Fender Highway 1 Telecaster

Well everbody faimilar with tele features and its already been discussed. I fell in love with a tele playing on my bass playing friends 69 tele and decided I needed to get one of my own beause I didn't want to wear out my friends vintage tele. So based on my friends 69 tele I set out on a quest to find one that played similar with similar features. I must have looked off and on for the better part of 10 years. When I picked up this Hwy 1 in a local shop and plugged it in, I knew right away it was the one. It is three tone sunburst and that's just what I was wanting. It had been previously bought by a metal head and kept for about a week and returned to the shop and traded for a different ax. It was like new condition and completely stock.

The sound of the pickups are actually a little thicker sounding and a little hotter responding than the 69 Tele, but other than that are pretty close. I first tried it in the shop over a little 1-10 fender frontman SS amp that was handy at the time and it sounded great. I'm a DIY tube amp builder and 5F6A(59 Bassman), AB763Deluxe reverb, 5F6A Champ, Allen Accomplice(AB763), Silvertone 1482, Pignose G40V, several tube jellopy amps and a Mesa Boogie 440 Rocket. The Hwy 1 sound great on them all with a little tweaking. I always cut treble and add bass/mids to mellow the tele out. I generally like the AB763 tone for clean and like a distorted sound like Jimmy P got on Led Zep #1 for tele dirty. Soundwise-for the electric guiarist-a tele is a must!

This guitar was perfect right out of the shop. I haven't touched a thing on its settings since 2006 when I got it until I recently intalled some brass compensated bridge saddles/springs/screws where I had to reset the bridge/action but I'm somewhat of a guitar/amp tech and it was pretty easy to get it re-setup just as before. The hardest part was the intonation balancing--take and give you have to do with these vintage type bridge saddles. It back perfect again.

I have played this guitar regularly since I got it used in 2006 on the road, home and in church and it never gave me one second on problems.

I build tube amps and work on all my guitars so I have no need to call fender. No experiacne on customer support.

I'm 61 and been playing since 1964. I've read that Hwy 1's are not really all USA made and some of the parts like the pickups are imported and the body is laminated out of four seperate pieces. I have played with musicians that think if your not playing on a USA made guitar your not a real musician. I think that attitude is silly. A guitar is basically a tool that you use as an extension of your body to project your sound. What ever tool works for you, great! This guitar is an accurate enough reproduction of Leo Fenders original idea and is close in feel and sound to the beloved 69 that got me hooked, so I'm happy. I expect this will be my tele for the rest of my life but if it was lost or stolen I would definitly seek out a tele replacement. The teles construction and makeup produces a feel and sound that is unique and can only be accomplished with a tele. Leo got it right the first time.

Mine (like all) are made in the US of A and is an '07
It has a pretty cheap satin finish on it that get scratched and nicks incredibly easy. I have a bunch of nicks on it and i am not able to say how one of those happened.
Other than that, what it comes with is not too bad. I like the alnico pick-ups, but I am choosing to replace them with fender noiseless and the bridge is a little shotty, but that is because it has one saddle for 2 strings, so i am doing what a lot of others do and i am getting the 6 saddle bridge.

For the money, it has the features you would expect, but somehow the guitar still does not come off as a cheaply made guitar. It just comes off as a guitar that could use some upgrades here and there, you know?

Huge fan of how fenders sound. I do have to say that the rhythm pick up (the neck) is a bit muddy. I think that it sounds real good with the mids and highs, but when it comes to the lows, it just does not sound great. Therefore, i normally play the guitar with the switch in the middle, so i can get a less muddy low, and it really sounds good because with the bridge pickup on, it give the tone a more twangy, tradition fender sound.

Good action, but i have not set it up in a while and now my action is too low. I do not blame that on fender, though. I blame it on my lack of care.
Like i said earlier, the paint job is terrible. i would say the worst thing on the guitar, as a matter of fact. At the same time, what looks cooler thn a fender that i actually worn out from play (not from the factory trying to make it look that way). So in that respect, i guess the paint is not that bad, but if you are looking for a real glossy telecaster, look elsewhere.
Factory set-up was great. It was so good that i wish i could have them set it up for me again...
All of my pickups worked fine. There were no routing errors like there was with my epiphone firebird
Note: don't buy a guitar because it looks cool. Telecaster looks cool, but is great, too.

