Okay so I know this is a DIY pedal conversation board but, since we all play guitars through the pedals I thought I would get some opinions. I am looking to spend a few (notice the word few) dollars to basically build a guitar. Don't have the bread to buy an American tele or strat so I have been looking at Rondo SX teles and strats as well as the GFS Xaviere brand. I keep reading good things online but wanted to post here to see if I could some good feedback. Are the SX ad Xaviere worth buying. If I get an SX I know I will probably upgrade tuners and pickups. Maybe the same with the Xaviere, maybe not. I know that the GFS pickups are the bomb, but have no hands on with any of their guitars.
I currently own a MIM strat (love it), an ESP EC-256 (love it), Schecter Omen-6 (love it), Schecter Deluxe 006 (it's OK), Jay Turser Deluxe tele. The Jay sounds great but the neck has a lot to be desired. The frets need to be bigger and there is a lot of fret buzz (I think it may be warped). I am thinking about getting either an SX tele and upgrading tuners/pickups or Xaviere tele (XV-820) and upgrading pickups. So how about it people; anyone own or played any of these brands and what do you think about them. Would you recommend them, stay clear of them, buy but definitely upgrade parts, what is the good the bad the ugly?
I had an SX strat and it was very nice for the money.
I usually pick up cheap MIM strats if they are a really good price. I've gone through many of them. The stock setup and fretwork is highly variable between each one. I usually re-level and crown the frets. After a proper setup, some new pickups and a bigger bridge block they sound and play really really nice. My main guitar is an MIM body with a Warmoth neck. Its worth it if you want to do the DIY thing.
What I would do us take that turser tele neck off and put a new neck on. It doesn't sound like you need another guitar, but you may want to improve the ones you have.
I'm in the middle I both a parts tele and parts tele projects, and the neck is by far the most important part. I bet that tele you have would be fine.
As for experience, I wouldn't touch the Xaviere or SX stuff personally, but I've not tried them.
Jacob
You could go with a Squier Classic Vibe series tele or strat. These are good guitars for the money after a good setup. The pickups are pretty good. Go to www.tdpri.com and read up. There is a lot of love for the CV's there.
That being said, you might want to look local and find a used MIM tele or strat on the cheap. Like Jakefuzz stated, most MIM are good platforms to upgrade into great guitars. A fella near me is selling a MIM tele for $250 OBO. good deals to be had.
I don't have experience with the brands you're looking at. I can second Jacob's recommendation of improving what you have. I'd take a good look at Warmoth's vintage modern tele necks. I've played a few warmoth's with this neck and was very impressed the the quality and the finish. You'll probably want to have the frets dressed, but other than that, they're great necks.
Best bang for your buck - check pawnshops for older peavey Reactors (tele) or Predators (strat) you can pick them up cheap and they are very well american made guitars. I got a Reactor for $135, stock is pretty good but I'd like to change out tuners, saddles, nut and pick ups.
Damn I sure do miss my old Peavey. My first guitar!
Thanks for all the input thus far. Anyone else? I am leaning towards replacing the neck on the tele, but the question is will a replacement fit. I am not sure what size the neck pocket on this thing is but I know the body is solid wood.
So does anyone have any love for the GFS pickups? Anyone replace their pickups with GFS? If so what have you used, what do you think of them>
Chances are high the neck will fit fine if you go with Warmoth or Allparts.
In the least, send an email off to Warmoth and ask them if a tele neck from them will work in a Jay Turser guitar?
I have not experieced GFS pickups. They aren't my style really.
Jacob
I put together a strat with some really cheap GFS pickups. They actually sounded pretty darn good for being like 20 bucks for all three. They had a very strange midrangey sound which was not very strat-like but still cool. I've always wanted to try those vintage style gray bobbins they make. I really like the custome shop '69's and the DImarzio area line for strat pickups.
Not exactly what you asked for, but IMHO, the best budget guitars are the G&L tribute line. I love my Tribute ASAT and Tribute Invader, each cost only ~$300-350 used in perfect condition. They play and sound amazing.
