Fender '72 Telecaster Thinline Reissue

made in mexico, may 2009(as verified by fender)
a guitar centre exclusive(more on that later)
ash body
2 FENDER WIDE RANGE HUMBUCKING PICKUPS
21 medium jumbo frets/one piece maple neck
9.5" radius
thru the body stringing with a hardtail bridge
F tuners

i was looking for a 2 HB guitar, for more of a jazz tonality--i had a 72 fender deluxe tele that i sold and really missed the sound of the wide range fender pickups--so i was in GC one evening looking around and came across this tele--it is perfect for the john abercrombie/mick goodrick modern jazz guitar sound, as well as being able to morph into a fusion or classic rock sound--the tone chambre really makes a difference--the guitar pushes more 'air'--not as much as a 335--but because of the smaller body and chambre, it's puchier--weight-wise, it's a relatively light and very well balance guitar

this particular thinline is a guitar centre exclusive, in that it has a 2 tone tobacco sunburst finsh, and a 9.5" radius with medium jumbo frets(as opposed to a 7.25" radius with vintage frets)--it also has a 70's style 3 bolt neck with a micro-tilt adjustment to fine tune the action

the body is centre-joined, i.e., 2 pieces of wood, which over the long term, simply sounds better, in my experience, than a multi-ply instrument

the mexican made fenders just get better and better!!--the fit and finsh are first class, really superb--there are no flaws i can see
i have a road worn tele also that was made in mexico and it's superb also--really, the mexi made fenders play better and sound better than a lot of the american made ones(no disrespect, just my honest opinion)--i also plan on buying a (once again)mexican made classic player jazzmaster that i recently tried out at a music store i work at

onto the GC exclusive--when i called fender about this tele, they were the ones who told me that they made this exclusively for guitar centre--

this guitar will absolutely withstand live playing--i 'baby' all of my instruments--the only change i made was to put in a set of ALLPARTS STAINLESS STEEL SADDLES--there is simply a more 'positive connection' to the strings with these--the finish is a poly finish, so i'm sure it'll stay put

fender is a fantastic company!!!!!!!!!!--they have always been kind and helpful and professional

i have been playing for 42 years, the last 30, as a pro

Fender'72 Re-issue Thinline made in 2005
21 frets
1 volume, 1 tone control, 3-way switch
2 Fender wide range humbuckers
Maple neck
Natural Ash Body
String-thru body
Fat neck, medium frets
gig bag

I was immediately taken by the look of the natural ash body Thinline Tele but when I played it, I fell in love. It is such a unique instrument - I mean how many electrics do you know that have half semi acoustic and half solid?

The Fender wide range pickups are much better than their Gibson competitors - and for most of my life I played only Gibson SG's and Gibson L6S's. They are designed to allow more high frequency through and thus give the tele that sharp, piercing sound you want with a good solid bass background.

The action is wonderful, though I always have my guitars set up by Metairie???s Guitar Tech, and the sound is gorgeous. The neck pickup has a bell tone that rivals the neck pup on my beloved Stratocaster. And the bridge pup has bite but just a bit more body than a Strat bridge pup.

The quality is first rate. The neck and all components are made in Fender's USA factory and the guitar is assembled in Mexico. But trust me; this is quality work all around.

Although this is a re-issue of the 1972 Fender Thinline Telecaster, it plays like the vintage instrument. The story behind the guitar is that Fender was losing market share to Gibson in the early 70???s since the fat sound of humbucker SG???s and Les Paul???s were the preference of rockers. Then Fender heard that Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones had pulled the factory pickups out of his telecaster and installed Gibson humbuckers ??? so Fender decided to come up with this unique Telecaster. Sad story ??? it didn???t catch on and was shortly discontinued and that???s a damn shame as this guitar is so much better than the 1968 Gibson SG Standard I played during those years.

Being a hybrid - half semi-acoustic, it is more delicate than its full solid body brothers, that said, it is very durable, keeps tune wonderfully and as long as you don't go all Townsend on it, should last a very long time in active gigging.

