I already have the TE-62CC in blue and love it. I upgraded it with 51 Nocaster pickups, fender vintage 3 brass saddles and Mojotone T-harness.
This TE-62DB is with Laurel fretboard and double binding.
The binding is gorgeous! very well done. The color of it is that of a guitar played for decades in a bar filled with cigar smoke. Lovely looking.
The Laurel was my biggest concern. But this one is not as bright in color as the ones on SQ guitars I've seen on the net. Its not as dark as rosewood but certainly not ugly. I like it and will try and find a way to use a darker tree oil to just get a bit darker. The feel under the fingers is like rosewood, very slick. It was not dry and feels like it has a natural oil in it. I like that.
The body-neck connection is perfect. The whole guitar played great out of the box. Tune half step-down, then a whole step down with stock strings and sounds great! Lowered the action to under 2mm, about 1.8mm and plays great.
The fretwork is just sick good! Very polished frets, well leveled, no sharp edges, as nice as the frets on my two Fender guitars!
The TE-62CC Ive bought previously had rough frets and needed polishing, but also nicely done frets.
Pickups sound ok. If this was my first guitar I would be happy with it big time! What a great axe! But for me it sounds a bit too ... like a teenager in a car. Its not balanced. Its either too in your face or goes too thin, depending on the volume knob and tone knob positions.
But I do enjoy the middle position (both pickups) into my two amps (Vox AC15 and Egnater Tweaker 15). Unplugged sounds and feels great under the fingers.
I am planning to mod it with a Bigsby tremolo, fender large pots and switch and different pickups (either Fender Twisted or Pure 64).
NOTE: the bridge of these HB Teles is further away from the 21st fret than on Fenders, which means there will not be much place left between the Bigsby and the bridge plate. Maybe nothing or only 1mm.
