So I've had the Isbell tele for a bit. I'm into it. Soundwise, I'm clicking with this one in a way I never did with my other tele - I'm still kinda blaming the n3 noiseless pickups in that guitar for that, and maybe I'll swap them out at some point. This tele feels very teleish. One thing that I like a lot is that the pickups seem pretty balanced - with both the 2013 deluxe and even the G&L Tribute bluesboy I used to have, I never wanted to use the neck pickup. The neck pickup on this one is a really nice sound, has a lot of life to it, and it's pretty balanced with the bridge pickup. Of course the bridge pickup is sharp and tele-like and has that whole thing, but it isn't this completely different thing over here like going from p90s to a danelectro.
I really like the satin finish and and double binding and the weight. It's fairly light, for some reason the double binding adds to that for me, almost like it's chambered with a top and a bottom piece. And it feels like it's OK to throw it around a little bit, set it down on the floor, not worry about it. I like the checking which can be found in several places on the guitar but is not super obvious from far away. If I were to pick from a lineup of these guitars I might pick one with different weathering on the lower bout of the guitar - the kinda three notch thing doesn't look super natural. But that's a nitpick.
Quality wise, this seems solid. I'm not a crazy harsh critic I don't think, but I don't see any glaring problems with fretwork, everything feels very quality. The one issue is that I've noticed the high E string can sound a little dead if I pick it a certain way while it is unfretted - I think the nut needs to be worked a little bit, I'll probably get it set up. I've read some reviews of these saying they aren't set up well out of the box - this one is pretty decent, although it's from a nice guitar shop where they give them a little TLC before putting them on the floor so I'm not sure how much it came that way. Having owned several Fenders from the late 90s and early 2000s, I'm not a "there's no difference between MIM and MIA guitars" guy - there have traditionally been differences, place of manufacture was just one element about the quality difference between circa 2000 American Standard and a circa 2000 Standard. Both my thinline (mim) and my old dirnt P bass (mim) had some issues with qc and cheaper parts not holding up to rigorous use. This one feels like it is up to a higher level of standard and I'm assuming it has higher end parts - I'm not expecting the knobs to fall off and it doesn't feel like they will. I did have to put a little piece of masking tape under the toggle cover to secure it, but I don't think that that is too unusual. The tuners feel nice and work well. I like vintage style tuners.
It feels very alive, I like the tone a lot. I think I'm going to take it to get properly set up and see if I can fix that e string thing, but there's a lot I like about this guitar.