London City Comet Mk 1

Bought this guitar in 2009, Vintage Telecaster copy. Made in China. Bodywood could be alder. Maple neck with Sonokelin fingerboard. 21 medium frets. Wide and flat profile. 2 single coil pickups, volume, tone, 3 way switch. Modern closed-type tuners. Transparant butterscotch blonde finish. Small neck that playes fast and smooth!

The sound is amazing! it sounds really good! and the sustain of this guitar is very nice. The guitar sounds like a real Fender. I used to own a Fender Telecaster Highway 1 guitar, but the LC sounds a lot better. cleaner, more crispy, warm and full! i just cannot believe how good it sounds!

Factory setup was well done and needed no adjustment. The quality and the feel of the guitar is excellent. I have a couple of flaws in the transparant lacquer on the side of the neck.

The tuners have a low ratio so a little turn detunes them a lot. Maybe i'll replace them with higher ratio tuners like Schaller or Gotoh.

Didn't have any contact with them, no need to.

I play guitar for about 23 years now, I owned a Gibson firebird, Fender Telecaster Highway 1, Garrison G10. I now own a Taylor 310 L1 and a LC mk1 Comet! I'm 100% sure i will keep the LC and the taylor forever!

Bought this guitar in 2008, could be made in 2006 or 2007. Vintage Telecaster copy. Made in China. Bodywood could be alder. Maple neck with Sonokelin fingerboard. 21 medium frets. Wide and flat profile. 2 single coil pickups, volume, tone, 3 way switch. Modern closed-type tuners. Transparant butterscotch blonde finish. It came in a cardboard box, no tools or accessories.

I play mainly blues/rock although i sometimes try a little country fingerpicking. It's a tele and it sounds like a tele. You can't play everything on a tele but some things can only be played right on a tele. Like rythm guitar...
During the first days i played it acoustically because i didn't have an amp at hand. It has a lot of resonance and sustain all over the neck. I have a Marshall Studio 15 for overdrive sounds and a Fender Hotrod Deluxe for clean. The LC sounds fine on both amps. Very jazzy on the neck pickup, funky in the middle position and punchy and bright on the bridge pickup. You lose some highs when you roll down the volume.
I just did a rehearsal and a live gig with the LC. Both times it stood up well. It cut through the mix effortlessly without sounding like and icepick in your ear. And without unwanted feedback. At the gig i played it through a small Soldano combo with my trusty old Marshall Guvnor pedal. No problem getting a mean blues lead sound on the bridge pickup. Albert Collins forever!

The only thing that was wrong with this guitar was the finish. It had a few dings due to transport damage. Of course the Chinese people making this guitar can't be blamed for that. I negotiated a discount. I had to fasten the ring around the output jack. The bridge plate doesn't make 100% contact with the body. There's a tiny stripe of white in the cutaway of the body along the joint with the neck. The neck pocket fit is not 100% but say 95. Now i'm being very critical considering the price.
OTOH the fretwork is excellent. No frets sticking out at the sides of the neck. No major flaws whatsoever. Factory setup was well within the ballpark, i lowered the action a bit. It comes with D'Addario strings factory standard!

Just did a rehearsal and a gig with it. It stayed in tune and stood up to the punishment with ease. The tuners have a low ratio so a little turn detunes them a lot. Maybe i'll replace them with higher ratio tuners like Schaller or Gotoh. They don't have a lot of slack and they stay in tune pretty good. A backup guitar is always a good idea in case you break a string.

London City is a famous brand of vintage 1960's/70's Dutch made guitar amps. I had a mint green LC 100W tube top with a HUGE matching 4X12" cabinet in the early 1980's. Those were the days. A Dutch importer bought up the brand and sells Chinese made guitars and amps under the LC name. Didn't have any contact with them, no need to.