Quote from: junkemail86 on December 15, 2011, 11:47:56 PM
Not exactly what you asked for, but IMHO, the best budget guitars are the G&L tribute line. I love my Tribute ASAT and Tribute Invader, each cost only ~$300-350 used in perfect condition. They play and sound amazing.
+1! I ended up spending more and buying an ASAt Special but I was pretty impressed with several of their Tribute guitars. I love my G&L and plan on buying a Comanche down the road.
EDIT: I should reiterate, I think buying a warmth neck and pups if necessary is your best bang for the buck move. Call Warmoth, they are very helpful and their return policy is great. Browse their in stock necks. Typically, you'll save a few bucks if you buy one in stock. You could order it, dry fit it in the neck pocket and see how it fits. Don't put a screw to it and they'll take it back if it doesn't work. Best of luck and enjoy whatever you end up doing.
Quote from: rjkanejr on December 15, 2011, 09:18:59 PM
Thanks for all the input thus far. Anyone else? I am leaning towards replacing the neck on the tele, but the question is will a replacement fit. I am not sure what size the neck pocket on this thing is but I know the body is solid wood.
So does anyone have any love for the GFS pickups? Anyone replace their pickups with GFS? If so what have you used, what do you think of them>
I bought a GFS pre-wired pick guard (http://www.guitarfetish.com/Tortoiseshell-Pickguard-with-Vintage-Cream-pickups-and-Knobs_p_758.html) for my Strat a while back while I was sorting out a wiring issue with my other p'ups. It worked fine, and for $35 I was pleased with it. I
really liked the bridge pickup, but the neck and middle were kinda (http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs22/f/2008/020/e/4/Meh_by_StubbornlyDesigned.gif)
I ended up going back to the Dimarzios, but I do miss the bite of that bridge single coil.
FWIW, I have a Xavierre Jazzmaster, a Rondo PJ Bass, and a MIM Strat. I put in lace sensors on my strat and it plays the best. The Xavierre's pickups sound really good but the strings feel a bit stiff (could just be the JM style) and feels/looks/sounds better than what I paid for it. It's a surprisingly close second. Both the xavierre and rondo could use some setting up and choice minor upgrades.
bottom line: I don't think there's anything wrong with GFS/Xavierre stuff if you want to try something different (I.E humbuckers if you're a strat guy) or a backup on a budget
I have a custom mahogany neck with jumbo frets on a gfs body with two of their vintage alnico pickups and a SD quarter pounder in the bridge. I had to fill the neck holes and redrill. No big deal. Sounds great. Bodies are extremely light and resonant. So resonant I had to add springs to the trem to get rid of a random buzz. Great strat now.
Also have a warmoth neck on a US mayer body (got a deal, not a fan) with a gilmour pickup setup (N: Custom Shop Fat '50s, M: Custom Shop Custom '69, B: SD SSL-5). This one is the better lead, but the GFS strat strangely has a better strat rhythm sound
I am really broke and wanted a strat too (never owned one). I bought an SX vintage strat for like $67 USA about 2-3 years ago. Took a real chance. It was beautifully painted (Candy apple red) and the neck was very orange but was great, nice frets, a very wide flat radius (13 I think--something new to me but good with my long fingers). Anyways it didn't sound as good as the squier vintage vibes. I changed the pickups out for some dimarzio area pickups and it sounded amazing. The tuners are cheap and will be replaced someday. The bridge is on my to do list (wishing for a bladerunner) as are a scratchy volume pot and switch. (wishing for a bladerunner)
but so far good body and neck, new pickups make a big difference :o now it surpasses the vintage vibe and others. Love it but if i touch the tremolo it is out of tune. I would probably try a sx tele because of my first positive experience with them.
For cheap stuff, I have an Agile Harm which is actually really well made. The pickups are crap, though. But, well worth the money overall.
