TE-90QM Trans Red : Flawless and amazing guitar

I have been playing guitar for about 40 years, and have a bunch of guitars of various quality and price, including an American 2006 Anniversary Telecaster, three Strats, two Gretsch's, etc. Love 'em all. But this one is simply amazing. Its appearance is what first caught my eye, but when I checked the reviews on YouTube, they were all talking about the excellent quality of HB guitars, in particular the neck and fretwork. Mine is no exception, the fretwork is outstanding. No fret sprout, perfectly finished edges, no buzz or flat spots. The tuners have been mentioned in many reviews as being a potential weakness, but mine feel very good. It arrived slightly out of tune, but tuned up no problem, and after a couple hours of wailing on it, it seems to hold tune very well. One thing I noticed...the spec calls for 9 – 42 strings, but these are at least 10's, possibly 11's. I checked them with a micrometer and got 10.5. I will be changing them to 9's for easier playability. I'm playing through a Vox AC15C1 and a Marshall DSL40 with a stereo flanger set very light, and the sound is huge and rich! The action is medium, I may bring it down a bit after I change the strings, we'll see. I love the sound of the P90 pups, it's different from my other guitars, which is one of the things I was after. Bright but not at all harsh.

The outer box was fairly beat up, and I was concerned about the guitar, but it was fine. The inner box and padding protected it well. It did take quite a long time to arrive from Germany to the west coast of the US, but that is to be expected, and I believe most of the delay was US Customs.

All in all, it's a beautiful instrument, and I think it would hold up well in comparison to guitars at three times the price.