Fender '72 Telecaster Deluxe Reissue

this is a Mexican made Tele. doesn't really make any difference now a days. it's got 21 frets. it's got Les Paul Controls. it's got to wide ranged humbuckers that sound amazing for dirty and clean. the neck is made of maple and what a neck it is!

this thing can play anything! even metal! it's got the most amazing humbucking clean sound, and on dirty it sounds like a Gibson Les Paul with a Telecaster neck. how can it get any better? Gibson necks are crap. this thing has so much clarity! like that's what i hate about Gibson's you put gain on it and the notes just seem to blend together, but this thing is just an amazing guitar. never going to need another one! yeah leave the 250K pots in there they sound totally fine!

the Action is pretty good. easy to play that's for sure. took awhile for me to find the right set up but i got it in the end. and the neck of this guitar is the most amazing tele neck it fits in your hand perfectly. it's bigger then the standard teles neck which is nice because you don't have the extra space between your hand and the neck. i played super expensive guitars but none had a neck as good as this one! the finish is great! i got mine in the special edition version arctic white looks amazing and it's also rare.

this thing is a Telecaster it might get chips in the paint and stuff but nothing is really going to harm it. this thing feels like it will last for ever. you can totally depend on this baby for live gigs.

i wouldn't know anything about.

i play this thing through a fender 100W twin all tube guitar amp, with a few pedals i use a boss DS2 and it gives you a sound that sounds just like a Marshall. i love everything about this guitar! i compared it to Teles and gibson not strats never had any interest in them. i'm a tele man.

I recently bought a used 2007 model. It has a walnut finish and maple neck. The layout is pretty self explanatory (two pickups, two volume knobs, two tone knobs, and a three way pickup selector). Very easy to use, nothing out of the ordinary.

I play this through a Fender Hotrod DeVille 2x12 and a number of effects. The bridge pickup sounds amazing clean, through overdrive, fuzz, and all of my other pedals. However, the neck pickup is pretty muddy and dull. I can get it to sound OK with distortion, but when clean, this pickup really doesn't sound too great. I hope the 500k pot swap will make it sound as good as they say. I think the bridge pickup deserves a 9, and the neck pickup about a 5. I'll have to do another review when I change the pots.

This thing plays great and looks even better. I was a little worried about the thickness of the neck, because I'm used to playing strats. Turns out this is the neck thickness for me. I bought it already set up, so the action and intonation are perfect...not sure what they're like straight from the factory, though. This has to be one of the best looking guitars I've ever seen. The maple neck/walnut body look is just amazing.. I still can't get over it!

This guitar seems to have a really solid build. Doesn't go out of tune often and seems really solid, especially for a Mexican made guitar. The quality is easily on par with my old American made Strat. My only complaint is that the pickup selector is slightly scratchy, but that can easily be fixed.

No Opinion

I've been playing for almost 8 years now, and have gone though some pretty decent guitars in the process. This is definitely one of my favorites. Not as good as my G&L ASAT, but what do you expect for a fraction of the cost. I only bought mine for $600, but I feel the price of $900 new is a little steep. I think that $600-$750 is a reasonable price for this guitar. The only thing that's keeping me from giving this guitar a 10 is the weak neck pickup and scratchy pickup selector.

This is the '72 MIM reissue in Walnut finish, 2 humbuckers, you know the deal. Like so many here, I replaced the neck pickup pots to 500k, and am very pleased with the difference.

I play rock (think Sonic Youth, Neil Young, Stooges, Polvo, etc) and i guess i cosider myself a "fender guy". I use it with a '67 blackface bandmaster head and avatar cab. like i said, i replace the neck pots but also the switch. one thing the reviewer before me pointed out is that the wire that runs from the switch to the output jack is unshielded - i've found that this creates hum when you're not touching the guitar. probably a good idea to replace this with some nice shielded cable. otherwise i love the sound - i was looking for a humbucking alternative to my main guitar, an american g&l asat classic.

i got this guitar secondhand, but came pretty well set-up. in fact, i may actually give it more neck relief cuz it buzzes a bit. i'm a little torn, because it's not so bad and the action is fantastic. finish is beautiful, it's one of the nicest looking guitars IMHO. neck is nice although slightly thicker than i was used to, but i've grown to really like it. i even like the huge 70's headstock.

after the mods i can see this becoming one of my main guitars. i'm a firm believer in reasonably-priced guitars and i think this is a killer value for the money. it seems as reliable as the most expensive guitars i've owned, but you have to be able to open it up and check it out. the slightest adjustments improve it greatly.

second hand, not really applicable.

i've been playing 20 years. i own a G&L asat classic, '67 bandmaster, blues jr, tech 21 practice amp, various pedals - some that i've built. it's a great guitar, but do the mods (i know, broken record, most people seem to agree). i don't think it's necessary to change the bridge pots.

