TE-52 NA Vintage Series : Wow ! What a nice guitar....

I have just taken delivery of this TE-52NA and can honestly say that I am absolutely delighted.

I ordered on Sunday and it arrived (UK) on Thursday - what Brexit issue?

Packed superbly, it arrived in perfect condition in all respects. All I had to do was give the neck and frets a quick clean, tune it, and we're off !

The Neck is perfectly set and flat, with the very slightest of relief. Action is good, can lower just a little, but will save that for later. Fret edges are smooth and well rounded, no sharp ends at all.

Fret tops are good and clean, and smooth enough not to worry - a few days hard playing will get them perfect.

It came set with 10's, which I may swap for 9's soon, just because.....

The volume, tone and pick up switch knobs are all firm and feel solid - all working perfectly.

The tuners seem to be working well, although the tuner heads seem a little on the small side .. they're fine really

Only CON - the pickguard is made of VERY soft plastic, and has marked already, just in taking off that absurdly sticky film protection - which I had to loosen a few screws to get all of it ! EDIT 16/4/21 - I have just been told there are TWO LAYERS OF PROTECTIVE FILM - Bingo ! taken 2nd one off and now scratch plate is PERFECT !!!

But all that aside, this is a guitar, and its for making music with ....

I've never owned an original F Tele, and never will, but why should I ??? These two single coil Roswell pick ups are so good - they have the absolute maximum of tone range between them, and I defy anyone to say that they are poor quality.

This guitar is quite heavy, but boy, it is good ! and fabulously good value ! It looks well above it's price point, and plays even better than that ! HB QC seems to be extremely good - thank you!

PS - this is my third HB, the others are an SC550 and an HB-35PLus - both absolutely excellent

I'm an HB fan !

Edit after 7 days:

I realised that the slotted saddles the come on this guitar were causing uneven string gaps after adjusting the action - strings stayed in the slots, not free to move sideways as the saddle tilted.

Easily solved by fitting a set of brass compensated saddles, which has corrected things perfectly - cheap, quick and simple. Just a slight shame that HB couldn't fit these in the first place.

Still a 5 star review however, as everything else still great