Fender American Standard Telecaster

Made in 2007, purchased December 2007 to replace a MIM Tele which I had ???outgrown??? but which had done me proud for a number of years. This is a US Standard Tele, colour honey blonde with black pickguard (looks very much like the old ones from the 50s in fact.) Built in Corona, California.

A Tele doesn???t come with fancy features or any bells and whistles, it was never meant to! Why are you reading this bit?

I play mostly classic rock, use the Tele mostly for cleans and a modded PRS SE for distorted/lead-oriented work. Sound can either be a 9 or a 1, depending on how you use it. I can understand how some players don???t get on with these; the secret is a Tele isn???t a shred machine and was never intended as such. The neck is quite ???slow??? and will fight back in certain situations, therefore if you aspire to being Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani, then this is not the instrument for you. But here???s the catch; unlike many ???boutique??? guitars costing 4 or even 5 figures, the humble ???plank??? designed in the 1950s has soul, it has character and expression in bucket-loads. ITeles are notoriously un-forgiving to play, they will reward the nuances of your playing and punish mistakes, but used appropriately a Tele can become a thing of sonic beauty.
Needs to be paired with the right amp; due to it???s boomy bass and piercing treble the Tele tends to become very mushy when played through certain amplifiers (I noticed this is a particular issue when paired with Marshall amps; being primarily designed for hard rock & metal, they also tend to have exacerbated treble/bass frequencies and less mids, which when paired with a Tele makes the resulting mix almost un-controllable!) This particular instrument likes small, old-fashioned, no-frills valve amplifiers, for best results I play it through a Laney VC15.

Don???t like the 50-cycle hum but this is all part of the guitar???s old-school vibe, trouble is if you retro-fit a set of noiseless p/ups to one of these to get rid of the hum, the sound loses its edge and becomes sterile (I deliberately left my Tele stock for this reason.)

I had it set up when new to take 0.11 gauge strings, these are harder to play but give a far superior tone to anything lighter.

Been playing it about 2 years, nothing???s gone wrong with it apart from the iron ferrules at the back aren???t glued in and keep popping out when I change the strings (minor gripe, everything else seems un-breakable.)

This thing will survive a nuclear holocaust (and probably still come out of it in tune!) It???s a TANK.

I usually have a back-up purely in case I break a string. Have been playing 15 years and this will probably be around long after I pop my clogs.

Never used them, hopefully won't happen

Been playing 15 years, some bass but mostly electric (also own a PRS SE Custom Semi-Hollow which has been modded with PRS Dragon II pickups, phosphor bronze nut and a coil-tap.)

Be warned, Fender don't make consistently good products; when I bought this in 2007 I spent about 2 hours in the shop and tried 10 brand new Fender guitars in this price range (5 Strats, 5 Teles) and out of these 10 only 2 played/sounded any good. ALWAYS TRY BEFORE YOU BUY, THEY VARY WILDLY.

If it were stolen, I'd hunt the thief down, get my guitar back and club him round the head with it (would hurt the thief much more than my guitar I suspect!)

Purchased New March 2009
Alder body, sunburst finish, rosewood fingerboard
Fit and finish is excellent

I use this guitar in a church worship band and use primarily a Fender Hotrod Deluxe amp. The guitar's bridge pickup gets an incredible tone with the treble rolled of slightly on the guitar, the amp's volume on about 4, and with mid-point tone settings on the clean channel. I don't need any pedals with this tone. I also like to play jazz, and I found the neck pickup will generate a very satisfying tone comparable to any good semi-hollow body electric. I found the .009 strings that originally came with the guitar were too light for my playing style, and were quickly replaced with .010 strings. I use a Princeton Reverb for clean tone and practicing. I use the Hotrod Deluxe when I need a warm, overdriven tone for playing in the worship band or sitting in with another band.