I have been playing since i was 18, i'm 46 now, do the math. I've had Samick and Richwood tele's recently and a Fender Mex a while back. The Samick, otherwise excellent, was very heavy and had a great big neck, too much for me. The Richwood i had ordered unseen suffered from faulty fretwork. The Fender Mex was well built but was a dead plank without resonance. The LC i like better than the other 3. The only thing i have to get used to, and don't really like, is the neck profile. I would have liked a rounder profile. The neck was finished high gloss which was too slippery for my taste. Easy to correct with a piece of sandpaper.
At the gig the old guitar wisdom proved to be true again. The amp is more important than the guitar. It's good news that 200 euro can get you so much guitar. Then you can spend more on a nice tube amp!

Six string guitar, originally it had the 'three times two' bridge, but i replaced it with a good six-saddles bridge.

This one has a good sound. The pick-ups are open and well defined in my opininion. Great telecaster ''knauw'' on the bridgepick-up and nice jazzy sound on the front and the combined pick-up. It's neatly build and has a good sustain.

I adjusted the action somewhat when i put up the other bridge. The neck is quite slim in my opinion, but i don't care much, would be nice though a bit thicker. No need for the sustain, very good!

It's getting a bit worn, but no problems with the neck or tuners.

Never had contact with them

Now and then i play through my marshall 9100 with two 2x12inch cabinets. I love the bridge pick-up with a vox distortionbooster or a Boss HM2 distortion pedal. It sounds tight and open with a lot of bite. Mine has a quite high action, and 012-strings. One little dead spot high on the neck, but no problem. Great guitar for the money.

The London City Comet is a Telecaster-type of guitar. Mine is butterschotch blonde, with just a little transparacy. The wood underneath is shining through just a little bit. The fretboard is made of Sonokelin, a type of wood that looks exactely like rosewood.
The guitar looks exactely like the original Fender Telecaser, only the neck is slightly different.
As far as I know London City seems to be a Dutch brand, the guitar itself however, is made in China.

The guitar has a warm clean sound and with overdrive/distortion is rocks like hell! It has exactely the same sound as the original Fender Telecaster. I've never a Tele-copy that sounds so good. The overall-sound is bright and clear.

No complaints at all. Low action, smooth frets and controls knobs.
According to the label, the guitar is equipped with D'Addario strings.

This guitar seems to be an exact copy of the original Fender Telecaser, only the neck is slightly different. Everythings seems to be as it should be, so I think it will last for years.

I bought this guitar only a few days ago, so I haven't got an opinion about this yet.

This seems to be the best Telecaster-copy ever made! A friend of mine owns a Fender-tele. As we compared the two guitars, we couldn't hear any difference between the Fender and the London City.
Overall, this is the guitar you want to have, if you want a cheap Telecaster. Forget the Squiers and any other Tele-copies. This is the best Telecaster-copy ever made! Great!!!

My comet is a blond one with a rosewood neck.The rest is just a telecaster. It is build in 2006 en I bought it a week ago for ??? 190 secondhand/

I play for many years some Jazz and Blues. I play always tubeamps. At this moment I have an old ELK guitarman amp whitch sound like a Fender vibrolux.
The tele fits very good with this amp. It??s sounds very brillant and open. When I turn down the tone-knob the sound gets very jazzy.
For some heavy blueswork I use the bridge pick up in combination with some overdrive-pedals. Great sound. I liked the orginal telecastersound
but the sound of this guitar suits me better.
The only minus: The guitar is noisy. I think I will check the inside and the earth of the bridge.

A very good action. The neck is very good. Everything is possible on this neck. Very, very good.
The finish seems OK.

At the moment I think that the tuners are not so good but I will change the strings at first. Otherwise I buy a new set of tuners.
I play my gigs always with a backup.

I??m playing about 40 years and I had many,many guitars. I have seven others.When I like a guitar than I like it. It is not always a matter of price when I buy a guitar. This London city is a good instrument and I wanted very badly.

The finish of a Fender or even a Richwood telecaster is much better, I own a Richwood telecaser and it sounds almost the same, maybe even better!!... It is the hype that is bothering me here......

