The Stagg T320 SB LH

Yes, the name is a mouthful, so, from here on out I'm calling it the "Staggcaster".
I already explain my reasoning behind buying this, but now that I have it, what do I think? Well, it definitely has the traditional "look", and some of the sounds definitely fill the Telecaster shaped hole in my goals as a guitar player. But, with it being a cheap guitar, I'm going to get the negatives out of the way, because I know that's what people want to hear- what's wrong with it that it sells so cheap? Well the biggest drawback is this neck plays like a Squire neck. That might be a selling point to some, but I've owned some Squire guitars and I don't like their necks- the shape is just off enough from what I can comfortably hold that they slow me down. I haven't had that problem with Epiphones, Agiles, Samicks- you name the cheaper brand, and  all of them play a little faster for me. The next problem is the neck pickup. Now Tele's are noted for having boxy, uninspiring neck pickups, but that isn't the problem here. This is just a nondescript sounding pick up. It just sounds like a single coil. It could be a strat neck pick up, a single coil jaguar pick up, a Schecter single coil, you name it- just generic sounding.
I also must mention it's a used guitar. It has a couple of issues based on that: there are some very light scratches on the pickguard, there's a small dent near the rear strap button, and a nick on the bottom. It could probably use a new set up, but it is perfectly playable. Oh, and the volume knob is a bit loose, and therefore causing a very little bit of noise.
That's it. I have cataloged all negatives. Seem like a short list? Because it does to me, too. Yes, the neck is a little slow but the action is low, and that makes up for it, for me. I was able to get some wailing blues style bends with almost no effort If I can figure out a way to speed up the neck, I will, but while I was planning to swap out the neck, there's no way I will, now- I was expecting cheap maple sealed in a tomb/tube of polyurethane. Nope! satin finish flamed maple- better than some Fenders I've played. Seems pretty stable, and the truss rod has not been adjusted, so I like that. I've had stability issues with virtually every Fender styled guitar I've ever owned though, so we will see. Right now, I like that it's satin finished, and pretty.
That neck pick up has got to go, though. The one in there is utterly lame. But the bridge is full bore Tele twang and spank. I'm probably going to leave it because it's the loudest, clearest single coil pick up I have on any guitar.  Until I replace the neck pickup, I'll just treat it like an Esquire.
Since I hate the white pickguard, and will replace that post-haste, I might as well replace the knobs with these GFS numbers, and so, I'll replace the volume pot, at the same time. Mark that solved.
So, the guitar was bought on Ebay, for under a hundred bucks. So I wasn't expecting much, but after putting it through some paces, I really like this guitar. I had no idea I was missing a Telecaster sound so much. It's making some of my pedals sound brand new, and it's opening up some frequencies and techniques I really haven't explored- for example; as a joke, years ago I wrote an AC/DC styled  cowboy chord piece of rifforama called " Blow on my Dice". It's a lame joke, but a useful set of riffs. So, I tried that out, and lo and behold, instead of the expected "Malcolm" tone, I got Billy Squire, and I really liked it. Again, there's no saving the song, but it totally livened up the verse riff, and gave a new energy to the rave up bridge section which is mostly vamping in B- which is tough to sweeten, but I'll be damned if this didn't have just a few grains of sugar. So, totally worth it, right there. So, yes, it's a cheap guitar, but it makes me feel happy about my playing- and for a guy like me, who is done with playing in bands, but still likes to play, that's huge. So, yes, it's a great guitar, and with a few tweaks, I will have a new not-so-secret weapon!