This is my second telecaster. My first was a 1961 Telecaster that I obtained while a teenager through a trade with a Gibson ES-330. That was nearly 40 years ago. At that time I played it through a black-faced Fender Concert amp with 4 ten-inch speakers. That guitar was a completely different instrument than the current model. I am very happy with the current Am Std Telecaster, and believe it is a more versatile guitar than the '61 Telecater I had previously. If I had to use only one electric guitar, I believe it would be this American Standard Telecaster. I can cover a lot of musical styles with this instrument. I rate it a 9 only because of the single-coil hum that is inherent with these pickups. I can virtually eliminate the hum by controlling the tone setting on the guitar.

This is a quality instrument, and the differences between this and the other Telecaster models can become very subjective. The difference between this model and the Mexican model range can be heard through a good amp. The Somarian-Cobalt pickups of the Deluxe Telecaster are too dark sounding for my taste. I think the polyurethane finish will be more durable than the nitrocelulose finish of older Fenders. Most of the finish of my '61 Telecaster had worn off by the time I aquired it. The guitar's intonation is perfect, and it is very stable in staying in tune. When it starts slipping out of tune, it is time to change the strings.

I have owned Fender products for over 45 years. I have never had a Fender guitar break down on me. I am confident the dealer will provide good support if and when I need it.

This again, is a very subjective opinion. I have been playing for nearly 50 years and have had the good fortune to own a 1961 Telecaster, a 1964 Gibson ES-335, a 1964 Stratocaster, and a mid-1980's 1962 Stratocaster reissue. I play fingerstyle, and really like the sound the American Std Telecaster provides through Fender tube amps. I have played this guitar throuh a silver-faced Twin Reverb, a Blues Junior (which ended up being traded for the Princeton Reverb RI), the Hotrod Deluxe, and the '65 Princeton Reverb reissue. I think the guitar sounds best through the Hot Rod Deluxe amp for my playing style.

am stadard tele - I have the last series of american tele and it is no comparison - this is junk ! I dont see how anyone who plays guitar well and is a pro can pick one of these up and like it. It feels just like a jay turser with a fake plasticky feeling neck and the malple neck is fine for anyone who wants their fingers to slide while making bends thats to say if you can even make a bend without it fretting out and going dead. Piece of junk.

Sounds ok I guess its just the cheap construction and cheap feel adn the higher price? Charge more for less - yes the american way.

action and playablilty is terrible - feels like a cheap copy - I dont know how anyone can like this guitar and people who play the $2159 dollar hot rod tele and say that neck is good ? I dont get it . Its sticky slippery and slow? All that for $2159 dollars! yes raise it 500 bucks ! But the american fenders are crap !Im buying a new tele but its one thats been in a store that is the last version of the american series with a maple neck that isnt like a skating rink slippery.

dont know

this guitar should cost 399 the highway one is better.

This is a review of the new Fender american standard Telecaster.
3-Color Sunburst with maple fingerboard (9.5??? Radius) on alder body. Made in 2009.
Standard telecaster features, with the addition of the Master Delta Tone.(high output bridge pickup and special No-Load tone control).
New bridge design, 22 frets and a Bi-Flex Truss Rod System. Very lightweight yet sturdy case included.
The rest of the features can be found in the fender website.

I was looking for a versatile, high quality guitar that would cover all the ground my humbucker equipped Epiphone Riviera could not, well i admit i got even more than i expected.
Playing in a very strange project this guitar covers everything from jazz to indie, garage, electronica, ambient.
From clean to fully overdriven to fuzz, from dry to 100% wet, It does all that very well. The sound will retain definition, even through heavy use of FX, perhaps a little more definition than someone (like me) would like.

I've been using this guitar mostly through a Laney VC30 but have also used it on a Fender Deville and Hot-Rod Deluxe with very good results.
The definition of the notes is excellent and there is lots of sustain. The sound is full and well balanced, very good bass response without ever being muddy, the high frequencies are definitely there, but by no means is the sound overly bright even on the bridge pickup which was indeed a pleasant surprise.
If there is one thing i disliked in some telecasters, is their thin sound,how irritating the bridge pickup sounds and how many unmusical high frequencies exist in the spectrum.
Of course that could be purely a matter of taste but by switching from a semi-hollow Riviera to this guitar with stock pickups, I did not compromise in any way the fullness of sound i was looking for. The sound now has the body i was looking for, but with a lot more detail in the midrange and clarity. It can get bright, but it will always make sense musically.
Both the pickups are very dynamic responsive and well balanced in terms of frequency response and I believe it will not be a problem finding your desired sound in a good amp.
I cannot really comment on the output levels as I usually adjust my levels by using the 2 tubes of my Zoom G9.2tt preamp (no modeling used) to slightly overdrive the clean channel of my VC30 . This might sound a bad choice by some people but it works perfectly for me.

