I had lost out on a half-price American-made Fender Telecaster, but a Tele was still on my Wish List.

Problem was, life circumstances had changed a little, and even if I had found another deal like that, I couldn’t really justify shelling out that kind of money for another guitar. Even a cheaper made-in-Mexico model would be stretching the ol’ budget.

I mean, it’s not as if I’m a working musician. I’m a bedroom musician. The only person who hears me play is my son when we occasionally jam together. And I already had four guitars.

But I also had the dreaded GAS. I wanted my Tele!

 

 

One day I was thumbing through Guitar World magazine, and an ad caught my eye. It was the Tele I was looking for, but it was a clone manufactured by Xaviere guitars. Intrigued, I checked out their website, and liked what I saw. I prowled various guitar forums looking for independent opinions; those who had tried Xaviere were almost unanimous in their praise.

So I took a leap of faith and ordered their XV-820 and a hardshell case for it. Including shipping, the total cost was…$266.00! And I must say, I’m very happy with it. It’s not real great at staying in tune, but I’ll replace the tuners and it should be fine.