Fender '72 Telecaster Custom

this is a 2000 year model 72 Tele Custom reissue that I got used a while back. It is black with a (flamy!) maple neck that has a great chunky profile (feels just like my 68 Tele with a C neck) It was MIM. Has the 3 way toggle/2 vol, 2tone setup just like a Les Paul. very nice and more versatile than my 68. I figure these guitars may be poplar or basswood, but this one is pretty heavy,may be alder. Not as heavy as a real 70's Tele Custom though. Has the standard Tele lead pickup and the Fender wide range humbucker for the rhythm slot. 3 bolt micro tilt neck, F stamped schaller tuners, just like a real old one has. I'll rate this one pretty high here, as the big flamey neck and les paul style controls along with the single/hum layout make this a VERY versatile and pleasing axe. Also....it looks like Keef's...

Well, I actually had a Sunburst 74 Tele Custom for about 2 weeks back in the late 80's...and it was horrible!! Thick, glopped on finish, loose neck joint, 11 pounds of dead weight, and the neck...oh, my it was skinny and badly fretted. Just a worthless guitar all the way around, ironically it's now worth about 3 grand. This MIM one has absolutely NONE of the problems the original had. It seems very high quality, and all I've changed are personal preference things. I use this in my home studio, but also use it live through an old ProCo Rat, Echoplex, Cry Baby, Hush 2 gate, and custom splitter box into 2 modded blackface Bandmaster heads that drive 2 Ampeg 412 cabs loaded with old EV SRO 150 12" speakers. It is not any more noisy than any other guitar I have with single coils. The guitar was bought used from a pawn shop and has had a six way bridge and a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster bridge pickup installed before I got it. Also the pots and switch have been changed out to Centralab 500K on the single coil and 1 meg on the humbucker. Tone caps are old orange drops that have the correct values for a 72 model. These mods are a HUGE improvement over the stock setup. I'm from Nashville, and the techs down here know how to maximize a Tele's performance while getting the best in classic tone. The bridge pickup is spanky clean, and bright; However, tweaking the tone down a bit thickens things nicely, getting into LP Jr territory. The humbucker was really muddy when I got it, but after pot and cap swap, it is bright and toothy with very similar tone to a LP Custom on the rhythm pickup. I always wanted one of these to get that Keef look and tone and with both p/ups on, it nails that Stones sound. I really am very pleased with this guitar.

Dunno about the factory setup, but when I got it it was setup for light strings. I put on a set of Ernie Ball power slinkys, tweaked the rod a tad tighter and adjusted the bridge- plays perfect for me now. I like a medium action. The pickups were adjusted fine, but I really did not even play it until it was back from my tech and had the pots swapped. The neck pocket is very tight, unlike the sloppy joint on the original, and the micro-tilt works fine. Tuning is spot-on. I had the frets filed and polished also. I like the finish on the neck-it is glossy, but not overly thick like the original ones were. All said this guitar was pretty good and even came in a nice early 90's Fender American hardcase-way better than a bag in my opinion!

It withstood many gigs prior to my getting it and can handle thousands more. Hardware seems tough enough, finish is thick and durable, though the guitar is starting to show some dings and playwear, especially on the pickguard below the pickups and around the controls. Strap buttons replaced with schaller strap locks. I use this on gigs and trust it, but I have 2 Strats onstage also. The amp-style knobs show quite a bit of wear, I adjust them a lot as I play.

Used-never contacted them.

