i received my thinline as a gift from my girlfriend (now wife) who didn't know anything about guitars, but liked the looks of this one. i initially loved the way it plays (it's really light, so you can hold it for hours), and i loved the neck. but hated the stock pickups, especially in the neck. The bridge was ok at low volumes. but overall it was *way* too trebly and muddy to be useful for much more than a novelty.

rather than let it gather dust, i put some work into it -- had a pair of duncan alnico II's put in, got a nice setup, swapped out the 500k pots for 250ks, and WOW! now this thing is a great tele, definitely my favorite electric. still trebly, but you can roll back the tone a bit and it sounds killer. the bridge is full of twang, and the neck is clean and full, the way a tele should be. very versatile, and great for alt rock (no wonder the guys in coldplay and radiohead play thinlines)...

i wish i would have had the tech throw in a 4-way switch so i could get the humbucker-like setting that the new tele's have. i didn't think of it at the time...maybe someday. i suspect that setting might be really juicy on this axe...

So here's the thing -- if you are willing to put something extra into this guitar, you can still get a sa-weet looking, sounding and playing axe for not much more than a grand. that's a bargain, and well worth the effort.

This is a good guitar at it's core, but don't even think about buying it unless you are willing to perform modifications:

1- The stock pick ups are TERRIBLE. I couldn't believe how harsh and noisy they were. Replace with either Vintage Telecaster Noiseless Pick-Ups or Seymore Duncans.

2- Wiring and grounding was not as good as it should have been and this contributes to a lot of hum and noise in the guitar. This guitar needs to be re-wired properly.

Once these two modifications are performed, you will have a great sounding guitar. It sounds quite different than a normal tele, and it has a really "open" sound because of the F-Hole.

I've had my thinline for three years and the thing sounds better all the time! I play blues, country, funk....everything with this 1 guitar. Im going to get a les paul next but until then this guitar has more than satisfied me!

I own 2 Telecasters, and one of them is my 69' Thinline, from where I found my sound! It sounds so much cleaner and more sustained than my other one because of its semi-hollowbody;and that's the same reason why it's so much lighter than my other tele! I also have a Fender Stratocaster and a Squier Strat, but I think from now on, I probably won't need to buy another guitar after this!!!

I've owned my Tele (mahogany body, 'crafted in Japan")for 10 years now. Althouth it wasn't necessary, I've changed all of the hardware to gold. This includes tunners, pickup cover, all screws, knobs, neckplate, everything! I had my name engraved on the neckkplate - a nice personal touch. I also added an individual 6 saddle bridge which allows for more precise action & intonation adjustments. The guitar looks absolutely beautiful like this. I did have to install a better selector switch as the original wasn't of good quality. I haven't changed the pots or pickups as they work fine for my playing. Recently, I had a professional set up done to get everything just right. Now my Tele plays as good as it looks! You don't have to make all of these changes though, and for the money, these are versatile and well built guitars.