The name is indeed very cool: London City Comet Mk 1

I thought I would buy a very good guitar for only 200 euro....

But it is no better than a Stagg or a Richwood......

The action is high and cant be lowered because thet the strings will tick against the neck when playing rough...

if you open the guitar you see a lot of cheap plastic user in the elements and way no WAY NO!! the same quality as an american fender or Gibson!!!!

The story of london city guitars looks a lot like that of the emperors new clothes........

If you want to buy a good cheap electick guitar try Ibanez or Aria , But not Richwood, London City, Stagg........ they have all the same quality, not bad not good......

I am using a Ampeg or even more at home a Hiwat amp

action was way too high
pic up okay adjusted
bridge not routed
a little bit of glue was on the back element

It will withstand live playing
I am pretty sure the hardware is about the same quality as Richwood or Stagg

waranty is one year

i play for 20 years

Is already said before.

The sound is fantastic, I play a lot of blues but als modern music as well. I can get very warm sound with the neck pickup, and a more bright tone with the bridge pickup. I like it a lot. It really sounds like a tele, and that's beacease it IS a telecaster. I use a Fender Super 112 full tube amp and a Marshall Reverb 12 amp. It sounds great, really. Also in combination with a lot of drive and with or without my cry baby wah. Do I need say more?

The Finish is probably the most amzing thing about it, it look FANTASTIC. I own the most beautiful Telecaster in the world (I think). The action was a little bit (just a little!) to low for me, that because I used to have a very high action on my Fender USA stratocaster (Yes, I also own 'the Real thing', but anyway: the Loncon City Telecaster remains fantastic, it isn't so that my Fender USA strat is much beter than my London City Telecaster, I would prefer to say that the LC Tele is just different, not worser, it has just the Tele sound, and my stratocaster sounds as Strat as possible.)

Another important thing:
This guitar owns a vintage stile brigde and vintage style machnics (you know what I mean, don't you? to tune your guitar, on the top of the 'head' of the guitar, yes yes.. i'm a Ducht student, so my English sucks)
These are beatiful!

I looks like I will still play on this guitar for the rest of my life. I think it will last forever, beacause it's such a good instrument. But i'm not sure about that, i own this guitar for about two weeks.

I bought this one second hand, 200 euro. I don'y know anything about warranty.

This is a very good electric guitar. Think about the price: 250 - 300 euro (new, not used) and you have a great guitar, with great sounds and looks!

Explained in other reviews ;)

As a starting professional Dutch musician, I play all kinds of styles in all kinds of bands; pop/rock, hardrock, country. the MK1 suits all of these styles perfectly. I use the edgy bridge pick-up for raw stuff. It sounds kinda 'Tom Morello' in his Rage Against the Machine-days. The other two pick-ups sound great and warm as well, but I'm going to replace them by Dutch van der Zande pick-ups.
Different bands demand different rigs. My FX are a Boss DD-3 Delay, Ibanez TS-9, Dunlop Hendrix Cry Baby, H20 Chorus+Delay. Amps are a Fender Vibrolux (favourite tube-amp), Fender Frontman 212R (tubeless) and a small 15 Watts Fender Vibro Champ. The sound really remains 'Fender' this way. The MK1 sounds well with an Orange amp as well, or the good old Vox AC30. I used that one for a studio recording and could believe what I was hearing.
The MK1 is a versatile guitar. The neck pick-up is really warm, with a lotta tone. The middle pick-up is pretty bright, maybe a bit too fuzzy. It requires some knob tweaking on the amp. The bridge pick-up I like the most. The raw Tele sound really resembles. The only dislike is the loudness of the bridge pick-up. It's lot louder than the rest, but it's better to say the other two should be as loud as the bridge pick-up, sounding the brightest. Perfect for that revived Britrock sound (Franz Ferdinand, Infadels, Arctic Monkeys). Kind of sounds like a Tele Thinline too, if you use a lotta reverb.

