Fender Classic Player Tele Deluxe Black Dove

The Black Dove telecaster is a cool little guitar. It is based off of the 72 Telecaster Deluxe design but instead of two widerange humbuckers you get two P90s instead. The 72 Deluxe is the base for lots of customized Telecasters and this is just one of the variants that Fender puts out. This guitar feels more like a Les Paul than a Telecaster. The 72 Deluxe was designed to get more Gibson players over to Fender so it has a different feel. The guitar has an alder body with a bolt on 1 piece maple neck. The neck has a maple fretboard with a flatter radius than normally found on a Telecaster. The frets are 21 jumbo frets which are also bigger than normal Tele frets. Up top you get 6 tuners on the big 70s headstock which is part of the Deluxe design. The pickups are two Black Dove Fender P90s. This guitar has the standard Deluxe control layout. It comes with a volume and tone for each pickup and a 3 way toggle on the upper bout. The bridge is a Stratocaster hardtail. There is no uncomfortable ashtray here.

UTILIZATION

These models play better than normal or vintage style Telecasters. The flatter fretboards and the bigger frets really help you get a lower action on the guitar and make playing much easier. Having the strat style bridge helps as well. I am not a fan of the ash tray bridges. To me they dig into your hand and are hard to intonate. This bridge is perfectly fine for this guitar. The back of the body has a belly cut like a Stratocaster so the body feels comfortable as well. Tele traditionalists may not like the control layout but this guitar is not for traditionalists.

SOUNDS

The Telecaster and the P90 were made for each other. This guitar has great tone. The guitar still has the twang and quack you expect from a Telecaster but with nice bottom end that stop it from sounding thin like some Telecasters do. This Tele can do a dirty sound better than any other single coil telecater. The P90s love when some dirt is thrown on them. They handle overdrive really well. In the middle position you still get the Tele sound but with more fullness overall. The bridge still has the twang and comes through super clear.

OVERALL OPINION

This is a great model to the Fender line up. If you are someone who likes the Tele deluxe but cant imagine yourself going fully over to humbuckers this guitar meets you half way there. The P90s have the twang of a single coil with the fullness of a humbucker and you get that in this guitar. If you are a tele player hwo is looking for something different but not totally different this is a good guitar. It has all the twang and quack with a bit of bottom to keep it thick.