Quote from: JakeFuzz on December 15, 2011, 11:36:59 PM
I put together a strat with some really cheap GFS pickups. They actually sounded pretty darn good for being like 20 bucks for all three. They had a very strange midrangey sound which was not very strat-like but still cool. I've always wanted to try those vintage style gray bobbins they make. I really like the custome shop '69's and the DImarzio area line for strat pickups.
I have had alot of GFS pickups now, and though I don't claim to be an authority on all the different ones they make this has been my experience:
I first got a set of the '64 stagger "Surfy" Grey Bottoms for my '99 MIM Strat, really nice pickups for the money. Very easy to get Gilmour type of cleans with those in the inbetween positions, the neck pickup was pretty muddy, but the middle pickup was a crazy blues machine. Thne I tried the brighton rocks. Not at all close to Trisonics, but fatter than strat pickups usually are, The middle pickup was DOA and they sent a replacement no questions asked. I went the whole way and bought the PG with the 6 mini switches to do the phase reversal and series/parallel switching. That was the best part about that setup, and has made me put a series parallel switch on every other single coil setup I have had. Next I tried Surf 90's, They just didn't cut it, then I had one go dead and I checked it out and was amazed to see that they are really just strat pickups in a big goofy case. Next I got some of the Firebird style mini humbuckers for a 70's Japanese ES335 copy that had big yet lame single coils that were about the same size. These pickups were freakin great. They had a nice midrange honk that you don't get with big humbuckers, Rickenbackeresque. My current setup has a Mean 90 in the neck and a Dream 90 in the bridge, very nice sounding. I am using a fat strat PG and a tele 3 way swiotch with a mini toggle for series/parallel and another mini toggle to switch between 2 different tone cap values, a .022uF Bumblebee and a .01uF EROMAK-1 cap. It is got alot of the vibe of a tele but with a midrangey quality in the neck position that is not far off a P90. . From what I have observed GFS markets some pickups in a misleading manner. The Surf 90's are just strat coils in that big humbucker housing and the adjustable pole pieces don't do anything and are not really adjustable (spin in their holes , don't go up and down). Dream 90's are also strat coils in the P90 in a humbucker case style. Mean 90's have a flatter and wider coil and are more like a P90. Brighton rocks are just Fatbody tele neck coils with the cover cut away to show the big polepieces. So buyer beware, but also realize that they are inexpensive and resellable on eBay so you can try out a bunch till you find some that work well for you.
I am calling my Strat done at this point and moving on to a Squier Classic Vibe Custom Tele in a few weeks. I think I am gonna spend the big money on a nice bridge pickup (Don Mare) and bridge (probably a Callaham, glendale so expensive!) and go the Esquire route. The moral of the story is to find a good slab of wood with neck attached and screw with the electronics til it melts your face off. Good luck!
My first guitar (I'm young still) was an SX SJM, one of those funky Jazzmaster-ish guitars. I would not have wanted to learn on anything else. That thing had a great neck on it, not too wide or fat. The neck pickup was great, but the bridge was only so-so.
A few years later, I decided to mod it and even later decided to refinish it.
I put a Bigsby on it, with a roller bridge from StewMac. I replaced the tuning pegs with locking Grovers (SX's B string tuning peg broke early on). It was playing beautifully until I decided to try putting a new bridge pickup in. The electronics still aren't working, unfortunately. :-[
I plan on retrying it sometime in the next couple of weeks while I am on break from college.
I sanded the entire body down by hand, which was a task. I wanted a different look from the sunburst finish because it was too orange/yellowish. Not my style. I took the thing apart, filled the holes in it from the old stop-tail posts, and sanded it smooth. Then I went to AutoZone or something like that and picked up some white primer and metallic charcoal spray cans. It went on pretty well, a few blemishes from running paint (over-excitement). It turned out pretty nice though.
If it gets working, I'll take a few pictures and maybe do a demo for you guys. One thing I loved about it was the tone control though. No lie, it sounded like a short-scale bass when rolled all the way down.