The noise level is fairly low if you play in a proper environment, but yes if you have a 100 watt halogen light bulb over your head you will hear some noise but has nothing to do with the quality of the pickups. If the middle position is indeed hum cancelling, i cannot hear any difference. Very quiet. Never used a noise gate.

Versatile and well balanced is the bottom line.

Straight from the factory the guitar sounded, well.. BAD. The volume level of each string was not consistent, nor the 2 pickup levels. Intonation was mediocre and the 0.009 fender strings is a bad choice for my taste. It is a shame trying out a guitar in this condition as it can be missleading.

When the guys from the shop properly set it up with 0.011 strings and did all the necessary adjustments, I was blown away.
The action was so low (with no buzz at all) that i actually had them raise it a bit. The feeling when you play is so satisfying and i'm actually getting better in my playing as this guitar does not limit you in any way.

I did not see any flaws except probably 1-2 loose tuning keys, but that is not really a flaw.
Overall a joy to play with.

The only reason i choose this guitar over the cheaper models fender makes (in US, Mexico, Japan) is that i immediately felt this is a GREAT instrument, of a different level that will last for a very long time and is worth the extra money.

It is primarally the neck and body that make a reliable instrument and assure playability as the years go by and this guitar takes a staight ten in this department. The Bi-flex truss rod also makes me feel more certain that if i have any unusual problems with the neck i will be able to fix it.

The controls, bridge,electronics and tuners all seem very solid. Everything on this guitar makes it feel of proffesional level. I'm only using this guitar now.

I've been playing for 15 years. I am not the kind of player that will change guitars every year so i take extra caution when choosing one. I had been in the search for over 5 months reading everything there was in the internet trying out a lot of guitars, planning on super upgrades and fancy mods etc. All that has ended for me now. I am very satisfied and i won't even change the pickups on this guitar until i feel there is a genuine need to do so. Sometimes i get a feeling by reading some of the reviews here, that people actually spend more time talking of specs and mods than they are actually playing. This is a guitar to play with and that is what I intend to do from now on. No upgrades no mods just play. I am done with that.

American Standard Telecaster Natural Maple neck

I was somewhat worried about the singlecoil pickups hum, but it sounds great. It??s got a clean sound with a natural sustain, it sounds louder unplugged than my deluxe stratocaster.

It looks and feels solid and durable.

I??ve been playing for twenty discontinuous years. I own an american deluxe stratocaster and a Fender Princeton Recording Amp. If it were stolen , I would try to find the thieve and recover the guitar after killing him but if not I would miss the guitar like a valuable and lovable thing I??ve lost, I??d start thinking of saving money to buy a new one. I chose this guitar because it has the sound that only a telecaster has.

There is not too much one can say about "features" when reviewing a Telecaster. But the American Standard version has quieter pickups and wiring than earlier versions I have owned, a bit more punch - especially from the neck PU - and something called "Delta" controls that supposedly prevent tonal loss when one lowers the volume.

The wood on my transparent-finished version is very fine as, indeed, the finish itself. The fretboard is "hand rolled" which means, I believe, that the fretwork edges have been given particular attention.

What the words and phrases mean this is a beautifully crafted guitar - far better than any of the other Teles I've owned over the nearly fifty years I've been playing.

In a word: Superb. All the Tele bite and clarity one could wish for but with a solidity and fullness a bit above its breed.

Of particular note is the neck pickup which is better balanced in output than my previous Teles. Indeed, this will the first time I don't find any need to replace the stock neck PU.

