Buy it, take it to a Luthier to get it set up well, and enjoy. Iām confident that it will play wonderfully with the nut, tuners and pickups from the factory.
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Iāve found that the term āplasticā covers a lot of ground and causes confusion. āSyntheticā would perhaps be better. Many high-end guitars have quality synthetics like Tusq, because natural bone can be inconsistent, with softer and harder spots. Weāre not talking about plastic like that used in model airplanes.
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Never had a HB but I have got 2 Squires a tele style and a strat stle never had any problems with them
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The plastic nut doesnāt have to be bad. If you will have problems, you can still easily exchange it later. But on Fender guitars with those strings in a straight line having a less good nut I suspect the problem is not as bad as on others where they come in a serious angle and the softer plastic could potentially lead to tuning problems.
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I trust Richard of course!
Having said that, they have tons of models at Thomann and some may have more serious quality problems than others.
What Iād like to point out is thereās often lots of reviews and you can - if you click on āread all reviwsā sort for the latest date and then see what the latest customers think. Of course, take these with your own grain of salt. -
Being in the EU, you will probably not have any problems with returning the guitar. Normally, the service is good at Thomann.
Good luck whatever you do!
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It depends on what you want and what you play. I play everything from The Rolling Stones to John Mellencamp to Def Leppard to RATT to Iron Maiden and even some 80s thrash. So if you want a true single coil Telecaster and are willing to upgrade and mod it then it can be worth it. I bought a Harley Benton TE-30 Telecaster from the Harley Benton U.S. Reverb Store for $179 this year, 2025. I have a total of $479 in my guitar. Including parts, actual guitar and labor from the best tech in my state. Hereās the specs with mods of my TE-30. Tell me I couldāve done this cheaper by buying a different Telecaster?
Mods; new Tusq Nut, Fender 58 Steel Saddles, DiMarzio 500K Volume and tone pots, Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Pickup Set, complete setup, complete fret polish and sand the fret edges/tangs and finally a fresh set of DāAddario EPS520 Pro Steels (wow were the stock strings trash. So here are the specs now:
One piece slab Ash Body (I wanted ash badly)
Bolt on classic C Shape maple neck with unfinished maple fretboard (unfinished maple fretboard was another spec I wanted)
12" radius fretboard (12"radius is another spec I wanted)
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Accidentally hit post. Rest of specs
Classic 3 saddle ashtray bridge (definitely wanted an ashtray and not a flat bridge)
DiMarzio 500K Volume and tone pots
Tusq/Bone nut
Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Pickups
Polished frets with rolled fret edges/tangs
Fender 58 Steel Saddles
DāAddario EPS520 Pro Steels 9-42
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The action depends on all those things, but the nut has to be cut right first, then the truss rod adjusted, then the bridge height and finally the intonation done. If you do any of the others first, then cut the nut, youāll have to do them again!