All user reviews for the Fender Standard Telecaster [1990-2005]

I paid 350 new from a local dealer. I own a les paul custom and a fender mij strat and figured this would round it all out. I like twangy single coils also.

It's very affordable. The american ones are a little nicer but are close to a grand. The mex standard gives you all the tele feel for a good price. I like the bridge pickup. Its bright like a strat but has more meat, you get the best of both worlds. The middle position(using both pickups) is nice. It is kind smooth and twangy, better then the middle spots on a strat.

The neck pickup is a bit muddy when distorted. Sounds great clean though. If I were to play in a band I would consider replacing the pickup with a fatter sounding one. I've heard complaints about the frets being sharp on the edges but mine is fine.
The squire ones do have this problem.

Good for the money. Looks great, tuners seem fine.

Very good for the money. Alot of fun and a great contrast to a guitar with humbuckers.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

got it from sound control in newcastle paid £360 worth every penny. ive always wanted a telecaster and they dont make jazzmasters left handed

my god its wonderful, the paint (midnight wine) is just soo sexy if you get up close it looks mettalic. the neck feels like silk its so smooth and fast. tuners are really good and they have this little fender stamp on the back of each one its such a nice touch. even the action was ok i raised both the e strings a little but its better than i expected. i havent even got to the sound yet but hen again it is a fender telecaster what more do i need to say

hmmmmm i suppose its annoyiny only having one tone and one volume,when your changing pickups its nice to be able to have different volume and tone settings but ive got a vintage Sg copy (its brilliant i reccomend it as well) if i want to do that

its built like a tank its about three foot thick. when you look at it from the front the headstock looks dainty it really isnt i treat this guitar like a baby son but i know it could take some punishment. the best thing is though this ruggedness creates almost les paul like sustain and doesnt compromise comfort it is just awesome.

the guitar is phenomonal and so is the price

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was looking for an american standard tele and I tried a couple of them but was not satisfied, so just out of curiosity I asked the dealer to hand me a mexican one hanging on the shop.That guitar was nearly perfect so I buyed it for about U$ 500, nearly half the price of an american at Fender,Santiago-Chile.

As I said before the guitar was perfect except for the pick-ups so I changed them for a couple of Vintage Tele.
This is a very refined guitar and you can see it in it's finish and construction as a whole.It reminds me of those vintage telecasters 'cause it has those vintage frets and allows a comfortable low action.
It makes me remember that Fender workers in the fifties were nearly all mexicans and I feel great respect for them.

Well as I said before, the pick-ups are no good and I changed them.
The mate finish on the neck looks rather cheap so I polished it to a more shiny look.

Construction is impecable.Perfect alignment,
nice fret job and you can set it up to your taste with very little work.

Congratulations to Fender Mexico 'cause they're doing a very dedicated work.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I recently wanted to upgrade from my Squire Affinity Telecaster and am a big fan of Led Zeppelin so I thought why not a Telecaster? I purchased this guitar for $300 at a local guitar center.

This is a beautiful guitar. The maple neck provides quick slides up and down the fretboard. The neck pickup can go from deep muddy Metallica like sounds, to the still muddy but a little more tonal sounds of say... Muddy Waters. The bridge pickup has a great twang for Zeppelin style playing and country style licks.

This unit is a little heavy. I would of licked a different nut but I can always upgrade.

This unit feels nicely put together and is absolutely beatiful. It definately could take a beating, and I don't see it having any problems anytime soon.

This is a quality guitar for an intermediate player. There are so many tonal possibilities, this guitar could be used for almost any style of play. 4 stars!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I picked this up at Sam Ash. I had visited two or three weeks previously looking for a guitar in the 300-400 dollar range to move up from my cheap Strat copy. I liked the Tele sound, after all, they're very versatile. I knew that plenty of my favorite bands (the Wallflowers to the Clash, pretty wide range) used them and I wanted to see how one played. I narrowed it down to the Telecaster vs. an Epi Goth SG, but I knew that if I was ever in the mood for twange, the SG would not deliver in it so I picked up my $350 Telecaster.

I love almost everything. It was a floor model, the gorgeous Wine Red guitar I picked, so the dude at Sam Ash put new strings on it for me and set it up (and gave me a deal on the strap and bag). The action was perfect, low with little buzz (I'll get into that later). the look is great-honestly, it looks like a $950 guitar rather than $350. The tone is stellar-I'd read that the pickups were muddy, but I don't get that at all. It sounds great even through my cheap 10-watt amp. I can't wait until I get my Roland Bluescube to really compliment this thing.

hmm...it buzzed early on...I guess. See, the notches in the nut were cut small and I had the guitar salesman put on Skinny Top/Heavy Bottom's (I hate power chords, but I do love the fat bassy feel and sound of the low strings) so at first, the strings didn't sink all the way down and the man at the store put the action wicked low to compensate. but three days later, when they'd settled, it was going buzz-crazy. I freaked and thought I'd bought a lemon, but then I realized and fixed the action and all was better. There still is some buzz, but that's natural.

