New Classic Vibe Esquires

dazzajl

Funkfingers said:

I'm surprised that Anderton's has not arranged for a purple Peter Honoré Telecaster Thinline.

Give them time, they’ve done everything else in purple now. Not that I disapprove, I think they all look amazing, especially that purple/tort strat. 

Greatape

Still got a mere whisper of a neck, I imagine?

I totally get that if you as the manufacturer look on them purely as 'student' guitars, but the way things are going for 'disposable income', a wise man might do a run with a chunkier neck for the financially challenged. 

Chuffola

I accidentally appear to have bought one of the Esquires this morning. Will update later once I've had a chance to tinker and play with it. 

First impressions are great

Alterlifeson

Chuffola said:

I accidentally appear to have bought one of the Esquires this morning. Will update later once I've had a chance to tinker and play with it. 

First impressions are great

We'll need a NGD post for sure. I am millimetres from pulling the trigger myself.

Chuffola

Alterlifeson said:

We'll need a NGD post for sure. I am millimetres from pulling the trigger myself.

I'll not do a full NGD but here's my impressions having played about with it most of the afternoon.

Called into a guitar store this morning with no real intention of buying anything - they had 3 of these hanging on the wall. The black, which looks superb with the double bound body, the sunburst and the blue. I played the black and the sunburst and decided on the burst because I'm a sucker for a 60s burst with dark fretboard.  When home, I changed the strings to 10s and gave the Laurel fretboard a taste of lemon oil. 

The Good:  Fit and finish are superb. Neck seated really well, can't find any flaws at all in the finish or the binding. Looks gorgeous. All 3 normal Esquire tones are there and the tone pot works nicely with a full range rather than on / off, so suspect decent pots in there. Full throttle is fairly spikey, so the middle position with tone rolled back a touch is nice.  The 3rd position is dark, wooly and not for me.  Tuners work well, nut cut nicely - all aligned properly and not too high. Laurel fretboard is grand and dark and from any distance looks like rosewood.  3 steel (?) saddles - I'll definitely swap to Gotoh Intune thingies asap to help intonation up the fretboard and, again, that's an easy mod. 

The Bad: The frets are level but very, very scratchy. So need a polish - no biggie and I'll do it soon.  The pickup sounds pretty low output and a bit bland - but as always, a personal thing really. I'll probably swap it out for something a little juicier. With gain, it does sound great, so since I bought this as a pure rock'n'roll knockabout guitar that's good. Clean its just a bit weak and anaemic. The neck is standard CV - not much too it but, even though I prefer something with more girth (oo-er) it suits the guitar somehow and is perfectly playable. 

The Ugly: Nothing. It looks fantastic, would be a great basis for upgrading bits and bobs. 

It's a lot of guitar for £370 and it's always fun having a one-pickup guitar in the house. I'd recommend you pull the trigger - the black one played fine in the shop too and fit / finish was just as good and with the double bound body looks stunning. I just like a 60's burst on a Tele and I'll be swapping the white pickguard for a black one when I order the new saddles. 

TTBZ

Anyone else had any experience with these now they've been out a while? Anderton's have them down to a clearance price of £335 and I'm very tempted. @Chuffola how did you get on with polishing the frets, was the scratchiness an easy fix?

Chuffola

Frets polished up easily at first string change. Great little guitars, although mine went in a recent sale of gear.

In retrospect, I’m think it would be better to buy a standard CV Tele and “esquire” it. There’s no neck pickup routing should you wish to go to full Tele. 

Really well made though and look superb.

TTBZ

I decided against it anyway as I thought a HX Stomp was a better use of the money at the minute! As in it'll actually give me something to play through at home rather than another guitar I just play unplugged

I don't mind the lack of a neck route on these though, they look great with the pickguard off too. Might eventually get one when they start showing up 2nd hand if they're cheap. Or look for one of the older double bound CVs.