SPG Guitars Vintage TL Relic

Made in USA in 2007
Northern Aged Ash Body
Vintage Nitrocellulose Lacquer Light Blonde See Thru Finish
Vintage Bridge w/ Brass Saddles
Amalfitano Tele Pickups
Aged Flame Maple Neck with Rosewood Slab Style Tapered - 9 1/2" Radius w/ Med. Tall Fret Wire
Maple Fret Markers, Bone Nut
Vintage Kluson Tuners
Weight: 5.9 Pounds
The picture showed it with the 'ashtray' bridge cover, but it didn't have it when I received it. No big deal, I was planning on taking it off anyway.

Sounds as good as my '68 Tele and weighs about the same. I have run it thru a Mesa 45 Nomad tube amp and also a Gallien Kruger Backline 100 (solid state). The tone controls seem to be much more responsive with the GK, but the Mesa gives it that classic Tele sound - lots of twang on the clean channel and some very cool ZZ Top and Zep tones on the overdrive channels. As usual, the neck pickup is a lot weaker than the bridge pickup.

Action was higher than I like and the strings a little heavier than I usually use (it came with '10's'). Since this was lightly relic'd, it has some dings and rust, but nothing overboard like the Nash guitars sometimes are. The shape of the neck is awesome; I really like the chunky feel. The only complaint I really have is that the neck / nut area was not done correctly. There is too much (1/4") wood by the nut before the contouring starts downwards to the machine heads. The low E string was actually rubbing the wood, which through the intonation way sharp on the first three frets. I took some sandpaper and smoothed the sharp angle down and filed the nut a little and it helped a lot. Still, you don't expect to see this kind of mistake on a "custom" guitar; maybe that's why it was on E-bay. Good thing it was a relic, and I don't mind the sanding marks, or I'd be really pissed that I'd have to call SPG to correct this.

This guitar will certainly withstand the rigors of playing live. The hardware seems to be okay; not sure about the tuners yet, though. The tuners are supposed to be Kluson's but they don't say "Kluson". I can't make out the writing on them. The also seem a little sticky, but maybe that's what the vintage style tuners are supposed to be like. I'm used to the more modern tuners. All the hardware looks appropriate for a '50's style Tele, so its not as versatile as the newer stuff, but I knew this when I bought it.

I think it's got a 5-year warranty. I haven't had to contact them since purchasing it on E-bay. There was a delay in shipping and Rick offered to compensate me for the trouble. I got good communication from him via e-mail and they seem like a good company.

I've been playing since 1976. I have a '95 Les Paul, '91 PRS Custom, '91 Custom Shop Jackson Rhoads, '68 Tele (beat all to hell, but an awesome player!), Seagull 12-String Acoustic, 2004 Martin OOO-15, Yamaha APX-10 Acoustic, and now the SPG.

I would consider buying another guitar from SPG, but this time I would deal directly with the company and be very inquisitive about features, construction (the neck issue), etc. rather than buying a guitar that was already build on Ebay.

I got this guitar because as I've gotten older, the Les Paul and PRS have gotten too heavy for me to play for long periods of time; I needed something lighter and I wanted a Tele that I could leave in standard tuning.

Anyway, the bottom line is that it's as good, if not better than the Fender '52 reissue for a lot less money. Another thing about SPG is that they make all their bodies and necks instead of buying them from parts warehouses like Nash does. I feel that you get more for your money with an SPG.