This guitar has two Fender humbuckers (which are NOT replica's of the Wide Range pickups found in the originals), 21 frets, Les Paul style switching and overall configuration, decent tuners, great glossy finish (which can get a little sticky when it comes to the neck), excellent fretwork and the neck joint was excellent. Compared to an original '72 Deluxe, this neck is considerably wider at the 1st fret as the originals tapered off a bit.

Ok, I'm writing the review because I recently had all the pots replaced with 500k CTS pots. I was skeptical about whether the difference would actually be a positive one, but I decided to give it a shot based on the fact that the stock pickups were quite muddy (particularly the neck). Needless to say, the difference was night and day, it's a completely different guitar now. The output is hotter and clearer, with excellent string clarity. Also, be careful, the wire running from the pickup selector is unshielded, replace this wire as well. Right now, with the mods, this went from being a great playing guitar that sounded pretty good, to sounding great and more open while being less noisy. The tone controls work great, but now the bridge pickup requires me to roll the tone a little bit (I keep it at 8) due to the added brightness there. With the mod, I'd rate the sound of this at an 8, without, I'd give it a 4 or 5. My rating in this category reflects it post-mod.

The action, of course, needs work as the factory setup wasn't great. The finish and everything else was excellent, though I'd also recommend removing the pickguard and cleaning out the body cavity if you've just bought it as the inside was a little messy. I actually haven't had any problems with the tuners at all, and find that the stock tuners hold tuning as well as my 2008 American made Strat neck, and better than my 1995 American made Telecaster.

This guitar is heavy and still feels solid after 5 years. The hardware has held up great, and so has the finish. There's no reason to provide anything other than a perfect rating in this category.

Haven't had to deal with Fender so I have no opinion in this category.

I've been playing for about 15 years now, and have 5 electric guitars, a few basses, and two acoustics. I don't gig anymore, as I've been focusing my efforts on engineering and production. With the mods I just had made, I feel like this guitar has been brought to life. It finally sounds as good as it looks. I still wish Fender went further in replicating the original guitars with this reissue, but if you disregard the differences, you'll find that with a few changes, this will become a modern classic. Unfortunately, this guitar now costs about $250 more than when I first purchased it. At $700 it was a great value, at the $940 it retails at the time of this review, it's less of a value as the mods and labor involved in having a good tech install them, will put this guitar at over $1,000.

09 MODEL--MADE IN MEXICO--21 MEDIUM JUMBO FRETS--2 VOL/2 TONE CONTROLS--FENDER 'WIDE RANGE' HUMBUCKERS--MAPLE NECK AND FRETBOARD--2 PIECE ALDER BODY--HARDTAIL BRIDGE--STAGGERED VINTAGE TUNERS(F STYLE)

THE DELUXE IS A GUITAR I'VE HAD MY EYES ON FOR A WHILE, AS IT COVERS A BROAD RANGE OF MUSIC--I RUN THIS THRU A M BOOGIE RECTOVERB--VERY WARM AND FAT SOUNDING--

I HAD THE TELE SET UP BY A TECH, AS ALL GUITARS OUT OF A BOX NEED THIS--THE FIT AND FINISH IS REALLY VERY WELL DONE, AND FENDER'S MEXICAN MADE INSTRUMENTS IN GENERAL ARE GETTING BETTER AND BETTER--THE NECK POCKET IS PERFECT, THE BODY IS 2 PIECE CENTRE-JOINED ALDER-UNUSUAL IN A MID-PRICED FENDER--THE TUNERS, PICKGUARD, FRETS ARE ALL WHERE THEY NEED TO BE, AND BELIEVE ME, I'M REALLY REALLY PICKY ON THIS STUFF!!--THE ONLY THING I CHANGED WERE THE BRIDGE SADDLES--I UPGRADED TO A SET OF GRAPH-TECH STRING SAVER SADDLES--