Perfection. Truly. I'd read that Fender had made a great step forward in the quality of their American made instruments in the last year or so, but I was not prepared for the excellence of this guitar. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

As solid a piece as this will likely never need service. And if it does there is a limited lifetime guaranty.

I have no idea and I expect I never will. However a personal "thank you" email for the unexpected excellence of this guitar went unanswered by Fender. Thats a foolish business practice if nothing else.

I've been playing since the very early `60s. I started as a Gibson man, added a Tele a few years later, and have always had at least one in my stable ever since. This one is so perfect that it is quite naturally the one I reach for when I feel like playing or writing. And that's out of a collection of about a dozen electrics.

My main amp is a Line 6 Duoverb with a 2nd 2/12 cabinet. It does so many things so well that I've sold off a couple of classic Marshalls and Fender amps. Now I just hit the foot pedal and get all the Marshall crunch, Fender burn and Vox bell tone that I need - or even two together.

My main sound is a mix of Marshall 800 and Fender Twin, both with a hard-driven emulation. The "Fender" gives me a good bottom to which the "Marshall" adds texture and warmth.

The only other things I'll mention is the new case. Upon ordering my guitar I thought of asking to trade it for a classic tweed type. But immediately upon delivery I was glad I hadn't. This case is so strong, so light, and so lovely that it too is perfection. What more can I say? If you love Teles you're gonna love this one!

I'm a professional musician, not a collector, so absolutely authentic vintage details mean little to me. Don't get me wrong, I love vintage Teles! Why? Because they SOUND so good, not because they have "vibe" or "mojo" or whatever.

Anyway, the one I bought has an ash body w/ maple fretboard, color is 2-tone sunburst.

I rated this category high because although it's just a simple Tele, it has just the right number of "extras" that I like. E.g.:

Delta Tone
Excellent new design ATA hard case
Staggered tuning pegs
Great new bridge saddle design
Rolled fretboard edges

I knocked off a few points because the neck is thinner than I prefer and it has a rather ugly dark streak across the front.

I bought this for the tone first and foremost. It's just great classic Telecaster tone.

The build quality is flawless and the fretboard feels great to my fingers. It sets up beautifully. I would prefer a thicker neck.

Excellent hardware and electronics, feels very sturdy.

Years ago I had given up on Fender providing a simply designed, well-made, great sounding, ash/maple, AlNiCo 5 single-coil, American-made Telecaster that would sell new for under $1000. Heck, even just a new Tele that sounded halfway decent! This one had me from the moment I picked it up, and the price tag clinched the deal. I don't remember playing a new Telecaster this nice for a loooonnnng time, not even Custom Shop jobs at 3x the price.

2001 American Standard Tele with maple fingerboard, burst finish, and white pickguard. Its all stock .

It has that wonderful sound that only a Tele can produce. I use a variety of amps with it. A blackface Fender Champ, Epiphone Valve Jr. with Bitmo mods, and a Fender Pro Reverb reissue. I dont use any effect but, I do love to crank up the gain for some serious crunch. To me , when played through a clean channel, it is the classic Fender tone, nice an bright but, smooth as glass.

I bought it used and the setup was poor on it. I do my own setup work as I am a full time luthier. The fretwork was lousy from the factory with several high frets which i had to level and dress. The fit and finish is excellent though on the neck and body. The neck profile is wonderful.

Its seems very solid to me. I think it will last a long time. The controls are excellent as are the stock PU's. The finish has held up very well so far. I added Schaller strap locks, otherwise, it is bone stock.

I use to own an American Standard Strat but for my taste, I much prefer the sound and feel of my Tele. The thing plasy so easy and it so lightwieght that it is a joy to own. I would definelty replace it with another juts like it if it were stolen. I wouldnt mind adding a butterscotch '52 RI to my collection.

This is one of the new 2008 American Standard Tele's. Mine has the natural ash body with a rosewood neck. Its a tele so I don't want to bore you with the details you all know them.