Today I ordered a Tele copy for my girlfriend who is learning to play. She needed one for herself, and I remembered how good SX's were for learning. No regrets for $103 shipped to your door.
You've probably already made your purchase, but I thought I would weigh in for the sake of anyone else who is wondering about Xaviere guitars. First, let me say that I have no experience with Rondo. But last month I bought an Xaviere XV-650, which has a semi-hollow strat-shaped body with two P90 pickups and a maple fretboard. I paid $223 for it, delivered in a wooden hardshell case. Very nice. Well set up and playable right out of the box, feels like a Fender, gets pretty close to a Fender vintage tone but with the added girth and grind of P90s. A few days ago the three-way pickup selector toggle stopped functioning, but I have heard only good things about Jay's customer service, so I'm sure I could send it back for repair or replacement. However, since I was already thinking about doing some wiring mods, I am going to repair/replace it myself and void the warranty. Regardless of this inconvenience, I really love this guitar and would recommend it at twice the price I paid; I have six nice electric guitars (including a Parker) and the Xaviere has become my go-to axe. I will be ordering an Xaviere strat copy (XV-870) soon.
Let us know what you decided and how it is working out for you.
Here's what I did:
MIM Strat body with hardware: 120
Mighty Mite V neck: 90
Wilkinson tuners: 30
D. Allen 60's R&B pickups: 100
For a little over 300 bucks, I built a strat exactly to my specifications. Can't beat that!
My experience, Xavieres are decent, I've owned (and sold) 8, mostly as projects and stop gap guitars (i.e. didn't want to shell out the money for a Nashville Tele, so bought and Xaviere, dropped in a middle pickup, and had the same result for a quarter of the price). Pickups are good, bridges are great, tuners and nuts are junk. Finishes are quite right with regards to colors, but are generally really well done. Necks are alright, YMMV when it comes to fingerboards. I've found the maple ones to be good, but not so much the rosewood, tends to need a lot of cleaning and conditioning to get it up to playing condition, and even then it doesn't feel right.
If I'm not mistaken, Jay's gone to 2 3/16" neck pockets on all of his guitars, so you can buy the guitar, take off the neck, drop in a Stewmac/Warmoth/Allparts neck, a good set of GFS locking tuners and a Graptech nut all for a little over $300. That being said, you can also buy a Classic Vibe strat for that price, and those guitars are sweet.
The best low-ish price option is to keep your eyes open on Ebay for Squier Pro Tones. Phenomenal guitars, you can sometimes pick them up cheap if the seller doesn't know what they're selling (otherwise, you're likely going to pay $500). I picked one up for $150, dropped in a set of Duncans I have lying around, and it is sweet.
For the record, GFS has great customer service. Anytime I've had a problem with their stuff, there's a new part in the mail the same day to replace it.
I agree with the MIM strats and the G&L Tribute Series.
As others have mentioned, the only real issue with the MIM strats is they vary so much from guitar to guitar.
I have a couple of the US made G&Ls and have been impressed with the Tribute series for the money.
Quote from: ckim715 on January 16, 2012, 07:41:16 AM
Here's what I did:
MIM Strat body with hardware: 120
Mighty Mite V neck: 90
Wilkinson tuners: 30
D. Allen 60's R&B pickups: 100
For a little over 300 bucks, I built a strat exactly to my specifications. Can't beat that!
Update on my longish post above:
Scored a Squier Standard Telecaster in vintage blonde with rosewood fretboard and no string trees $200
Bakelite Esquire pickguard $20
CTS Pots $10
Oak Grigsby 3 way switch $10
Electrosocket with Switchcraft Jack $10
Heavy Knurled Knobs $15
On/On DPDT toggle $2
Relic'd String trees $5
NOS Cream Daka Ware "top hat" switch tip $3
$275 into it without changing pickups or bridge, yet. A freakin twang and jangle machine. I left the neck pickup sans metal cover under the pickguard and wired it to the toggle so I can put it out of phase in series with the bridge for a bit more meat. I did standard esquire 3 way tone switch with 10nf cap on the tone pot and 5nf cap as the bassy preset. I am pretty happy with it, but still am going to change the tuning machines, nut (bone), bridge (Glendale plate for AM Std. conversion $100 :/ ) and the bridge pickup.