ABSOLUTELY IT WILL WITHSTAND GIGS--THE FINISH IS A POLY FINISH, BUT NOT AS 'HEAVY' AS SOME OTHER FENDERS, WHICH IS A GOOD THING--I WOULD DEFINITELY PLAY THIS W/O A BACKUP--

FENDER HAS ALWAYS BEEN HELPFUL TO ME IN REGARDS TO ANY QUESTIONS I MIGHT HAVE

I HAVE BEEN PLAYING FOR ALMOST 42 YEARS, AND HAVE OWNED A NUMBER OF GUITARS IN GENERAL, AND TELES IN PARTICULAR--I REALLY LOVE THE DELUXE!!--IT IS BALANCED, WARM, BIG SOUNDING--IT COVERS A LOT OF GROUND MUSICALLY, AS I SAID PREVIOUSLY--AND IT'S A GUITAR YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT TOO MUCH--THE OTHER TELE I OWN IS A 50'S 'ROAD WORN', RELEASED THIS YEAR FROM FENDER, AND I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH ABOUT THAT ONE EITHER

Made in 2007 in Mexico. Walnut finish.
Two wide range humbuckers.
Large strat headstock.
The neck is quite wide, and I really had to get used to it after playing a Gibson SG for years. I still prefer the Gibson neck.
It came with a Fender deluxe gigbag.

I have used this guitar on different tubeamps and it works fine on all of them. I now use an Voc AC30. I use some overdrives (visual sound route 66, MI audio crunch box and blue boy, EH big muff), MXR micro amp. Artec analog delay and a Ibanez weeping demon wahpedal.
I play all kinds of styles but mainly Blues, rock and garagerock. It suits this styles perfect.
Because I wanted a more versatile guitar I changed the volume pots into 500k push pull pots.
I don't really hear a difference in the change from 250k to 500k, although it might sound a little clearer, but I love the sounds when I puh it to single coil. Specialy with the bridge pup as abucker and the neck pup to singlecoil gives a vey nice 'kinks'sound with some overdrive. Love it.
Although I made some changes I still give this guitar a 10 for the price.

Except for a loose contact in the pick-up selecter it iss perfect.
Action is ok??, although, as i stated before, ot has not my kind of neck.
I minored the points for this in the features cathorogy already.

The knobs an pick-up switch seem not to be of the best quality. The rest of the guitar seems to be ok?? imho.

no idea how customer support is. I went back to my dealer with the gigbag which had a zipproblem, and with the guitars loos contact. HThey directly gave a new gigbag and fixed the loose contact. I don't know whether Fender was involved here.

I've been playing for about 30 years. I got vox and fender tube-amps. I also have a Gretsch archtop.
If it was stolen I probably would buy me another one (however there are so many fabulous guitars in this world).
It is not quite as noisy as a Fender mexico standard tele, which sounds nice also. Also compared it to a Ibanez jetking 2 Upgraded with GFS dream 180 pickups: the Fender is much fuller an the Ibanez is thinner in sound but plays easier imho.
Can't really compare it to the Gretsch, which is a totally different guitar, with a totally different sound (but also a very good guitar).

Made in 2007 in Mexico. Walnut finish.
Two wide range humbuckers.
Large strat headstock.
The neck is quite wide, and I really had to get used to it after playing a Gibson SG for years. I still prefer the Gibson neck.
It came with a Fender deluxe gigbag.

I have used this guitar on different tubeamps and it works fine on all of them. I now use an Voc AC30. I use some overdrives (visual sound route 66, MI audio crunch box and blue boy, EH big muff), MXR micro amp. Artec analog delay and a Ibanez weeping demon wahpedal.
I play all kinds of styles but mainly Blues, rock and garagerock. It suits this styles perfect.
Because I wanted a more versatile guitar I changed the volume pots into 500k push pull pots.
I don't really hear a difference in the change from 250k to 500k, although it might sound a little clearer, but I love the sounds when I puh it to single coil. Specialy with the bridge pup as abucker and the neck pup to singlecoil gives a vey nice 'kinks'sound with some overdrive. Love it.
Although I made some changes I still give this guitar a 10 for the price.

