Fender '72 Telecaster Deluxe Reissue

something has to be said here... when i read the other reviews, it seems that a lot of peole expecting a humbucker sound out of the deluxe... well... THERE IS NO HUMBUCKER IN THE DELUXE... those pups are fender wide range which are quite different... those pups are very nice and are the real interest of this guitar... replace with humbucker is really dumb... in my opinion...

but, as some said THE POTS MUST BE CHANGED TO 500KHOM OR 1MHOM... if i find the fender guy who decide to put 250k in the deluxe i'll kick his *** 'till his eyes get out of his head...

so to the other users of this superb guitar, change the pots and then judge...

set-up factory sucks
i put a 5 'caus of the pots

a tank

Black model, made in mexiko. alder or ash body, I don??t know. maple neck with early 70??s strat headstock and "Fender micro neck adjust" screw below neckplate. two fender humbucker pickups, gibson style elctronics. I bought it new and it came with a so called "luxury" gigbag which is useless to me. the rockbag I use is far better and anyway a proper case is the best home for a guitar. I would have loved to get a lower price when leaving the bag in the shop but they did not want to keep it either. the manual is standard for all models and sais nothing about the "micro neck adjust" feature. they could have kept it either. I give it an 8 because of a poor "luxury" gigbag and pretty useless manual.

After testing the guitar I found the neck pickup too muddy, got 500k potis and made the mod just as so many people recommended here. after that the neck pickup sounded fine but the bridge pickup was ugly! much too harsh. So I wired the bridge back to 250k and now everything is fine. the bridge pickup is round and warm, the neck bites, and with both PUs on it gets rather funky. the response and dynamic is also very good. I play mostly instrumental styles from 60ties vintage to experimental sounds, also as part of a techno duo. I have use for the dynamic as I have a lot of acoustic space in the music to create long repeating ever changing riffs and sounds and go with the "drama" of the dance music.

Unlike other reviewers I find a lot of tele type bite on this guitar. I never owned or used any other tele but I am surprised about how much bite this one has despite the humbuckers.

the neck was not put in straight. the E string could not be played on high frets. luckily the guitar freak at the local store showed me how to deal with that - loosen the neck screws a bit, push the neck into the right position and tighten the screws again. also, the neck is very low. I use 009 - 042c strings and to my surprise when loosening the neck bolt the tension is not enough to push the neck up. it is ok but I hope I figure out a way to deal with that. maybe experiment with the neck adjustment screw below the neckplate. exept from neck position everything else is fine.

No opinion yet...

no idea.

I love the early 70??s strat neck and headstock, probably because I play a customised Fender Bronco from around that time ever since I was 19. I feel at home on this guitar. also I like the bastard style of this guitar - a tele body with strat neck and gibson style electronics. You can??t be less puristic.

Being a single coil player all my life I am surprised how important the wood is for the sound. This guitar gives me classic US country rock sounds which makes me laugh as it is so cliche. I put Seymour duncan phat cat single coils into a mahagony Gibson Sonex Deluxe and they have less "bite" than the humbuckers in this guitar.

I give it a nine because of sound and playability. I hope I do not need to sell it for a long time.

Mine is a Black 2005 CIJ (Crafted In Japan) model. It differs from the Mexican made models in the following ways:
Ash body instead of Alder
Fender WR Humbuckers are 12.4k (bridge) and 12.6k (neck) stock, compared to the ~10.2-10.5k pickups in the MIM models.

I have rewired the guitar with Gibson 500k pots ("59" wiring) and knobs, Hovland musicaps and Mallory tone bleeder caps. With the even-hotter pickups, the stock 250k pots and tone caps sounded muffled and 'cardboard'.

Also installed Sperzel locking tuners. The stock ones were mediocre on stability and were very sensitive compared to other Fender tuners.

Stock I give it a 8 due to the pots and sensitive tuners, a 10 in its modified form.

On electric I play mostly blues-rock and rock'n'roll. This guitar is far more sensitive to touch and input cues than any Les Paul style HH I've ever played. Through different amps, this guitar can cover non-twangy country to Jimi Hendrix to pre-Pyromania Def Leppard to Judas Priest with disturbing authority and authenticity. This guitar definitely does not have any of the twang associated with traditional Telecasters. It provides an extremely wide-band richness in neck and middle positions, and soulful, womanly wails on bridge solos. The neck position loses some of the bass, but does not get harsh in the mid-to-high range at all.