I would gig with a backup, but only because i would be afraid of breaking s string. I can not see this guitar busting on me anytime in the near future.
It is a moderately simple guitar, so there really is not even that much for it to break, you know? That kind of adds the charm for guitar.

But yeahhhh, back to the finish. It will wear off, chip off, but who cares. Fender's have more class when they start to wear.

Haven't needed it for fender guitar, but needed it for fender amp, and all i need to say about it is i am never buying a fender amp and i sold my old one.

I like this guitar. I mean i like it a lot.
I am a chronic guitar buyer and seller and this is the one guitar that i have not gotten bored with. It has a small neck, but i never get dead strings, it sounds great, it looks cool and it feels so good. It is not heavy, but it is also not light, like some of those ash guitars that fender is making these days.
It does not need any modifications unless you want perfect intonation or you are bored like me and you want to see if you can make a good sounding guitar sound great... and we'll find out soon enough

Well of course it is a typical highway 1 tele in the tobacco sunburst. I didn't want this color but this guitar played a cut well above the rest. Out of my many instruments, this has pretty much become my #1 in Most situations. (which is saying lots due my other instruments are some vintage fenders.

22 Fret Neck (love the extra fret vs my others).
Beautiful satin nitro finish. Satin poly on the neck (fine by me). has a great feel, doesn't have that flatter poly body sound.

This baby suits many different styles, i play alot of sessions with various acts, and it covers well for country/punk/jazz/rock..whatever you need.... you can find the tone.
The greasebucket systems works wonders. and the high octane pickups as they call them, handle gain incredibly.
You can still get the country twang if needed, and the nice blues tone of the neck pickup. just try one, and you won't be dissapointed.

Factory setup was good, might have been setup at the store when it came in.
My fender guy gets these in and sells them as fast as they come in...the highway one strats not so much, but the teles go.
Hardware was great, tuning is very stable, nothing loose, pretty clean and pristine.
The Jumbo Frets are Awesome.

1) I never gig without a backup...no matter what. strings break.

2)it's all pretty solid tough guitar, that i use for live playing frequently, and studio work, and it never dissapoints.

Its a tele workhorse. THe nitro will probably start to wear, but it should just give it a badass vintage look.

Fender is pretty good. My fender dealer has an fender rep in house, and i had to get one strat sent it for a warranty neck before about 8 yrs ago. They will back the lifetime neck warranty.

If you don't have a local rep..i don't know.

I've been playing for over 15 yrs now. Didn't get on th fender bandwagon till about 5 yrs ago. Used to be a kramer shredder...lol and a les paul player, but les pauls continuously let me down with neck problems, and repeated electronic problems. (my 1275 was the biggest pos ever).

The highway 1 is a great universal kickass guitar. The only thing i would probably ever do is install a six saddle bridge, or give the neck a nitro spray. but neither one needs to be done. and i will probably get around to it anyway.

GO BUY THIS THING.

Stock standard Highway tele. 2 pickups, single coil, sunburst with maple neck, Rosewood f'board.
Made in USA.
I will refit the bridge with a 6 string setup rather than the 2 strings per adjuster like it has now. It is very hard to adjust the intonation or get the action just right with the standard bridge.
Tuners could be a bit less sensitive. I might refit these too.

The guitar came strung really light. Rubber bands. Once I got the strings off and put some Tomastik flatwounds on (not the obvious choice for a tele I know, but I am primarily a jazz player.) I was happier with the setup.

Clean sound. Very easy to play. My first quality guitar 35 years ago was a tele. Wish I still had it.
This guitar seems just as well made.
The pots are a little clanky ie, they don't seem firmly seated, they wobble a little. This doesn't cause any problem when playing but I guess it's one of the things they pass over when building a guitar to budget.

