Monoprice Indio Tele

[t100d]

Pulled the trigger last night on Monoprice's butterscotch Tele, on sale for $84.99—looked at Amazon Prime, two vendors asking $152.99 … like, I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid!!
Free shipping, 30-day money back return, what's not to like?

I've been hankerin' for some Tele goodness for a while now, and this offer came up right before my birhday next week—did a quick CL sale on a VOX AD15, plus $25 from last gig's tip jar. The boss was somewhat peeved at first, but came around finally (phew!)

Due to have shipped today, can't wait to see what I'm getting for my $$—reviews overall are very good …
Anybody out there have one, and what was your experience? Expecting to do some setup and maybe fret polishing, of course.

Would have preferred maple board, but that only comes on the other colors (was thinking about getting one of each and switching necks, but that won't fly!)

Mods? Baja? Nashville? 5-way switch? P90's? Gold foils, etc?

[BatUtilityBelt]

Happy pending NGD! If it sounds like a tele, that's the important thing. As for tele mods, the one I can't rave enough about is the 4-way switch mod. Instead of just 1-Bridge, 2-Bridge+neck in parallel, 3-Neck, it adds a 4th - Bridge+neck in series. Fantastic rich tone.

[ID10t]

Pulled the trigger last night on Monoprice's butterscotch Tele, on sale for $84.99—looked at Amazon Prime, two vendors asking $152.99 … like, I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid!!
Free shipping, 30-day money back return, what's not to like?

I've been hankerin' for some Tele goodness for a while now, and this offer came up right before my birhday next week—did a quick CL sale on a VOX AD15, plus $25 from last gig's tip jar. The boss was somewhat peeved at first, but came around finally (phew!)

Due to have shipped today, can't wait to see what I'm getting for my $$—reviews overall are very good …
Anybody out there have one, and what was your experience? Expecting to do some setup and maybe fret polishing, of course.

Would have preferred maple board, but that only comes on the other colors (was thinking about getting one of each and switching necks, but that won't fly!)

Mods? Baja? Nashville? 5-way switch? P90's? Gold foils, etc?

I have a green one. I like it. It required a lot of work on frets. Sprouts, level et al, I also recently and to mallot down 2 frets (I think 19 &20) that worked up. I put in the 4-way switch. I put in a set of Dragonfire pickups because I could.
For the price it is great for me because I've learned a lot on it and how bad could I screw it up?
It was my first and only tele tele, I have a double cut tele too.
I think you'll like it or will at least be worth it.

[sabasgr68]

Great! Show it here as soon as you get it!

[aullucci]

Happy pending NGD! If it sounds like a tele, that's the important thing. As for tele mods, the one I can't rave enough about is the 4-way switch mod. Instead of just 1-Bridge, 2-Bridge+neck in parallel, 3-Neck, it adds a 4th - Bridge+neck in series. Fantastic rich tone.

I just bought the stuff to do the 4 way mod on a squire affinity tele. I don’t love the pups either so I’m thinking about replacing everything at once but everyone says that’s the best mod for a tele.

As far as your mono price, I don’t have that guitar but have the 5w amp and the California strat. Their stuff is usually good and the return policy is very good - that strat came with three tone knobs instead of two tone/one volume. When I emailed to ask for a replacement they apologized because they don’t keep any parts so they couldn’t send me a new knob. They did offer to send me a replacement guitar, which I thought slightly overkill…

[sabasgr68]

I have a green one. I like it. It required a lot of work on frets. Sprouts, level et al, I also recently and to mallot down 2 frets (I think 19 &20) that worked up. I put in the 4-way switch. I put in a set of Dragonfire pickups because I could.
For the price it is great for me because I've learned a lot on it and how bad could I screw it up?
It was my first and only tele tele, I have a double cut tele too.
I think you'll like it or will at least be worth it.

Did you show yours here, Brian? Not sure if I remember...

[ID10t]

I have a green one. I like it. It required a lot of work on frets. Sprouts, level et al, I also recently and to mallot down 2 frets (I think 19 &20) that worked up. I put in the 4-way switch. I put in a set of Dragonfire pickups because I could.
For the price it is great for me because I've learned a lot on it and how bad could I screw it up?
It was my first and only tele tele, I have a double cut tele too.
I think you'll like it or will at least be worth it.

Did you show yours here, Brian? Not sure if I remember...

I've had it a while and I'm not big on NGD for myself, I'm not worth listening to or reading.

[sabasgr68]

I have a green one. I like it. It required a lot of work on frets. Sprouts, level et al, I also recently and to mallot down 2 frets (I think 19 &20) that worked up. I put in the 4-way switch. I put in a set of Dragonfire pickups because I could.
For the price it is great for me because I've learned a lot on it and how bad could I screw it up?
It was my first and only tele tele, I have a double cut tele too.
I think you'll like it or will at least be worth it.

Did you show yours here, Brian? Not sure if I remember...

I've had it a while and I'm not big on NGD for myself, I'm not worth listening to or reading.

I´d disagree on the last part, but it´s ok if you prefer not to NGDed yourself

[jtcnj]

For those that have these - do they balance well standing - no neck dive?

EDIT: I have one en route as well..

[ID10t]

For those that have these - do they balance well standing - no neck dive?

EDIT: I have one en route as well..