I play it most often with a modified Fender Blues Junior, though I sometimes play through an 80's Marshall JCM800 2203 into Vintage Modern cabinets.

The factory set-up was about an 8 - better than most of the USA made Fenders. I've made some adjustments to the pole heights on the pickups and put a quarter-turn into the neck truss when I set it for 11's, otherwise the string clearance and intonations are stellar. Within the year I'll probably replace the factory nut (they're always mediocre at best), but I'm not in a huge hurry.

Being a CIJ guitar, the fit and finish are simply unparalleled. I brought my Tele Deluxe into two major music stores to compare side-by-side with multiple MIM models. There was simply no comparison. Even the techs were shocked by the degree of craftsmanship.

The only problem I had was the pickup selector switch's screws were loose, so the contact plates didn't always make a great connection. I replaced the switch with a spare.

It's very heavy, noticeably heavier than the MIM Alder-bodied ones. I've gigged with it, I'm never worried at all about it. Of course, strap locks are required hardware on any gigged guitar if you want it to last more than one show. :)

If a guitar is physically built well, there's no use for a warranty. The electrics are so simple (and I ALWAYS modify them on any guitar I have) that the only thing to really worry about is physical damage, and that's not a warranty issue - that's a too much whiskey issue!

I've been playing 12 years. I love acoustic guitars most of all. These days I have an Ovation 12-string, a Yamaha classical guitar and an Ibanez HH electric which has become wall art since buying my Tele Deluxe. I've been through a lot of guitars and never found a solid-body electric that I liked enough to really keep until now. After owning a CIJ Tele Deluxe I don't think I could own a MIM model, but it's not that the MIM model is bad. I'd rate the MIM an 8 overall. But this one's a 9.

First of all there is need to say that I'm from non english speaking country so I'm sorry for my english!

This guitar rocks!!! I have had several guitars and this one suit me very well. Lp style pots, humbuckers, sexy black body, fantastic neck... I have to say I have had never problems with tuners - my guitar staying tune for days!

Only two very very bad thing are the switch (I replaced it after 2 days - it was one of most horrible switches I have ever saw) and the second (very very very important) thing is 250K pot everywhere - i have played my guitar for few months and there was something with its tone. Neck pickup was too muddy, bridge was nearly ok, neck+bridge=disaster... i read this reviews and they told me that I should change the pots from 250K to 500K. I did that and the guitar is fantastic now!!! I put 500K for both volumes, 500K for the neck and I kept 250k for bridge cause i like it (don't like very very bright sounds, with 250K at bridge tone is guitar very well balanced - bridge, neck, neck+bridge are very well balanced compared to each other).

So there I want to say this: "DON'T WAIT AND CHANGE THE POTS !!!!! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'ARE MISSING !!!"

I think that this is very good guitar for it's price... I don't mind it doesn't sound like original 1972 tele - this reissue is great!

The 9 is only for bad pots and switch...

(after changing pots)

My setup:

This fantastic tele -> wobo buffer/booster -> Fulldrive II -> Turbo RAT -> DS-1 Japan + DD-3 Japan 1st version (both BOSS'es are looped with Toadworks Looper - I like true bypass pedal chain) -> VOX AC15 CC1

The guitar has very very rich sound. It's like a wave! Fantastic!

Neck pickup is great for soloing, it sounds very full and WARM. It's great with little overdrive (very little drive :) ) I love it for its very clear nearly acustic sound.

Bridge pickup is not very tipycal for telecaster - It's humbucking sound, maybe there is some twang... It seems to be thicky for my - cause of this I am always playing through NECK(8/10 at volume) + BRIDGE when I wanna be loud and and play dirty tones - this add neccasary kick and the guitar is like a hammer (not for metal but very good for alternative/indie/classic rock).

Finish was great. Guitar is made in mexiko, but it has pricise look.

i don't worry about action - first thing which I do is that I change strings and set the action and all on the guitar for me.

I have problems only with the swith - the switch was really horrible!!!

I have never contact them so I don't know...

This guitar is great for everyone who want something different. It suits very good to alternative, indie, pop, classic rock. The first thing which you HAVE TO do is go to your luthier and change the pots!!! This is the main reason why I decided to write this review - because of pots changing!!!!!

