Aims Tele Style

Great sounding guitar. I replaced the bridge pickup witha Dimarzio distortion pickup. It made the guitar come alive.

Nice playing guitar. A dream to play.

The guitar has no problems and plays great and holds tuning very good.

Never needed it. These guitars are very rare. Its hard to find any information on Aims.

I would rate this guitat a 9 out of 10.

This guitar was made about 1974 in Japan (?) It is a solid body 2-pickup guitar patterned after a late 50's Fender Telecaster. The body finish is off-white (tending to yellow) and the neck and fingerboard appear to be rock maple. The head has a flame maple veneer, with a gold accented scroll-script "Aims" that looks a little (very little) like "Fender" if you read it too fast. The pickguard is black. It came with two Maxon pickups (a Santa Barbara company that originally made replcement parts in the 1960's to fit Fender guitars, and who now makes electronic guitar effects). The bridge pickup is a hot little number, punchy with high end and squeal...sounds like Jerry Reed's Tele here. The neck pickup was oversized (a Strat-sized chrome covered job) instead of the "real" lipstick-style Fender pickup. It died, and was replaced with a Seymour Duncan performer Strat pickup, which works well. The bridge is in the Tele "ashtray"-style with three adjustable "T"-struts. The strings are mounted through the back of the ashtray base, instead of through the body. (I may modify this eventually, although I haven't yet and bought the guitar new in 1975). Tuners are decent chrome plated jobs, nothing special. The volume and tone knobs shedded their chrome after 10 years and were replaced. The three-way switch is a little flimsy (although it still works after 26 years). Case is a rectagular plywood coffin with a red felt liner that always smells "funny", probably from the glue.

I play what used to be called "outlaw country" and blues. (I guess that makes me a redneck with soul!) The Aims works fine for both. Friends who play Hendrix make it sound like Jimi at Monterey. It is a versatile axe, with lots of clear bright punch, especially at the high end. It is also fantastic way down low a-la Duane Eddy and Junior Brown. The guitar can wail and scream, or whisper. For years I played it through a 40-watt Gibson. Now I run it through a Crate DXJ-112.

I have to watch the treble on this one...it can be almost nasal and whiney in its twangy-ness.

I got this at a little guitar shop whose bread and butter was the Aims-Randall amplifier line. They did a pretty good job of setting it up for "everyman". I took the action down and adjusted the bridge to make the harmonics more true. The pickups were fine out of the box. The flaws were few: one of the position marker dots on the side of the fingerboard was a little smudged. The base of the "ashtray" bridge assembly was a little rough. Since almost all Tele players leave the cover off the bridge/pickup, this was noticeable. I've live with it. The cord-connector port is rarely intermittent ($5 to change it, but so far I'm too lazy.)

This guitar would make a great second guitar for the stage. It is very solid, and has withstood many trips coast to coast. The hardware (except for one pickup) is original and working just fine. The finish is decent...the dings and scratches all have their stories. There is no checkering, no crazing, no peeling at all. Always have a backup guitar, no matter what your primary axe may be!

I have had no contact.

I have been playing for 35 years. Other instruments I play include: three Giannini Brazilian acoustics (12-str craviola, 6-str dreadnaught, classical), Gibson J-200 (almost a virgin), Gretsch G2404. My amps are a Gibson 40w ss piece-o-crap, and a sweet Crate DXJ-112. If lost or stolen, I'd probably replace it (the Aims) with a Mexican Fender Telecaster (adjusted for inflation, a less expensive guitar of similar quality, and with the real brand name!) I love the action, I like the sound, I hate that I did not buy a used pre-CBS Fender at the time for a little more money...but who doesn't?

I bought this when I was a teenager, and traded in a now-collectible Univox Mosrite copy that was a really nifty little guitar. The Aims-Randall dealer really pitched this Aims Tele-copy. They explained that "Aims" was actually engineers and craftsmen from Fender who were disgruntled with CBS and so went off to make instruments and amps according to Leo's old philosophy. The amps were really solid; the guitars were rank knock-offs for the most part, except for (of course) this Tele-copy. Maxon pickups were popular replacements in the late 60's; this had Maxons. The highly desireable maple neck-maple fingerboard, off white body and black pickguard ("just like Keith Richard's Tele") made this a standout on the rack. The punchy hot Tele sound through their 100-watt Randall demo amp made the sale.