I got an H.B. Jazz Bass, so something simple. It's just perfect. Absolutely nothing to find on it. You cannot ask for a piece of art to be at those prices.

As a HB enthousiast, I really enjoyed your review. I think you got things right and balanced here. I have to say that I haven't experienced that king of finish flaws on mines, but I guess I could have.

Love your reviews!

I'd love to see you review some of the All in one guitars models.

Awesome Darrell.......HB's seem to be hit and miss much like most off shore brands in that range. Thanks for the honest review and opinion.

Excellent review! Thank you Sir.

Great, well balanced review, Darrell.

It's an obvious choice for a Canadian, but a Godin LGXT. Otherwise, a Hagstrom Super Swede would be nice for a demo.

By far and away the best guitar review series I have found. Completely fair and detailed from first glimpse to the tonal options. Thank you

Darryl, thanks for the thorough review. Steller as always. Would love to see you take a hard look at Michael Kelly's stuff. Especially the hybrid line! Keep on rockin!

Just watched this review and I was amazed how honest you were which is exactly what I was hoping for..I am grateful for the review but I wondered if you could have considered maybe upgrading this guitar to some up market pickups/machines etc and maybe sorting out the defects.

By the way Darrell, most guitar companies are 'cloners.'

I'm constantly leaning back and forth with getting a harley benton

Hey Darrell, great video as always! At this point you're probably put off HB for life 😂, but maybe you'd like some of their slightly higher priced models, like the Fusion-II HSH (I've heard good things about the version with a roasted maple neck). Of course, it usually goes out of stock immediately after every restock, but it might be worth keeping an eye out for it...!

Thanks for "taking one for the team"!

I'm so on the fence on HB because it seems they have bought off every KZfaq people(besides you and about 4 other people).I saw one guy I watched a couple times over the years and was suprized he was so hard on ESPs LTD line.Well he starts talking up how good HB's are and suprize he got a signature series.Give me a break.I love how honest you are.

The PRS SE Hollowbody II is $1549 US and the HB CST-24 is $249 US + shipping so for 6 times the price there most certainly will be differences. The critic that you gave was 100% accurate and I'm sure Harley Benton will take note and get back to the factory in Vietnam. In the batches that follow there is a chance that the quality issues will improve. My opinion is based on what I've seen on videos about other models which had issues but were addressed over the years. The most important things were the playability was good and the Roswell pickups were more than reasonable. These HB guitars and basses are aimed at people who want a certain model but can't afford the price tag. Your reviews are always top notch and we know we're getting the "real story". Your playing makes any guitar sound great.

Another good job buddy thanks

Harley Benton is hit and miss. Considering how they jacked up their shipping prices, there are better options out there.

Well, the HB sounded great and a guitar in that price point could provide a platform for 75% of your learning/improving. With increased shipping costs however, HB isn't the value it once was. Aspiring to a significantly better guitar than what you learned on is a proper right of passage that shouldn't be satisfied to early in your guitar journey. Great review.

It's nice to know that we can always count on you for a completely honest review, so thank you for that :-) And I actually think the PRS looks better anyway, I'm getting kinda tired of these extreme veneers.

I would love to see you try out an ESP LTD EC1000. Great video BTW, as always :D

Having worked at a pawn shop, I have been mentally programmed against cheap guitars. You see so many horror stories it scars you for life lol

Does it make sense to diy pimp the Benton as a winter project ? Like: sanding and polish the frets, exchange the tuner etc. ?

Bought the Spalted Maple FF338 after watching your recent video. Glad I jumped on it before it was gone, it looks & plays great. Thanks for the heads up.