Quote from: timbo_93631 on January 17, 2012, 07:42:48 AM
$275 into it without changing pickups or bridge, yet. A freakin twang and jangle machine. I left the neck pickup sans metal cover under the pickguard and wired it to the toggle so I can put it out of phase in series with the bridge for a bit more meat. I did standard esquire 3 way tone switch with 10nf cap on the tone pot and 5nf cap as the bassy preset. I am pretty happy with it, but still am going to change the tuning machines, nut (bone), bridge (Glendale plate for AM Std. conversion $100 :/ ) and the bridge pickup.
I've often wondered about those top mounted telecaster plates. Are you going to convert it to the through body ferrule style bridge? I've seen so many of these top mounted squire bridges and thought that it would be a super easy conversion but never had the chance to try and do it. Let me know how it turns out
The Squier Standard is already through body, unlike the Affinity series which are top mount. The problem is the strings come out in front of the mounting screw holes, just like a Fender American Standard flat bridge plate with the 3 screw mount. To use a vintage "ashtray" style Fender plate you'd have to drill and dowel the existing string thru holes and move the ferrules back . Some people drill the vintage plate with an extra set of string through holes a bit forward, but you can run into intonation and string angle issues that way. Glendale makes a vintage style plate that is longer than the vintage "ashtray" plate and has the 3 screw mounting so everything lines up right. http://www.glendaleguitars.com/americanstandard.htm
Joe Barden also makes a plate that does the same thing, but has vintage style 4 screw mounting so you have to drill and dowel the original mounting holes to make sure it is all sturdy. If you were gonna do a partscaster and were looking for a cheap body an affinity would be less of a headache because you'd just have to layout the bridge and drill the through holes and set the ferrules...
As a side note, I played Squier Classic Vibes and the 60's Custom was consistently better than the 50's, but the hardware, pots, and switches on both were very flimsy feeling. The tuning machines were pretty awful Gotoh copies too, felt like around a 12:1 ratio making it hard to make precise tuning adjustments. If those things would have been better I probably would have bought one. I went with a used Squier Standard in the end because I like the way the "agathis" body resonates, and the fact that I'd have to change the hardware on either guitar so the extra $150 for a CV didn't make sense. "Agathis" is actually Kauri, the second longest living tree in the world besides California Coastal Redwoods, and the longest living hardwood species. It is heavy, but very resonant. A nice thing was the Esquire Bakelite pickguard I got is a 5 hole and everything lined up just right with only a bit of sanding where the end of the control plate fits in, the PG was just a bit snug there, maybe would have been okay with a USA Fender plate, I dunno.
on a whim I recently bought a squire tele for about $250. it is a remarkable playing and sounding guitar for the money. I was originally going to upgrade the pickups and hardware but the more I play it the less I think it needs anything done to it. the neck feels fantastic and I find it it my hands more than almost any other guitar I own. most of whitch cost over $1000. noney well spent. Tje cheaper korean and chinese manufactured instruments available today are head and shoulders above the cheapo guitars that were around when I started playing in the '80's. the squire tele intonates and stays in tune great as well.
My Chinese Epi Dot is fantastic! The way it plays feels very, very comfortably. The only problem I had with it was the electronics, which when upgraded produced a beautiful playing AND sounding instrument.
Likewise, the most recent guitar I have is a PRS SE that's less than 500 bucks, and it's superbly built. Very impressive.
Jacob
Just got snaked for a mint condition Epiphone '56 goldtop reissue for $180. The post was up for 5 minutes and someone was already ahead of me >:(
Boo.
