SeriesFender Telecaster

(Originally written by coolzapp/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made in the USA. 22 frets Two Alnico III single-coil pickups 3-saddle vintage bridge 3-way toggle switch Volume control Tone control Maple neck UTILIZATION Not too thick, very pleasant and easily playable neck ^^ Easy access to the upper frets. Quite light and very ergonomic (both sitting and standing =) SOUNDS The sound is the main asset of this guitar! It's amazing! Real typical Telecaster sound. I had the opportunity to try out more expensive Telecasters like the American standard and I didn't notice a huge difference! This guitar perfectly matches my needs. It's very versatile. I get a super sound with my Marshall MG 50 DFX. The clean sound is wonderful, the bridge pickup sounds twangy and the neck pickup warm! I love its sound with distortion. With the adequate settings you can play anything you want =) I play a lot of Bon Jovi stuff and the sound is terrific! OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for several months. I love its typical Telecaster sound, which is on the same level as its bigger sisters! I previously tested other Fender, Gibson, Ibanez guitars. But I fell in love with this one =D. The value for money is unbeatable for a guitar made in the USA! I'm sure I would buy it again! I took my time choosing a guitar fitting my needs. I tried out many models and this one was my favorite for its quality and looks. I recommend it to anyone looking for a good Telecaster at an affordable price. It's a killer guitar =) I give it 9/10 because nothing is perfect =P

Jim Adkins got together with Fender guitars to make his ideal Telecaster. This Telecaster features an unusual but great comination of features that help make this guitar sound very unique for a Telecaster. The guitar is based on the classic Thinline Telecaster design. The Thinline Telecaster was introduced in the late 60s to help lower the weight of the guitar when Fenders supply of lightweight wood ran low. They gave the guitar a hollow compartment on the upper part of the body and gave it an F-hole for resonance. The Telecaster is a thinline semi-hollow body with a two piece swamp ash body. The neck is a maple set in neck with a rosewood fretboard. There are 22 medium jumbo frets on the rosewood fretboard. There is a Gibson style tune-o-matic and stop tail bridge on the guitar. There are dual Seymour Duncan p-90 pickups in the guitar and a 3 way Gibson style pickup selector. Each pickup has its own volume and tone control. UTILIZATION This guitar plays better than most Telecasters because of the neck construction. The set in neck means there is less of a heel to get in your way when playing the upper frets of the guitar. The fretboard is a little flatter than what you would normally find on a Telecaster and is closer to that of a Les Paul. I find the Gibson style bridge setup more comfortable than a normal Telecaster ashtray bridge setup but this is subjective. SOUNDS This guitar does not really sound like a Telecaster to me which is good for me since I am not a big fan of the Telecaster sound. The semi-hollow thinline body matched with the swamp ash and p-90 pickups combine to provide a very mellow sound. The lack of a big ashtray bridge also helps tame the twang a little bit too. The Gibson style neck construction helps it get the mellow Gibson tones too. I wonder why Jim Adkins doesnt just play a Les Paul he has pretty much turned his Telecaster into one. With the p-90 pickups this guitar is great for mellow stuff. You can get really jazz sound with some tone knob tweaking. The guitar is also great for blues. In the bridge position some of the tele twang comes out but it compliments the smooth sounds nicely. You can really feel the resonance of the thinline body whatever you play. OVERALL OPINION This guitar is really nice but some Tele enthusiasts might be surprised when they plug it in. This guitar is like a Les Paul in a Tele costume. This is also a proper signature guitar. There are no silly logos anywhere. It is just a guitar with a little different setup than you could get a on a normal Telecaster. This is how signature guitars should be. If you are a Tele player and are looking for a mellower sound or you like mellow sounds and want a Tele this guitar is on of the few that can do it.

Korean-made guitar. 3-saddle bridge that, contrary to what many people say, doesn't detune the guitar anymore than any other. Magnificent neck in birdseye maple with a fingerboard of the same wood. Relatively good Seymour Duncan pickups, the guitar has punch. 3 pickup selectors. Awesome. UTILIZATION The neck is disconcertingly easy. It slides like butter, it bends like rubber, it borders perfection. It has nothing to envy high-end models. The weight is very well balanced, the guitar isn't heavy. Access to the upper frets is easy, too, you can go all the way to the top of the neck and do bendings without any problems. Awesome. SOUNDS This is where it kicks serious ass: It suits almost all possible styles. I play essentially the clean channel, but I also like to use a good overdrive or distortion or wah-wah and it rocks. Very funky, it's great. The lows are jaw-dropping, we once used it to replace the bass in a rehearsal with my band. I never use a big amp, I only have a small Vox Amplug with speakers. But that doesn't stop it from sounding big, very big. The middle channel is my favorite, but the other sound possibilities (even if I haven't tried everything) balance a good quality sound. Awesome. OVERALL OPINION I love it. I bought it 4 days ago and I can't stay away from it. Its value for money is simply unbeatable, the price difference to get an American Standard isn't worth going broke. Excellent guitar, especially for $400. If you ever stumble into one, give it a try, you'll be seduced. Awesome.

