Fender Classic '72 Telecaster Deluxe

In the 70s when Fender wasnt doing so well they had to try and get guitar players loyal to other brands. This was their attempt to get some Gibson players over to the Fender side. This is one of the most unique Telecasters that Fender ever put out and it is one of my favorites. You can tell from the design that it has a more Gibson Les Paul orientation to it and that pretty cool. With this guitar you get an alder body with strat style contours on the back. The bolt on neck has the 3 bolt attachment with the microtilt adjustment. You get a once piece maple neck with a maple fretboard with 21 big frets. Up top you get the big 70s headstock which looks pretty cool on a Telecaster. The pickups are two humbuckers. They are Fender Widerange humbuckers from the 70s. The bridge is a strat style hardtail bridge so there is no uncomfortable ashtray on this guitar. The control layout is straight Les Paul with a volume and tone for each pickup with a 3 way toggle on the upper bout. The Walnut finish on this guitar is very vintage looking. Like a relic model with out the scratches. The black and sunburst models look brand new while this one looks like it could have been from 72.

UTILIZATION

The playability on these Deluxe models is nothing like a normal Telecaster. The neck is a bid wider and flatter than a normal Fender neck so they feel more like a Gibson. The frets are larger as well. The factory setup is nice and the microtilt adjustment lets you get a nice action up where the truss rod doesnt help. The microtilt is like a self shimming system. The strat style hardtail bridge is more comfortable in my opinion than the normal ashtray Telecaster bridges.

SOUNDS

The tone on this guitar is vintage but not Tele vintage. It isnt that much of a twang machine with the Widerange pickups but they have a bit of bite to them. They are hotter that the single coils that you would have gotten otherwise but they are by no means hot pickups by todays standards. They have a very vintage voice to them. This is probably the smoothest sounding solid body telecasters out there. The tone of the pickups is very p90 ish but with more bottom end. It does not have the telecaster quack that tele players may be use to. With the smoothness there is a bit of a loss of clarity in the tone. Overall there is a nice old school woody tone to the guitar. This guitar also has a great jazzy tone. It is very warm without getting boomy. The humbuckers in this tele give you unique tones that no other Telecaster has. This is a true period guitar with period tone.

OVERALL OPINION

They have been making reissues of this model for a long time and it is no surprise because it is such a great and unusual model. The normal Telecaster is such a one trick pony that not many people are able to use them for modern music. A model like this with humbuckers and full controls give the platform much more versatility to play all sorts of music. The Walnut finish is my favorite finish on this model as well. It has a very period look to go with the tone. If you are looking for a Telecaster that is something more and something different this is a good alternative to your typical tele.

Fender ahs made some exceptional guitars and they have also made some pretty budget friendly and also crummy guitars. I would say that this is a budget friendly guitar for someone who wants to you own a Fender telecaster deluxe series guitar and doesn't want to pay the American price for one. Although the price isn't that much of a difference and maybe only the amount of a couple hundred dollars. So if you looking for a Fender Telecaster Deluxe guitar I would probably save a little bit more money and go with the American-made because it feels and sounds a lot better than this guitar.

UTILIZATION

This is a cool looking guitar over all with its unique place placement of the two humbucker pick ups. Traditionally Fender telecaster's come with two single quill pickups. However this guitar has to humbucker pickups which gives it a more beefier tone and overall warmer and sticker town. You also have a little bit different pic guard than the traditional Fender telecaster pick guard. Usually the pick guard on a Fender telecaster is much smaller where has this one covers more of the body of the guitar. So you have more of a Fender Stratocaster pick card that covers a lot more of the front face of the guitars body.

On this guitar you also have a little bit more control over the volume and tone knobs. Where is a traditional Fender telecaster has two knobs . One for the volume and one for the control. However on miss guitar you have two volume control knobs into tone control knobs as well as a pickup selector on the top portion of the body which is more accurate to a Gibson Les Paul guitar Dennis Fender telecaster guitar. Traditionally the center trail Telecaster guitar had to pick up selector right next to the volume and tone control knobs on the bottom and of the guitar. This one also features a nice vintage Sunburst paint job which is very elegant and very vintage looking overall. You also get a bigger vintage headstock that is more traditional to the older guitars from the 50s and 60s. Overall it's a pretty cool looking guitar and a very vintage look.

SOUNDS


The tone is guitar is very telecaster tone but it comes with a much more beefier overall voice and tone. You can hear the body shape of this guitar as it is exactly the same shape is it any other fender telecaster but you get a much thicker and beefier with two humbucker pick ups. The overall feeling of the guitar is just a hot Rod Fender telecaster guitar. Much like the hot rodded fender Stratocaster guitars which are also known as super strats which carry humbucker pick ups instead of the single coils. This is basically did the exact same thing only in a fender telecaster version.

You can use his guitar with just about any amplifier the half. It's been a sound pretty good in just about any cleaning or any distorted amplifier that you half. The feeling of the guitar is going to be a little bit less substandard then a American made fender telecaster. You can feel it in the balance in the overall feel of the guitar if you've ever played an American fender telecaster. Just to be a little subtle differences in the neck and the feeling of it which will give you the understanding and difference between the Mexican and American made Fender guitars.