So I guess the only thing I disliked was how stupid I am...

This is a Tele here, so it's built like a tank. I haven't been too klutzy with the thing yet, I'm still in that mode where you first get the instrument and you treat it like it's pure gold and a week later it's on your bed covered with coke (the beverage...) and blood. anyway, well, the construction is good, seeing as it was made in Mexico...some things needed tightening, but hey, it's a floor model, and I have a screwdriver.

This is, without a doubt, a great value. It's got the tone and looks and build you usually get for much more, but it's only $350. The moral of the story is, if you're not a moron like me, and you like playing the guitar (other than heavy metal and this crap they're selling on MTV under the name of punk these days) this should suit you. It's a Telecaster, it can handle most styles of music. It may not sound like a million bucks, but it sounds like more than it goes for, and it's worth it.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Scored my Midnight Blue Standard Telecaster via eBay from a pawn shop in Wichita Falls, Texas. Some poor Texan is out one sweet axe!

Let's start off with the fact that I don't care where the Fender is made. Let's face it, a Fender isn't exactly the Space Shuttle and Leo wasn't building terribly complex units when he fired up in the early '50s. That said, I'm really impressed by the quality built into this standard tele. The neck feels and performs great, the quality of the purplish blue finish (it transforms depending on the light quality and type hitting it), the hardware is of more than adequate quality and I'm not inclined to upgrade the pickups (which is rare since I tend to "frankencaster" my Fenders since my first strat purchase from Guitar Center in 1977.

A great clean tone out of both pickups (I really like the tone of the center, combined setting) and it breaks up nicely through my Ampeg VT-60.



This one stays stock...I can't think of what to change! SWEET!

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I purchased this guitar for $325.00 new off the rack at my local guitar store. I bought it to have as a backup to an American Tele.

Good feel and balance. Quality controls, switches ect. Good guitar for the money.

Compared to an American made Tele this thing didn't measure up. I would have been happier with a used American guitar fo the same money. The pickups had poor tone and I replaced them with Texas Specials. The nut was cut too deep in the center two strings so I had it replaced by a guitar tech. Then it played great. By now I had $500.00 invested in my Cheep back up guitar.

The nut and frets were not very good. The pickups also didn't sound all that great. In defense of the Mexican Tele I was comparing it to my American Plus model. Be sure to look at a few in the store if considering buying one of these. Some have better nuts, frets than others. Also the black ones seem to have the lowest quality wood. Spend the money on sunburst. The sunburst models get the best wood.

Again, a good guitar for the money but nothing like the real thing. It I wanted another budget Tele I would look for a good used American Tele, or try a bunch and look for the best one in the store. The tone, wood, nut, frets, neck and finish are all different on these imports. Some are great finds, mine had some major drawbacks that I didn't notice before I bought it. Plan on upgrading the pickups regardless because they don't have the Tele tone.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

After trying this a few times in the local guitar shop, I went for it. It was £250 - about $375.

It's fantastically well built, solid as a rock and sounds wonderful when distorted - whether that's with the full Marshall grunt, or a trebly rhythm sound. It's tremendously easy to play too.

Clean sounds aren't it's forte, unless you're going for that back pickup rockabily twang, in which case it's brilliant. Also, putting the selector in the middle position delivers some beautiful blues tones. It's mainly in the strummety-strum area that the front pickup sounds, well, strumety-strum. The best thing to do, then, is avoid strummety-strumming it.

Perfect. First class construction, a beautifully smooth, comfortable neck, solid pots and pickups - it couldn't be better. Since the day I got it I've found it incredibly reliable.

This is no gorgeous vintage model, nor is it a high-tech plank-spanker's dream. But for the money, it's incredibly good value - and an incredibly good guitar. Sure, you can't do anything and everything with it, but nobody's invented that guitar yet. If you want to play Zeppelin in your bedroom, or you want to crank out the blues in your local boozer, this is the chap for you.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I was shopping for a sort of utility guitar to use for giving my son lessons. Fender seems to have recaptured some of the original (pre-CBS) spirit in their new instruments, so I figured a basic Telecaster or Stratocaster would be durable, playable, and sound really good. After looking at and playing a bunch of guitars, I settled on a Telecaster as the likely choice and had to decide between two, both sunburst with maple neck, one American and the other Mexican. The American was a little more refined in the details, but dollar for dollar the Mexican was a much better deal at about $300.