Reedici??n japonesa de 2003 en color walnut con el golpeador negro. El cuerpo es de aliso y el m??stil de arce. Trae de serie dos humbuckers "wide range" de Fender, que vienen a ser como las "Seth Lover" de Seymour Duncan. Hay que tener en cuenta que estas humbuckers son de mayor tama??o que las humbuckers normales y que es muy dif??cil encontrarlas en el mercado. Las grandes marcas pastilleras no las fabrican, ??nicamente R??o Grande y Fender.

La 72' Deluxe es tremendamente vers??til y me atrevo a decir que vale para cualquier estilo de m??sica, desde jazz hasta metal. Yo toco rock-pop con un Hot Rod Deville 212 con Vintage 30. Esta guitarra funciona estupendamente bien con cualquier distorsi??n que le pongas: Rat, T-Rex M??ller, Big Muff...
Las pastillas son muy limpias y no tienen demasiada salida, lo que permite controlar muy bien el sonido.
Eso s??, de Telecaster s??lo tiene el nombre: suena c??lida, con un cuerpo incre??ble y tiene bastante sustain, por lo que su sonido anda muy cercano a una Les Paul. No en vano, Fender sac?? este modelo para competir con Gibson en los setenta.
Quiz?? la pastilla de graves deber??a ser un poco m??s brillante y no tan opaca, pero de esta manera viene bien para usarla con wah-wah o con fuzz sin que el sonido se vaya de agudos y resulta ideal para arpegios y jazz.

El m??stil es comod??simo, como el de una Strato y los acabados... ??Hace falta decir c??mo trabajan nuestros amigos los japoneses?. Pues eso, acabados pefectos, sin m??cula.

Esta guitarra da la sensaci??n de ser pr??cticamente indestructible. Tan robusta como su sonido.

Afortunadamente no ha habido necesidad de contactar con el fabricante.

Llevo tocando trece a??os. Tengo una Gibson LP Standard y otra LP Custom, una Fender reddici??n del 52 y una Epiphone Riviera. Pues bien, la 72' Deluxe se ha convertido en mi favorita, por versatilidad, por comodidad, por est??tica y por lo bien que suena.
Lo ??nico malo de esta guitarra es que no venga con estuche r??gido de f??brica.

Mexican made Tele deluxe - walnut finish on alder body.. mine has a beautiful maple neck.. I picked the best one in town, some had minor flaws in the grain. It has 2 humbuckers 2 volume and 2 tone controls, and a 3pos. pickup switch.. the fender humbuckers have staggered poles on the top to add brightness to the high strings and warmth to the low strings, and sound very nice and smooth. The bridge is vintage style hardtail. The neck is very nice for us with big hands.. it has the old strat style baseball bat neck with a big headstock.. some people have dissed the headstock in reviews because it is either clumsy or it isn't a tele headstock, but it serves its purpose (added sustain) and this is what the original tele deluxes came with. I love the neck and the smaller frets.. it feels like a 70's strat neck.. which is what made me fall in love with fender to begin with. I should give it a lower rating due to some of the cheap hardware and electronics that are on this guitar, but I love the neck and the pickups so much.. I give it an 8

I play in an instrumental experimental rock band... we use a lot of different tones and sounds.. I bought the tele deluxe to get warmer tones for certain songs that my 87 G&L ASAT3 won't do.. I use a Laney GL50 single channel 50 watt tube amp with 4x12 cabinet and no effects.. this thing screams bloody murder all night long and the range of tones you get is really really nice... I absolutely love the things this guitar can do and it feels great doing it! OH WAIT, I mean they are NOW!!! I bought this guitar for the neck, the body, and the pickups.. the rest of it HAS TO BE REPLACED.. it is not an option.. with the original 250k pots you have almost no volume control and the tone is horrible.. HORRIBLE! you can get some nice muddy tones... if that's cool with you, and all you need then fine, but I replaced all the pots with 500k CTS pots and put sprague orange drop caps in it as well.. I also changed the pick up switch and put nice shielded wiring in it.. I also had to get new knobs, the ones that are on it are screw-down type for solid shaft pots.. and the CTS pots are split shaft.. the only thing i didn't replace is the input jack which seemed solid enough. Why go through all this trouble? why buy the guitar at all if you have to do all this to it?? Well it sounds amazing now.. looks and feels great.

The only issue I have now with the sound is getting to the right volume knob while I'm playing.. It's a bit of an adjustment if you are used to strat or tele setups..