The Fender Telecaster has to be one of my absolutely favorite guitars in the world. This is a classic looking guitar and one of the most iconic guitars that you will ever see. This is a two-tone Sunburst paint job which only has a nice yellow natural wood tone with the darker outer edge paint job. The two tone is different from the three toned because it is missing the nice amber red burst within this paint job. The fretboard is a nice hard maple which gives a good balance overall to the ash body. UTILIZATION Neck Shape: Modern "C" Shape Number of Frets: 22 Fret Size: Medium Jumbo Position Inlays: Black Dot Position Inlays Fretboard Radius: 9.5" (24.1 cm) Fretboard: Maple Neck Material: Maple Neck Finish: Gloss Headstock Face with Satin Urethane Finish on Back of Neck Nut Width: 1.685" (42.8 mm) Scale Length: 25.5" (64.8 cm) Neck Plate: 4-Bolt Neck Plate with Micro-Tilt Truss Rods: Bi-Flex™ Truss Rod System Truss Rod Nut: 1/8" American Series Nut Electronics Pickup Configuration: S/S Bridge Pickup: American Tele Single-Coil Pickup Neck Pickup: American Tele Single-Coil Pickup Pickup Switching: 3-Position Blade: Position 1. Bridge Pickup, Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups, Position 3. Neck Pickup Special Electronics: No-Load Tone Control Controls: Master Volume, Master Delta Tone SOUNDS This guitar sounds exceptionally well with a sender Hot Rod Deluxe amplifier. You don't need to dial this guitar in too much because it only has the volume and tone control knobs. It also has a pickup selector switch from the bridge in that position. This thing stays pretty well in tune with the tuners that Fender provides. This is one of the sharpest classic looking guitars that I've seen in this series. The white pick up guard is a good contrast to the light sunburst on the paint job. The maple neck helps to balance out the body any add more silky frequencies to get warm defining tone. The overall feel of this guitar is much different Stratocaster. It has a different sustain any different drive and it's voicing. You don't have to prefer one over the other but I think they're equally different to own both. OVERALL OPINION I highly recommend this guitar to anyone looking for this particular sound. This is a good sound for a clean guitar tone or a mild overdrive tone. Many country players grab this guitar for their touring and recording needs. This will be a good guitar that can be passed down to your kids one day. It has such a good quality workmanship in the build process involved and in the manufacturing of these guitars. At new you can find these guitars online or in most guitar shops for right around $999. That is an exceptional price for a high quality American-built guitar. This will be a long life guitar if you treat it well.

The John 5 Signature model Triple Tele Deluxe is not your daddy's tele. It still has the familiar alder body and maple neck with a rosewood fretboard, but most everything else is different. For one, this thing has a tremolo, three "wide range" humbuckers, a crazy pickguard and a 70s Fender strat headstock. UTILIZATION I might as well start off by saying I'm not a fan of John 5. The guitar itself is put together fairly well, but the thing can't decide what it wants to be. On the one hand, it has the standard tele ergonomics which I find aren't that great to begin with. Then it has the humbuckers. I'll get to those in the next paragraph. The neck itself isn't a bad neck, and the fretwork was pretty decent on the model I played. I like the fact that it has 22 frets, and I love the fact that it has a 12'' radius instead of the normal 9.5'' radius as seen on so many other standard production Fenders. SOUNDS The Enforcer wide range humbuckers are not my cup of tea. They sound pretty fat, but they just don't do it for me for whatever reason. A big issue I have with this guitar is that you can't swap pickups without a pickguard change, and considering how different this pickguard is, you need to get it custom made which costs time and money. They seem to work for John 5, but then again, I'd somewhat disagree with that considering I don't care for the guy's music in the first place. OVERALL OPINION The guitar is definitely an odd one, and I can't really recommend it to anybody. If you're a huge John 5 fan, I guess you'd enjoy this guitar, but I have a feeling most normal guitar players will look elsewhere for a good axe. Like all Fenders, you really need to play them before buying, and this one especially follows that rule.