Never had any reasons to bother on this account but all previous dealings with Fender were painless.

Without doubt, the most beautiful guitar I've ever seen and one that plays like a dream. Always spend the money to have a good local tech set up the guitar for you as I never trust the off the racks settings.

Mexican Telecaster '72 Thinline made in 2003
21 frets
1 volume, 1 tone control, 3-way switch
2 Fender humbuckers
Maple neck
Three-colour sunburst
String-thru body
Fat neck, nedium frets
gig bag

I am playing mostly blues and rock'n'roll on Strats and thought I should overcome my prejudice and try a Tele. The Thinline attracted me because of its looks - it's a really great looking guitar, plus at my age the reduced weight of a semi-hollow is an added bonus.
I am using a Marshall 100 watt VS 100 and a Fender Dyna-touch III. Somehow I was not able to get the tones that I wanted out of the guitar. In position one it sounded dull, and in position 3 acidic. Position 2 was okay, but not enough to make me really happy. Played on the clean channels it sounded better than on the overdrive channels of both amps.
Furthermore the neck was too fat for my liking and not as smooth as I had expected. I am sure someone with more patience can get really good sounds out of it.

The strings were set-up a little high, but that was fixed easily. The pick-ups are a different matter; I couldn't make them produce the sound I wanted. The brass-saddles were alright on the day I removed the guitar from the gig-bag. After a week and several hours of playing they rusted/oxidized as did the pick-ups. I blame that one the climate here in Southeast Asia, but then I have 1986 American Stratocaster and there is not rusty speck on that one.
The tone and volume controls were and are little loose.

The way this guitar is built it seems it will last a long time. I've played it live only once and it worked ok. All the other players there who are Telecaster players wanted to play it too. They find it a great guitar.

I've been playing since more than 30 years now. My other guitars are an '86 American Stratocaster, a 2006 American Deluxe Telecaster, a 2009 American Standard Stratocaster, and a Epiphone Korina Explorer made in 2008. The last two are my favourite guitars.
I wished I had been able to play the guitar before buying it online and I would have found that I like jumbo frets better than the one the Tele is equipped with. I am sure it is a great and wonderful guitar for someone, it's just that it doesn't sound the way I like it to.

This is a Mexican made reissue purchased new this year. The guitar is a semihollow design made of ash with a maple neck. The guitar uses two Fender designed "wide range" humbuckers. This finish is natural with a pearloid white pickguard. The pickups truly are wide range in that they produce anything from classic tele sounds to a moderate humbucking roar. The guitar is striking in appearance and fun to play unplugged at night. The hardware is average at best but adequate for this guitar.

I play blues and rock music but it will do jazz well also. This guitar is killer with a Fender Blues Jr. and BBE Green Screamer peddle. This same pedel also works wonders with a 65 Deleux Reverb Reissue. The guitar is noisier than some humbucker equipted guitars but the sound is worth it. The strength of this guitar is the many sound it produces. The tone knob is very sensitive and can create pain with the bridge pickup set all the way on treble. I did change the volome pot to a 500k which did open up the pickups as some other reviewers noted, a cheap mod that is worth it.

The pickups needed some adjustment. The big negative was the fret finish. They were overhanging the fretboard and almost caused me to not buy the guitar. A quick trip to most excellent guitar repairman solved the problem but it looses two point for such sloppy work. In every other respect, this guitar was well built for it's price range.

This guitar is durable, easy to use on stage and has a tough finish. The hardware isn't the best, I could see changing tuners and bridge but it works fine now. This telecaster looks cool and tough.

No problems

I have played for 30 years, more seriously in recent years. This was somewhat of an impulse buy/trade with an old gibson. I wanted something different, with a hollowbody design. I love how it resonates and how it handles. It isn't in the same class as my Eric Johnson Stratocaster, but it is a fine second guitar. If it was lost or stolen I probably would try something else but wouldn't rule out getting another one.