I give it a lower rating just for making me have to work for the sound

I don't think they even try to set up the mexican fenders at the factory.. I am assuming that anything done to this one was done at the store.. some of the guitars I've seen right out of the box had action all the way against the neck.. I adjusted the poles on the pickups to get a nice balance on the strings, adjusted the action and truss for a heavier gauge string.. and then I get to the intonation.. and the low E will not intonate at all.. so what now? replace the bridge as well?? the slots on the nut seem a little too shallow, which may cause some intonation problems but mainly, the saddle set screws will not allow you to screw the saddle back far enough to get it intonated properly.. It will go right into the string.. I don't know if this is a problem with every gauge string, but if you use anything bigger than 9's, you will probably run into this problem.. I am replacing the bridge with the modern style that has offset screws..

I will definitely play this guitar live, I would without a backup as well, but I usually have 2 guitars anyway.. the tuning pegs may not stand the test of time, but the rest of the guitar is solid! I believe it has a lacquer finish which wears nicely.. I will depend on this guitar to get me through the night with no worries.

dunno.. I do all my own repairs, but I have heard nothing good about fender's customer support.

I've been playing for... 21 years? I have a g&l asat with 3 pickups (like strat.. not the soapbars) and an american strat.. and the laney amp.. I bought this guitar because I wanted that nice gibsonish humbucker power without paying those gibsonish prices.. This guitar really delivers that power, without the fender tones.. the gibsons can get muddy and hard to control.... but with the staggered poles on the humbuckers, the maple neck, and the longer scale of this guitar.. it loses no brightness on the high end... you really get a nice range of tones and a completely different sound.. and with the new pots and caps, I can even get that telecaster tone. If it were stolen I would try to replace it, but i would be really mad about having to track down all the modifications I would need to actually replace it.. over all this guitar is a great value.. even after replacing the pots, caps, knobs, wiring, p/u switch, and the bridge... a grand total of $94 which brings it up to almost $800 ...it is still about $1000 cheaper than a good gibson.. and $2000 or so cheaper than the original goes for these days..

the deluxe has an interesting history that i won't bore you with here, suffice it to say that it was fender's attempt to combine the best elements of the best guitars at the time to make an 'ultimate' guitar so to speak. it retained the body style and, vaguely, the sound of a telecaster while including the neck, bridge, and contouring of a strat with the electronics layout of a les paul.

the reissue replicates most of the features of the original with a few exceptions-

the tuning machines and bridge saddles are not the same, as the parts used in the 70's are now obsolete and no longer produced. fender substituted them with parts that are period correct, using the slotted 'f' tuners and vintage strat saddles. if you want the guitar to perfectly resemble the original you can easily change it using american standard tuners and bridge saddles, which are very similar to the original parts.

the most notable change is that the pickups are no longer manufactured using cunife pole pieces as magnets. it seems cunife is also obsolete these days... instead, they're completely typical humbuckers with alnico bar magnets, and for reasons i don't understand the guitar comes wired with 250k pots, which winds up muffling the sound of the neck pickup. this is the only misstep i feel fender made with this guitar, and will require you to replace the pots if you want the neck pickup to sound as it should. 500k will do....

the pickups have a very full and lush sound, and the way they attenuate strumming noises makes the guitar perfectly suited for playing rhythm. i feel more satisfied with the neck than the bridge, but i think both are formidable pickups. the guitar will fill more space than a typical fender, which i think suits it better to sparse and minimal music. overall the sound remains somewhat fenderish only with more impact and size.

the guitar plays beautifully, even more so than my american standard tele. the neck is a little thicker than most, but is very comfortable and easy to get used to. the nut comes set very high, as it does on most guitars, and will likely need to be filed if you ever want to play on the first fret.

the guitar feels very solid and i've had no worries that anything will give out on me. again, the construction matches or exceeds my american standard; the neck pocket is actually tighter. i have to say that unscrewing some hundred screws to get the pickguard off is unreasonable, but it's worth it for the sake of looks. often when i play i get a feeling that the guitar will age into an incredible instrument someday.

i wouldn't know

the guitar has a few annoyances but it's become my favorite fairly quickly. fender did the best they could to capture what made the original great, and although they couldn't nail it perfectly they made a guitar that's great in it's own right. if you have the opportunity to test the guitar keep in mind that the neck pickup can sound much better than it does stock with some simple surgery and be sure to inspect the bridge before making any decisions.