Really hyped to see this review, as I purchased this exact make of guitar about a week before your original HB review. After having it for a few months here are my thoughts (TLDR, Great for their price, and while I have cosmetic issues, they aren't to the extent that Darrell had. Overall, I'm happy, and would buy again.) Fairly sure this guitar was backordered when I purchased it, so I had to wait a week or so for the shipment to arrive a Thomann. Shipping was killer at nearly $90 USD, so I ordered a cheap HB acoustic (D-120CE BK) as well to make myself feel better about the shipping (If the CST-24 wasn't back ordered, this one was.) Once they shipped from Germany they were at my door in Florida within two days. The box itself came damaged, however both guitars were perfectly intact with no damage. Overall, as Darrell noted, the CST-24 is a stunning guitar at a distance. The top on mine is a similar gorgeous tobacco burst to what Darrell displayed, but partially because the box came damaged, and partially because I had bought it without seeing the actual guitar I was purchasing, I went over it with a fine tooth comb. Sound quality is as as you heard, quite good. Also, as a semi-hollowbody it's quite resonant, to the point if I play it acoustic (as I often do when the rest of the house is asleep) I'll need to plug in headphones to hear anything clearly in a live stream form my computer. However it's not loud enough acoustic to wake anyone in the next room, which is a large part of why I purchased this type of guitar. Tuning stability is reasonable, and I only need to tune it up a few times a week, while I'll play it at least an hour or three each day. As for the details, and fit and finish, like Darrell found, there are issues. The fret board was particularly dry when it came from the factory, and needed a good bit of polish before it felt good. The frets themselves were comparable to Darrell's with no fret sprout or shrink to speak of. They were fairly gritty on arrival, but have polished up a good bit through play in the interim. The nut is fairly decently cut, though the G string sticks a bit, so I suspect that grove should be recut for the size strings I use. The corners on the nut were pretty sharp on the fret board size, but a quick pass with an emory board solved that. Due to its construction, I suspect you would struggle to replace any of the pots or switches, as there is no access to the electronics except through the F holes. This is somewhat annoying, as the nut on the jack plug keeps coming loose, and I struggle to properly tighten it. The neck is glossy, so take that as you will. Speaking of the varnish, that's where the first of my three complaints (rather than nit picks) come in. There are a few points where the varnish bled into the binding, but most egregious is the varnish on the neck near the fret board at the side dots, where the tape job clearly was misaligned, and the varnish is at a slight angle. The higher dots, closer to the body are mostly visible, with the varnish clipping the edge of the dot, but the dot at the third fret is less than half visible. If they were shooting to line that varnish line up with the base of the nut (which is what I'm guessing they intended) they missed by a good 2 or 3 mm. The second complaint is the F holes. Mine are near pristine compared to Darrell's but that's only /near/ pristine. The varnish from the top bleeds slightly onto the binding nearly the whole way around, and the binding itself has several points where there are where if I wasn't sure this was an injection molded binding, I'd say there's a join point in some unnatural places, where there's a dark spot under the clear coat. There were also a few spots where the binding over hangs inside the cavity about a mm, but a quick pass with a hobby knife fixed that. The worst part of the F holes for me was the paint job inside them, which was a pretty patchy black. It was so bad that I taped everything else off, broke out my airbrush and a super flat black, and sprayed the inside of each of them. Now it looks nice and classy. My third major complaint on the guitar wasn't something I noticed until I tried to mess with the pole position on the humbuckers to make them sound a little better. Apparently whoever assembled the pickups for this guitar over screwed one of the pole pieces, to the point that it was only held in place by a healthy dollop of what I assume was lubricant. I had to remove the humbucker entirely, and push the pole back into the threads before I could get it to unscrew. Overall I'd rate it a good 4/5. I love playing it, and have probably already spent a good 100 hours or more with it in my hands in a couple months. It was well worth the ~$240 USD that I paid, but if you really don't need it right now, I'd wait until they offer $30 shipping again, as $90 was steep. My complaints are ,aside from the pickup which I fixed, minor and entirely cosmetic, and in the case of of the paint in F holes also fixed. As a bonus review, D-120CE BK sounds okay. It's not as resonant as my Ibanez acoustic that I also have, but it's ~$100. At that price point, I'm concerned with the basics like "does it play" and "will it stay on tune reasonably" to which both answers are yes. The built in piezo pick up is functional, but doesn't impress. The fit and finish were okay. I'd have liked the bridge to have a bit more work done on it as the wood was a little rough, and the wood on the bridge was soft enough that a couple of the pins had pushed into the wood, which doesn't fill me with confidence. Also not happy with the placement of the tuner heads themselves, as the A string brushes up to the E tuner head when the E Tuner has a string on it (aka normal use). The nut is plastic, and is cut okay, but not great. The frets aren't polished, and a couple of them have a bit of fret sprout, but nothing that will hinder play. The fretboard is very open grain, which is different from any other guitar I've used. Not sure how I feel about that. The binding is minutely rough in a couple places, but overall is pretty clean. The logo on the headstock and rosary around the sound hole are iridescent, which looks lovely, except for a couple places where it's begun to chip slightly on the rosary. Impressive for ~$100, but otherwise meh.

