TE-20HH SBK Standard Series : My first ever HB guitar. It is good(with a proper setup) as a first guitar, or really good as a mod-platform.

I would recommend it as a first guitar, but only IF*** whoever gets it takes it to a guitar tech before, as the setups on these are really hit or miss. Don't expect to get a 300 euro guitar for under 100 euros, cause you are not. It can become it, though :)

Problems mine had that needed fixing were:

- the plastic nut was awful, it snagged the strings quite a bit. swapped it to a Tusq nut as soon as I received the guitar.

- the frets were very scratchy and 2 frets were too high. - my tech polished them and fixed the height issue. At least there was no fret sprout out of the box, and none that developed in the last 2 years of owning it.

- the fretboard at the 22nd fret was damaged, like the neck was smashed into something before it was installed on the guitar. Luckily my tech was able to sand it a bit and make it smooth. No playability issue though.

- the fretboard itself needed a wash with soap and water, as it would leave black residue on your fingers after a bit of playing. I guess roasting any type of wood (Roseacer is thermally treated maple) would leave soot on it. Surprised they didn't clean it at the factory.

Other mods I did that really transformed the guitar, in my opinion:

- the pickups were fine, just too bright for my taste, so I swapped them with probuckers I had lying around. IT SOUNDS MASSIVE NOW.

- the pickup cut-out on the DLX TE bridge was not big enough to install other pickups, especially ones with an enclosure. my tech had to use a file and get a bit of material out before installing the new pickups. Which is fine, a high quality Babicz bridge costs as much as this guitar costs.

- the DLX Diecast tuners are fine, just too vague and not very accurate. you need to go up and down when tuning till you get it close enough. These will be swapped out at some point.

- the string trees were kind of cheap and snagged the strings, so I changed them to roller string trees instead. this and the tusq nut helped out immensely.

- the website says you get 10-46 strings, but mine showed up with 9-42. easy fix, I always swap string on a new guitar anyway.

I will continue to buy HB guitars, as I think they can be exceptional with a bit of TLC and some upgrades, for a fraction of the cost of other guitar brands.