Fender Brad Paisley Road Worn Tele BK

The tones from this tele are really good. I had no problem dialing a great tone with my Fender DR and Nordland ODR-C. The pickups sound sparkling and rich, with nice treble, just as you would expect from a good telecaster. Certainly one of the best sounding telecasters that I've played. The light body is very resonant, sustain is good for a tele. Hefty neck with a nice carve, the frets are OK, good playability. The looks are actually great - if you can get over the relic part.

Now to the cons: I'm not a big fan of the relic, but would accept it if all else was fine. The sanded spot where the arm rests is quite rough and the raw edge would dig unpleasantly into the arm. You might actually want to sand it some more to make it smoother. The back of the neck felt sticky compared to my other guitars. Action was pretty high and the B string buzzed at the nut. All this is relatively easy to remedy, but for this price I'd expect more. For me, the tipping point was the balance. I play standing 95% of the time, even when practicing, and I prefer the neck to be tilted up. That's not possible with this guitar, unless you experiment with the strap button position. For these reasons, I'm returning it, but would still recommend it for players who don't mind the odd balance.