Comparing the American Tele to the Mexican was difficult--they were almost identical. They played and sounded the same as well. The necks were identical. The hardware was also pretty much identical. The only significant visible difference was that the grain in the wood of the Mexican guitar body was not quite as perfect as the American one. The finish was beautiful, but the grain was not quite as smooth.



I can't say that there is anything I don't like about this guitar. About the only thing I don't like as well as the American version is that the body, to me, feels just a little bit heavier.



Unlike the Mexican Stratocasters, which I find to be less well made than the Squier Strats, the Mexican Tele is built with excellent fit and finish and attention to detail. The wood in the body is not quite as good a quality as the American versions, but most models hide that beneath a nicely applied finish. I think the finish is a urethane rather than the nitrocellulose that Fender has been using on American versions, but that is a cosmetic detail that won't really matter to most players.



As far as I'm concerned the Mexican Fender Telecaster is one of the best guitar bargains on the market. It is an especially good deal if you plan to do any customizing. Take the money you saved by buing the Mexican version, and upgrade as much as you'd like. You'll come out way ahead. I've rated this a 4 out of 5 rather than a 5 because it is a Fender--an instrument designed for comfort, durability, and playability, not superiority. I'd save a 5 for a hand-made.



This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Mexican Manufacturing

Alder body (or poplar) light, a simple board with a timeless profile

rather thin neck, satin maple (available with rosewood fingerboard)

two single coil pickups
- Neck pickup with chrome cover (lipstick)
- Simple black pickup posed through non-adjustable pads

color artic white (slightly cream-white, color classic model) the best effect

Independent adjustable bridges
the strings through the body

UTILIZATION

Nice but I prefer to handle more polish

effective and accessible settings do not interfere the game

almost ideal ergonomics would be perfect if the angles were rounded acute attacks
small imbalance side handle provide a strap that will not slip

SOUNDS

A guitar that does not suffer rough play
the sounds are highly precise, highly defined, incisive and allow a great expressiveness
side of the coin, the smallest error is transcribed

the sound is characteristic of all known

the sound is less "thick" as a United States .... if we look good ...

OVERALL OPINION

For a price below € 600 would be no need to purchase a United States which is twice

The Mexico is very similar view better than the Highway 1 Series is in the € 800

for a lead guitar and if you are fan of this style of scratching one must rush to the United States Custom Shop, will take more than € 2800, but "there" you can feel the difference ....

Well what is a tl, 2 singles, no vibrato, volume 1 + 1 Tone

UTILIZATION

The handle is nickel and all goes well, super enjoyable.
Good balance of the guitar
The selector is a lil while too close to the volume but hey! it goes ..

SOUNDS

You branches ........ Sounds! no fuss

I usually play the metal / fusion and I have not tried (must not abuse either).

My pop rock band, I tried it on the occasion of a long rpt with all mic positions and clean, crunch (oulala friend .....) and distortion "rock ".
................ And how to say it rocks like your grandmother say to young!
More srieusement in a good tube amp, it's terrible and it was immediately recognizable grain tl. Cleans the funk, the subtle crunch and solos crying.
With the Tone particulire, no need to play too loud in a group, although the guitar out of the mix and that's cool.

OVERALL OPINION

Essay after a noon RPET (taxing a friend) one thing: IT M need one !!!!!!!
I have not tried other guitars of the same style and I do not want!

Short in its directory, this guitar excels

The models have to see APRS United States but I think the prices explode and mex well enough for me!

MODEL manufactured in Mexico and bought in 1992 (the strings do not pass through the body).
Metallic Purple.
Maple neck with soft touch rev.
21 frets and a classic microphone configuration.

UTILIZATION

Channel plutt enjoyable and wide. Does not really play fast.
Ergonomics is one of a telecaster. Good balance, it does not slip while standing.
Not too lgre nor too heavy.
Micro bridge replaced by a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster 48 'ST1 (I get little prs the sound can be heard for micro seymour on page ...). The original micro lacked power, and sounded a bit more than a tele lens standard. APRs have the neck pickup closer to the strings, the position intermdiaire is perfect to accompany singing.
APRS MODR 12 years of playing on this guitar, there are some traces of rust on the bridges that n'empchent not functioning. The handle has trslgrement Bug and a small ncessiterait rglage I must admit ... The mcaniques work perfectly. I had to change the micro slecteur after 10 years. Stable view of the agreement (if set correctly the strings hh

SOUNDS

It is ideal to use as I do. Music mid-electronics, semi-acoustic. She sits naturally in a mix and brings me a particularly supports the song. Its "crunch" and slightly saturated prcis, nergique, content frquentiel balance. Saturated fat ban, the sound loses all and DGRAD intrt (I do not think that this is done for a. ..).

