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Hatsubai « Unique Tele »
Published on 04/25/11 at 18:15The 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.
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.