NGD - More Roasted Tele Goodness!

[slowhand84]

Just arrived, and finally I have a tele I really dig that actually SOUNDS like a tele, plays great, has modern features, and was cheap as hell (I admittedly am not a huge fan of teles in general, so that last part was kind of important...this isn't a guitar I'm going to play daily so didn't wanna spend too much).

Enter this Eart NK-C1 Tele that I grabbed from good ole' GC for $199. They're available on Amazon for $400-ish shipped. This is my first experience with the Eart brand, and I don't think this guitar has ever been reviewed here so I'm going to try to get pretty thorough for anyone who may be looking at these...but the verdict is it flat out rocks!

Nicely grained two piece mahogany body with a pretty killer flame maple veneer, roasted maple neck and board, stainless frets, ultra smooth tuners (never heard of this company - Der Jung - but I'm impressed!), and the pickups while nothing to write home about sound pretty damn good and spanky. String thru body bridge too, which is always my preference.

The fretwork on this guitar is incredible, not a single uneven fret across the entire board and they do this interesting thing I've never seen before where the fret doesn't actually come all the way up to the edge of the board, so you can't feel 'em at all. They're all perfectly rounded too. It actually (and shockingly) arrived in tune, plays great with nice low action, and the neck profile (while a tad thinner than I typically prefer) feel really good too. Absolutely no QC issues of any sort anywhere on the guitar, just flawless - including a super tight neck pocket, which always makes me happy.

Only one negative I can mention if I'm really lookin' to nitpick - the pickguard looks white/off-white in photos but is actually a mint green and is u-g-l-y. Thankfully that's like a $10 part so we'll get that swapped real quick to a nice white pearl or something that compliments the guitar properly. All in all, an absolutely stunning guitar for the price and I can heartily recommend it to anyone looking for a sweet tele with nice modern features on the cheap. I think this absolutely destroys anything in it's price range and is a way nicer guitar overall than any MIM Fender I've had.

Some pics below, and I'll get some clips up later too:

[toomanycats]

Very intriguing combination of traditional and modern. The machine heads are quite unique and remind me of vintage cabinet knobs.

[slowhand84]

Very intriguing combination of traditional and modern. The machine heads are quite unique and remind me of vintage cabinet knobs.

For sure, I've never seen tuners quite like this before...they're also SO smooth to turn, moreso than just about any tuners I've ever had before. Quite impressed with them, and with the guitar in general. I'll get some clips up soon, but it sure sounds like a tele alright...this turned out to be exactly what I was after because it still absolutely sounds like a classic tele but just with more modern appointments. The arm contour on the front of the guitar is fantastic too, kinda feel like every guitar should have that.

I have a set of Bareknuckle tele pickups (Country Boy neck, Boss bridge) sitting in an old SX Furrian bound tele I have...going to transplant those guts ASAP, even though the stock pickups in this Eart are remarkably good for what they are.

[slowhand84]

Also check out this style of doin' frets...never seen this before and I have to admit it's kind of a brilliant idea. They don't quite reach the end of the board so you don't feel the fret ends at all, but they are perfectly rounded anyway. Nice attention to detail!

[Tiga]

Wow that guitar is stunning. That fretwork looks amazing - I would imagine it feel great too. Doesn't EART use stainless steel frets? It seems like the reviews of this brand are overwhelmingly positive.

[PsychoCid]

Wow that guitar is stunning. That fretwork looks amazing - I would imagine it feel great too. Doesn't EART use stainless steel frets? It seems like the reviews of this brand are overwhelmingly positive.

Oh boy, I had stainless frets on a Parker Fly before

Very smooth, but they also make PLINKY PLINKY sounds through your amp every time a string touches a fret

A live audience crowd wouldn't hear it but a guy in a bedroom sure does.

[slowhand84]

Wow that guitar is stunning. That fretwork looks amazing - I would imagine it feel great too. Doesn't EART use stainless steel frets? It seems like the reviews of this brand are overwhelmingly positive.

Oh boy, I had stainless frets on a Parker Fly before

Very smooth, but they also make PLINKY PLINKY sounds through your amp every time a string touches a fret

A live audience crowd wouldn't hear it but a guy in a bedroom sure does.

