When Sire announced an update to their TL range early this year, I was very excited. I was in a market for a telecaster and this one seemed to tick all the boxes, so I waited patiently until they finally released it this autumn. I never owned a Sire before, but read about some QC issues, so I ordered two guitars, just in case. And rightfully so, as one of the guitars had a very loose-feeling jack and faulty electronics (only the neck pickup worked). The guitar went straight to the box.
The other one was great, though. No finish flaws, decent hardware, everything working as expected. The setup was perfect. And I mean PERFECT. The action, relief, saddles and most importantly perfectly cut nut (10/10). I owned many guitars and every single one of them, cheap or expensive, was far from perfect and in 90% of them I needed to recut the nut myself.
Pickups sound nice, the bridge is twangy and neck articulate. The body is very comfortable, not too heavy. The neck is super comfy - not too skinny and feels nice. Frets are smooth and level. Guitar stays in tune. Overall, a keeper.
So why did I give it two stars only? Doesn't make sense at all, does it? Well, all because of one of their flagship 'features'. Rolled frets. While the fretboard edge is nicely rounded (although too much for my taste), the frets are horrendous. Basically, they roll the frets so much, they give them a very wide taper. The frets begin to curve down really soon. What that means is both E strings have a natural tendency to slip off the fretboard. In some positions it was so bad, I couldn't play the guitar. This is madness. I liked the guitar so much I thought about keeping it and doing a refret, but that'd be super ridiculous, so I sent it back.
Dear Sire - we don't need frets that are crazy rolled. All we need is perfectly fit and leveled frets that don't stick out and are nicely rounded. Just enough, so that they feel nice and smooth under the fingers. You are ruining a great guitar with that silly feature of yours. I assume it differs from one guitar to another and I'm sure some examples are perfectly playable, but mine was ruined by that very thing.
