Review of the Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry Electric guitar. Where to buy it?

I’ll tell you how this post is built. First I list the features of the Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry guitar. Then you have a video or two, purchase links and useful comments from other users and then you have one of the most useful parts; comparison tables with similar items so you can compare.

  • Custom Line series
  • Body: Mahogany
  • Set-in neck: Mahogany
  • Fretboard: Jatoba
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Binding on the neck and on the headstock
  • Headstock inlay: Split rhombus pearloid
  • 24 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Double action truss rod
  • Pickup: 2 Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 Vintage-Style humbuckers
  • 1 Volume control and 1 tone control
  • 3-Way pickup selector switch
  • Graphite IV nut
  • Chrome-plated DLX hardware
  • DLX Tune-O-Matic bridge
  • Grover machine heads
  • Colour: Cherry high-gloss

review harley-benton-dc-custom-cherry

This guitar usually has a price around 195.00 €

Now that we’ve seen the features of this guitar Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry watch these related videos to learn more.

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry - Guitar Demo/Review

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Some comments from people who come to the forum about this model:

Comment:

There isn’t anything about this guitar that I don’t like. It just feels right from the moment you pick it up to the feeling you get playing it, and the reverence you give it putting it away in the case. I know that sound flowery, but every word of it is true.
You hear people get critical of it because of the neck dive. This is a pet peeve of mine when Gibson made incredibly heavy guitar bodies, no neck dive there, and then they tried to lighten them up by making the body thinner, only to be met with jeers saying they were cheapening up the guitars.
So along comes a solid mahogany body that is so light you could play with it all night and experience zero fatigue, and on top of that they give you a neck with 24 frets, yes, two whole scales so you can hit that high E in your solos. So, what does that give you, but a long neck that is thin enough for playing ease, and a body you can gig with easily; it’s perfect.
Then the pickups are the LAF’s which are fashioned after the Gibson PAF series which have incredible warm tones for clean settings, and yet give you enough of a bite for distortion. If you want to go heavier metal then an HAF pickup guitar is the one for you. My CST-24T is a dream with the HAF’s which by the very nature of high gain pickups they are going to be darker for the clean tones, but really make a pedal explode. Then in the wisdom of Harley Benton guitars they give you the coil split, which cleans them up wonderfully. Okay back to the DC Custom cherry.
I noticed by opening the back-access cover that there are two of the four conductor wires joined together so they are ready to be split coils. (At least the one I received in late 2020 had them) So if you want to add a mini switch, or a push pull pot you can easily have that option as well. The LAF; s sound perfect to me. That last thing I would do is consider a pickup swap.
One thing that really deserves special mention is the way this guitar stays so well in tune. It is not uncommon to open the case and find the guitar is still in tune.
Here is an observation I made in the way HB cuts the nut. They still have the thick nut but only create a trough on just the beginning of the nut. The trailing edge of the nut overall slopes downwards strongly, and what that does is create a situation in that the trailing edge of the nut never touches the string. It’s an ingenious way of eliminating the nut bind typical of Gibson guitars due to the sharp edge of the nut as the string leaves the back side that binds when doing string bends. The same system is on my 450SC GT P90 and it stays incredibly well in tune. (Yes, even the G string) Why didn’t Gibson think of these things?
I guess this is getting lengthy so I should wrap it up. A couple things worth mentioning is the beauty of the solid mahogany body and neck; the grain is incredible. The thin fast neck that makes playing with ease a constant. The little tapers on the edges of the body adding all the more to the comfort, and the number one thing is the action. It sits closes to the frets without any buzz. The tuners that are on their work fine, no need to swap them out either. I find a lot of people think because of the low price that they are going to need to do a lot of upgrades; it just isn’t so. Don’t go buying any gear to do upgrades. Play the guitar first, you will be shocked at the level of quality for this kind of money it’s nuts. I’m on my 8th HB guitar now with my new order. What Harley Benton has done is give the vast majority of us a model and style of guitar that we wouldn’t normally be able to afford. So, I went nuts rounding out my collection with styles that I gave up dreaming of, and now have. It’s like a kid in a candy shop. I’ll take one of those, and one of those, and ah yes, two of those. Highly recommended. Love Harley Benton guitars.