I have stainless frets on about 50% of my guitars (so, roughly 14 of 'em)...I have never once experienced what you're describing. You might hear a little more "plink" unplugged than you do with nickel frets, but I have never heard that translate whatsoever when plugged in.

Wow that guitar is stunning. That fretwork looks amazing - I would imagine it feel great too. Doesn't EART use stainless steel frets? It seems like the reviews of this brand are overwhelmingly positive.

Yep, it's mentioned in my OP . They have stainless frets standard on most of their models. The brand is fairly well regarded (minus a few duds here and there as is kinda commonplace when you have high end specs for a really cheap price), this is my first experience with their stuff but I can see why they have the rep they have. There a couple of these brands now making really killer stuff on the cheap with some very impressive specs. Harley Benton is my favorite but if this Eart I just got is any indication Eart deserves the hype just as much.

[PsychoCid]

Wow that guitar is stunning. That fretwork looks amazing - I would imagine it feel great too. Doesn't EART use stainless steel frets? It seems like the reviews of this brand are overwhelmingly positive.

Oh boy, I had stainless frets on a Parker Fly before

Very smooth, but they also make PLINKY PLINKY sounds through your amp every time a string touches a fret

A live audience crowd wouldn't hear it but a guy in a bedroom sure does.

I have stainless frets on about 50% of my guitars (so, roughly 14 of 'em)...I have never once experienced what you're describing. You might hear a little more "plink" unplugged than you do with nickel frets, but I have never heard that translate whatsoever when plugged in.

Wow that guitar is stunning. That fretwork looks amazing - I would imagine it feel great too. Doesn't EART use stainless steel frets? It seems like the reviews of this brand are overwhelmingly positive.

Yep, it's mentioned in my OP . They have stainless frets standard on most of their models. The brand is fairly well regarded (minus a few duds here and there as is kinda commonplace when you have high end specs for a really cheap price), this is my first experience with their stuff but I can see why they have the rep they have. There a couple of these brands now making really killer stuff on the cheap with some very impressive specs. Harley Benton is my favorite but if this Eart I just got is any indication Eart deserves the hype just as much.

Do you play clean?

My amp was a 5150 at the time.

I tried so hard to believe it didn't exist, but there was no denying it

Press a string, PLINK. Press another, PLINK.

So I decided against stainless on my #1 and never had that problem again.

[slowhand84]

Do you play clean?

My amp was a 5150 at the time.

I tried so hard to believe it didn't exist, but there was no denying it

Press a string, PLINK. Press another, PLINK.

So I decided against stainless on my #1 and never had that problem again.

It sounds like your sample size was one guitar....so I'm thinking it could have been some kind of issue with how the frets were seated or something else. I play clean probably 50% of the time and I've never experienced this problem. There is absolutely no discernible tonal difference plugged in between my guitars with nickel frets and my guitars with stainless frets, and certainly no extraneous noise you could hear through the amp.

I know this because if that existed it would drive me totally crazy

[PsychoCid]

Do you play clean?

My amp was a 5150 at the time.

I tried so hard to believe it didn't exist, but there was no denying it

Press a string, PLINK. Press another, PLINK.

So I decided against stainless on my #1 and never had that problem again.

It sounds like your sample size was one guitar....so I'm thinking it could have been some kind of issue with how the frets were seated or something else. I play clean probably 50% of the time and I've never experienced this problem. There is absolutely no discernible tonal difference plugged in between my guitars with nickel frets and my guitars with stainless frets, and certainly no extraneous noise you could hear through the amp.

I know this because if that existed it would drive me totally crazy

You have the same sample size I do, 1 set of ears. Lol.

It was a very famous issue, widely discussed on forums back in the day. As with anything else in guitars, half the people that play them have very limited hearing range.

The other half hear a very distinct difference of both pinging sounds from strings touching the frets, and the brightness of tone that comes from the harder material.

I'll reiterate it was a 5150 amp so unless you're playing ultra high gain on anything else, it probably is hard to hear.

[PsychoCid]

The beauty of being human - we have variety.

Some people can see several more colors than others. Some people can taste more flavors than others. Some people can hear a lot more tonal differences. Most people cannot.