These are a really cool kind of pickup that work in Fender Telecaster guitars, though with the right modifications there are other guitars that you can put them in. These pickups are designed with a really high output with a lot of midrange and and warmth to them. They are built of a higher quality than the most of the pickups that come in Telecasters, unless you buy a higher end Tele. Even still, these are custom made so there aren't many that come sounding like this. I tried them in a telecaster that played really well but didn't sound as good, and I was thrilled with the results. The guitar sounded absolutely terrific. The clean sound I got with a solid state amp was really nice, very low noise and a nice full sound. I'm a tube guy, though, so when I plugged in the Twin, I was floored. It had a really strong ripping sound too it, a lot of natural distortion but low noise. With some overdrive and fuzz I had fantastic rock tones. I'd say that this is a great guitar for country and blues if you're going to play clean. The Texas Special name really does a great job of describing the sound of this pickup as it's perfect for the genres generally associated with Texas. Those tones tend to work really well for rock music too, at least classic rock and blues-rock stuff. I've actually also had great punk tones with the right overdrives/distortions and amps. Not to mention great indie rock sounds. Overall this is a fantastic pickup. At $200 dollars it might seem pricey but keep in mind that it can probably make a relatively cheap guitar sound like one that is much more expensive, so keep that in mind if you have a guitar that you wish sounded a little better.

The Fender Telecaster has to be one of the funnest guitars to play. It has a unique sound and a unique tome that is all to itself. It does carry the Fender voicing in sound but yet it has its own thing going on. They usually has a thinner neck and a faster neck comparatively to a Fender Stratocaster guitar. Has less features than a Fender Stratocaster but overall as a fantastic tone and extremely versatile tone as well. UTILIZATION Fender Classic '50s Telecaster Guitar Features: Color: Candy Apple Red Body Type: Single cutaway Finish: Polyurethane Neck Wood: Maple, gloss polyurethane Neck Shape: C shape Body Wood: Alder Machine Heads: Fender/Ping Vintage Style Fingerboard: Rosewood, 7.25" radius No. of Frets: 21 Vintage Position Markers: Dot inlay Scale Length: 25.5" Pickups: 2 Single-Coil Tele Pickups Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone Bridge/Tailpiece: Bigsby "F" vibrato tailpiece Pickup Switching: 3-position blade Hardware: Chrome SOUNDS The Fender Telecaster is one of those guitars that goes great with a clean amplifier sound. This is why many country players tend to lean towards picking up a Fender Telecaster over a Gibson Les Paul or a Fender Stratocaster primarily because it has a nice clean, spanky tome that doesn't give you a lot of distortion if you use a high gain amplifier but if you use a subtle mild overdrive it's going to get great sustaining tone. The body shape is very nice and comfortable as well in the overall weight and balance is very comfortable. I really like these guitars for recording because it gets a unique frequency response in the mix. OVERALL OPINION These guitars sit in the mix very well and the price of these guitars is very nice as well. You can find these instruments pretty much anywhere you find guitar or musical gear. They range anywhere between 800 and $1500 depending on the features and the customization of the instrument. Overall they're great guitars and they're fun to play if you need a nice addition to your guitar catalog or something that you need to record with this is a great instrument to have.

