TE-52 NA Vintage Series : Just Awesome!

I've always liked 50's Telecasters, and after seeing the "In The Blues" review, wanted one of these. I like the thicker necks, and even though I love my Classic Vibe, the thinner neck is the only thing that disappoints me with that guitar. Shane and many reviewers here said that this one had a nice thick neck feel.

This one arrived faster than expected, and upon opening, it struck me as beautiful. The 3-piece body on mine is matched nicely. Man, is this thing heavy, though. 10-1/2 pounds on the scale. Make sure you have a nice wide and padded strap. The weight is all in the body, and it sits perfect while strapped.

First thing I did was feel the neck for thickness, and, unfortunately, this one doesn't feel as thick as I was expecting. It is a little thicker than my Classic Vibe, but not by much. It does have a very nice satin finish on it, that is very slick while playing, and the fret ends are not sharp (not yet anyway), although the bevel put on them is very shallow and further into the fretboard than I would like. Like other reviews have said, the frets themselves are rough, but I think that's just some of the finish from the neck. A few minutes with a fret eraser (or micromesh, or steel wool, etc.) takes care of that. I had to loosen the truss rod a bit to get a little relief in the neck for no fret buzz. the dual action truss rod worked well.

The hardware is not bad at all. The nickle-plated tuners are the vintage style, and work well. 2 were tight, but loosened after turning a few times. The bridge is decent, and I don't mind the 3-saddle. I had no problem with intonating the strings, and didn't have to touch the saddles to set the height yet. One nit-pick I have is that I wish the string ferrules had been recessed in to the back of the body, but they are straight and that is only a preference of mine.

All electronics work as they should, and although I haven't pulled the control plate yet, I know that the switch is one of the cheap pcb-type. It works well, but feels weak. The pickups are ok. The bridge pickup is the better of the 2, and is nice and bright. The tone pot takes care of any shrillness that some may experience. The neck pickup is kind of dark and muddy to me, but that's not my preferred sound. Both pickups are not microphonic, which is great. They take gain well and no squealing.

Just to summarize:

PROS:

Looks great

The neck feels great

No high/low frets and ends are not sharp (again, yet)

Everything works as it should with minimal setup (quality is good)

Price!!!

CONS:

Very heavy body

Neck pickup is dark and muddy

I'm very happy to have this one in my arsenal, and would recommend the TE-52 NA to anyone looking for a Telecaster-style guitar.