I bought it second hand, so the action wasn't all that good at first. A set of 009 strings (!). A little too light me, I replaced it with 010's, which suit me well. With a little bit of adjustment, the action was just fine again. The MK1 handles really well and is not too hard to adjust. Well-organized.
What I love the most is the neck. If you like the feel of Fender necks, this guitar is THE best alternative. It plays great.

Ever since I bought it, it's been my no.1 guitar for overall live playing. Pretty funny, cos' I also own a priceless '63 Gretsch Nashville Chet Atkins signature. It doesn't have that much variety in sound as the LC Tele. In any band, this guitar sounds outstanding in my opinion.

It's got the Tele sound, Tele feel, Tele looks.. all the balls of the Tele for a very Dutch price. :)

Dutch designed Telecaster produced in China. Guitar has standard Telecaster style features three way switch, neck and bridge pick ups with a rosewood neck and a solid (according to spec sheet, I did not sand the finish away to check it) body in a sunburst finish. It has all the features a Telecaster should have.

I play blues, country and 70's - 80's pop for about thirty years, nowadays rarely . I fell in love with the guitar when I was trying a Vox Pathfinder 15 R amp in a shop and asked the sales person for a tele with a real tele sound to try the amp. I began to play and loved the sound I could get with this guitar.

I assumed the sales person had given me some fancy Fender with Texas pick ups and I was astonished to see the London City label. I play both fingerpicking style and flat pick. The guitar handles both styles well. I find the pick ups surpisingly well suited for finger picking style because the pick ups give a calm sound and do not pick up many distracting finger and hand noises. I also own a '76 stratocaster and I must say that the London City outperforms the strat for my style of playing in all departments.

Together with the Vox amp, which has very responsive tone settings, tremolo and reverb, I can get all the sounds I want. I only open up the gain a quarter turn or so to get a slightly distorted / overloaded sound. The Vox / London City Telecaster combination is perfect for me. I tried all the small amps, cubes, epiphone tubes, yamaha tubes, behringer, orange but preferred this Vox with the London City. Never thought I would be able to get such a sound for so little money.

I also tried a few US standard tele's in the shop because I was curious now but I was not impressed. I played a couple of years ago on a bunch of 70's Tele's and the London City sounds just like that and sometimes better and in my view deeper with a good sustain. Clearly not all Fender tele's sound the same anyway.

A no brainer; I bought the guitar on the spot for one quarter of the price of an American Standard.

The picks were set up properly. I did not spot any obvious finishing flaws and the wood looks good. I did adjust the bridge and the nut but I think it is normal to adjust a new guitar to your strings and style. Hardware and chrome finish look good and the controls do not produce any noises. The neck fits well and is very playable but not like a 70's Fender, a bit more modern. I think the finish of the custom Fenders is deeper and more beautiful but these guitars are ten times more expensive.

Can not really judge because I do not own the guitar for a long time but I feel it will last. I think I will change the tuners because I am really tough on the strings (sometimes plucking rather than picking)and they tend to need retuning.

I would trust this guitar as I would trust a Fender Telecaster.

Can not have an opinion , never had to deal with so far.

Played for over thirty years, sometimes gigs but never wanted to be a pro or anything. I own a '76 Strat, '72 ?? (not sure) Gibson L4 acoustic guitar, Les Paul custom, a cello, a banjo, some tascam recording equipment.

I would buy another one if this one is lost or stolen and I probably will buy one with a maple fret board just to compare the sound. See my comments about other guitars and reasons for buying this one under "Sound". I would only consider a G&L ASAT just because it is nice to have the pride of ownership of an expensive guitar with superior workmanship and finish.

If you do not care about the Fender label buy this guitar. I think nobody will notice a difference in sound.