No obvious flaws. Action ok but open to improvement.
Factory setup is string em and tune em I think

This guitar is a slab of wood with strings on it. What can go wrong.
The finish will not last; it is a really thin nitro. Looks good new though.

I took the strap buttons off and put strap locks on before I even tuned the guitar.

It came in a gig bag. A luthier friend of mine describes these bags as the luthier's best friend.
Any guitar that is aimed at a professional market should come in a case.

Fender don't want to know you once you have handed over your money. This is from past experience, not this guitar.

Played 38 years. I own a lot of guitars, and so if I lost this one, I would get by without it.
If it were my only guitar I would definately replace it, or maybe upgrade to the American Standard Tele.

This is a 2008 Highway One Tele in Honey Blonde, maple neck. I won't bore you with repeating the details of this guitar as it has been done. It's stripped down feature wise, which is expected for the price. I don't like that it came with a gig bag, and would have paid a little more to have a hardshell case. I will buy a hardshell case for it soon.

I play a variety of music from classic rock, country, hard rock, etc. It's not a guitar for metal, but was never meant to! The sound is great. these guitars are more versatile than you may think. Nice for chicken picking, strumming clean and even with overdrive! i am running it through a Traynor Custom Special 100 stack and it sounds like heaven!

Now it IS a single coil so it ain't all quiet - I used a Boss Noise Suppressor and that takes care if the humming. These are not as noisy as strats though.

The guitar was set up very well from the factory - real low action that I may raise a little. No flaws to be noticed. The body to neck join is not perfect, but better than to be expected in this price range. Some orange peel in the finish on the back of the guitar, but the Honey Blonde accentuates the grain beautifully - the grain almot looks blueish gray through the finish - it's absolutely stunning!

So far so good. No issues at home, jamming or on stage. Quite solid and dependable. Way beyond what I expected in this price range.

Never had to deal with Fender - and probably never will!

Bottom line I love this guitar! I ordered it in and took it home before I played it! Either I fluked into a really good one or they are all nice, I dunno cuz this is the only one I ever played. The neck feels great, the guitar sounds great and the thing is smoking hot to look at - what more could you ask for? I have a lot of guitars, this one is one of my favorites. If this was stolen I would get another one immediately and pray it was as nice as this one.

I LOVE THIS TELE!

It's a tele. I give it a ten because it is a tele the way a tele is meant to be and that is because it DOESN'T have a lot of features.

I like a lot of styles and a tele is a good choice for the stuff I play. It sounds like a tele but better....The Alnico 2's set this apart from most tele's (I think these PU's are on models 2006+). It has a nice attack, more mid sounding than Alinco 5's which I like....distorts well and has a edgy clean sound.

I got it used and the set-up needed attention. The previous owner had it all screwed up but wasn't hard to fix with a few simple adjustments. Even if new you will probably tweak it to suit yourself. I give it a 9 because the Bridge plate is a bit crooked. Otherwise it's a good looking guitar. I have the sunburst with maple board.....doesn't get any better than that.

This is a well made guitar, it will do what you need if you play out.

I did guitar tech work for profit....I don't need support or want anybody else setting up my stuff.

Been playing 40+ years. It's a good guitar. To be honest these things are 900 bucks now. I got mine slightly used for 500 bucks and that's the only reason I own it. I would say it's worth 900 bucks and would choose this over an American Standard Tele. If I had to replace this guitar I would head for ebay first though. I have a feeling most buyers will be hanging onto theirs. This guitar is one I think Leo himself would approve of. It is a well thought out design, it has the best of the vintage world with just enough of modern touches to make it practical. It's a players guitar. It has a nitro finish that will show it's history. The neck it extremely nice. The fat frets make it a good guitar for bends. I like the PU's.....BUT....I may see a set of Joe Barden's in the future...this would make this guitar a force to be reckoned with IMO. I give it a 9 only because I think Fender takes advantage of it's name being on the headstock.

