Austin AUS62 ERA PRO

The finish is quilt top altough it looks faux, you can't really see 'cause of the creme binding, the color is amber.The body is a custom Tele-style with a slight curve in the upper back side that makes it less bulky.
Bridge and machine heads are Wilkinson's and the neck has 21 Medium jumbo frets with dot inlays.

Pup's are Alnico, at least for the bridge one, the humbucker is unknown as for now.
Body is alder with a veneer top or faux fini.

I play mostly blues and country and it's definetly what it's made for,
I use a Roland cube 30 at the office (I work nights and alone)and the sound is awsome for a "cheap guitar" I also like the pull/tone to split the humbucker it gives an even cleaner sound but the bridge pick up is way to weak I'll probably change it for a Texas Special.

Factory set-up is inexistant, I had to work on the neck and pup's to get a fair sound . Asidethe ajustements the neck is impeccable, made out of maple with rosewood fingerboard the action is flawless and fast, I've been playing on U.S. Tele's for 30 years now and I still own 8 of'em
and believe me the smooth touch is almost the same.
Tuning pegs look good but won't last forever.

I haven't played live in 12 years so I couldn't tell you if I would trust it on stage without a back-up, probably not, let's not forget Austin Instruments calls they're guitars "beginners guitars and intermediate. But at home I not ashamed to take it out and jam with the buddys leaving my Telecasters on the rack.

Never called them 'dont speak Korean.

As I mentionned before I have 8 Teles U.S., Japan and Mexican made,
a Peavey Wolgang US, a Ampeg AMG 1 and a G&L Asat Classic US as well,
but to play without an after thought I like this Austin Era 62 I can beat it and I can still buy another at the corner music store for about 200$.

Finally if it was stolen or lost I would try to find an other one to ease my lonely nights at the office.

2004 Korean-made beauty with 22 frets and a gorgeous (faux or really-thin) flamed maple top. Not sure about the body wood--may be alder. Tone and volume a'la the telecaster, but with the three-way selector switch in the middle. Push-pull coil-splitter for the neck humbucker--brand unknown--but it's advertised as "alnico," as is the "tele-style" bridge pickup, which has a brass plate. Tele-style body sans the pickguard; cream front-body binding and matching cream neck humbucker pickup ring which looks cool. Bridge plate is the newer staggered three-brass-barrel style for improved intonation. Tuners look like old Klusons but are three-to-a-side. Rosewood board on a satin maple neck with a little bird's-eye figuring.

I had not owned a solid-body electric guitar for nearly seven years when I got this one a couple of months back. I grew up playing a '76 strat, a 1982 Fender '52 reissue, as well as various other Jap strats and teles over the years. I also went through a jazz period wherein I played a an old Ibanez AM-50, a Gibson 135, a Heritage 575, Golden Eagle, and Eagle classic. My last solid-body was a foto-flame tele I added a bucker to seven years ago, and then sold to help pay for my wife's school--I sure hated to see that one go. But good guitars come and go over the years, don't they? After studying classical seriously over the past seven years, I heard Pat Metheny for the first time this summer--and whoa! That combined with listening to some old Ed Bickert again signaled it was time to go out and look for an inexpensive rig wherein I could comp some changes and solo over some flatted fifths and minor ninths again. Enter this guitar. It caught my eye back in March, hanging in the local music store downtown. Over the year, the sales guy and I got to know each other and attended a few classical concerts together. This one hung there in the store all year, until I bought a Metheny CD, and I knew why this one waited for me. Got a great deal on this plus a Roland Cube-30 and was out the door one happy "comper." I decided not to be a brand snob here (I couldn't afford to be at this stage in my life), so I was willing to accept whatever this guitar could give me. What a surprise! It does exactly what I want in terms of jazz. After years of searching for that "sound in my head" with Fender Princeton Chorus amps, an Evans Eighty (big bucks!) and others, all I needed were these guys. It will do Pat Metheny, Ed Bickert, Wes Montgomery, Tal Farlow--easily.

Well-thought-out! Slim-to-medium satin neck, staggered-saddle bridge (although I switched to a six-saddle brass unit like I had on my '82 '52 tele); three-per-side tuners with head design that actually functions well to keep strings straight and doesn't look dorky; jumbo frets that didn't need any work (I just polished them with a little 0000 steel wool so they'll shine under the lights); good-sounding pickups that work well with the Roland. They'll crank out some serious rock with the cube 30's amp modelling section, but I mainly use it for jazz, as you've already surmised. I will break out a nasty blues solo every now and then, and it does this very respectably. Everything was set up well. Neck pocket is t i g h t. I cannot find a flaw on this thing at all, which was more than I can say for Gibsons and Fenders I've had in the past~! All the hardware works smoothly and seem to be of at least medium quality if not better. There IS a place on the flamed top that looks as if it was sanded a little too deeply--gives me the impression that perhaps the "flame" is actually a sanding pattern done after the top piece of wood is stained to give the "flamed" look. This doesn't concern me, however. I've (thankfully) lived through that period where I labored to never put a mark on a guitar and then lost sleep when it would get dings, or else I would look a guitar over with a microscope spotting flaws. Nowadays I just play, and life goes on a lot easier that way. Did SRV complain about having to oil his strat body where the finish had come off? Nope. My first guitar hero was Andy Summers, whose '61 tele had scuffs and dings all over it. I think he slept just fine.

I'd trust it anywhere. I don't play out much, but when I do, I don't think about a back up per se, and wouldn't worry about this one. If something happened, I'd just break out the classical and launch into a little Tarrega or Sor.

Haven't had to use them, but the dealer let me take it home for a week before I decided to purchase it for good! Gotta love your local dealer for doing that!

I've been playing for 22 years, and have owned nearly everything under the sun. At last count, I've had 34 guitars since I was twelve, and now own two--a wonderful Darren Hippner Hauser-style classical and the Austin. How's that for simple (and a contrast)? No regrets at all on this one. If something happened to it, I'd just march right back to STAR and have them order another one, and it would be here in a week. I love how well-thought-out it is. Everything works together visually, sonically, and otherwise. It's like a guitar that was meant to be, rather than some frankenstein amalgam of three guitars rolled into one trying to be something different. It just looks natural. I love that I can strap it on, plug in, and get the six or seven sounds that I need most with little effort and no hassle. Sure I could have shelled out a few hundred more and gotten a fat tele, but why would I when this one does the job? Could have gotten a MIM tele, routed the body and dropped another bucker in that one at the neck, but why go to all that trouble? My wife says it looks like a rocker, and I guess it does, what with the flame top and all, but to me it just makes music. I'm aware that people pay tens of thousands in some cases to get that AAAAA, 10+, this-one-goes-to-eleven top, but that doesn't make the guitar sound any better. Just take a look at Bickert's old beat-up 60s tele--THAT'S a relic for you--but what a beautiful sound. How about that 60s ES-175 Metheny played for years with a pickup pulled out, tone and volume holes, stain on the front and toothbrush stuck in the tailpiece? Just pick up a guitar, play a lot, find your sound, and make some music for us. Thanks for reading.