I've been playing most my life and professionally for most of that time. I also own a MIM 72 reissue Strat with EMGs and a stock 60's Jap reissue Strat and a 2004 Gibson LP Junior that I use onstage with the above described rig. At home I have a 65 Jazzmaster with a 63 neck, a 68 Tele, an 82 reissue 1957 Strat, a 89 Ric 330, a 62 Gretsch Jet Firebird, a 77 LP delux, a 74 Guild s100 SG style, a Tokai Love Rock Goldtop w/ p90s, and a 68 Yamaha acoustic. I use a Digitech GNX4 also. I have a 1999 MIM 60's Jazz Bass also.
I got a super deal on this at a local pawnshop. I love the fat flamed neck and the hum/single pickups. I also like the LP style controls, as I am more comfortable using the LP style setup while singing (don't haveto look down to make adjustments!)Don't hate a thing about it,it's just a fine Tele. This one is light years better than the original one I owned years ago. One thing I like: My band recently started gigging and recording after a 2 year hiatus. At every gig I've gotten compliments on this guitar's sound and looks... Cool!

Finish- Black on Black with chrome features.
Body Style- Telecaster single cutaway, no contours.
Bridge Style- Three saddle vintage steel string through.
Tuners- Schaller F logo tuners
Neck/Scale- U profile gloss one piece maple neck with 7 1/2 inch radius and 25 1/2 inch scale with three bolt micro tilt feature.
Accessories- None not even an intonation tool or neck adjustment key.
Year of manufacture- Not really sure probably an 04 or 05 it had been on the hanger for a while. Made in mexico.
21 frets
Soild alder body
3-way toggle with twin volume and tone controls
H/S pickup configuration
Fender made pickups (plastic bobbin single coil with no base plate)
Passive electronics.

Ok pros and cons. Decent electronics. Problems though, be sure to have a tech run a star ground and sheild your control cavities and pickup cavities these pickups are noise buckets from the factory. Factory even put in a ground loop, must have new kids working there. Once you quiet it down youll find the pickups are nice and well suited to each other, even if the single coil has plastic bobbins and lacks the traditional brass base plate. The bridge position is bright and gritty with lots of harmonic overtones and nice tendency towards the upper midrange while still retaining this chimey cutting highs. The middle position is warm but bright, not as midsy and you will benefit from upping the mids on your amp's eq. The neck position is warm, but a tad mushy, not as bright as you would expect a vintage spec humbucker. Very bass oriented, but weak harmonics in the bass registers. You can buy a fender american pickup to drop in if you need those bass harmonics. It could be better but for a midrange guitar, you'd be hard pressed to find anything better. Give this one a try if youre looking for a bit of honk, or maybe a touch of ol Hank. It's great for those really compressed indie tube tones as well as old fashioned honkytonk and country. I would even venture to say it has some real rock potential too.

Well we all know fender, and we all know their factory setups are a joke. If youre handy or have a good tech friend you can get by with the factory saddles, but most definately would benefit from a set of compensated angle drilled saddles. Thats the only investment aside from shielding tape im probably going to make in this guitar. It's a real looker with sparse but not too sparse accoutriments. Simple black gloss finish with black four ply pickguard and chrome touches here and there. The neck will need adjustment, and if you haven't dealt with a microtilt neck, don't be like me and muddle through it for hours, get help. The finish on the neck was wonderful but needed a fresh polish and wax and the frets needed it too. the nut had the grooves set a tad high, but that was easily resolved. Smooth fret ends, and fairly even frets make for a nice glide along the neck. Very tight neck pocket, which is essential on a tele, be sure to check yours, if you can get a slip of paper in there, think twice, these things can be airtight if you get the right one, and believe me, if its tight, itll ring like a christmas bell, and do it for days.

This thing is light, super light, which scares me, but makes me happy at the same time. Light wood is typically soft and marrs easily, but the thick poly finish on this thing seems to show little play wear from my use, so I guess it will probably hold up pretty well. The pickguard might as well be made of paper, it scratches and scraps of you run your bare thumb across it. The neck pocket is tight and solid, the tuners hold tune well, and the bridge is solid as a rock. The light weight/sustain issue. Heres the deal this thing sustains amazingly, I have a dearmond m-75t which weighs as much as a bag full of history books, and an agathis tele baritone that weighs about the same. They both sustain forever, but because of the dense wood have slightly attenuated highs, and teles have that quality naturally because of the tone circuit and the heavy bridge plate. This guitar is light though and sustains nearly as long as those tanks, if i could compare this to anything its like have a jumbo acoustic or a huge rosewood dreadnaught on your shoulder. Not very heavy for a solidbody. Good solid gigging guitar with lots of potential.

