Fender '72 Telecaster Reissue (Japan)

Standard Tele configuration of two single coils with lipstick at neck. Slab Rosewood board with 21 smallish vintage frets on a maple neck with wider "U" shape (1 11/16 at nut)and no skunk stripe. '70's style Fender telecaster logo with "E" series serial # decal on headstock face. Two string trees. Fender Japan tuners. Truss rod adjust at body end of neck. Vintage-style 3 steel saddle bridge with "Fender Pat Pend" (w/no serial number), thru-body stringing w/steel ferrules. Basswood body, so it's relatively light. Black color. B/W/B 8-screw pickguard. Made in 1984 in Japan; first year for this particular model run I think.

Basically it kicks ass. The bridge p/up and bridge/neck combination are both awesome. Great tone -bright but not painful with a lot of body, and it really growls when you lean into it. I had a genuine American '74 tele and this thing sounds MUCH better, and it has a better feeling neck (at least to me). I play mostly clean with a bit of edge and this guitar is incredible. Neck p/up by itself is a bit weak. Noisiness is avaerage. This is a GREAT sounding Tele!!!

It's a 23 year old guitar, and it's fairly beat up, but the neck cavity is tight -I can't get a fingernail into the gap. Neck is very good with perfect relief. Neck p/up could probably come up a tad. It feels very well put together, as you'd hope a mid '80's Japanese Fender would be. Control plate, pickguard, bridge plate all line up nicely which many Tele's don't. Switches and pots feel extremely good. They may have been altered or upgraded -I don't know, but they're buttery smooth and noiseless.

Except for the spots where this guitar got whacked (and there are many through the finish and into the wood -basswood is relatively soft)the finish is amazingly good, shiny and barely scratched. From a distance it looks like a new guitar that fell down the stairs. The pickguard looks like it's been rubbed with steel wool from 23 years of picks, but otherwise it's held up extremely well. Chrome is perfect. Steel looks like 23 year old steel.

Doesn't apply.

Been playing 30+ years. Own a bunch of guitars, expensive and cheap, but all of them are great players. This one's no exception. Like I said before, this one plays and sounds better the the real '70's tele which I had for 20 years, was worth a pile of money, and I never liked. I've been looking for a Tele like this for a while, and didn't want to spend $1000. I paid less than half that for this one used, with the original black tolex REAL hardshell case (not that crappy molded piece of s**t my expensive strat came with). If you're looking for a good Tele I definately recommend one of these mid '80's Japanese ones.