I've always wanted an Epi Black Beauty. I've been a fan since I learned that the guitarist from Live used one on tonnes of their recordings, then got to play one every time I would go to this guitar shop near my place when I was in grade 10-11.
Course, that's not one of the more recent models coming out of China, nor would I find one for 180...
Jacob
OK - So I just ordered a GuitarFetish Xaviere XV-870 Sunburst with rosewood fretboard. I figure if the guitar totally sucks I can at least change the neck. I am thinking about putting a spare Seymour Duncan George Lynch Screamin' Demon pickup in the bridge, but I'll play it a bit before I decide if I want to mess with the tone/pickups. I am thinking this will be a good modding platform, but I have read many reviews and seen a lost of posts on YouTube of people saying that they love the guitar and the only thing they have updated were the tuners. I'll post a review once I get it. If turns out to be a good guitar, I may get one of the flamed maple Telecaster copies. They sure look pretty on their website!
OK - So I got my guitar and here is my story and review. I ordered a GuitarFetish.com XV-970. The web page and add shows a two tone sunburst start copy with a gloss all maple neck or a model with a gloss maple neck and rosewood fretboard. Each model is the same otherwise, having a mint green pickguard and vintage cream/white pickups, volume and tone knobs and selector switch knob. I emailed them prior to ordering asking about the guitars and asking if one of their models is available with a maple neck as there were different colored (same model) guitars, each with a maple neck or a rosewood neck but one model was not listed with maple, only rosewood. The response I got back was, and I quote, "Whatever we have available for sale is up on the website. If there isn't a listing, we are sold out of the item. Unfortunately, we do not customize guitars per customer order. The guitars pictured are what are available for sale." So I based my decision on this comment. Awesome, I liked the old look of the mint green pickguard and cream colored knobs. It kind of looked weathered and I thought that I could relic the body and make it look old used and abused. Here is the website http://www.guitarfetish.com/XV-870-Double-Cutaway-Solid-Body_c_152.html
Well... what I got was not what was pictured; however it was a beautiful looking guitar. They also failed to ship all of my order; I was missing a set of humbuckers and a gold tremolo arm. The strat is a three tone sunburst, not two. White pickguard and pickups and knobs. Satin finish neck with rosewood, not gloss maple. For me this is not a problem either. Neck is a C profile and feels just like my MIM strat. The satin finish makes it fast, it's just not what was pictured and what I expected. The nut is a graphtek nubone nut and was very nicely manicured. The frets are medium jumbo nickel and were very nicely filed, no sharps edges, no fret buzz, the action was great right out of the case (I bought the tweed case too). Now here came the problem. The neck was not straight. The strings near the headstock were evenly spaced, but as they approach the bridge the high E string got closer and closer to the edge of the fretboard until at about the 14th fret, it was nearly over the edge (see pictures).
So I contact customer service which is only via email, no phone contact, and send a pic of the neck. They say no problem, that should not be that way, they'll fix it. They will have UPS pick up the guitar from me on Monday (it is Friday and 48 hours after original delivery). I am also told that I got their new model which explains the white and not mint green/cream and that they must have missed updating their website. Personally I think that is a load of resistors but what do I know. Monday rolls around, no UPS. I send them an email and get no reply but on Tuesday, UPS is here. By Friday I get the replacement guitar. Exact same guitar but this time straight neck. Haven't played this one yet through an amp but I expect it to sound like the first. It has GFS Vintage Alnico Stagger pickups and captures the classic strat tone. It is a bit brighter than my MIM with Texas wounds but I can always change the pickups and plan to anyway. I bought this as a modding platform. Will probably change the bridge at some point too. The tuners, despite other reviews and comments I have read, seem very nice and this thing stays in tune very well.