No clue as to fender's customer support, but if I had to guess theres a reason they put all of their schematics on the website, they dont want to spend their time on the phone with mooky mooks like us.

I am an expenrienced tech and rhythm player that loves vintage edgy tones and progressive modern tones at the same time. This guitar is great, I am a very happy buyer but wish that fender would take the time to treat their buyers right and provide them with a properly set up instrument with accurate intonation. Once again, these things are noisy from the factory, get a buddy with a soldering iron to help quiet it down, and be on the lookout for a set of angle drilled compensated saddles, they will be essential in making it a pro gigging guitar.

I own a 2004 '72 Custom. As stated below, all the parts are American but it was assembled in Mexico. This came in black with a maple neck. Has the single coil in the bridge and the oversized humbucker in the neck. The tuners are like the ones they stock on their basses, I can't think of the name right now but they stay in tune really well, I haven't had that many problems. This model always comes with a Fender gig bag, which isn't a bad bag but then again not a hardshell case. I'm giving this a 9 because of the range of tone it has.

I play a wide variety of music, can't really say but everything from fuzz-layered shoegaze to 60's psychdelia... The neck pickup is great, very muddy, if I tune down a half step and kick back the tone, I can get into a dark Black Sabbath mood, or in standard I can still do everything I need. The bridge single coil is my favorite, very shimmery, clean sounding. I can dial into a Ticket To Ride Beatles' tone, or push some gain on my amp and get the Pink Floyd going on.. Not to a T, but I am just trying to stress how versatile this guitar is. It's the most versatile guitar I have ever owned. The only thing I need now is a Nashville Tele and I think I'll have myself set...

The action is fine, the maple neck is really nice and fits my hand really well. My hands aren't big, but they aren't small. Very easy to play and get a feel for. I haven't noticed any fret buzz and I change the strings on a regular basis. I also admit that I haven't had it set up since I purchased it (I plan to soon) and it plays just fine... but every guitar needs a set up. The finish on it is really nice. I like to take care of it with a Fender cleaning spray (I work for a company that deals music equipment, I win cleaning spray all the time - I recommend it, it works better than the ol' spit n shine). The guitar is a Telecaster - it's not light, but I don't find this one on the heavy-side. I own two other Telecasters and it's the lightest (the other two being a MIM Std Tele in black and a MIA Std Tele also in black). I am a Telecaster guy and I love this guitar... I love this guitar to death but I want to give it an accurate review. This guitar plays nice, but it's not the best guitar in the world. Give me 10 years of breaking it in, and I think it'll be there.

It's a Fender. It can survive just about anything, but like all guitars and cars, it falls apart now and again. The bridge could use a little adjustment. It stays in tune fairly well. The first problem is, the input jack is coming loose - this seems to be recurring on this model. The finish seems good, but I'm not worried about dings or chips or scratches.. Who cares really. The strap buttons are solid but I will be switching to oversized ones to further prevent those strap-slips.. The parts of the guitar are really well, American as stated, but it's obvious this guitar could have been put through better assembly. Nothing I can't fix though, at little to no cost.

If you are going to buy this, I recommend you go through Musician's Friend and get their coverage plan. They'll take care of you.

I have been playing guitar for 7 years, I am 21 now. I also own a 1985 MIJ Std Stratocaster, a 1992 MIA Std Telecaster, a 1998 MIM Std Telecaster, a 2001 Epiphone Les Paul Custom, and a Seagull S6 acoustic. I play through a Vox AC15, a Vox Pathfinder R mini stack (the 15w head with the 4x8" cab - awesome little guy for bedroom/living room practice). I use an EHX Holy Grail reverb pedal, a Hendrix fuzz/wah, the Ibanez analog delay pedal, and an MXR 7 band eq. This is the best guitar I own. I plan on keeping it my entire life...

