Post by advb on Jun 27, 2020 17:29:47 GMT
I got my TE-20MN from Thomann earlier in the week. I know its been said before but how do they do it for £79?
The fit and finish is good. The paintwork is perfect. I can't find a single blemish on it. The blue metallic finish is fairly pale but its growing on me. The scratchplate shown in the images on the Thomann site is 1 ply but, if mine is anything to go by, they are now fitting a 3 ply scratchplate.
The maple neck and fretboard are both matt finished and feel nice to the touch. The fretboard has some interesting figuring on it in the middle: knots or burs in the wood have have given it a different tint and shine, almost like a watermark.
The feel of the neck is as I hoped - not as thick as my HB-35 or Epiphone SG and not as thin as my Squier Showmaster. It fills my hand nicely.
The fret ends are smooth, then nut slots have been cut reasonably and the intonation is fine. They even rounded off each end of the nut, which is a nice touch. I've noticed a tiny bit of pinging from the nut slots so, although the tuning has been stable so far, I might have to widen some of the slots a little to eliminate any potential string binding.
The fretwork generally looks OK, although the frets could do with a polish, and I've not spotted any rogue high frets yet. As ever, the action from the factory was a bit high but playable. I took the action down to about 1.5mm (at the 12th fret) and had to increase the neck relief slightly to remove a bit of buzz on the lower frets on the A and D strings. It looks like it has 10-46 strings on it (not the advertised 9-42). The guitar is very resonant, helped in part no doubt by the slightly thicker strings.
The electrics all work fine and the pickups sound ok. The selector switch is a bit clunky and a little stiff but it works. Likewise the tuners do their job despite feeling a bit cheap.
The only minor cosmetic fault I can find is with the chrome control plate: there are slight diagonal ripples in the chroming so its not got a completely flat mirror finish. I will probably raise this with Thomann but its certainly not a deal breaker.
Overall, its a very nice, well built guitar which I am going to enjoy playing.
The fit and finish is good. The paintwork is perfect. I can't find a single blemish on it. The blue metallic finish is fairly pale but its growing on me. The scratchplate shown in the images on the Thomann site is 1 ply but, if mine is anything to go by, they are now fitting a 3 ply scratchplate.
The maple neck and fretboard are both matt finished and feel nice to the touch. The fretboard has some interesting figuring on it in the middle: knots or burs in the wood have have given it a different tint and shine, almost like a watermark.
The feel of the neck is as I hoped - not as thick as my HB-35 or Epiphone SG and not as thin as my Squier Showmaster. It fills my hand nicely.
The fret ends are smooth, then nut slots have been cut reasonably and the intonation is fine. They even rounded off each end of the nut, which is a nice touch. I've noticed a tiny bit of pinging from the nut slots so, although the tuning has been stable so far, I might have to widen some of the slots a little to eliminate any potential string binding.
The fretwork generally looks OK, although the frets could do with a polish, and I've not spotted any rogue high frets yet. As ever, the action from the factory was a bit high but playable. I took the action down to about 1.5mm (at the 12th fret) and had to increase the neck relief slightly to remove a bit of buzz on the lower frets on the A and D strings. It looks like it has 10-46 strings on it (not the advertised 9-42). The guitar is very resonant, helped in part no doubt by the slightly thicker strings.
The electrics all work fine and the pickups sound ok. The selector switch is a bit clunky and a little stiff but it works. Likewise the tuners do their job despite feeling a bit cheap.
The only minor cosmetic fault I can find is with the chrome control plate: there are slight diagonal ripples in the chroming so its not got a completely flat mirror finish. I will probably raise this with Thomann but its certainly not a deal breaker.
Overall, its a very nice, well built guitar which I am going to enjoy playing.