Made in Mexico Tex-Mex Strat pickup sandwiched between 2 Tex-Mex Tele pickups Five-way Strat-o-Tone switching Alder body (ash on Honey Blonde) Vintage machine heads US Vintage 6-saddle bridge Maple Neck with maple fretboard Medium-jumbo frets Gig bag 1 volume, 1 tone UTILIZATION This Telecaster seems like a good idea on paper. It's all the features one would want on an older Tele, with a couple of modern additions. It includes a 6 saddle bridge, for more exact intonation, and it also includes a third pickup in the middle position with a 5 way switch, so one can get those funky "in-between" Strat sounds. To these ends, this works well. The guitar plays well, looks good...so what's the problem, right? My problem with the guitar is the bridge, and the new pickup and switch. Call me a traditionalist or a purist, but this guitar just is not for me. I can see how it would be an appealing fit for a lot of pickers, but I just think the new additions detract from the whole Tele experience. The bridge of a Tele should have brass saddles in my opinion, and these rolled steel saddles just do not get the cutting attack that I want in a Tele. Also, my favorite setting on a Telecaster - the middle setting, where the neck and bridge pickups are active - this setting is not available on this guitar. Bummer. SOUNDS The guitar suffers in the sound category due to the areas I listed above. The neck position sounds good, and the bridge position sounds good. The "in-between" sounds are good, but not exactly "Strat-like" as one would hope. It's like the Fender designers wanted the best features of a Strat and a Tele smashed into one guitar, yet they got something that ends up falling a bit short. OVERALL OPINION I'm giving it a 7. My review makes it sound like I like it less than I do - it's really a good guitar. But it is a disappointing guitar, because it takes away the best parts of a Tele, and tries to put in some good Strat features and doesn't quite succeed. The result is a new axe, something different than either of them separately, but I'm just a die-hard old-school Tele and Strat fan, I guess, so messing with that formula to me is a bit sacreligious. Don't buy if you're a purist, but do buy if you like Teles but want them to make a few more sounds.

Fender Japan is always making cool stuff. This is the latest in a line of cool Fenders from overseas. This is the Aerodyne Telecaster. The Aerodyne guitars are a series of black guitar with white binding that kind of come out Les Paul like. I really like the layout of this Tele. You get an arch top basswood body with a bolt on maple neck and rosewood fretboard. You get a 7.25 radius on the fretboard but it comes with big frets that help you out. The pickups make this thing great. I am not a fan of the traditional Telecaster neck pickup so the P90 in the neck is great. The bridge pickup is the traditional Telecaster setup but the bridge is not the ashtray design so it is more comfortable to play. The bridge is a flat design and it has 6 saddles so you can intonate the guitar properly. In the controls you get a master tone and master volume with a 3 way toggle on the upper bout like a Les Paul. UTILIZATION This guitar has a little better feel than a normal Tele. You still have the crazy round 7.25 radius but this guitar comes with big frets that help you still be able to dig in and play leads on it. The bridge is a modern tele design so it is very comfortable to play. It does not have raised edges on it so it does not get in the way of your hand or dig into your hand. The arched top body means you do not have to reach around the body to play. It is not a slab body like on an old Telecaster. SOUNDS This tele has some tone. The neck pickup on a normal tele usually has a weak thin sound but replacing it with the P90 was genius. Now you get your single coil twang with the low and and bottom fullness of a P90. It is a great way to give your tele some weight in its tone. With both the pickups on in the traditional Telecaster position you get a very full sound. The bridge pickup is pure tele twang and with the p90 you get a really big sound that still has the twang. This is a great sounding guitar. OVERALL OPINION Fender should make more original designs like these instead of putting out endless reissues. This is a great creative new design out of Fender Japan and I hope there are more to come. This is a great sounding and feeling guitar. The P90 puts the sound over the top and the arched top body makes it very comfortable to play. If you are looking for a Telecaster that is something not the same as everything else the Aerodyne Telecaster is a good options.

(Originally written by chris689/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made in the USA between 1989 and 1996. One Lace Sensor Blue pickup in the neck position and two coupled Lace Sensor Red pickups in the bridge position. Poplar and ash body (like most Custom models), which are quite heavy woods. Varnished maple neck. Mine was made in 1995 and has a rare Mystic Black finish that produces green reflections in bright environments. The guitar looks wonderful. Above the classic Telecaster 3-way toggle switch, a mini switch provides several bridge pickup configurations (first single coil, second single coil or both together as a humbucker). TBX tone control that adds a low-frequency filter. I bought it with its original case with the red Fender logo. UTILIZATION Very playable U-profil neck. Perfect frets (unlike my Mexican Strat). Access to the upper frets is like on every Telecaster. The guitar is heavy and you'll notice it when you play two or three hours standing up! But you'll also feel that you have a high-quality instrument in your hands... Is it easy to get the right sound? You'll get several good sounds: you can get a classic Telecaster Standard sound (with the bridge pickup), a Strat sound AND the sound of a Gibson guitar!!! It's the quintessential electric guitar regarding versatility. SOUNDS The sound is the main asset of this guitar: incredible sound versatility, high output level of the Lace Sensor red pickups... A killer sound! From the mellow sound of the neck pickup to the very aggressive sound of the humbucker, you get every possible sound to play blues, reggae, rock and even hard rock. If you're looking for the typical Telecaster sound with its famous twang, you'd better choose a 52 RI for example. OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for two years and I can't seem to get tired of it. I don't play my other guitars anymore (Mexican Strat and Fender Thinline)... Its sound versatility is its main advantage. The only con is the balance: the headstock is a bit too heavy. I wanted a Telecaster American Deluxe and I saw this secondhand Plus version at a web store after looking for a long time. I compared them and the American Deluxe seemed like a toy compared with this Plus version! What a sound... I bought it secondhand (as new) in 2007 and I would buy it again. Twice, because I'm still looking for a second one...