'72 Mex Tele Custom made around 2005/2006. One piece maple neck (21 frets), bullet style truss rod w/ micro tilt. W/R Humbucker at neck and standard single coil at bridge. Vintage 3 saddle bridge, strung thru body, 2 vol 2 tone, Schaller tuners i think & Gig bag.

With a very flexible tonal range and the right amp EQ settings, i reckon this guitar should cover just about anything you would play, except probably Morbid Angel/Suffocation type humbucker preffered stuff. I'm using a Fender Twin Reverb and a Pro-Co RAT some days, and a Vox AC50 Top Boost & 4X12 (WITH GREENBACKS!! :-)) & Boss ME5 digital fx on other days. The sound between both amps is remarkably well balanced bearing in mind i've only lived with the guitar for two weeks! It fairs well compared to my Jap Strat, and stands alongside my friend's Hamer Tele (Beautiful!!) admirably. It makes what sounds i tell it to make. End of story.

Apart from being set up by Jeff Healey, the pickups are pretty well balanced considering it's a H/SC guitar. The major bitch i have with the guitar is the shocking finish afforded to the frets. Between fret 17-21 is deplorable and fret 5 is also suspect. Bearing in mind i have a free setup for a month, i could do well to take advantage of this and have this slight problem rectified. The tuning pegs gearing could have been a little more smooth but hey......

This guitar BETTER adapt to the live environment pretty quickly or else end up a McDonalds carton sooner rather than later. Not sure about the hardware lasting (i forsee new pickups en route) and the frets are going to get a fright soon. The finish is irrelevant and i couldn't care if the paint fell off tomorrow. Strap buttons solid for now. Further usage will tell if it's dependable or not. I wouldn't play any gig without a backup guitar...you never know!!

Haven't roared at them .......yet!!!

I have only had my Custom for two weeks but it is intended to be my 'main' runabout. I also play a '84 Jap Strat and lots of different guitars for lots of different reasons. If i had something i wished i could have asked before i played it, it would have been "How come all the salesmen in your shop don't care?" Pound signs aplenty for the lucky person in question. Hard cash too....no rubber cheques here!! All i got was a lousy gig bag, no strap, strings, or a lead (always welcome). If it were lost or stolen i think the chances of me getting one that sounded as good as this one are fairly slim. The guitar was compared to #800 American Teles and took the piss out of them soundwise. Thankfully never bought one of them!!! I wish it had a sister. My dog is called Charlie.

This is just to clarify something that nobody seems to know.

The parts on this Fender are mostly AMERICAN and other, not Mexican as most of you are assuming. Do your research. These guitars are just ASSEMBLED in Mexico.

2003 MIM; black with maple fretboard. Mine has an MIJ neck and modern Gotoh tuner (more on those later). Other than that it's stock and all the features have been covered below.

Yes, the HB can be muddy and the SC is inherantly a bit weak, but with some adjustment these can be almost totally remidied. Being my only electric guitar I depend on the Tele Custom to cover a pretty broad array of tones. I use it with my 1967 Ampeg Gemini I (20w 1x12) and pedalboard (Crybaby Classic Wah, Analogman TS-9/Silver, Analogman SD-1/808, RMC FK-1 compressor, and VoodooLab Sparkle drive) and I can play just about anything from jazz to hard rock comfortably. I mostly play in Praise & Worship groups at churches, so there is always a bit of give and take in my style depending on the songs and congregation that day, but I've had no problem fitting in with this setup. The 72 Custom RI has become an integral part of my sound, and I don't think I could go back to a more 'normal' style guitar. Even my wife who didn't like it at first said this past weekend that this guitar is a part of who I am!

