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Hatsubai « Old school Telecaster »
Published on 04/25/11 at 17:10The '51 Nocaster is the original Telecaster that Leo Fender created. This model is a reissue of that very same guitar made way back when. It features an ash body, maple neck, 21 frets, a standard 3 saddle Tele bridge, 7.25'' radius, Tele-style pickup configuration with a 3 way switch, volume knob and tone knob.
UTILIZATION
I keep going back and forth with this model. On the one hand, it's fairly faithful to what I'd imagine the original Nocaster to be. However, compared to today's guitars, it has a few flaws. For one, the radius is absolutely horrible. It makes bending a huge pain when you start to have medium to lower action. The saddles have a huge intonation flaw, and the strings can get caught in the little saddle height adjustment bolts. This can create some nasty reverberations that echo throughout the guitar. The neck is big on this thing, and that might not be for everyone. That said, the fretwork on this is killer, and it's put together very nicely. I'm not usually a huge fan of relic'd guitars, but this one wasn't too bad. It seemed very natural to me.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds incredible. The pickups seem to have that perfect tele sound that I always picture in my head. The bridge is very spanky with a great twang. The neck sounds very vowely, and when they combine, it has a very cool sound going on. All the positions are very useful. Ash leads the guitar to have a strong top and bottom end with the midrange a bit scooped sounding. This allows it to sound very huge, and clean tones are out of this world. Mid gain tones just ooze with mojo, too.
OVERALL OPINION
I have a hard time recommending this guitar considering how expensive it is. On the one hand, it's a great guitar that sounds wonderful. On the other hand, it has a lot of flaws that I just wouldn't be able to live with after being spoiled by today's guitars. You should really try one out before you buy, but if you do decide to buy blind, you have a much better chance of getting a good guitar than the regular MIM or MIA Fender line.
UTILIZATION
I keep going back and forth with this model. On the one hand, it's fairly faithful to what I'd imagine the original Nocaster to be. However, compared to today's guitars, it has a few flaws. For one, the radius is absolutely horrible. It makes bending a huge pain when you start to have medium to lower action. The saddles have a huge intonation flaw, and the strings can get caught in the little saddle height adjustment bolts. This can create some nasty reverberations that echo throughout the guitar. The neck is big on this thing, and that might not be for everyone. That said, the fretwork on this is killer, and it's put together very nicely. I'm not usually a huge fan of relic'd guitars, but this one wasn't too bad. It seemed very natural to me.
SOUNDS
The guitar sounds incredible. The pickups seem to have that perfect tele sound that I always picture in my head. The bridge is very spanky with a great twang. The neck sounds very vowely, and when they combine, it has a very cool sound going on. All the positions are very useful. Ash leads the guitar to have a strong top and bottom end with the midrange a bit scooped sounding. This allows it to sound very huge, and clean tones are out of this world. Mid gain tones just ooze with mojo, too.
OVERALL OPINION
I have a hard time recommending this guitar considering how expensive it is. On the one hand, it's a great guitar that sounds wonderful. On the other hand, it has a lot of flaws that I just wouldn't be able to live with after being spoiled by today's guitars. You should really try one out before you buy, but if you do decide to buy blind, you have a much better chance of getting a good guitar than the regular MIM or MIA Fender line.