Larry Carlton T7 AWH

My name is Grant, I've been playing guitar for nearly 30 years. I have some very expensive guitars in my guitarsenal and really appreciate tone and playability. I've never ordered through Thomann's before. Their communication was wonderful and I never felt like I was being left out to dry. Coming from Germany to my home in New Mexico within 4 days during the holidays was amazing enough. When I took this guitar out of the well packaged box, it played brilliantly. The roasted maple neck with rounded fretboard is a uniquely amazing feel and experience that I highly recommend. The Larry Carlton Sire T7 is in my honest opinion the pound for pound greatest value T-style I have been able to play to this point. This one is great for studio and set. If you're looking for a T-style with a great value, look no further.

Have been in the market for a telecaster for a while. After trying many in stores, I started looking at alternatives to the typical Fender/Squier. Found many positive reviews on YouTube with Sire guitars, so took the plunge and ordered on Thomann.

The first and best part of the guitar is the neck. The frets are gorgeous, and so smooth! The sanded/satin finish on the neck is a game changer. The frets on the Squier Classic Vibe felt sharp and pokey. A G&L I’ve tried had the nut sticking out and also pokey. The biggest praise I can give this neck, is I’ve owned an American Vintage Stratocaster, and the T7 neck blows it out of the water!

This is my first guitar with locking tuners. I typically tune the T7 once a week! It’s hard to play anything else these days with how well it stays in tune and is intonated. (Didn’t realize how bad my SG was!)

Pickups sound full and wonderful. The controls feel high quality with their resistance, and react very well! I quite like the neck/body contour for easy access to higher frets.

Looks wise… hot dam. Have stayed away from white guitars for a while, though the combination of the roasted maple neck is beautiful!

One extremely small critique is the paint up close doesn’t look perfect. It doesn’t look sprayed, almost looks like paint brush lines. It’s strange but it doesn’t matter. Don’t notice it from 2 feet away. This guitar is going to see much worse bumps and bruises along the way.

All in all, this is my new number one! I tend to buy and sell many guitars to find something I completely love, and this is it.

This is my second time ordering from Thomann. Both times the guitars have been packaged well, and have arrived in quick fashion considering the far trip to Canada.

Thank you Sire & Thomann for the unreal instrument!

My first T-style guitar and I'm very satisfied with my choice. Lots of features for the money, superb manufacture quality. Quality control also excellent.

Rolled edges are nice addition but on the other hand it forced me to be more carefull when band or slide because low and high E string can easely slip of the freatboard. C shape neck is very suitable and comfortable for playing. I like very much satin finish on the back of the neck. Freats needed some polishing but they are even with no sharp edges.

Bridge pickup very nice, fat as it should be on T-style guitar. Only thing that I don't like is neck pickup. Very low output, I would say unconvincing. It has similar clarity as strat neck pickup but in the future I'm planning to replace it. This is the matter of taste not a faulty product.

Guitar came with Ernie Ball regular slinky 10-46 strings well packed and protected but there was rust on higher three strings. Not big deal, changing strings on new guitar is must to do. String spacing is little bit wider comparing to my MIM stratocaster so it took few days to get used to it. Now I find that string spacing more convenient and more comfortable.

Guitar was well setup, I only had to lower a little bit string action. The rest (pickup hight, intonation, neck relief) was perfect.

Very, very nice guitar. Recommendation.

Update:
After few month of playing I have noticed one "fault". Fretboard inlays (abalone dots) are less noticeable specialy at higher frets. Absence of light worsens noticeablility of inlays.