I wasn't expecting much for 110 dollars, but I have seen a lot worse. Neck was straight body painted good only had 1 scratch. fFrets was leveled but the frets needed polishing and cleaning still had mill residue on them from the factory. Turning it into a 72 parts caster under the pickduard the pickup connection was not sautered they looped around the wire connection where it should been sautered his would cause a short eventually. That was the worst thing.

Okay so here goes .. I have been playing guitar for 25 years, have a small studio, play just about every instrument . I have owned a ton of guitars and usually I buy expensive stuff.... 800 and up . I wanted to have a bigger collection of guitars but if I did that my fiancé would have killed me spending thousands on top quality guitars . I figured I would try these “ beginner “ cheap guitars . Yea some of them need a bit of work to get to sound nice ... if you are handy you can turn a cheap guitar into a expensive feeling guitar ... this guitar however came almost perfect... the neck is amazing , I needed to lover the action a little bit that was just my preference it really didn’t need it .. the nut was cut well, the pickups are good, the tuners are average. If you put better tuners on here you have a damn good guitar . I would play shows with this thing . One huge factor to a nice sounding guitar is do you have a nice amp , or at least nice pedals! If u have a tiny practice amp that sound like sh”t what do you think it will sound like . I will probably never buy a thousand dollar guitar again . I have about 15 electric guitars and they all are soo different ..this was a great add on !!!!

The guitar itself is nice for the money, sounded and played decently. Unfortunately it came with 2 damaged spots on the neck. On any other part of the guitar, I would tolerate some dingage, but not the neck. Drew the short straw on this one I guess.

This is the second Grote guitar I have bought, and I’m extremely glad that I did! The neck feels fantastic. Fret ends are dressed very well, an unusual thing in this price range (my first Grote was, as well!), neck feels very nice...not too thin, not too thick. I’m not 100% certain what the top is, but it looks to be some sort of plywood, with poly over a printed design. If you’re a believer in tone wood, this probably isn’t for you. That said, this thing sounds great through my Bugera T5! Pickups have that typical Tele sound and feel to them, without any microphonic noise. Definitely has a wiring issue, which is something I come across on quite a few of the Chinese guitars. I haven’t cracked it open to correct that yet, but will most likely change the tone cap and possibly even the pots while I’m at it. Volume control doesn’t shut off the volume. This is usually nothing more than a switched wire, which I’m sure is what I will find. I’m not really liking the feel of the volume pot anyway, so if I replace it, won’t hurt my feelings. I have plenty of good used ones lying about😉. Shipping was a nightmare! They send the guitar in just the inner box, usually. My first one of this model arrived with damage visible after opening the package and both knobs pushed through the broken pickguard. Initiated a return, and got the new one inside a second, bigger box...but no padding or anything to stop the guitar moving around. Still and all, this one arrived without damage, and the return/exchange couldn’t have been easier.This guitar is definitely a good player and, once I correct the wiring issue that it has, I would have zero issue with playing it out. It’s just a really solid guitar, well worth the $114, after tax, that I paid for it! Thanks, Grote!!!

Perfect starter Tele-style guitar! I've never owned a Fender Telecaster so, after 25 years of playing Strat-style guitars, I wanted to try one out for the fun of it without breaking the bank, so I opted for this one. My friend has a real Fender Tele, and this Grote one is darn close in terms of tone and playability. The semi-hollow body also provides an extra bit of "resonance" and sustain on notes, giving them a very nice "singing" quality. The fret work is really good with no sharp edges and the neck itself is solid, having a nice super smooth "C" style neck shape for the playing hand (it's a bit thicker than a Strat, which is great for Blues, Country, and Jazz playing).However, one warning: I had to fully "set up" this Grote guitar before it was truly "playable" for my tastes; this is why I only gave it 4 stars (among other things noted below in the "Cons" section). The neck relief was way off due to the truss rod being too loose (bowed in too much), making the action super high. It took 3-4 good tightening turns on the truss rod nut headstock to get it to the relief I like (i.e. .007 of an inch at the 8th fret, like Yngwie. For comparison, SRV liked a .012 relief because he liked higher action). NOTE: If you're not able to do this type of work, be sure to take the guitar to a reputable Guitar Tech for a "Setup". But, if you've setup guitars before, this one will be a breeze to do. In fact, the Grote people were nice enough to include a truss rod allen wrench to facilitate the truss rod adjustment. All that being said, once the neck was straightened out (and a new set of D'Addario 10-46 guage strings were put on), it played and sounded really good!Other setup changes: The pick up at the bridge seemed to high (close to the strings), so I lowered that one, and the pick at the neck seemed to low (away from the strings), so I raised it (this improved the tone as well). The intotation was also almost perfect as well, even after I straightened out the neck truss rod relief. I only had to figit with a couple of strings that were a tad bit flat on the higher register frets, but it's very easy to correct this with a small phillips head screw driver at the back of the steel bridge.***Overall Pros: Nice solid wood, solid contruction, solid switches and knobs, smooth fast neck, average to good pickups (they're strong on the hum so make sure you have a good shielded instrument cable and some sort of noise gate in front of your amp. Grote provides a cheap instrument cable, but it will only "hum/buzz" your amp beyond belief!), also has nice singing tone due to the semi-hollow body, and can be strung either through the body from the back or directly through the steel bridge.***Overall Cons: Frets are medium, which are a bit small for me, steel bridge is a bit low quality (but what do you expect for this price range!), tuners at the headstock are a bit cheap, but they do stay in tune fairly well if you properly stretch out your strings after changing, pickups are medium output, so don't expect too much gain, nut at headstock is plastic, but (again), what do you expect.And, last but not least, the "graphic" on the top of the guitar - the quilted maple look - is nowhere NEAR as nice in person as in the picture. In person, the quilts are much darker and the overall brighness you see in the picture is totally absent. This was a bit of a let down for me as the quilted maple top in the pic looked so pretty, but it's nothing like that in person. Not saying it's ugly, but just expect a darker more drab presentation of the quilted top (which actually looks like a graphic that was glued on top of the body wood to simulate a quilted maple top rather than being true, real quilted maple).But, all that being said, my newly bought black "Grote GT-150 Super Series" is now in my collection of guitars and I plan on keeping it. Some new locking tuners, a new tusq nut, roller string trees, a new set of super high quality pickups and electronic controls, new steel bridge, and - whalla - I'll have something very darn close to a Fender Custom Shop guitar (well, at least in my mind! LOL!). Thanks for reading, hope all this helps!