Thin london city is build in china i tink in 2005, it gots 21 frets and an alder solid body, she gots 1 volume, 1 tone, and an 3 way selector, it gots two single coils, and they are very good, she got an maple neck, and plays very good,
There are no accessories included, because this is an very cheap guitar,

I play a lot of blues, like jimi hendrix, rory gallagher, and a lot of slide work, and this guitar is perfect for that genre, because sometimes i plays punk like the clash, And it is very good for that, i use an Hughes & Kettner ats 120, and an jim dunlop cry baby, Its so great to play on this guitar, te sound is great, my opinion is that this guitar is beter than an Fender,

When i get this guitar he was ok, beceause the stings are used, en old, because i dont care, Because the finish was a little bit relic,(an very very little bit) beacause i like that. This guitar was very good when i bought them, i dont have any problems with the action fit of Finish

The hardware is very good, i heard that he's not very tuned, because when i play'd a gig of an hour, i tune one time, and than she's oke. The hardware is ok, beacause when you want better, than you must bought an fender, because than you must payd many more.

i play'd 3 years guitar, and have play'd on fender, musicman, jackson enz enz,
now my set up is:

Hughes & kettner ats 120 ---> Dunlop Crybaby ---> LC comet or my Gibson es 135,

This Telecaster "Comet Mk I" marketed by a Dutch company and is assembled in China, 2005.
Solid Alder body.
Solid maple neck (with sonokelin fretboard). Medium Jumbo frets.
Normal Tele configuration (three-way position switch, single coil pick-up at bridge and lipstick pick-up at neck, volume -and tone control) except the neck has a slightly different radius.
Alnico pick-ups.
Passive electronics.
Typical "boxed" Tele bridge (chrome plated) with traditional tele-saddles.
Finisch transparent blond with black pickguard.
Tuners ???

I play reggae; Rhythm guitar and picking guitar. This guit suits the style perfect for tight skanks and perfect edge to the bassline when picking along.
I use it through a Roland Cube-60 and Boss ME-X multi-effects (with Boss CS-3 compression/sustain, Boss FT-2 dynamic filter, and Boss PH-3 phase shifter added) or Boss GT-8 multi-effects for practise and small to medium gigs.
I use it through a Roland Jazz Chorus JC-120 and Boss ME-X multi-effects (with Boss CS-3 compression/sustain, Boss FT-2 dynamic filter, and Boss PH-3 phase shifter added) or Boss GT-8 multi-effects for medium to large gigs.
It's absolutely not noisy.
This London City Comet Mk 1 has the real Tele sound; it has all the irresistable 'real' Tele-sound!
Like everything on this guitar except for, maybe, the tuners, which I may need to replace, since they do not perfectly stay in tune.

The store I bought it in adjusts all the guitars and guitar parts to perfect condition before they are sold.
So I can't really comment on that.
Strings have a great action, without string buzzing. Guitar neck feels and plays very smooth.

I have played with this guitar live and it absolutely withstands live playing (with the occasional tuning checks during the gig).
Hardware will certainly last, except for probalbly the tuners which I may replace.

Never dealt with the company
1 year warranty.

I have been playing for 21 years. I have an Ibanez Roadstar II (strat copy from early eighties), a Fender Squire Telecustom II (with P-90's) and now this London City Comet Mk I.
I would definately buy another one if it were stolen.
I love the Tele-look and the sound.
London City has found the right formula in the use of wood and sound of the Telecaster. You get the irresistable Tele-sound for just a fraction of the price. You don't get the same materials but this can be upgraded to taste and still have enough cash to get that extra pedal.

This London City Comet Mk I may well become the next collector's item.....

This "Tele" Comet was made in China. China ????, Yeah China, ohhh.
It was made in 2005 I think.
Solid Alder body (yeah solid!!!) One piece Alder !!!
Solid maple neck (yeah solid!!!)
Normal Tele configuration, except the neck has a slightly different radius.
Passive electronics.
Finisch transparent blond.
Tuners ???

