Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Review: Vintage Modified Telecaster Thinline

  Here's a really sexy guitar. The Vintage Modified Telecaster Thinline. Check it out!





Features: Here's the basics:
- 2011 model made in China.
- 22 medium jumbo fret maple C shape neck with rosewood fretboard (24.75” radius)
- Semi acoustic alder body with 'F' hole
- Sexy Shoreline Gold polyurethane finish
- Thinline Telecaster body (obviously)
- Telecaster "ashtray" bridge with body through stringing
- Passive Duncan designed singlecoil pickups TE-101N (Neck), TE-101B (Bridge) with 3 way blade switch, master volume & master tone knobs
- Generic die-cast non locking tuners  // 8

Sound: It sounds like... A Telecaster, bridge is a little weak and brittle but it still has the distinct Tele twang, turning the tone knob down rounds it off a fair bit and reduces the brightness well. Neck is fairly standard, bit dull and muddy but does the job. The pickups are a down side to this guitar but I had this in mind when I bought it, they'll be replaced with some real Seymour Duncans in time.

As for tones, it'll handle most stuff from country to blues to rock, bit of shoegaze/indie stuff, even metal with the right amp settings, although don't expect brutal riffage... It's a Tele with single coils after all. // 7

Action, Fit & Finish: The fit & finish is what let this guitar down, originally it was set up with the action FAR too low and extremely buzzy & the intonation was out.
problem number two:

The bridge saddle hex nuts are loose as hell and vibrate unless you set each saddle at an odd angle, while it's not the end of the world it's a pain to find an allen key to adjust them when they start buzzing again.
And problem number 3:

The neck pickup's lower fixing screw had no thread on it, so when I went to adjust the height the pickup slipped down into the cavity below which was a mission and 3/4 to get back (My guess is they fix the pickguard onto the body before the neck in the factory as it's impossible to slide the pickguard into place with a pickup loaded at the neck).

Other than these things the finish was pretty good, paint job is excellent (mmm Shoreline Gold!... Sexy!)the neck is extremely playable with no jagged frets and the electronics are noise free. For the price I'm not too fussed about these minor easily fixable things. // 6

Reliability & Durability: It'll probably stand up to live playing but I'd never go on stage without a backup, Hardware probably won't last.

The finish should last but being poly it'll chip if it gets dinged, but then again that's what adds character to a guitar, right?. // 9

Impression:  I LOVE the colour, Shoreline Gold is so sexy! Pictures online don't do it justice! (Go check it out in the flesh) What I rally hate though, is just that buzzing, but eventually it'll be tamed.

For the price I didn't expect more, but eventually I'll swap out the pickups, electronics, tuners and bridge for better replacements, I viewed it as £282 for a sexy body and decent neck.
 I think it would suit a beginner nicely as is (With a good setup first) and anyone else if they're willing to put some effort into upgrades. // 8

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