Here is where I had some problems. I bought the guitar dirt cheap from a VERY well known shop while visiting my parents. After puting 10's on it I tried to adjust the truss rod and .....nothing! It wouldn't move no matter how hard I tried. Took the guitar to my local Fender authorized shop and was told I needed a new neck, since the truss rod was completely frozen! Luckilly the guitar was still playable, but I played with no truss rod adjustments for about 9 months until Fender sent the new neck to my dealer.

Eventually they sent a MIJ neck (far better than the MIM) which was drilled for modern tuners, so the shop put in a set of Gotoh's for my trouble. It took a while to get, but the Japanese neck has a much nicer finish than the MIM and is a big improvement to the guitar.

One other small issue is having a couple of the pickguard screw holes strip out, but I've filled the holes with toothpicks and life goes on.

This has been my only electric for the past 2 years, and I have no worries about it failing me any time soon.

It took Fender a L O N G time to get my replacement neck, but they did take care of me even though I'd bought the guitar in one state and was having warranty work done in another. And a big thaks to Kurlan Music of Worcester MA for being willing to spend so much time dealing with a guitar they didn't make any money from. Huge show of character!

I love this guitar. For several years I said "If I ever get another electric it'll be a 72 Tele Custom RI" so when the opportunity showed itself I jumped. Since the truss rod issue is resolved, I have no worries about this guitar failing me. If it's ever stolen or is mortally damaged, I'll get another without question.

This is a 2005 MIM '72 Tele Custom with the burst finish. All the standard features - one Single, one Humbucker. Both Fender Pickups. Two volume and two tone knobs, Alder body, Maple neck with Maple fingerboard. Vintage style Tele bridge, and vintage style tuners, gig bag, etc. Lots of variety...

Sound wise - hmmm. As is mentioned often, the bridge pickup is a bit weak and lacks a bit of the Tele Twang. Nothing you can't fix with a bit of EQ and the right amp. It actually works to the guitar's advantage though, since the neck humbucker is a bit muddy, so having to boost the treble a bit to get the Tele bite helps clean up the 'bucker when you switch to the neck position. I really like the middle position where both pickups are engaged. You can get a really nice bluesy grit in this position. I think I use this position more with this guitar than any similar P/U config on any other gutiar I have owned.
The single coil is a bit noisy, but that's part of the nature of more vintage sounding SC pickups. They guitar is well suit for a good number of music styles - Country, Blues, Rock, Alternative. It's not really a 'hard rock' guitar, any miles away from metal, but that ain't what it was built to do. I use mainly tube amps with this guitar (Rivera, Fender), and run direct to the PA via different pre-amp pedals in some situations (Church).

I was a bit hesitant buying a MIM Fender, since they have a reputation for lessor build quality, but I have no issue with this guitar at all! The two piece Alder body is matched well grain wise, the frets are level and have smooth ends. The neck pocket is tight and and hardware all works great. What I have heard through the grapevine is that the MIM quality is improving, especially on the specials ('72 RIs, Jimmie Vaughn, ect). I am overall very pleased with the build of my Tele.

Everything on the guitar seems very well built and sturdy, and Tele's generally are tanks so I don't anticipate any issues with the guitar at all.

I've never had to deal with Fender.....

This guitar has overcome my prior reluctance to buy any MIM Fenders, mainly since there is no MIA version of the '72 Tele for a reasonable price. The quality and sound of the guitar are much better than I expected, and I am very happy at this point with the Tele. I'm still considering buying a better bridge pickup, but I'm not in a hurry at this point. Probably my favorite feature is the wide tonal range of the guitar. I use it for country, pop, blues, and some classic rock and it has all the tone I need between the two pickups and the amp EQ. If it were stolen I would definitely consider buying another one - I'm really starting to like this guitar a whole lot...

I use a 1999 72' tele custom. It has the 21 fret, maple finger board. Dual volume and tone controls. It is a mexican model (no complaints there). Mine is black with a black pickguard. Vintage tuners, which I really do like. The rest is pretty standard.