(Originally written by Jlmu/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made in Mexico. Very good finish. 3-way toggle switch. Stays in tune even when you play lots of bends. UTILIZATION Pleasant neck. Quite slim. The guitar is light. SOUNDS Great clean and distortion sounds. It's a versatile guitar with the typical Fender sound. Powerful and crystal-clear sound. OVERALL OPINION I've been using it for about two months. Depending on the songs I also play a Gibson Les Paul. Very good quality/sound/price ratio. I won't part from it... I give it a 9 because nothing is perfect.

(Originally written by tratrawood/translated from Audiofanzine FR) Made at the US Custom Shop 20 vintage frets (very slim), 2 single-coil pickups (bridge pickup with chamfered black polepieces). Vintage bridge with three slotted saddles like the models of the 60's. Volume and tone controls, 3-way toggle switch. Toggle switch positions: - Bridge pickup - Neck pickup - Neck pickup with low-pass circuitry I'd strongly recommend you to change it for a "modern vintage" configuration: - Bridge pickup - Bridge + neck pickups - Neck pickup This configuration is more common... simply better. Picture: Very high quality maple neck and rosewood fingerboard. "'61 Strat" neck profile (C profile) with the typical Fender roundness and thickness of the 60's. Relic finish with less wear marks than on a Relic Strat (very worn out under the forearm). The paint is in a very good condition there, except for some wear marks and scratches. The cracked varnish looks great and gives it a vintage feel... High-class finish! The varnish on the back of the neck is intact and it slides perfectly. UTILIZATION Many people say this neck has the perfect profile, but it is too small and slim for my long hands... I like folk guitar necks! The hand slips easily, the nitro varnish feels very pleasant. The guitar weights 7.7 lb. so you can carry it for a long time without getting tired. Typical Telecaster playability. You immediately hear the instrument produces an excellent sound. The acoustic sound is powerful considering it's a solid-body guitar. The whole guitar vibrates with each note. You feel its vibrations in your body... this instrument is almost alive!!! To get a good sound out of this guitar you first have to be a good guitarist because it reproduces absolutely EVERYTHING you play... including every hesitation. That's what I call high fidelity!!! Our ears are not used to such a sound anymore, so it's a bit shocking in the beginning. Every note has a soul and cuts through the mix... it's very impressive. I would give it 20/10 if it were possible. SOUNDS You can play every music style, you only have to be a versatile player. Just listen to Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine to understand what I mean. You'll need a tube amp to get the best out of this great sounding guitar. I love this guitar when it's plugged into a Marshall or a Carvin amp. It doesn't sound that good with a Fender Roc Pro 1000, but it's still very good considering it's a solid-state amp. - The bridge pickup sounds... very sharp, biting and powerful. It can hurt your ears if you don't decrease the highs on your amp. But it sounds very musical and powerful with a very good amp !!!! - The mix of both pickups is less "sculpted" than with a Strat but it provides a typical out-of-phase sound. The volume difference is very marginal, unlike with a Strat. It's THE position for funk rhythm parts, rock, Texas blues, etc. - The neck pickup sounds as deep as the one of a very good Strat but provides more highs, in other words a better definition... It sounds amazing. With adequate tone setting, you'll get a perfect jazz and blues sound. OVERALL OPINION I've been owning it for a short time and I will sell it again because I prefer very thick Nocaster necks. I've already had a '72 Telecaster and a '52 US Reissue (amazing neck) but they couldn't reach the fantastic sound of this one. The Fender Custom Shop produces amazing instruments with its Time Machine Series, even though they are mass produced (for hand-made instruments, take a look at the Masterbuilt Series). The guitar was very expensive. But it was still half the price of the original. Passion has no price... Don't try it out if you don't want to buy it because you might never get over it. It's like testing a Ferrari and driving back home with your normal car... more affordable but without personality. Impossible to give it less than 10/10 in any aspect.