TE-52 NA Vintage Series : Excellent Tele, bargain at the price.

I was hoping for a cheap Tele which I could perhaps customise a little, maybe changing the neck pickup for a humbucker for a better jazz tone, that sort of thing. So I wasn't expecting too much by way of quality. Sure it looks the part but who knows.

But I'm blown away by the quality. It's every inch the Telecaster and the two Wilkinson pickups provide the full range of sounds from bridgy twang to a fairly smooth neck sound. The controls are good quality and smooth and the three-way gives a good clean selection.

It has a very comfortable neck for playing and the action is low but there's no buzzing. The set-up, the intonation, the action, all done really well. The frets are set really well with no rough edges and it feels good to play. The natural sustain is excellent and the strings are reasonably decent. It's exactly as heavy as an original and feels well-balanced, so it's comfortable to play. Oh, and it looks good too. It had come all the way from Germany to Spain but when I took it out... it was perfectly in tune! So the tuners work fine.

I've only played it for around five or six hours but if there's a downside to this guitar, I haven't found it yet. I don't know of any other tele that comes close to this even at a much higher price. Recommended.