Fender of Japan HMT Acoustic-Electric Telecaster For Sale!
These were made for only a few years in the early to mid-nineties. There are two pickups: in the bridge there’s an undersaddle piezo, and in the neck position a magnetic Lace Sensor. The controls in order are volume, pickup blend, and a cool-and-crazy eq/filter control that dials in a very wide range of tones. The neck has a Strat-shaped headstock finished on the front in gloss black, with sealed black tuners. The nut is not original (I prefer bone) but I have the old one.
The top is solid spruce with beautiful grain and the semi-hollow body is mahogany. The neck is maple with a walnut(?) skunk stripe and a rosewood fingerboard. There is plenty of fret left, and they have been recently leveled and crowned, so there no divots or flat spots. The guitar plays cleanly with a nice low action.
The piezo is nice and clear without too much quack, and the Lace balances that with a smooth fullness. The active electronics run off a 9-volt battery and work perfectly.
Cosmetically you can see the guitar is in great shape. There are a few dings, very hard to photograph. The peghead face has some finish lifting in a few spots as you can see. The neckplate has lost most of its black plating, which seems to happen to all of these guitars. It’s weird, because it didn’t wear off; it’s more tarnished looking.
All in all a very cool, useful, and great-looking guitar, lightweight and fun to play. They seem to have gotten very scarce; as of today there are none on eBay, go figure. Interested? Questions? Need more details? Hit me up!