Ash simi-hollow body, 2 Fender "Wide-Range" chrome covered pickups, custom Mother-of-Pearl picguard, 7 1/2" radius maple fretboard, 3-way switch

This is the most wonderful sounding Telecast I've ever played (after a few quick and easy mods - see below)! It truly does have a "wide-range" tone to it. It still has the classic Tele spank, but with lots of full and fat bottom-end. No hum. Lots of top-end sparkle and tons of bottom end.
**NOTE** These guitars come with unpotted pickups and they will squeal like a little pig if you throw a moderate amount of gain in with it. I potted my pickups and the squeal went away but not the tone. in fact, I think the tone improved after potting. I also swapped out the stock 250k volume pot for an audio-taper 500k and that helped the neck pickup bring out a little more sparkle. After these mods, the guitar has the best tone of any guitar I've ever owned, I've I've had a LOT of different guitars.

I bought the guitar used so I can't say how the factory set-up was. I do know that with the 7 1/2" radius I had to raise the high E and B strings up so that they won't "fret-out" when doing big bends. The shorter radius does make it easier to play chords - which is what I do 90% of the time anyway. The neck is just a little bit fatter than "C" shape, but just a little. I like the slightly more fat neck, as my hands don't hurt so much when playing long songs full of bar chords. The grain pattern in mine is not the best ever, but I don't care anything about that. I just love the way it plays and sounds

Like most Tele's and Strats, this guitar is strong enough to take some abuse. You can use Teles and Strats to play baseball with and they'll still hold up.

I've owned lots of Strats, Les Pauls, Tele, and everything in-between and I like this guitar the best. I want another one as a backup. I'd like one with a Bigsby tremelo. If I can find another one, I might mod it with one.

Pretty much covered in the other reviews, but here's a basic rundown:

Body - Semi-Hollow Ash
Neck - 1 Piece Maple
Frets - 21
Bridge - Vintage Style Strat Hardtail w/ Strings Through Body
Pickups - 2 Fender Wide Range Humbuckers
3 Position Toggle (Bridge, Neck/Brige, Neck)
1 Master Volume Knob
1 Master Tone Knob

From the information I've come across, the parts are manufactured in the US, but the guitar is assembled in Mexico. Not a big deal to me, but for some people this may be an issue.

There is one issue that I have that won't probably affect many people planning to purchase this guitar. The tuning pegs have a small slit running through the middle of the peg, and there is a hole inside the slit that you push the string into. I like this for standard gauge strings (50s, 52s), but anything bigger than (53s) won't fit. This isn't a HUGE issue, but it does limit the options somewhat for string usability.

This is where this guitar absolutely shines. I spent about 3-4 months playing tons of guitars (SGs, Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, Various Ibanez, Schecter, etc) and trying to find the sound that suited me best. The main problem that I had in finding a guitar was that I needed versatility. I play a lot of different styles (Blues, Rock, Metal, Thrash, Alternative, Death), and I really wanted a guitar that could cover all of those areas.

I'm happy to say that this guitar can cover all of the styles that I need it to. It tunes down well (I play in a lot of tunings ranging from Drop-B to E Standard). I'm using a Peavey Vypyr 30w as a practice amp, and I can get all kinds of different sounds based on those amp models.

Live, I play alternative/pop-punk through a Fender Deluxe (4x10) and it really sounds great if you dial the treble down and boost the mids for the crunch channel. I would normally set the gain around 5 or 6 and I get a great classic rock sound.

The guitar cleans up well and is very usable on all pickup settings. I like the clean on the bridge pickup for string skipping and heavier picking parts, and I like to throw it in the neck position for bluesier clean solos and jazz/blues rhythms.

For gain induced parts, the Wide Range on the bride is fantastic. When I'm tuned down, notes are still distinguishable and the guitar rings chords out well. I really like the mid setting for more classic rock sounds.

I had the guitar set up at Guitar Center and I think it's necessary (but I also think it's necessary to have any brand new guitar professionally set up). After the set up, the guitar played very smoothly and tuned better.

I have the Natural Maple finish and I love it. I like that you can see the grains of the wood underneath and I think it's a great classic look. I also like the pearloid pickguard.

