I won't replace this guitar, it has a unique design with a sound that is quite different from the single-coil teles. I compared this guitar to Fender's Deluxe tele and the Thinline tele model. I liked the Deluxe control layout, frets, and pickups but I didn't like the strat-style neck. I liked the Thinline's neck and semi-hollow body but I didn't like the small frets. If it were stolen I would replace it. The guitar's best feature is it's unique sound. There is nothing I don't like about this guitar. The soft case is inadequate for it's protection, though. I got a hard-shell case for it.

Sound
The neck pickup is nice and warm while the bridge pickup has plenty of raw bite. These wide-range humbuckers have a unique noise free presence. The bridge pickup responds well to agressive picking and it sounds great with an overdriven amp or combined with a distortion pedal. The bridge and middle positions are warmer and sound great with color pedals like chorus and phaser. For a great tone, I lowered both pickups and got some nice clean tones, the bridge pickup clean has a bit of a raw trebly tone that can be tamed with the tone knob. I play this guitar through a crybaby wah, chorus, overdrive, distortion and digital delay into a Marshall tube amp and a JMF tube amp. The sound is very sweet even sans effects.

Features
The wood is beautifully figured ash with a solid maple neck, the strat-style hard-tail brige is stable, the… read more nut is faux bone and solid but strings (the g and b in my case) hang up in the narrow slots. I used lemon oil to stop the problem. I think the slots would need filing in order to accept .010 gauge strings. It comes with .009s. I think the nut will wear in after it gets more use. The selector switch feels solid and the tuners are tight and feel like quality parts. Coil-splitters would have been a nice feature.

Ease of Use
I love the feel of the glossy neck and the guitar is very light and comfortable to play. There are no set screws that bite into your hand at the bridge. It is easy to get some great tones out of this guitar. Do a set-up, set the pickup height and get yourself a tube amp to get the most out of it. Simply dialing down the tone and volume knobs produce some great usable sounds. Some have suggested replacing the pots with 500K value pots, because the neck pickup sounds muddy with the tone knob turned down to around 6 and lower. I think the stock pots are fine, though. I don't turn the tone down below 7 for the neck pickup. The bridge pickup has plenty of bite to cut through a mix and has good tonal range.

Quality
My instrument arrived with some finish checking on the back of the headstock and a loose selector switch. When I set up the instrument, I found that two saddles were very difficult to adjust due to some faulty saddles. The action was too high and the saddles were set up way too high. A set-up took care of those problems. The switch tightened up easily and I got some replacement saddles from Fender. Other than the finish checking, the fit and finish of this instrument is outstanding. The tuners hold tune well. The neck join to the body is tight with no gap at all and the four bolt neck feels solid. The frets are smooth and even and feel like they are hand-rolled. The pickups are snug, adjust easily and are aligned perfectly to the strings. It feels like it could handle touring, but I think it might need to be treated a little more delicately since it's a semi-hollow body.

Value
I believe this product is worth it's selling price. It is a made in Mexico product that plays and feels like a made in America product.

Manufacturer Support
Fender mailed me three replacement string saddles (I asked for only two) within two weeks after I called their customer service. They were pleasant and helpful. It was the first time I had ever used customer service for an instrument. I installed the new saddles and adjusted them myself, it wasn't necessary to bring it to a luthier.

The Wow Factor
I am happy I purchased this guitar, it looks great and has a wide tonal range. After some minor adjustments, the pickups produce a very pleasing tone. I was offered a replacement by the supplier due to the checking on the headstock, but the figuring was so nice (it's the three-tone sunburst model) that I kept it! The tele neck and body style is one of the most recognizable and appealing shapes. The combination of the thinline and deluxe tele models give me bigger frets and humbuckers on a thinline which is what I wanted.

Musical Background:
Hobbyist with band experience

Musical Style:
Classic rock and alternative read less