I play rock,pop,country and this guitar suits my musicstyle well.
No effects
It's not noisy.
This one has the real Tele sound. I don't know how they did it but it sound as how a Tele should sound.
Like everything on this guitar except for the tuners, which must be replace. They look cool but don't stay in tune. That's the only complaint I have about this guitar. Except for the tuners a 10 ,
but eveything included a:

This guitar had a high action, but the guy I bought it from liked it in that way.I lowered the strings and now it has a great action, without string buzzing!.
As I told before this guitar is made of excellent wood especially compared to the price I paid (150 euro's)
Excellent medium jumbo frets.

This guitar will absolutely withstand live playing.
Hardware will last, except for the tuners what I told before.
Strap buttons are o.k.
When I go on a gig I would first repalce the tuners.

Never dealt with the company
1 year warranty.

I have been playing for 39 years. I have a G&L G200 and a G&L SC-1
a G&L L2000 bass and a Squir JV p.Bass.
I would definately buy another one if it were stolen.
I love it for the redicules price and waht you get for that, GREAT !!!

A telecaster imitation. 21 frets. Controls are standard: tone, volume, and a 3-way switch. Pickups: 1 single coil, and one lipstick. The body has a standard sunburst on it (mine anyways). I don't know much about sorts of wood. Neck seems made of rosewood (from what I've heard), the body I don't know, but it does it's job although it seems to me it's not very hard (check durability). Tuners are nice and closed, and easy to use. Looked perfect when I bought it.

The wood used on the body seems a bit to light for a telecaster, the guitar tends to pull the neck side down. Wear a broad leather strap to eliminate this problem, or shorten the length of your strap. (lots of punk/rock players won't like this, but hey, the telecaster wasn't really made for that purpose back then :) )

None of the guitar parts had a brand name on it. Nor is mentioned when it was built. I bought it in 2003 and it looked brand new.

It sounds absolutely GREAT! I tested it out on several amps. But on every amp that can handle it (I use a Epiphone 1000R) you can blow people away. The sound really kicks in. Just like telecasters should. Perfect for blues, dirty rock, or punk. You don't want this guitar if you play metal, or something like that.

The store I bought it in adjusts all the guitars guitar parts to perfect condition before they are sold. So I can't really comment on that.

Overall the guitar looked perfect actually. Only the 3 color sunburst wasn't done very well. Finish is great though, I had no problems seeing myself in it. The guitar's just too shiny :)

It looked very nice when it came out of the store/factory. I dropped and bumped it a few times, and the finish cracked at those points, and there where knocks in the wood. Perfect if you like your guitars lived out, but no good if you're the shiny glamourous guitar player who likes his guitars clean and perfect. This is rather a flaw of the sort of wood that was used than the finish, which had quite a thick layer. Strapbuttons are solid, but I've never experienced a nonsolid straplock. It rather depends on what strap you use if you want to depend on it. (or just use straplocks) I would use it on a gig without a backup, the guitar was wired very well, nothing that could brake or something. Never had any problems with sound quality.

IMO sound is the very most important thing. This guitars finish won't last long if youre too rough, but the sound can survive earthquakes. The neck does seem to survive bumps and falls.

Warranty was 1 year I guess, as almost all products above 200 euros. The manufacturer is located in holland, so dutch people will have less problems with them I guess.

but I never had to deal with London City

I've been playing for 3 years now. And I had this for 2 years. I am a very fanatic guitar player and I like to research gear before I'm buying it. I also asked several guitar veterans for their opinion about this guitar, and they all said it sounded great. Back then when I bought it I trusted their judgement, but my experience with other guitars, other peoples stories and gigs in the last 2 years have learned me that this guitar is WELL WORTH the price! I would let this compete with Mexican Telecsters anytime. It might even be better. For this price you can't let it lying in that store (I couldn't). This is my second electric guitar.

2 months ago I decided to give it a new paint. It became a combination of the original sunburst with black patterns over it. In these two months I had only accessto an EP LP classic, and a Squire strat. After two months I plugged this one in again, and it beat the hell outta both of them!