Comment:

Pretty much everything about this guitar is heavy. From the not so good to the great:
– It’s neck-heavy. Unless you play sitting down (and who would do that with an SG-type axe), you’ll have to hold the neck up and push the body down, or else the headstock will dive.
– The whole thing is heavy like hell. It is massive mahogany all right: it weighs as much as my 59’s spec’d Les Paul with no weight relief. Okay, the sustain is awesome, but man this guitar requires back muscle!
– The tone is brutally heavy. It punches right through my valves m/. Amazing pick-ups, Roswell, well done! Crisp, articulate, bombastic, in your face… Competing big brands sell their comparable humbuckers for more than this whole guitar. Quite unbelievable.

What I modded:

– Since the pick-ups are 4-wire, I added a coil tap by replacing the tone pot with a push-pull pot (and the split humbuckers have a pristine chimey single coil sound too);

– I added a treble bleed capacitor to the volume pot to ensure that the tone remains bright even when I roll back to volume;

– as with all Harley Benton tune-o-matics, I replaced the stock bridge with a sturdy, reliable and high precision Gotoh T103B-N;

– and for good measure I levelled, dressed and polished the frets, filed away the two or three sharp ends I spottes, rubbed the fretboard with lemon oil, gave it a fresh action-trussrod-intonation setup, and…

OFF IT ROCKS! If only it were 1kg lighter…

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry vs Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame

The guitar Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherryis usually 16 € cheaper than Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame, but the difference is so small that this can vary..

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry

Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame

  • Custom Line series
  • Body: Mahogany
  • Set-in neck: Mahogany
  • Fretboard: Jatoba
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Binding on the neck and on the headstock
  • Headstock inlay: Split rhombus pearloid
  • 24 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Double action truss rod
  • Pickup: 2 Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 Vintage-Style humbuckers
  • 1 Volume control and 1 tone control
  • 3-Way pickup selector switch
  • Graphite IV nut
  • Chrome-plated DLX hardware
  • DLX Tune-O-Matic bridge
  • Grover machine heads
  • Colour: Cherry high-gloss

  • Deluxe Series
  • Mahogany body
  • Flamed maple arched top
  • Set-in mahogany neck
  • Roasted jatoba fretboard
  • “C” Neck profile
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • 24 Frets
  • Pearloid dots fretboard inlays
  • Neck and body binding
  • Scale: 635 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Graphite nut
  • 2 Roswell HAF AlNiCo-5 open coil humbucker pickups
  • 3-Way switch
  • 1 Volume- and 1 tone control with push/pull function for coil split
  • DLX chrome hardware
  • Wilkinson WVPC tremolo
  • DLX machine heads
  • Colour: Black Flame

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My-sIpvnx2I

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Harley Benton CST-24T Black Flame review

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry vs Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley

The guitar Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry is usually 40 € more expensive than Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley, but the difference is so small that this can vary..

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry

Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley

  • Custom Line series
  • Body: Mahogany
  • Set-in neck: Mahogany
  • Fretboard: Jatoba
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Binding on the neck and on the headstock
  • Headstock inlay: Split rhombus pearloid
  • 24 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Double action truss rod
  • Pickup: 2 Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 Vintage-Style humbuckers
  • 1 Volume control and 1 tone control
  • 3-Way pickup selector switch
  • Graphite IV nut
  • Chrome-plated DLX hardware
  • DLX Tune-O-Matic bridge
  • Grover machine heads
  • Colour: Cherry high-gloss

  • Deluxe Series
  • Body: Basswood
  • Bolt-on neck: Maple
  • Fretboard: Amaranth
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Fretboard inlays: Dots
  • 21 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 648 mm
  • Nut width: 43 mm
  • Pickup: 2 Roswell STA Alnico-5 vintage ST-Style single coils and 1 Roswell HAF Alnico-5 humbucker
  • 2 Tone controls and 1 volume control with volume push/pull function coil split
  • 5-Way toggle switch
  • Hardware: Chrome
  • Wilkinson tremolo
  • Stringing: D’Addario EXL110 .010 – .046 (article no. 104555)
  • Colour: Black Paisley

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley

Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley Unboxing & Review

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Harley Benton ST-70 Black Paisley review

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry vs Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute

The guitar Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry is usually 36 € more expensive than Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute, but the difference is so small that this can vary..