My mom was a music teacher and used to run these tone tests with a large class. Out of 30-35 people I was usually the only one who could consistently tell which notes were in which positions, and which strings seemed slightly out of tune (on a piano).

Is it a blessing? Maybe. Is it a curse? Yeah it makes everyone else argue with you about whether colors or sounds actually exist. Lololol.

Same thing happened with the actual medical sound test the school ran on us in 5th grade or so. Maybe one other kid in the entire class could hear the higher pitches I could. Most kids stopped raising their hands 3 to 5 pitches earlier. Ear drums and brains are different that way.

[slowhand84]

Do you play clean?

My amp was a 5150 at the time.

I tried so hard to believe it didn't exist, but there was no denying it

Press a string, PLINK. Press another, PLINK.

So I decided against stainless on my #1 and never had that problem again.

It sounds like your sample size was one guitar....so I'm thinking it could have been some kind of issue with how the frets were seated or something else. I play clean probably 50% of the time and I've never experienced this problem. There is absolutely no discernible tonal difference plugged in between my guitars with nickel frets and my guitars with stainless frets, and certainly no extraneous noise you could hear through the amp.

I know this because if that existed it would drive me totally crazy

You have the same sample size I do, 1 set of ears. Lol.

It was a very famous issue, widely discussed on forums back in the day. As with anything else in guitars, half the people that play them have very limited hearing range.

The other half hear a very distinct difference of both pinging sounds from strings touching the frets, and the brightness of tone that comes from the harder material.

I'll reiterate it was a 5150 amp so unless you're playing ultra high gain on anything else, it probably is hard to hear.

I just said what I said re: sample size cuz it seems like you're saying that Parker was the ONLY guitar you've had or played with SS frets, so if that's the case it's certainly possible that the issue was due to something else other than solely the fret material. Have you experienced this issue with other SS fret guitars?

I like to think my hearing is pretty good, and I know that there was a lot of bias against and resistance towards stainless frets in their early years (as there always is when something new comes along) so there was a lot of stuff posted online in those days that pretty much no one says anymore now that stainless frets have been quite widely embraced by the guitar community.

I've never had a 5150 amp (I have a '76 Hiwatt and that amp pretty much stays clean until you're at blowin' out the windows volume ) so I use pedals for all my distortion...but I've never experienced what you're describing and I've never heard it from anyone I know who has SS fret guitars either. I'm not discounting what you're saying about people having different sensitivities when it comes to sound and it's totally possible that I fall into the category of people who can't detect it (and same goes for my guitar playing buddies with their stainless-equipped instruments), but if that's the case I guess I'll just count myself lucky. I'm so addicted to the playability and durability of SS frets that I think it would be very tough to go back to nickel.

[Frozensoda]

Two questions:
Does it have the truss rod adjustment wheel like the Music Man guitars?
Is that an arm contour or a trick of the light?

[slowhand84]

Two questions:
Does it have the truss rod adjustment wheel like the Music Man guitars?
Is that an arm contour or a trick of the light?

Yep, it does have the truss adjustment wheel (Harley Benton has this too on their Fusion models, really neat); and yep it is an arm contour. Super comfy!

[Rollin Hand]

That truss wheel.

Last night I adjusted the neck of a guitar with the truss rod at the nut. It wasn't difficult per se, but the truss wheel at the heel is just so much easier.

If I had a signature guitar, it would have the wheel.

[slowhand84]

That truss wheel.

Last night I adjusted the neck of a guitar with the truss rod at the nut. It wasn't difficult per se, but the truss wheel at the heel is just so much easier.

If I had a signature guitar, it would have the wheel.

For sure, I don’t know why this isn’t a standard feature on all guitars. Super convenient.

[Tonray's Ghost]

That truss wheel.

Last night I adjusted the neck of a guitar with the truss rod at the nut. It wasn't difficult per se, but the truss wheel at the heel is just so much easier.

If I had a signature guitar, it would have the wheel.

For sure, I don’t know why this isn’t a standard feature on all guitars. Super convenient.

Yeah I noticed the new Aria Pro II line also has the truss wheel at the heel also ..eyeing the new Brooklyn..love the brushed nickel hardware too