Pawel Brzosko

Thickest neck I have ever played, roaring pups, solid finish, versatile tone. For that price range you can't go wrong. Unless you hate thick necks. It's not as super silky as high-end models, but a sturdy, reliable workhorse with great feel and tone.

Smaller semi-hollow body, vintage feel, superb tone. Neck on the thin side, but acceptable - very fast for a semi-hollow. This is considered by some a legendary instrument, not many copies were produced. Highly valued by collectors, but I just enjoy its overall playability. If you can find one, get it!

Monster clean tone, no-nonsense controls (volume+tone), onboard tremolo. Great for Jazz and retro-rock styles (e.g. surf). Good base for a pedalboard. A one-trick pony, but does it well.

Contour Telecaster body, Hathor strat pups + Gibson P90. This axe is super comfortable with a wide range of tones. Strat's cleans, Tele twangs, P90 drive. Hathor pickups are compared to US boutique productions e.g. Lollar. Add a worn nitro coat and you got yourself a keeper. Manufactured by hand in Cracow, Poland by Hathor Custom Shop this is a one of a kind instrument.

Built sometime between 80s-90s this is a classic Japanese quality built instrument with vintage feel and solid Gibson sound. It's no luxury instrument, but it will get the job done with flying colours.

This one has an even fatter neck than my Baja Tele 50s. It's the strat classic, wonderful rich single pickup tone (I'd say medium output), awesome build quality, classy paintjob and one beefy, super comfortable neck (Soft V). I compared it against American Performer and American Pro and it was in a class of its own despite the fact it was only a tad more costly. A vintage design, but I can shred easily. For fat (necks) lovers this is a gem.

Monster Fender-like clean (one of the best I have ever heard) and Marshall-on-steroids drive. Onboard reverb. High-end and straightforward amp.

This was a strange beast for me. Really nice tube tone, 3W/5W setting, one channel. However that was supposedly a bedroom amp, yet in my apartment it was still too loud to play at home without bothering my family. For live gigs it was disappointingly quiet, so I really could not find a proper use for it. Great tone though, would recommend to someone with at least a separate playing room.

Very decent choruses, delays and flanges, reverbs and hush noise gate. Setting up requires some patience as all those dated rack fx's. Probably could grab it at a bargain now. I recommend it if you like tweaking knobs and generally demand a more complex setup. Not for the plug'n'play people.