So anyway, there is my story. I am both pleased with GuitarFetish and displeased. In the end I have a nice guitar, but I had to wait on customer service since they only do email. That is fine but they should be able to respond to emails the same day, not one or two days later. I feel somewhat mislead as the guitar I saw was not what I got. I was told UPS would show up on Monday they didn't show up until Tuesday. I didn't originally get my additional pickups and tremolo arm in the original order. In the end all is corrected and they stood by their warranty and replaced the product. Will I order again. I will actually. I am looking to purchase a tele copy from them. Hopefully I will have a better experience next go around. If I don't, they can expect a very bad review from me and will lose a customer as well as referrals. I'll do a video demo and post it here sometime later. Jay, if your reading this, sure would be great to be comp'd something - hint hint. ;-) And now the pictures of the good guitar. Give me your feedback everyone.
The first guitar - bad neck
The replacement. MUCH BETTER! She's pretty
I have a GFS strat bridge I'm dropping in a strat project. I'm replacing the saddles with some graphtec ones, but the block on that thing is heavy duty!
Glad you like your new guitar. Your story makes me not want to buy from them though.
Jacob
At the end of the day, I can understand your frustration but, we are talking about a sub-$200 guitar here and they made it right in the end. That's more than can be said for a lot of companies.
I think our expectations are a little too high sometimes. If it's possible to get a guitar for that price and actually have it be playable and be happy with it overall (with or without modding), then even if it takes an extra week, so be it.
I'm not trying to be a jerk to you. When I was coming up playing in the early 1990's, I bought a few $300 range guitars (which was just about the cheapest new you could get) and they were very poor and pretty much unplayable regardless of modification. A refund or replacement would have been impossible. Even guitars in the $500-600 range were just okay. About the equivalent of a $200-300 Epiphone or Ibanez now.
We are too spoiled with our options today I think. I'm not an old timer by any means but, to see people complain about super cheap items like having a few $0.65 pots be slightly bent upon arrival when you couldn't even easily get a pot just a few years ago, seems silly to me.
Wow--rant for no reason! Sorry guys! ::)
J
Just to be clear, I am very pleased with the guitar. I can even understand the wait for support due to the lack of phone support. They did make it right and stood behind the product and I like the guitar. What I am unhappy with is I feel like I was duped. If I am told that what you see on the website is what you get, then I should get what I ordered. Again, the guitar is quality especially for $200, It sounds great, it plays great, but it does not have the mint green/cream combo and the neck is not gloss. The color, the neck feel satin/gloss/natural can be important to some.
Yeah, I have noticed on the GFS site they aren't always accurate on any of their descriptions. They are clearly cut/pasted from another product. I've been browsing around their site and you will see the Alnico II description for the Alnico V pickups, etc. Just stuff like that.
I'm guessing their photos might be pasted in as well. Laziness more than anything.
I build websites for a living and it's surprisingly tough to get people to give you a photo and/or description of any new product. They tell you to get it on the site ASAP but when you ask for anything beyond the price it's like asking them to kill their mom sometimes.
*Duh!* someone is more likely to buy it if they know what the hell it is!
J
Being a quite frankly awful player, I tend to stick with cheaper axes. However I do have a prediliction to all things Fender of late and that goes nicely with my complete inability to leave anything standard. Had a MIM strat and have a MIM Baja Tele. Both are excellent, particularly the Tele which is my go-to axe. Indeed it's one of those that's pretty much nailed on out of the box (didn't stop me from changing things of course).
I've also got a Telemaster parts-o-caster that I got for peanuts. The body came from a Xaviere, that weighs an absolute ton, but I think that's more to do with the shape of it and the sheer amount of wood. The neck was replaced with a MIM fender one from a Classic 50's Strat. It came with a cheapo GFS tele bridge pup, that got swapped for a TV Jones. The guy previously had made it an esquire, I might drop in a SD mini hum in the neck that I picked up on ebay for buttons.
Anyhow, I've gone off on a tangent. Basically you have a base now. Now mod the crap out of it. Stick to ebay/forum classifieds and try and snag some bargains! All that remains of the Xavier Telemaster of mine is the body :) Trigger's broom-tastic! Oh and anything you take off, sell. It all goes towards the mods.