I recommend upgrading the case if you plan on gigging/traveling with this guitar. I didn't even see the soft case. The day I got the guitar, I bought an SKB hard case (which I highly recommend).

The parts are all solid. The one issue I have here is the input jack. First of all, it won't take 90 degree cord ends, only straight. Also, it seems to come loose every once in a while. These aren't huge issues, but they were a little annoying at first.

I haven't had to deal with Fender's customer service.

I've been playing for about 10 years. I've owned this guitar for a little over a year.

As I stated before, I really needed a guitar that covered a wide range of genres, and this guitar absolutely fits the bill for me. I love the versatility and I'm able to get a bunch of sounds out of this guitar.

I recommend this guitar for rock/blues but also if you want something that won't completely break your budget and is very versatile.

Mexican made early 2,000's, 2 wide range humbuckers, maple neck and fretboard, "vintage tuning pegs". 3 bolt neck.

I've had this guitar for about 5 years and I finally made some modifications to it.

The tuning pegs stink. I put Gotoh's in.

the bridge saddles are garbage, I put heavier American standard types in.

The 250K volume pot makes the guitar sound murky..I changed it to 500K and it opens the pickups WAY up. Makes the guitar come alive.

I love the weight of the body, the resonance, but I always felt something was robbing tone, and yes indeed, it was that pot. The stock bridge pickup is not bad after this mod.

Finally, I removed 6 pole pieces from the neck pickup as per an earlier reviewer. Adds a bit more spank to the neck, which is sorely needed because it is SOOO bassy stock.

I wish the guitar had come with bigger frets, as these ones are nearly ground down to nothing. They call them "vintage", I call them "too small" and "easily worn". I'll either need a refret or a new neck very soon.

The metal pot knobs that came with it are long gone.

The string ferules in the back of the guitar fall out all the time when changing strings..I've had to track them down on dark club floors and in carpets and such...NOT FUN!!!

See above about knobs and ferrules.

Other than that, the guitar has held up well after many gigs. I just love the feel and tone of the body, that's why I don't mind spending some money to improve it.

I spent $600 on this guitar and I'm pretty content with what it's given me.

Japan, I beleive 1994, Ash, natural finish, horrible original pups, exellent tune-up, i beleive, factory 'cuz previous owner was so nasty and lazy

I'm contemporary guitar sound maniac. Mostly playing dreampop, shoegaze, experimental and other. Using POD XT PRO with all add-on stuff, couple of stompboxes before, like DUNLOP FUZZ FACE (RI, blue one), thru TECH 21 POWER ENGINE plus other nadmade strange stuff (digital and analog, i'm not a snob, it's really doesen't matter for me) . If you familiar with guitar sounds of band kinda RADIOHEAD, PLACEBO, MY BLOODY VALENTINE, THE CURE, NIN, ets., you now what i mean. Idea-first, guitar must be mystically comfortable just to catch that ideas. Stuck pickups were .... nothing. Just sad parts of exellent built a tuned-up guitar, that maybe built much beter than american ones. It's like japanese cars. Cheeper and just beter builted. I understand that nobody can duplicate original WIDE RANGE. Nobody but... Curtis Novak. I send an e-mail to him after he made for me a pair of near to absolute sounding JAZZMASTER pups for my other semi-Japanese guitar (i built it by myself with stock japanese ebay parts). Over 1 ear i was looking for person who can rewound WIDE RANGE or duplicate them. And Curtis return my e-mail with great news: he did onse with great result! After half a month he return to me rewounded pups with new magnets. Result is... i have no words. Just unexpectable. Curtis is really niciest person i now in that business. Now my guitar do everithing i need: from intrigued new level of guitar ideas to just traditional boring rock. Clean sound, especially Neck is really "tninline clean", both pups from bell like to crunch like an organic butter from mother Ukraine, and brige pup just blowed away lace sensor redred dually with tele plus of friend of mine. And everithing with absolute No Noise. You even can shread death metal with neck pup! Another words- MIJ 72 TELE THINLINE+ Curtis Novak rewounded WIDE RANGE pups=neo boutique piece of art (not just a guitar). I'm happy now. Simple happy!