I believe this a 2007 Highway 1 Tele (american made) bought new from Elderly Instruments in Lansing,Michigan.Traded an amp and some cash for it. 22 tall frets which I like very much. I like to have to dig in and small frets are too hard to bend on for me. Solid ash body I think with satin nitro finish over beautiful sunburst stain/white 3 ply pickguard. Maple neck w/skunk stripe and rosewood fretboard. Standard Tele bridge that will accept the ashtray cover if you want to buy one on line somewhere. I bought one but I cant play with it on so I just use it for pictures and put it on between sets when playing a job. It looks so cool with it on. Threeway switch with one volume and one tone control. Not sure what pickups came in it but they are standard tele style and sounded very good. I say sounded because they are single coil and too noisy when distortion is used so I installed Dimarzio Area T pickups which are noisless. The best move I could have made. When I did that the guitar really came alive. Not saying the originals were bad but these are true fender sound only more and no hum. Fender closed back tuners that work very well. No problems tuning even with the three barrel tele bridge saddles.

I play in a 4 piece (two guitars/bass/drums)classic rock band and a 3 piece easy listening band (acoustic guitar/electric guitar/standup bass). This is really the first guitar that covers all styles very well. I wish I would have gotten a Tele 30 years ago. After 40 years of going through different guitars,amps and effects I've finally gotten down to just a Fender Blues jr (15 mighty watts) and a Line 6 M13 stompbox modeler. This combo gives me everything I need and it's easy to carry around. The clean sounds are classic Tele. Rich/full and bright without being spiky or harsh. Putting the Dimarzio's in it gave me the sound I've been looking for for decades. Extremely smooth on distortion settings also.

The action was set too high to start with so I had Elderly Instruments lower it before I bought it. After a little playing I noticed it was too low and buzzing so I had a friend of mine who knows everything about guitars tweek it. It now plays great if you like medium to high action which I do. The only thing that concerns me is when he tweeked it he adjusted the truss rod as far as he could without stripping the threads. If it needs moving again I dont know what will happen. The finish on the guitar is beautiful with the satin nitro.What I like about it is the more you play it the shinier it gets in the wear spots.It gives it a good overall look.
Dont expect it to stay satin in the wear areas.

This guitar is very solidly built. I play hard in the rock band and it stays in tune even with big bends and wailing. Dont get me wrong. I dont abuse anything of mine and take care of my stuff. But I do play hard. The finish seems very good but changes gloss level very quickly. But I like that sort of thing on a classic style guitar.
Everything else is also very solid/electronics good with no problems. I usually take several guitars but only because I have twelve guitars that I rotate and love them all but I have a few times taken only the Tele and been very happy with using only it.

I've not had to deal with Fender directly but Elderly will bend over backwards to take care of any problems. I've always liked Fender equipment (amps mostly / this is my first Fender guitar).

I've been playing aprox 45 years. I also have a Gibson S1 with Dimarzio Virtual P90's and a Les Paul Standard Doublecut,a Fender Highway 1 Strat with Dimarzio Area 61 and 59 pickups and love that guitar as much as the Tele,a G&L S500 with TV Jones Supertrons ,an Epiphone Elite SG with Seymour Duncan 59's,a Heritage CM150 (Les Paul style) with Lindy Fralen's,a 63 Gibson EB0 with Dimarzio,a Rick Gledura prototype with Seymour Duncan Blackbacks,a Saul Koll Gold Top T (can be seen on Koll guitar website) custom built for 50th bday with Seymour Duncan P90 Stacks,a Mike Kauffman Copycaster with Jason Lollar Tele style pickups (he works for Vinetto Guitars),and a David Fitzpatrick (Les Paul Doublecut style)black korina with Dimarzio Virtual P90's and Tone Styler tone control.