OVERALL OPINION


You can find these guitars for right around $600 used and maybe even less. I've never priced these guitars and no desire to buy one in the near future. I would certainly suggest owning a American version of this guitar over this one because of the build quality and standards. The overall feeling the guitar is not very good and I'm just not that much of a fan of the Mexican made guitars. So I would only suggest this if you are very tight budget. Otherwise I would suggest stating a little bit more money or selling something that you already own to afford a American made fender telecaster deluxe guitar

In the 70s Fender was looking to become more Gibsony. This was one of the guitars they put out to try and get some people away from the Les Pauls and on to some Telecasters. This is one of my favorite Telecasters because of this. The 72 Deluxe tele is very 70s in design. It has a neck similar to that of a 70s Stratocaster. It has the large 70s headstock which I like. It has the 3 bolt neck joint with the micro tilt adjuster. The Deluxe has a strat style hardtail bridge instead of the ashtray bridge because there are humbucking pickups in it. It has dual Widerange Fender pickups and a Gibson style control setup with a volume and tone knob for each pickup and a 3 way toggle to switch among them. The Widerange pickups were designed by the same guy who designed pickups for Gibson so it really has some Gibson mojo.

UTILIZATION

The feel of this guitar is not that of a vintage Tele but more of a Les Paul. The Deluxe has larger frets than the stratocaster at the time and the fretboard radius is flatter. It has more of a Gibson type feel to it. Since this is a bolt on Fender guitar there is quite a large neck joint heel where the bolts are and this may get in the way of the higher frets. The 3 bolt neck is not a problem although some people hate it. It works just as fine as the 4 bolt ones did and with the microtilt you dont have to take the whole neck off to shim it. This is a great feature because normal truss rod adjustment doesnt really help the action above the 15th fret or so. I think people just saw back in the day that it had one less bolt and assumed it was worse. Now there are high end boutique guitar makers making strat style guitars with 2 bolt necks. The controls may be awkward for someone who is use to a traditional tele setup. If you are use to Gibson controls you will love it.

SOUNDS

These are some of Fenders earliest Humbuckers and the design feels pretty old school. They are hotter and smoother than single coils but they are by no means modern high gain pickups. This is probably the smoothest sounding solid body telecasters out there. The tone of the pickups is very p90 ish but with more bottom end. It does not have the telecaster quack that tele players may be use to. With the smoothness there is a bit of a loss of clarity in the tone. Overall there is a nice old school woody tone to the guitar. This guitar also has a great jazzy tone. It is very warm without getting boomy. If a Telecaster is too quacky for you this is a great alternative. The humbucking design means they can be used for high gain without being super noisy and super harsh as well.

OVERALL OPINION

This is the Gibson players Fender. It has a wider fat neck with a flatter radius and bigger frets. It also has dual humbuckers with a Les Paul control layout. It is pretty obvious what Fender was trying to do. I dont know what kind of impact this guitar had in 72 but now it is an loved oddball in the Fender line up. If you are looking for a Telecaster with a smoother more modern sound this is the Telecaster for you.

The 72 Tele Deluxe is one of my favorite Fender Designs. In the 70s guitar makers were willing to take chances unlike anything before or after. They were coming out with new iconic designs not endlessly reissuing stuff. This tele is unique in the Fender world. t has more in common with a Les Paul than a tele and is very 70s in design. In the late 60s Fender was trying to compete with Gibson for a guitar that was good for hard rock music. The traditional singlecoils that Fender used in most of their guitars were not well suited for higher gain types of music and applications. Around that time Fender hired a guy who used to design pickups for Gibson. He made Fender a humbucking pickup to use in their guitars. This pickup was the Widerange pickup. The 72 Deluxe tele is very 70s in design. It has a neck similar to that of a 70s Stratocaster. It has the large 70s headstock which I like. It has the 3 bolt neck joint with the micro tilt adjuster. The Deluxe has a strat style hardtail bridge instead of the ashtray bridge because there are humbucking pickups in it. It has dual Widerange Fender pickups and a Gibson style control setup with a volume and tone knob for each pickup and a 3 way toggle to switch among them. Im sure many Telecaster traditionalists were mad at this design when it came out but this guitar was not made for them it was made for the modern player at the time who wanted a Telecaster that could do more modern sounds.

UTILIZATION

To go with the modern player concept this guitar had a flatter neck and bigger frets to allow more expressive playing along the neck. Old Telecasters have 7.5 inch radius necks which do not allow much of a good action at all. The Deluxe has larger frets than the stratocaster at the time and the fretboard radius is flatter. It has more of a Gibson type feel to it. Since this is a bolt on Fender guitar there is quite a large neck joint heel where the bolts are and this may get in the way of the higher frets. The 3 bolt neck is not a problem although some people hate it. It works just as fine as the 4 bolt ones did and with the microtilt you dont have to take the whole neck off to shim it. I think people just saw back in the day that it had one less bolt and assumed it was worse. I have seen guitars made by boutique makers that cost thousands and thousands of dollars that come with 2 bolt necks so dont tell me 3 bolts is not enough.

SOUNDS

The Widerange humbuckers would have been hot super modern pickups at the time but nowadays they fall into the vintage catagory like most other things from that era. They are hotter that the single coils that you would have gotten otherwise but they are by no means hot pickups by todays standards. They have a very vintage voice to them. This is probably the smoothest sounding solid body telecasters out there. The tone of the pickups is very p90 ish but with more bottom end. It does not have the telecaster quack that tele players may be use to. With the smoothness there is a bit of a loss of clarity in the tone. Overall there is a nice old school woody tone to the guitar. This guitar also has a great jazzy tone. It is very warm without getting boomy. The additional tone control lets you really shape the tone more than you could with a traditional tele. You can have the twang or bang with just the adjustment of the tone knobs.

OVERALL OPINION

This is such a great Telecaster design there is no wonder they have been reissuing it for a long time. People like me like the tele design but cant find anyway to use the tele sound. The one thing I would have changed if I was designing this guitar is I would have thrown away the amp knobs the guitar uses and put on some Gibson style speed knobs. There is no silly ashtray bridge here. It has a normal strat style hardtail bridge so it feels like a strat, and with the neck it plays like a Gibson. With this guitar you get a smoother more usable sound with the tele looks. And plus it has a big headstock. A big headstock makes everything better.