I must agree that the bridge pickup is weak. The humbucker is kinda muddy. It is noisy, but there is nothing here that can't be fixed. Overall it has a unique sound, not like standard tele's, that's why I bought mine. The biggest problem that I have had with mine is the frets wore out after about 2 years. Maybe I play different than other players, so this may just be a problem for me.

I bought my tele from a local music store, so mine was set up by the owner of the store. He did a good job, too. My guitar had a chip on the body, close to the strap button, It had fallen at one time. They were up front with me though. I did get it at a discount.

There is no doubt in my mind that this guitar will withstand the test of time. I Have been playing mine for over five years, every weekend,and I have had no major problems. The strap buttons worked their way out for a while, but i drilled the buttons and ran longer and bigger screws into the body. I have had some string breakage problem, but I feel that it has to do with the 3 bridge saddles getting out of adjustment. They seem to work their way out of adjustment.

I have had to have the reverb can in my fender stage 100 amp replaced and they gave me no problem.

Been playin in bands since 1985. The only question that I would have asked is the availability of replacement pickguards, as they had none.Yes I would buy another one if it was stolen, and hope that I catch the one who stole it. There is really nothing that I hate about the guitar,could be a little lighter. My favorite feature is the dual tone controls. I have played other tele's and I like this one the best. It looks cool and plays very good. The one thing that I would like to have on it would be a 60's Strat whammy bridge.cool.

This is a 2002-2003 (judging by serial #) that I recently bought "new" (summer 2005). It had been sitting in the music store for a couple years, but it had a broken in feeling that I really liked. Specs are well covered below. Love the slick, glossy neck. Tuners could be a tad better, but they're fine and as good as most others. What I love about Telecasters in terms of features is that they are about as simple as you can get, no frills.

Style is indie/surf/psych, this guitar is of course one of the "cool" indie guitars of the moment (along with the Tele Deluxe). It has a very good sound for a current guitar. I've owned a '69 Thinline and a '72 Deluxe, and I can say I like this one best. It has the twang of the '69 on the bridge, but has a lot of guts for wah-drenched, gritty solos. Fender humbuckers sound different from Gibsons. They are lower output (a good thing in my opinion), and brighter. I play it through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, its a good match. Nothing beats the sound of my real 1969 Fender "Custom" (a rare guitar similar to an Electric XII or Jazzmaster), but this one is simply amazing and can get some sounds I can't get with my Custom.

Pretty good, but it was sitting in a store a while. A slight tightening of the truss rod and adjusting of the bridge and it plays great. I changed the strings from 9 to 10 like many others, it stabilizes the tuning a lot. One of the tuners is a little loose-feeling, but its not a big deal. These "F" tuners are actually made in Germany by Schaller in case anyone thinks they're made in Mexico. I was able to settle in to this guitar right away, something that encouraged me to pick this particular one up. It felt like putting on an old pair of shoes, rare in a new guitar. I agree with another reviewer who said it brought out a new kind of style in him, it did the same for me, just really allowed me to let go of myself for some reason. I used it at a recent recording session and nailed a take of a song I had never played on this guitar. I think I even played it better than I ever have before. It just comes alive. Let me also say that I bought an American Vintage Jazzmaster online ($1400 guitar) that had all kind of serious issues. I returned it and bought this Tele instead because I honestly felt it was a better sounding and playing guitar. My experience is that the "Classic" series MIM Fenders are constructed better than American ones. I know many will disagree, but all I'm saying is don't believe everything you hear about American being better in every way. Its true that many of the materials are of a higher quality, but that doesn't neccessarily equal a superior guitar. Ignore the labels are play as many as you can. Also, I recommend buying from a store. Individual guitars all have their own mojo and my experience has taught me that buying online is risky. I've been playing about 11 years and have been through about 15-20 guitars in that time. I currently own 4: 1969 Fender Custom (vintage USA made), this Tele Custom reissue (Mexican), a 12 string electric Schecter (Korean), and a 12 string electric Alvarez (Chinese).

