Stevenson T-Classic

Basic specs: I just took delivery of this guitar in Feb. 2000. Stevenson guitars are built by hand in Canada. The body on this guitar is one piece swamp ash with a two tone sunburst finish which is extremely well polished. The neck is one piece maple with the skunk stripe in the back and the walnut plug at the headstock. The pickup and electronics configuration is standard tele all the way. Lindy Fralin pickups are standard on this guitar and they sound great. The bridge is a Gotoh six saddle tele style. Sperzel's are standard and really help the tuning stability. For frets they like to use Dunlop 6105 and I don't blame them. They are high but thin so intonation is right on. 22 frets are standard on all of their models. This guitar was already built and I bought it off the shelf so I did not get exactly the features that I would have liked but it felt and sounded good so I decided to go for it.

This is the reason I bought this guitar off the shelf. It sounds exactly the way I like a tele to sound. Like I said before, this is pretty much a straight ahead tele so it does not have tons of sounds, but whatever it does, it does it extremely well. Just the right amount of twang without getting harsh. The Fralin's are amazing, but they are single coils so they can be noisy in certain situations. Still the tone is their so I can live with the noise.

I know that we are not supposed to give superficial, glowing reviews, but I have to say that after looking over the guitar many times, I could not find any real flaws. The finish is amazing (you could use it as a mirror when you shave), the neck joint is super tight and the string alignment is bang on. The frets are perfectly fitted into the fretboard. Of course, if you look hard enough you could find flaws in anything and although I am picky, I am not a psycho and as far as I am concerned this guitar is at least as well built as the Suhr's and Grosh's I have seen.

I don't play rough and I never mistreat my instruments. This is a meticulously crafted precision instrument and in the hands of a rough ass it would probably get damaged. It's tough enough for me and that's all I care about. Still, though I will not give it a ten on ten because although it is solid as hell, the precision set-up would be affected if the guitar were abused. Some guitars are so badly made that you wouldn't notice any small changes. Think of it as a Ferrari being slightly out of tune, you would never notice this on your Honda.

I had the guitar shipped to me sight unseen and I was not disappointed. The guitar arrived within a week and it was perfectly set up. These guys are super friendly and I know they would stand by their products any time. The guitar comes with a lifetime warranty.

So far I like this guitar alot. I have only had it for a month but I am not the kind of player who goes through alot of gear. Once I find something I like, I stick with it. Only time will tell if I truly love it. This guitar is pretty much what I wanted. The body is light and resonant, the neck is slim and comfortable and the sound is great. I chose this guitar because I wanted a straight ahead no-frills tele and I found the craftsmanship on Fenders to be a little beneath my standards. Again I compared this guitar to most of the custom makers out there (Suhr, Anderson, Grosh) and there was just something about this guitar that drew me to it. When I received it I was not disappointed. After seeing the reviews of other Stevenson guitars on Harmony Central, I decided to send one in because I really feel that these are great guitars and more players should check them out.