Yes, yes, and no. I don't play standing, however... It balances well when I play sitting and I did stand and play it for a minute, just for you.
No neck dive and balanced and adjusts well if you move the neck up a little or down a little until you get to about say 4 o'clock, at which point momentum makes it want to continue to 5 o'clock.
I did also change the tuners to Amazon bought Wilkinson which weight wise are really no different than stock.
I also have a cheap 2 inch nylon strap, if I got well-hung then the total cost wouldn't allow me to appreciate its value.

Hope that helps.

[jtcnj]

@t100d Did yours ship?
When I ordered the listing said "in stock", ships today ....... but hasn't shipped yet.
Got an email says they are experiencing delays.

[ILuvTeles]

@jtcnj - When I ordered mine a few weeks ago it took a couple days to actually be picked up & show tracking info.

[t100d]

Ordered mine on the evening of the 23rd, and it came this afternoon (25th)!
Do you really need pics? We've all seen them ad, right? https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610261
In my OP I said it was Butterscotch, but actually it's "Blonde", kind of a 1950's kitchen-remodel rich cream—maybe I'll send pics when I'm done setting it up …

Gig bag is great value, well padded.
As expected, frets were level but minimally dressed—spent a happy half hour with my trusty FretGuru file and made a first pass at the fret ends and also softened the ends of the nut, which was protruding a bit at the high E end.
Adjusted the action—D was high, lowered it and the A and E, and intonated the bridge which was a fair amount off, but no issue with low E as some have experienced. Love the 6-saddle bridge, I wasn't looking for Ur-Tele format …

Strings are serviceable, and I played for 2-3 hours—fast neck, nice pickups (no noticeable hum), good pot action, selector switch solid. Nice tonal range, plays well through my Mustang III, can't wait to try it with the '51 Fender 5A3 Deluxe. All my other guitars are humbuckers, except for the Guild Slim Jim with those marvelous Franz P90's, so am enjoying the single coil experience—my wife says she can't hear the difference, but to me it's really apparent.

Jack socket is really tight, but I guess that's a plus …

Balance is perfect, not too heavy, not too light, right in the Goldilocks zone for me.
When I have a little more time I will take off the stock strings (which aren't bad), moisturize the fingerboard, check fret leveling, which seems to be good, and major chore will be to touch up crowning and give the frets a badly-needed polishing, then throw on a set of Thomastik-Infeld Power Bright 10's (stock are 10-46)

Tuners seem to be good so far, might put on some Kluson string trees and Dunlop StrapLocks—don't know if I'll mess with the headstock shape, I can live with it for now.

Still can't believe I only paid $84.99 plus tax, and with free shipping and a gig bag? Sheesh!

[sabasgr68]

Ordered mine on the evening of the 23rd, and it came this afternoon (25th)!
Do you really need pics? We've all seen them ad, right? https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610261
In my OP I said it was Butterscotch, but actually it's "Blonde", kind of a 1950's kitchen-remodel rich cream—maybe I'll send pics when I'm done setting it up …

Gig bag is great value, well padded.
As expected, frets were level but minimally dressed—spent a happy half hour with my trusty FretGuru file and made a first pass at the fret ends and also softened the ends of the nut, which was protruding a bit at the high E end.
Adjusted the action—D was high, lowered it and the A and E, and intonated the bridge which was a fair amount off, but no issue with low E as some have experienced. Love the 6-saddle bridge, I wasn't looking for Ur-Tele format …

Strings are serviceable, and I played for 2-3 hours—fast neck, nice pickups (no noticeable hum), good pot action, selector switch solid. Nice tonal range, plays well through my Mustang III, can't wait to try it with the '51 Fender 5A3 Deluxe. All my other guitars are humbuckers, except for the Guild Slim Jim with those marvelous Franz P90's, so am enjoying the single coil experience—my wife says she can't hear the difference, but to me it's really apparent.

Jack socket is really tight, but I guess that's a plus …

Balance is perfect, not too heavy, not too light, right in the Goldilocks zone for me.
When I have a little more time I will take off the stock strings (which aren't bad), moisturize the fingerboard, check fret leveling, which seems to be good, and major chore will be to touch up crowning and give the frets a badly-needed polishing, then throw on a set of Thomastik-Infeld Power Bright 10's (stock are 10-46)

Tuners seem to be good so far, might put on some Kluson string trees and Dunlop StrapLocks—don't know if I'll mess with the headstock shape, I can live with it for now.

Still can't believe I only paid $84.99 plus tax, and with free shipping and a gig bag? Sheesh!

Congrats! Enjoy it! Good summary/review. No neck dive then?

[notme]

I bought the blue one as i wanted the maple neck. Just the fret ends needed touch up and the usual setup. Its a nice deep navy blue color, looks really good, and is the best value in a guitar today id say, far better then any Firefly lottery.

[t100d]

Gigged the Indio last night for the first time—lots of tonal variation, no neck dive, and not heavy at all. Then the band leader called "Cissy Strut" and I cranked the bridge pickup in my "Scofield" amp setting— OMG!! What a sound! Sustain for miles and miles, bright and warm at the same time. We had a big crowd (outside Art Walk), and the response was like they had had a direct spinal injection!! I'm sold …
Apparently a friend did some video, if it's any good I'll put it up.