Haven't played it out yet but I'm not worried. I played my MIM '69 Thinline out a lot and never had any trouble. Hardware might be a little cheap on these MIMs, but only time will tell. Guitar itself feels extremely durable, like all Telecasters. I would gig without a backup if I had to without worry, but I like playing out with two 6 strings and one 12 string for variety.

Haven't dealt with them.

Value for $$$, this is one of the best on the market, as are all of the Classic series Fenders. This is especially true for me in light of my dissapointing purchase of the American Jazzmaster. After that experience, I decided I would get a Classic series Telecaster. I had a '69 Thinline that I sold and missed, so I considered that one. I also owned and quickly sold the Tele Deluxe because the double humbuckers were a bit much for me, and I found the output too high and overall sound too muddy. I loved it for solo overdubs, though. I played some of the Japanese Teles and found the sound to be too thin. Ditto the '50s and '60s reissues, although they are cool guitars too. The '72 thinline was cool, but also a tad murcky. I narrowed it down to the '72 Tele Custom or the '69 Thinline. The '69 Thinline was brighter and more surfy, but I already have that covered with my original Fender Custom. So, I chose the Tele Custom for its added versatility and meaty sound. Oh yeah, it also looks really cool!

Donny
http://www.myspace.com/ecchoingbleu

I bought it for around $800-900 in 2003 (I got ripped, should of paid about 6-7 hundred). A '72 telecaster custom reissue made in mexico.

21 frets, I wish it had one more fret.
solid body electric. Nice finish on it.
4 knobs, 2 volume, 2 tone. 3 settings, neck, mid, bridge.
Humbucker at the neck, single coil at the bridge.
Not sure what the wood is, but a maple neck and fretboard.
Not a tech guy, so you'll have to look up the other info.

Fairly versitile. I haven't owned many guitars, so I won't rate it's features. One thing though, don't like where the body meets the neck, it interferes with playing on the upper registers. But this is a fairly standard build, just my preference.

I play mostly blues and blues based music/rock. Clean through a low end fender amp (it has "princeton" on the front). I have a few pedals, overdrive and a volume pedal.

I get lots of "popping" with it, if you lightly touch a string, it'll give a pop sound from the hum being cut off. Its not that bad, but its there. Went to go get the thing shielded, but the luthier told me it was already shielded.

The sound is good, what you play is what you sound like. Nice range between the single coil and the humbucker. Can get a nice clean sound or drive it to get some distortion. Sustain isn't good, you'll need extras to get that. Overall, I like the sound, I'm currently shopping for a new guitar, but this one has served me well.

Looks good. i bought mine from a shop, so I think they adjusted the settings. It came with good action, intonation, etc... the humbucker pickup was mounted at an angle, so that had to be refitted, but no big deal there. Everything else was fine.

Finish is still bright, (its only 2 years old) and beautiful. Can definitely gig with this if you wanted to. I think the factory frets are a little on the weak side, I had to replace them after 2 years, but that might just be me. The replacement frets are holding up much better. I remember learning this SRV line, after practicing that same line for about 4 hours, I noticed the frets were noticibly more worn than when I started that practice session. But other than that, its been holding up great. (note: maple frets cost twice as much as rosewood to refret/condition).

NA, haven't had to contact them.

It my first real guitar, I've had an Ibanez Artcore-75, a Takhimine acoustic, and a 60's/70's harmony hollow body hand me down. I bought this one after having played for about 3 years and was (still am) completely ignorant about gear and what kind of sound I REALLY wanted. My favorite so far (in terms of sound) has been the Ibanez (i prefer very clean tones), but that guitar broke in about a year and a half (the guitar chord connection broke off - fixable) and the frets are worn (no point in repairing these since I could buy a new artcore). But the Tele is the best overall guitar. Reliable, good sound, looks nice, etc... I would buy this guitar again, but I would find a good price instead of being ripped off by the salesman.