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry

Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute

  • Custom Line series
  • Body: Mahogany
  • Set-in neck: Mahogany
  • Fretboard: Jatoba
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Binding on the neck and on the headstock
  • Headstock inlay: Split rhombus pearloid
  • 24 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Double action truss rod
  • Pickup: 2 Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 Vintage-Style humbuckers
  • 1 Volume control and 1 tone control
  • 3-Way pickup selector switch
  • Graphite IV nut
  • Chrome-plated DLX hardware
  • DLX Tune-O-Matic bridge
  • Grover machine heads
  • Colour: Cherry high-gloss

  • Body: Alder
  • Bolt-on neck: Canadian maple with stained nyatoh skunk stripe
  • Fretboard: Maple
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Scale: 648 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm (TUSQ XL)
  • 21 Frets
  • Pickups: 3 Roswell SK52 True Vintage Staggered Alnico 5 single coils
  • 1 Volume control and 2 tone controls
  • 5-Way toggle switch
  • Single-ply pickguard
  • Synchronised tremolo system
  • Kluson style machine heads
  • Chrome-plated hardware
  • Ex-factory stringing: D’Addario .010 – .046 (article no. 104555)
  • Colour: Black high gloss

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Harley Benton ST-57DG Black Tribute review

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry vs Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Ocean Flame

The guitar Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherryis usually 16 € cheaper than Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Ocean Flame, but the difference is so small that this can vary..

Below have a look to the video of this guitar

Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry

Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Ocean Flame

  • Custom Line series
  • Body: Mahogany
  • Set-in neck: Mahogany
  • Fretboard: Jatoba
  • Neck profile: C
  • Fretboard radius: 350 mm
  • Binding on the neck and on the headstock
  • Headstock inlay: Split rhombus pearloid
  • 24 Medium jumbo frets
  • Scale: 628 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Double action truss rod
  • Pickup: 2 Roswell LAF AlNiCo-5 Vintage-Style humbuckers
  • 1 Volume control and 1 tone control
  • 3-Way pickup selector switch
  • Graphite IV nut
  • Chrome-plated DLX hardware
  • DLX Tune-O-Matic bridge
  • Grover machine heads
  • Colour: Cherry high-gloss

  • Deluxe Series
  • Body: Mahogany
  • Top: Flamed maple
  • Neck: Mahogany
  • Neck attachment: Set-in
  • Fretboard: Roasted jatoba
  • Fretboard inlays: Dots
  • Neck profile: C
  • Radius: 350 mm
  • 24 Frets
  • Scale: 635 mm
  • Nut width: 42 mm
  • Pickups: 2 Roswell P90 Soapbar single coils
  • Controls: Volume & Tone
  • 3-Way switch
  • Hardware: Chrome
  • Nut: Graphite
  • Tremolo: Wilkinson WVPC
  • Machine heads: DLX diecast
  • Colour: Ocean Flame High-gloss

Below have a look to the video of this guitar Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Ocean Flame

Harley Benton CST 24 P90 Ocean Flame Demo and Review

If you want to know more about this option, click on the following link to see the Harley Benton CST-24T P90 Ocean Flame review

Where to buy the guitar Harley Benton DC-Custom Cherry

Thomann

  • Free Shipping.
  • Full warranty. If you have any problems, they take care of everything.
  • 100% reliable payment.
  • Leader in trouble-free shipping.
  • Usually Best price.
  • Best Reputation: They are the leading online store in Europe and have the best catalogue and information.

Amazon

  • Free Shipping and possibility of shipping in one day with Amazon Premium.
  • Full Guarantee but they are no experts in music equipment.
  • Sometimes better price.
  • He’s got worse stock than Thomann.

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Jaime Echagüe

Hi! I'm Jaime Echagüe, a musician and an authentic fan of musical instruments. With this blog I want to give general information about musical instruments in an easy, direct and honest way. I hope you enjoy my website and that you find it very useful.

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