TE-80 NT Deluxe Series : Amazing for the price, at least decent at any price

I'd been chasing a Mad Cat type guitar for a short while and decided to give one of these a try before buying the real thing. Based on the price and reviews I didnt see how I could lose.

Feels like a well made guitar. Sounds like a well made guitar. Everyone that's played it doesnt believe how little I paid for it.

My tech looked at it and suggested replacing the bridge and the nut. The pickups, tuners, and neck if I wanted to get fancy. Even if I did all of that, I'd have only a few hundred invested in it and it would play like a MIA or better.

Critiques: The original pickups sound almost identical to the BL USA's in the Mad Cat, but they are more feedback prone

Some of the saddles had manufacturing defects and wouldnt sit flat. VERY minimal, no one else noticed it but my tech,

Neck and fredboard arrived VERY dry, took multiple days of oiling.

I played it live and it was amazing. I will continue to do so.

That said, I now have an actual MadCat as well, and you can see and feel the quality difference by a wide margin. But hear it? Not so much.

This guitar has made me a Harley Benton fan. Going to try the 335 copy next.