Dude you NEED to check out the fusion series. I can only find two or three good videos.

Looks like my private stock prs that only exists in my head😭😭

A friend of mine has 2 Harley Bentons - an electro-acoustic that we purchased for him for his birthday and a Les Paul type.They both arrived in super quick time and are truly excellent guitars irrespective of price - just really good quality instruments. I have been after a Bass guitar for recording with for quite some time and my my wife purchased me a Harley Benton Lefty Rickenbacker type bass and I find it great. I don’t have any experience of bass guitars but this one seems fine to me. I think that you have to speak as you find with these guitars and some of them are really good and some are pretty poor. Great Channel by the way!!

7:20 I appreciate you showing us close ups of the nutts Darrell. Haha..... All honesty, this is a great review, thank you!

Good from afar, but far from good. Sounds pretty good though for the price. Would it be worth it to redo the binding in the f-hole?

I have got 90% of my gear from them. It has always arrived in a timely fashion. Some guitars have come in a week and I'm in Canada. The longest anything has taken to get to me is just a bit over a month. All the guitars that have arrived and have been in mint condition. I got the flat black less Paul and it is so fantastic.

I bought a HB CST-24T P90(b-stock) a month ago and it plays & sounds great. The finish work isn't great(not as bad as Darrell's guitar) but I can deal with it's several cosmetic flaws at this price. I really like the roasted jatoba fingerboard, it's very smooth.

I recently bought 2 Harley Bentons, a white explorer (Hetfield vibes) and a CST-24T in Ocean Flame. I took a chance on them as both were B-Stock items with cosmetic issues or 'slight traces of use' as the site put it. Both guitars arrived and to my surprise both were in really nice condition. The one major thing I could find on either was on the PRS clone and it was a spot of glue or some such that was caught under the finish on the top. Otherwise it's a damn pretty guitar and plays pretty nice too. But I think for the ~$500 I paid for both they were a great deal. Love the content Darrell! Keep it up!

I've got gibsons, fenders, epihones and harley bentons. The harley bentons all feel like epiphone in terms of quality but at half the price. Considering that I live in the Netherlands, shipping from thomann is free. and my god do I love my harley bentons.

Just proof you don't get $2k fit and finish for $250.

I've got this guitar. It has similar issues on the binding around the F holes, but it's most pronounced towards the inside and I can probably sand it smooth if it starts to bother me. It's flush with the outside, so yeah the binding is too narrow. It sounds fine to me. I didn't know what a PRS was when I bought it, so I can't make that comparison, but I'm pleased with the guitar.

Great unbiased video. I have looked at a model and almost purchased it, but I am left handed and options are limited as is. Every guitar I own has been a buy it to try it. Now with the review I know its not going to be what I want, and I may be better off just saving to get what I really want. I would like to see you review Eastwood classic series. More specifically the classic 6. Keep up the great content, and your great playing as well.

its b stock guitar..i actually bought one last year and it is perfect..the b stock guitars are 10-15% cheaper but like the one you just reviewed they have small imperfections..ive bought 2 harley bentons.the other being sc550 flame cherry..both perfect

It would be cool to see you review AIO Wolf guitars, they have PRS style guitars. Would love to see a review of them.

Brilliant guitars I’ve got a tele 52 ...it’s heavy but.. It looks great feels great and plays fantastic ..I love it 🎸

That sounds like a very fair review. Thank you! I just ordered one and it will be very interesting to compare to some lawsuit Ibanez Les Pauls.