The sound out of the box was thin to me. It came with 9's for strings and one I put on 10's it fattened up considerably. The stock pickups were not bad but I swapped them out for Jason Lollar Specials which are a vintage pickup that is slightly overwound. I like my tele a little darker for more of a rock sound and those pickups are excellent. I also swapped out all the electronics for the RS Guitarworks Vintage Tele electronic upgrade pack which has really made a diffrence with the pickups there is almost no noise at all and after a professional set up this baby is primed and ready to rock.. The sound after the changes is a 10 before the changes I would have gicven it an 8 this is my 5th tele over the years and my first with a rosewood board I actually like the rosewood better both for feel and look. Played through a good tube amp preff Class A this baby sings and sustains like a good les paul I would know I have an R8. I play it through a Victoria 5112 amp and they are made for eachother. Think classic stones ala stcky fingers/exile on main st sound. With a pedal you can approach modern rock if thats your taste as well. All in all this baby is solid and I am glad I purchased it guess the 5th time is a charm.

Out of the box the action was ok when I put the 10's on I had to adjust a bit but all in all it was not bad since my set up it is great. Low action and great sustain as well (a trait of an excellent guitar) The fit and finisg as well were spot on I have owned many USA fenders and have never seen poor build quality on any of them.

It is a tele

Overall I am very happy with this guitar like I said earlier this is my 5th tele overall and the only one I own now. In my opinion after all the upgrades it is the best tele I have ever owned beating out a deluxe ash tele with the Samarium Cobalt pickups and s 1 switching. Currently I own this tele a 2007 Gibson Les Paul R8 and a 2007 Martin HD-28V as well as my Victoria amp. For now I am satisfied with my tone search. This tele is VERY versatile more so than the LP sweet cleans and very good overdrive as well but clean this baby is the Sh*t.

Mine is a brand new 2008 American standard with a sunburst finish Alder body, maple neck and fingerboard. Two single coil pickups, a switch to select them, a volume and tone control and a 1/4" phono jack. Nothing fancy, nothing special. The Broacaster was the first commercially manufactured electric guitar in history. It's name changed to Telecaster as television became popular. Honestly, it hasn't changed much in over 1/2 a century. Sure, people can argue about minute details but basically a Telecaster is a Telecaster. The new 2008 model is just like the original Broadcaster (details aside) in my view.

You don't buy a Telecaster to show off. You don't buy one for it's beauty and modern design. You don't buy one for its innovation. It was innovative in the 1940's but not today. You buy one because it sounds like a Telecaster. Sharp attack sounds from single coil pickups, an almost metallic twang from the bridge pickup and a surprisingly sweet tone from the neck pickup. Of course you can have both at the same time. I bought the guitar primarily for playing blues. Connect it to a tube amp of your choice and I doubt there is anything better for everything from Delta to rock blue styles. I use it with an AC 30. It is magical. Give it just a tiny bit of overdrive and enjoy. If you like to spend money on after market pickups help yourself. But, personally, I think the 2008 Tele is right on the money in terms of tone. I don't expect to do any "upgrades." I bought it for its sound and its sound is what makes it special.

The guitar came out of new inventory at the store. It had never been opened or played. The setup was just fine for me. I score it a 10 in terms of playability and action. It was adjusted to factory specs and those specs work for me.

The guitar itself has nothing particularly amazing in the finish department. The Tele is a block of wood designed in the 1940's. As I said, you don't buy a Telecaster for its appearance. I give it a 7 on fit and finish.

My new guitar hasn't been anywhere yet but it's hard to imagine a guitar that could be any more sturdy or reliable. The marketplace is not filled with horror stories about Tele failures. In fact the opposite is true. I'll give it a 10 based on the experiences of others.

No dealings with Fender.

The American Standard Telecaster is a musician's tool. It isn't a rare collectible. It isn't a museum piece. It is a reliable, great sounding instrument with great action and playability. Fender has had a long, long time to perfect it. They've done well.

Its only equal in the playability department from my experience is the Gibson Les Paul. Not may guitars play as nicely as the Telecaster.

I mark them down to 9 only because I think they should provide a bridge cover with the instrument. Yes, I know, nobody uses them. But not using them should be an option.

It's always been a great guitar - a music industry standard - and still is. Of course, I would buy another one if this one were lost or ruined.