TE-52 NA Vintage Series : Wow Wow Wow

After reading so many good reviews about HB guitars, I decided to take the plunge & buy this stunning looking Tele. I have been playing for 20 years, both professionally & for fun. I play electric & acoustic when I am at shows, but this is my first ever tele style guitar. I will try & be as levelheaded as possible when writing this, as I only have about 2 hours playing time on it so far.

Straight out the box, the set up was spot on for my preferences. No action required there. I notice a lot of people mentioning the weight, but as a seasoned Gibson Les Paul player, I can honestly say the weight is not an issue for me at all. It is pretty much the same weight, so I have no complaints on that front. Another thing I noticed people mention a lot was the tuners. To test this, I tuned it up & played for 10 - 20 minutes with LOADS of bends, hit the strings hard & to my amazement, still perfectly in tune. Unreal! The final thing I was slightly worried about was the amount of people saying the frets desperately needed a polish. Absolutely not the case (with mine anyway). There was no "scratching" at all. It is unbelievably smooth. I will even go as far to say this plays better than my GLP, albeit that has not had a service for a while. This thing holds sustain really well!

The only downsides from what I can tell (this is probably more personal) is the 3-way switch & when playing at lower volumes. I keep hitting the switch when playing & it seems to move very easily. I will learn to get around that. Also, when playing on the E higher than the 12th, it feels a little "weak" but again, I suspect this is a personal thing & may well change once I crank the volume up.

Overall, I am so impressed with the guitar. It sounds like a Tele should & feels like a Tele should. I tip my hat to Harley Benton.

I am not a brand snob at all. If it feels good / sounds good, I'll play it. I've already filled my basket with 3 other guitars & will look to buy these without hesitation as soon as funds allow me & I cannot wait to start a serious collection of these amazing guitars. Cracking job.