The last electric guitar I owned was an Ibanez SA160FM. Used, but in good condition. It even came with locking tuners which are not standard on that model . It was a cool guitar. But it wasn’t for me. Gradually I began to realize that my bass player’s mind would never know peace with a floating tremolo system. And if all you’re going to do is lock it down, why have it in the first place? I sold it when moved to California. I kind donated the Katana 50 watt modeling amplifier that I’d used with it to the EB studio. I think it’s still there being used for something or other. 

But I still had a hankering for a solid body electric guitar. A telecaster-style one, maybe. Something with a hard tail. No frills. Two pickups and a 3-way switch. I eyed up the Sire T3, but just never pulled the trigger on it. But then, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a tele for $60 on Temu. 

It was more out of curiosity than anything else, or so I told myself. I mean, what do you get for $60? And could a little TLC make it into something worth owning? 

Well, it arrived a week ago or so. I was mostly pleased with it at first glance. I mean, the tuners were probably shit, and god knows what I’ll find in the control cavity as far as electronic components and soldering. The string action was too high, but the neck seemed alright. 

Then I noticed that the bridge seemed slightly out of place. The strings looked properly aligned at the nut, but down at the other end of the fretboard, the low E seemed way to close to the edge of the fretboard while the high E seemed to have gotten even further from the edge. I thought I would probably have to remove the bridge, fill the holes, drill new ones and reinstall lit a millimeter or so from where it originally was. 

But then I had an idea. Maybe I could loosen the screws on the back plate and move the neck a little. Well, today I tried it and it worked. At least well enough that I don’t feel like I should move the bridge anymore. Nice! I then measured the neck relief and found it to be just a smidge over 8 thou. I went with it. I brought all the string heights down to 4 thousandths of an inch. It place nicely now. 

Also I finally got around to plugging it into my bass rig. The electronics work just fine. Hard to say exactly what it sounds like because it’s going through a pedal board and an amplifier designed for bass guitar, but so far so good. 

Which got me shopping for used, inexpensive guitar amps. I really didn’t want to spend $350 on a decent one, but I also didn’t want a shit one. But the good news is, I think I have threaded that needle. I scooped up a used Fender Champion 50XL combo amp for $110 plus $30 shipping. With tax that puts me at $148.51, all in. 

Feature-wise, it looks a lot like the Katana. I’m sure Fender made the Champion 50XL to compete with it. It’s got two channels, several “voices” (amp modeling), built in effects, aux in, headphone out, and a 12” Celestion speaker in an open-back enclosure. Pretty sweet. You could gig an amp like that very easily. 

And the guitar? The first fret action seems high. I will have to bust out the nut files and see to it. The treble side of the fret ends could use some filing. And I haven’t even looked at the intonation yet. But so far this no-name, blank headstock tele feels like a real bargain. 

It’s my Temu-caster. That’s what it is.  And it’s proving to be a lot of fun.