Fazley FTL218CB Electric Guitar (Cherry Burst)

Absolutely brilliant cheap guitar. Does everything you'd expect at this price point and a bit more. Certainly fills the telecaster hole I had in my collection. Next step is to upgrade to gold hardware, which in my opinion would make this a stunning piece of kit.

I’ve been playing for over 50 years and wanted a budget electric for noodling at home. Having looked at the second hand market without success, I thought I’d give a Fazley a try. Guitar arrived, as promised, in two days. The inner box had suffered a little damage but the guitar survived okay. Having watched several reviews on YouTube I was ready to spend some time adjusting string height, intonation and neck relief but was amazed when I didn’t need to do any of these. Intonation was bang on! The Cherry Burst Finish is really good apart from one tiny ding in the back. I won’t concern myself with that. The grain shows nicely through the finish. Some reviewers have criticised the finish on the neck but I found it ok. They have also said that they would immediately upgrade the hardware, I won’t be doing any of that, I’ll let my Marshall take care of sound adjustment. If all Fazleys arrive as well set up as mine no one will be disappointed. For the price, honestly, I don’t know how it’s possible. A happy old man.

Received the guitar in a very poor state, someone in the postal system had cut a large "Z" in the outer carton, I presume to inspect, and the guitar was half out of the inner box which had two holes where the volume and tone knobs pushed through the card - the guitar had a minor chip to the back and a dent in the headstock - No fault of BAX.
Apart from the above, the guitar was fine. Tuned up very well and stayed in tune. The frets had no sharp ends and the nut was the cut well. I lowered the bridge saddles, tweaked the truss rod and, well, it's a nice little guitar that plays well and has very good pick ups for home use, etc. The neck is lovely and the guitar has a nice weight. Only fault not attributed to the postal system is an overspill of red colouring on the cream binding, but for its price this is a great instrument and well worth the money.
In short, nice electric guitar, superb for a beginner and cheap enough to have in the living room with dogs running about. As others have said, a very nice Tele sound and a fantastic base for upgrading. Buy one. !!

For the price, pretty good!

I bought this for two reasons. One to have a guitar in a room with wild temperature fluctuations (I don't want to harm my more expensive guitars) and the other was to act as a testing ground for guitar repair tasks before I attack the others with tools. (And to act as a 'project' guitar to upgrade over time.)

I was quite surprised to be honest. It's a cute guitar! And it sounds a lot better than it should do, really.

There are problems of course. There are some small imperfections in the finish, which aren't noticeable from a distance. The neck was a little rough, as was the fretboard, giving a cheap feel. The fretboard looked a little unwell and varicoloured. (Not in a good way!) The components are cheap, and obviously so. Frets are quite uneven in height and there's some buzzing if I hit the strings hard. (I'm quite the beginner so I may be over-working it.)

However, armed with a bottle of F-one oil, some replacement strings and some 0000 grade wire wool, I gave the fretboard a good polish and a drink, then restrung it. The difference is amazing! The fretboard suddenly looks deep, rich and healthy and feels smooth as butter. The frets are less scratchy and more shiny.

I removed a lot of the roughness from the back of the neck as well, using the same wire wool (gently).

It feels like a different guitar.

Next I look forward to learning how to level the frets and adjust the relief and action, to get rid of that buzzing.

Overall: great if you're just starting out. It's a cheap way in and sounds nice. And if you want to put a little work into it, it'll reward you. Being a tele-style, it's a very simple machine if you're into learning the luthier side of things.