MIJ guitars-just the best, much beter than standart american made.

I'm not a person who taking care a lot of that workhorse. But guitar works like a tank. Felt down a lot but still be Rembo

You now, i bot that guitar in Russia, what are you asking about? Customer support?
:))

Hmmm. One of my favorite guitar, especially after Curtis Novak did magic with that dead pups

In the features department, this my Mexi Thinline gets points for versatility. Nice cleans, okay overdrive (TS808) and it does well with high gain, too: I've got a Bass Big Muff that dishes out the chunkiest power chords with this thing. It can get sweet humbecker neck tones, but still has some twang in the bridge position that's pretty fun to play with. Two Fender Wide-Range Humbuckers that shouldn't be called that, because Seth Lover designed the Wide-Range HBs, and these were not designed by Seth Lover (barring the fact that essentially all humbucker designs came from Seth's groundbreaking work). In any case, they're different. It has a FAT maple neck, slot tuners, which some people might, but I don't since my first instrument was a jazz bass with slot tuners. Strat style bridge which, although isn't the highest quality, is easier to adjust than a Tele bridge, IMO.

I play all sorts of music: jazz, blues, hard rock, a bit of hardcore-ish stuff, avant-garde, post-rock, and I once played lead for a country recording for my friend. I play though a Blues Jr. with a Weber Ceramic Blue Dog speaker (all you need, really) and a plethora of effects, all of which this guitar takes pretty well. My TS808 copy makes it sound a bit constrained, which is odd, considering how much unoonstraining I did. See, like many with this guitar, I swapped the 250k pots (dumb idea, Fender!) for 500k pots. Now, this gave a bit more brightness and "opened up" the pickups some, but I still wasn't satisfied-- the neck pickup was just too muddy. So, after some online research, I found some advice being passed on that originally came from pickup guru Lindy Fralin. Open up the pickguard, and take a flathead screwdriver and remove the poles that you can on the back of the neck pickup (6 in all). This leaves 3 on the top part of the pickup (EAD strings) and three on the bottom (GBE strings). This is completely reversible. The result is a bit more of a Strat-y sound. It's a much clear and sweeter pickup now that I've done this. It's still humbucking, too. It's a fantastic idea, trust me.

The guitar is a bit noisy when I'm not touching the strings (grounding issue). I'm going to get it shielded and star-grounded anyhow, so it won't be noisy for long.

With these mods, the guitar is very sweet and full. It sounds really harmonically rich on the neck pickup. The bridge pickup still has a great twang, too. Very versatile.

Oh, and the cap is now a paper in oil. Slightly warmer tone rolloff.

I had the guitar's action professionally done, and it's pretty low, and I get a ton of sustain. Everything is in perfect working order, the frets, the neck (which is the best part of the guitar), the bridge. It's probably worth it to upgrade the hardware, though, just so it stays in tune better.

Albeit a 3-bolt neck, I see it lasting quite a while. the Ash body is pretty sturdy. I like the finish a lot, too. I'll use this anytime without a backup.

This guitar gets a nine because I had to spend about $100 and several hours of research to get it to sound like a 10.

Buy it for the neck, keep it for the mods.

Two knobs, a 3-way selector... simple as it gets.

I replaced the 250k knobs with 500k knobs, something everyone who gets this guitar should do, and the humbuckers are now much more open. I also had the cap replaced with a paper and oil one. Tiny detail, I know, but it does sound a bit warmer now. It can be a bit noisy if I'm not grounding it in someway with my body. Perhaps I should get that fixed. Anyhow, it's got a thick, warm sound on the neck, a twangy, still Tele sound on the bridge, and a pretty darn happy medium when you select both.

I had it set up at my local music shop. The action is just a mite higher than I'd like it to be, but the sustain is crazy! I love the finish, too. I LOVE the fat neck on it, too.

Seems pretty darn sturdy from where I'm standing.

Never dealt with 'em.

Great guitar, plays nicely, sounds great. Very happy with it.