- EART TL-380 Professional Electric Guitar for Versatile Players | Roasted Maple Neck & Fingerboard, Humbuckers with Coil-Split, Stainless Steel Frets, Gloss Finish

I watched many videos on YouTube about this guitar. The reviews I watched were all very positive, so I ordered one. The reviews were correct. This guitar would be hard to beat at this price point. The pickups are very hot through my Fender Prosonic and difficult to lower at room level (mostly due to the high gain Prosonic), so I purchased a Blues JR IV to use it with, and levels are manageable with a lot of nice sound options. Workmanship on guitar exceeded some Gibsons and Fenders. Great neck and nice rounded frets on an attractive roasted maple neck. Finish has a couple very minor paint flaws that aren’t noticeable unless you look for them. It will be my “go to” practice guitar as I’m very happy and surprised at its looks, playability and sound.

I am not a Telecaster (excuse me, "T-style") fanatic by any stretch, but I get a huge kick out of playing my TL-380. Every Eart I have played is an amazing value, has great build quality, and is just plain fun, and this one is no exception.Minus 1/2 star for the stock pickups. They're OK but nothing special, which is what you'd expect at this price point.

Crazy how good it is

Alright...this is a first impressions review.So, is it the best guitar I've ever had? Nah. Certainly not.BUT...for two and a half bills...I'm a bit taken aback.The fretwork is as is shown on the photos: each fret end is perfectly rounded and polished. The ends of the fret slots are sealed with a filler.The neck is a nice, fat, chunky C shape. Very vintage LP-like. It might not be for all players, but I tend to like fatter necks.The guitar came set up very well, and after a bit of tuning I was wheedly wheeing my heart out. The finish on the neck is fantastic.The blue metallic finish on the body could have used a bit more buffing and polishing at the factory, but honestly I'm OK with that given the price point.Wiring is clean enough. Pots look to be copies of CTS designs. The tremolo is surprisingly good! The baseplate and saddles are magnetic, so those are definitely steel. The sustain block is likely zinc, it is not magnetic, and taking a file to it reveals a silvery color.The tuners have a high gear ratio and feel quite nice. The nut is cut quite well too.Truss rod adjustment is easy, EART sends these out with a nice little trem-bar style tool to adjust the wheel. The screws that attach the spring claw are a bit awkward looking, though: they're a large button-head style and don't allow the claw to sit very nearly.Tuning stability is about what you'd expect...don't abuse the whammy, but it returns quite well. It's set up from the factory for dive-only, but there's a little space in there to float it.First thing I did was slap on some elixir lite top heavy bottoms and tuned down to C standard. It's a wonderfully resonant guitar played acoustically: better than the majority of dead-sounding gaudily finished imports from GC.Honestly...I have no idea how they can offer a guitar that is *this* good for *this* cheap. It's kind of amazing.I plan on doing some mods: locking tuners, gotoh vs100n trem, BKP pickups, switch to black hardware. It's a steal when compared to anything twice the price...certainly worthy of players of all skill levels.

I ordered a honey burst copy when Amazon temporarily dropped the price from $400 to $280. My experience matches the apparent consensus of reviews here: These are basically well-built guitars, with some compromises matching low-cost Chinese manufacture. The pickups are OK but not ideal; the pop-in trem arm has a design hitch; and some cosmetic glitches might escape QC.For a more reliable option in this style, you could pay just a bit more for a Schecter PT Van Nuys (ash) or a Sire T7 FM (alder). Other reviews compare this to a Charvel San Dimas, but that's currently a 24-fret guitar with Fluence pickups, a different animal.Note that what Eart is shipping now looks different from the listing photos. Instead of a blonde maple neck, mine is roasted and/or stained to a deep amber.PROS: One-piece neck is fantastic, if you're OK with the dark color – its smooth satin finish, front and back, is just perfect. Normal tonewoods, not substitute woods. Moderate weight. Body looks much better than the listing photos, with well-matched, straight mahogany grain (but one small imperfection, below). Pickups split well. Pots have good taper (and cool knobs). Pop-in trem arm would be a convenience (if not for the design hitch, below).CONS: Pickups, evidently designed for high-gain rock, are ceramic and sizzly. (You can clean them up by reducing amp gain, and they do split well.) Even with a pickups swap, mahogany body will probably never have the same open Fender tone as a traditional alder or ash Telecaster. Body has a small finish imperfection (a light spot) on the front, which shouldn't have passed QC. (But it's not visible beyond 2 feet away, so not a reason to return the guitar.) Forearm carve is welcome, but it's cut to a sharp edge that really shows through transparent finishes. Pop-in trem arm has a serious design flaw – a spur that's meant to lock it in. Meaning, if you tighten the set screw to hold the angle you want (which is the whole point of a pop-in arm), it's almost impossible to get the arm into or out of the guitar. It's an unusually fat arm, too, so you can't readily swap in something like a PRS pop-in arm.