OVERALL OPINION

I use it for 12 years.
This is my medium of song. I forget all the other guitars of all fawn
In the era, I tried many guitars MODELS but few Telecasters (c'tait fairly uncommon among people my age).
Pays about 3000 FF 1000 FF more about microfinance. Looking back, it's a bargain I think.

- Fender Telecaster Standard Mexico
- Body Poplar / Saddle handle a pice 21 boxes
- 2 single Fender (1 lipstick in the neck position) / slecteur 3 positions
- Volume + tonalitbr />
The guitar is well finished plutt, I often get to play on that of a friend who is "Midnight Wine" with a micro plate black: superb! not much else to say it's a tele! the electronic is a bit behind but dj trs what the price

UTILIZATION

I am not too fan of Saddle keys but hey at least the profile is enjoyable: hard not to feel comfortable ... on the other hand go up that this is a boulevard for soloists do not abuse it can be! Ergonomics is gnrale plutt good but I do not like the positioning of slecteur (shared all telecaster) rglage level is very simple and we recover the CHARACTERISTICS of the MODEL

SOUNDS

It is not forcment fits my musical style (jazz rock, Mike Stern notice telecaster uses) but I like his personality (and in this price range is a rare guitars that plutt have the personality!) trs sound is ok ... in fact I t plutt surprised I did not expect as well, a shortage can be a bit of precision, the sound is a bit vague but with better microphones the problem rgl would quickly! it's dry and snaps: great in rhythm! a little less my cup of tea in the lead, but frankly it be choosy

OVERALL OPINION

My friend bought this scratch 2 years ago 1 / 2 right now and surprise the guitar does not move as the finish is what really convincing

For the price and if you like that style of guitar you gotta go with eyes closed: this is a good plan rev ... APRS may need to be considering a change of pickups (knowing that there is a lipstick) for a super skyscraper

Tl standard made in Mexico
21 frets
fixed bridge
2 micros simple, a 3 position selector, 1 Tone 1 Volume
button on mine is maple, the neck and also an alder body
I find the intersections taking a cheap can, because after a few hours of use of the Tone knob remains in my hands (nothing serious, just a screw tightening but still) and after taking three weeks jack unscrews
Otherwise the guitar is the tuning trs well (two weeks of heavy use and has almost no moves)
8 for the knob and jack

UTILIZATION

The handle is trs enjoyable (it's Fender), access to acute not great because the heel is thick enough. jou for 1 year with a ser Squier Stratocaster guitar that I Affiniti dabord parrue trs heavy but it is with abitude fait.L absence of dcoupe to the forearm can be a g Nantes beginners but also is the abitude
I also find that the volume knob is too moves away from the bridge: inpossible to effect the violin Mark Knopfler without pedal

But despite all its dfaults I love the scratches, it's his default which his personality and if I wanted a perfect scratching I bought a Start

9 for the volume moves away too

SOUNDS

In clear sound with the bridge pickup is the Lord of the tele twang, we like it or pas.Je found the neck pickup a little too serious, especially for playing but for arpges rhythm and solo It is very well.
Passont disto.Ayant the low-end amp I use a boss blues driver for the distortion and the vamp is especially the bridge pickup, precise and never showy, never mushy and with a remarkable grain, the neck pickup is trs good for solo but less for the rhythm (the blue driver has a serious grain trs, the mico too, so did a grain trs trs severe).
With a boss ds1, sounds good but its not as much with a good crunch, for cons I think the solos with the neck pickup sound better now with ds1

8 as -2 for the neck pickup

OVERALL OPINION

I have been using 3 and I'm thrilled I found the report very good price for quality find a guitar of this quality the price (560) is rare (it is the price of an Epiphone Les Paul made in china) even if the finish is far from perfect. may need to be thinking a change of microphone.
I do not essaill other models because I won but I would do with the exprience this choice probably because despite the dfault I love this guitar because it has many personality and everyone has not had (in the Clapton Crossroads DVD, they are all a stratum, almost always sunburst) inch so I'll buy an Epiphone SG (that's what I had to prevut ) but it is a history of heart because it prfere my guitar because I Epiphi pence that china is not as good as fender mexico