TE-20 SB Standard Series : Could do better

On first opening, the body finish is excellent. I bought this guitar as a project to upgrade it and get to know the workings of an electric guitar. I picked the sunburst model to emulate the Fender Tele that I owned back in the 80's.. On closer inspection I found a chip out of the end of the head and the bridge pup had some coil windings exposed from the casing, however this did not affect the sound. The frets were not finished with sharp endings and the frets were rough when bending the strings. Strings 1 and 2 had a terrible buzz. The tone switch was useless as well. Basically, the guitar was unplayable on receipt, which is not good, even at this price.

After fixing these issues and replacing the nut ( soft plastic) with bone, the guitar sounds fine with a good setup of action and intonation. The poplar body, though not well rated for tone, sounds fine for the average player. It is a nice looking guitar but was not properly inspected or setup initially.

My recommendation: buy the model a few steps above the standard series to obviate the necessity of extra repairs. I presume they will be better setup and inspected.