TE-30 BE Standard Series : An Excellent Take On A Classic

I wanted a couple of tele's I could use for a halloween gig, nothing silly priced as they would properly end up trashed so I ordered the TE-30 and The TE 52 (also reviewed). 3 working days later they arrived.

On opening the box my first impressions were wow the TE-30 is beautiful, The body is made of 2 nicely figured pieces of ash that are center joined and stained a mid 50's vintage white which is flawless . This was areal surprise as I expected a multi piece body with possibly a veneer on the front.

The neck is nice piece of maple with a nice c section to it and nice a satin finish that feels nearly as good as my fender relic tele. The frets were a t little uneven so as it was going for a setup I decided to convert it to a esquire style tele.

The bridge plate felt a little cheap but the dimensions meant that I could swap it for a bridge I already had.(I change most of the hardware on my guitars). The tuners were quite good so I kept them(may change them further down the journey). The control plate also was quite responsive but I always upgrade the pots and wiring.

The pickups surprised me the they are both ceramic pickups and I have to say they do a good job of getting the classic Tele sound, the neck pickup is clear and articulate but not thin. I managed to make it sound even more mellow by rolling the tone off a little. The real joy is the bridge pickup, this little ceramic beauty so almost identical to the lap steel pickups that were used in early esquires and teles up to 1952 .

The guitar is now back from its setup and it's fantastic. The neck pick has been removed and a new pickguard mounted the wiring has also been changed over to the esquire wiring. This guitar rocks with the best of my collection.

Overall a fantastic guitar for the money and even better if you send a little money upgrading a couple of areas (though other than a fret level it doesn't need any real work).