I'm sure you've read enough about that in the other reviews, but I will repeat the important facts: Alder body, maple neck, 21 frets, Mexico made, 2 "Wide Range"-Humbucker, big Strat headstock.
It was made in 2006. Too bad the tuners are total crap. They have grooves in the poles which makes it really difficult to change strings. That makes me really angry sometimes. In addition, the tuners get stuck when you roll them and don't keep the strings in tune very long.
I gave 7 points because it has the crappy tuners and didn't have a bag or a case which I would expect in this price range.

I love Indie Rock (Franz Ferdinand ...) and thats why I bought this one. I'm using a small Marshall solid-state. The tele sounds as sparkly and bitchy as i've expected. I only use the neck pickup because I like the sound better than the other ones, the bridge humbucker sounds a bit fuller and warmer and is good for rhythm guitar. But that's not what I've bought this guitar for.
The sustain is okay, not overwhelming, but pretty nice.

The wood workmanship is really good, everything is smooth and nice as it should be. The frets are soft and comfortable.
The factory set up was a bit too low, so I pushed it up. The intonation was good, I didn't have to change the bridge settings. Too bad there was a grout in the bridge which caused that the B string broke very often. Besides, everything was fine.

This one seems to be really solid and will last very long I think. Strap buttons, cable jack and neck joint seem indestructible.

I didn't contact Fender.

Overall, this is a really nice guitar with a cool, chunky sound. The workmanship is great and it feels nice to play it. Too bad the tuners are so bad and it doesn't have a bag or a case.

Everything as stated below. The brown one.

As i really dont like the thin sound of Fenders, but as i needed a backup guitar for my PRS Santana and i thought it could be different, i bought this Fender reissue as the original version are used for sonic Youth, Isis and thats the sound i was after. After first impresions when everything seems ok, i found that the stock pickups were week and muddy. And i really love dark sound as i play through Sovtek mig and orange cab. But they were in lack of power. I was about to buy some new higher output pickups as these wones are not at all like the ones for original. these are regular pickups in just bigger nickle cover, but then i read that the originals had 500k pots, but this version came with 250k. I didnt believe that it could change a lot, but the pot change was really impresive. The guitar came more open, more presence, more power and now i am super happy for its sounds sonic youth clean and has brutal and powerfull distortion like Isis. Not for metal like zack wylde or stuff which i hate, but for sludge metal very good.

No matter what, its good to take guitar to your guitar tech to change some crappy stock things, like the wires inside were a comlete mess and so on. But its no problem for me. outside it was perfect.

Extra solid simple guitar. Just change the pots, pickup switch.

Dont know.

Would suggest for some heavy indy band or for some soffter stoners, sludge type of music. Try to change the pots to 500k. i didnt believe the change it made.

This is the black version. See other reviews for the configuration, 'cause there's only one for the Deluxe. I was never a Fender guy, but the features of the '72 Deluxe were exactly what I was looking for, and I have big hands and LOVE the super-chunky neck and the heft of this beast.

This is a MEAN axe. It's got a dirty, fat tone that's great for rock rhythm playing, and I like to play the occasional bluesy solo with that low-tone Les Paul sound, and with the tone cranked down and the neck pickup on, you can get that tone perfectly with this git. I must admit it's a little noisy/buzzy when I do direct recording into my Mac/Logic Express setup (with an M-Audio MobilePre input device), but through my Tech 21 TM60 amp, it sounds freaking awesome. Two points off for the noise, but tone-wise it's a 10 all the way.

The setup was fair out of the box, but a little buzzy. The finish was great. The knobs were seated a little weird (and it was huge pain to get all the plastic coating off the pickguard and out from around the knob posts). The neck was beautiful. Unfortunately, the high-E tuning peg was completely screwed up, but I must be honest and admit I let the axe slip and fall over the day I bought it, so I don't know if it was already broken or if I did it. In any case, I wasn't a big fan of the vintage-style open Fender tuners, so I took it to good old Subway Guitars in Berkeley and had them replace the tuners and set it up. Now it's solid as a rock, but I do have to deduct a few points for the knobs and tuners.

This thing is a tank. I would have no qualms about using it without a backup. I did put strap-locks on it, but to be honest I didn't even pay attention to whether the original strap buttons were good or not. In any case, super dependable.

I've been playing for 22-23 years, mostly music on the harder side of rock n roll. This axe isn't exactly a lead guitarist's dream (I do confess I've always been bugged by Fender's continued use of 21-fret necks), but for rhythm work and the occasional fatassed solo, this thing is just what the doctor ordered. If you want a solid, pro-level axe that will last for a jillion years, you should keep this one in mind.