Except for a loose contact in the pick-up selecter it iss perfect.
Action is ok??, although, as i stated before, ot has not my kind of neck.
I minored the points for this in the features cathorogy already.

The knobs an pick-up switch seem not to be of the best quality. The rest of the guitar seems to be ok?? imho.

no idea how customer support is. I went back to my dealer with the gigbag which had a zipproblem, and with the guitars loos contact. HThey directly gave a new gigbag and fixed the loose contact. I don't know whether Fender was involved here.

I've been playing for about 30 years. I got vox and fender tube-amps. I also have a Gretsch archtop.
If it was stolen I probably would buy me another one (however there are so many fabulous guitars in this world).
It is not quite as noisy as a Fender mexico standard tele, which sounds nice also. Also compared it to a Ibanez jetking 2 Upgraded with GFS dream 180 pickups: the Fender is much fuller an the Ibanez is thinner in sound but plays easier imho.
Can't really compare it to the Gretsch, which is a totally different guitar, with a totally different sound (but also a very good guitar).

i want to make the upgrade to 500k pots on the neck pickup as it does sound muddy........anyone out there got info on the pots used,part no's etc,.........i live in the uk, any help , advice,info and links to uk sites would be greatly appreciated.

billygaffney@hotmail.com



would get a 10 out of ten if the neck pickup wasnt so muddy

this is a great guitar .ive used many over the years but this one is a little bit special.if you thinking about getting one.......just do it!!!!

this is a 2004 reissue mim tele deluxe. for the last 13 years i have regretted selling my original 1972 original black on black tele deluxe. i was young and stupid and sold it for about 300 to black market music in san francisco because i needed rent money 1994. in 94 these resold for about 700-800. enough about my regrets this tele plays as good as the one i used to own. it feels a little heavier, but the sound is there. you all know the specs on this guitar.

i cant tell you how good this tele sounds. i play it with an old 1965 gibson ga15rvt watt tube and a 1482 silvertone mid 60's what i like about this guitar is its dynamics. i can change its sound by how hard i hit the notes. goes from clean to dirty almost instantly. this may be playing through 15 watt vintage amps. still i love this sound

i bought it set up so i'm not sure, but everyone should get their guitar set up for them. so i'll give it an 8. low action plays perfect. i hear all fenders need a set up.

seems dependable but i no longer play live. i would bring myt les paul if i were playing a show. the fender tuners have been doing quite fine, but if they become tired i will replace them with grovers.

bought it at a guitar show. i trust guitar tech's more than companies

i play this with an old 60's gibson and an old 60's silvertone. both are tube gems. i also have a fender twin that my brother has had for the last 7 years. when i get that one back it will be the right amp for this guitar.

Already posted in all the other reviews. Mexican made, gibson controls, two wide range pickups. Maple neck, string thru body......

This guitar sounds great for everything but high gain music. Use it with a tube amp and u will love the way it sounds. Very nice fender sound. It sounds the way it should sound. Everyone says to change the pots, but do not. 250k pots are perfect for this guitar, These are not a humbucking pickups, they shouldn't have 500k. You lose the sound of the guitar if you change the pots. If you have changed the pots already, you may as well have bought a les paul or something. I cant stress this enough, dont change the pots. If you want a different sound, buy a different guitar. Leaver the way she is, and she will sound great.

Fender doesn't set there guitars up at all. They just eye out the intonation and actions. Don't believe them when they say they set them up before they go out. The don't set them up , barley any companies truly set their guitars up. So you need to set it up when you get it. The electronics were all good. Finish was good. Everything put the action, intonation and lack of fret polishing was good. But im gonna give it a 5 , because all guitars sound horrible if there not set up.

Built like a volvo. The tuners are not going to last. Fender is to cocky, or to proud to put grovers on there guitars. They only use fender products. But I guess I cant blame them , its good for the image. Very dependable. WOULD I USE IT WITHOUT A BACKUP?? strings break, you need to have a backup.

Never dealt with it. I heard its bad though.

Over all a great guitar for the money. Very modest, mean tele sounding, beast. Definitly a workhorse and something that will last you a long time. I would recommend it to anyone. DONT CHANGE THE POTS. change the tuners if you have the money, and.... set it up when you get it. For the money i would give it a 9.