TE-52 NA Vintage Series : On balance.... think

Curiosity and the Tele-shaped hole in my guitar pile forced my hand with this purchase.

I have no problems with playing a bargain bucket guitar in a live situation or just for fun... IF it can cut it and this review is as every other review I write, simply honest.

First, let's get the cost defence that seems to be at the heart of those reviewers who dribble about how great these are for the price.

Yes, it is a low value item but;

Out of the box,

the frets need crowning,

the strings are unusable,

the pickups are garbage,

it was wired incorrectly,

the ferrules (string through at the back) are not aligned,

the tuners are woeful.

In the first few days I've crowned the frets, rewired as the factory had effectively wired both pickups out of phase for every switch position, replaced the awful plastic nut and shimmed the neck pocket.

It now plays much better but... and here's where you need to think carefully about this... you will want to upgrade almost every part.

If you're after a platform for messing about, it's OK, but you will need to mess about a lot before it even becomes passable.

If you want something playable out-of-the-box, look elsewhere.

You pay little, get a lot... but it really is, overall, pretty poor quality.