Most Liked Positive Review

Beautiful amber Telecaster!

Cons: When I unboxed the Tele and did my initial inspection, the fit and finish was almost perfect. Only one area on the back where the finish sucked into the grain, leaving a dimpled, coarse area. The switches and knobs are absolutely terrible. They seem to work cleanly without noise, but they feel like they are falling apart. The action seemed a little on the high side, and the neck appeared to have a bend in it. Playing the guitar, it had a very jangly sound, even with those SD humbuckers. Also, I could tune it standard, and intonation was close, but don't press any frets! ICK! It would be so far out of tune! Barre chords sounded terrible. Pros: After playing the guitar for about 30 minutes, trying different amps and effects, I put it on the bench and checked the neck with a straight edge. It had at least 0.018 inches of gap on the fretboard from the 5th - 8th frets. I gave the truss rod a few tweaks and it was perfect. With the neck straight, the frets were perfectly leveled. The radius of the string heights at the bridge saddles was perfect, and the action was very nice. It shipped with 9 - 42 strings, so I put a new set of Ernie Ball Super Slinky's on it, tuned and set the intonation. Conclusion: The neck and frets were nicer than I expected for this price range with nicely finished fret ends and smooth edges. They would only need to be polished a little better to match a guitar of many times that price. The guitar is MUCH lighter than my other Tele, and it is very comfortable to play. The look and fit of the set neck is perfect, and access to the upper frets is fantastic. The sound is MUCH nicer with the new strings, and it plays and sounds great after a proper setup. I believe the nut is graphite, and the tuners are nice and smooth, so tuning was a pleasure.. no popping. I will definitely look into upgrading the electronics in the future, as well as taking the time to polish the frets during a future string change.