I HAVE 2 OF THESE IN HONEY BLONDE, ONE WITH A WHITE PICKGAURD SET UP FOR SLIDE AND 1 WITH A BLACK PICKGAURD I TURNED INTO A B BENDER. NOT SURE THE YEAR ON EITHER BOTH ARE CLOSE, I BELIEVE SOMEWHERE AROUND 04. I ALSO HAVE A PAIR OF HWY 1 STRATS. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST PRODUCT FOR THE PRICE IN ANYTHING MUSICAL. BOUGHT BOTH OF MINE AROUND $450 AND 1 CAME WITH A CASE! THEY SET UP SUPER, GREAT ACTION BUT YOU CAN TWEAK IT LOWER. I DO PLAN TO CHANGE THE BRIDGE TO A 6 SADDLE SO I CAN DROP THE ACTION LOWER AS WELL AS BETTER INTONATION, BUT I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS NOW. NECK IS PERFECT SHAPE SIZE LOVE THE 9" RADIUS AND FENDER IS FINALLY DOING 22 FRETS. USED TO BE MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT ON THIER VINTAGE STUFF. I HAVE MAPLE NECKS ON ALL MINE AND THEY ARE TOPS, FAST, SMOOTH AND WARM. VERY, VERY FAMILIAR FEELING. SCHALLER TUNERS WRE FINE BUT CHANGED THEM TO THE SCHALLER LOCKERS FOR EASIER STRING CHANGES. ALSO CHANGED THE STRAP BUTTONS TO STRAP LOCKS. THEY COULD COME WITH A CASE SINCE A GIG BAG IS USELESS TO ME. LOVE THE SATIN FINISH BUT IT WON'T LAST LONG. THEY CLAIM IT IMPROVES THE SOUND AND MAYBE IT DOES, BOTH OF MINE SOUND BETTER THAN MY FRIENDS USA STANDARD. LOUDER, FULLER, MORE PUCH AND WAY MORE AGGRESIVE.

I PLAY CLASSIC COUNTRY TO MODERN ROCK, WHO EVER IS PAYING AND THESE GUITARS DO IT. I DID CHANGE THE P/U'S TO A HOT RAIL IN BACK AND A MINI HUMBUCKER UP FRONT. I NEEDED A LITTLE FULLER TONE AS SOMTIMES I AM THE ONLY GUITAR PLAYER. I USE A PAIR OF PRO JR'S IN STEREO MIC'D WITH AN SM 57. DIGITECH RP 14 THATS IT AND ALWAYS GET HOW ARE YOU GETTING THAT SOUND OUT OF THAT GUITAR? THE STANDARD P/U'S ARE SMOOTHER AND FULLER WITH MUCH MORE SUSTAIN THAN THE USA STANDARD AND THEY STILL RETAIN PLENTY OF TELL TWANG. YOU CAN GET A VERY HEAVY OR CLEAN SOUND EASILY BY ADJUSTING YOUR GEAR (AMP ECT.) WHEN NEEDED. I WAS GONNA GET A MEXICAN MODEL FOR SLIDE BUT GOT MY HWY 1 USED FOR ABOUT THE SAME PRICE AS THE MEXICAN AND LIKE I SAID 22 FRETS, CASE AND ITS US MADE. NO BETTER THAN THAT.

FENDER SET UPS ARE PRETTY MUCH STANDARD ON THIER US MODELS. TERRIBLE ON OTHERS. NECK POCKET TIGHT AND THE P/U ROUTING CLEAN. I LIKE MY ACTION EXTREMLY LOW SAVE FOR MY SLIDE RIG AND STILL LOWER THAN SOME PEOPLES PRIMARY GUITAR. MY NECK COMPLETLY FLAT. NOT ABLE TO DROP IT AS LOWER AS I WANT WITH THE 3 SADDLE BRIDGE BUT WILL WITH A 6. ON A SLIDE RIG ITS NOT AN ISSUE BUT MY B BENDER I WANT IT A LITTLE BIT LOWER, ALTHOUGH IT IS STILL AMAZING AND FAST GREAT SNAP FOR TELE STYLE PLAYING(BRENT MASON, BRAD PAISLEY, AND THE LATE GREAT DON RICH) YOU CAN STILL SHRED BUT NOT AS SMOOTH AS MY STRAT.... YET!

ALL FENDERS ARE EXTREMLY DURABLE AND ROAD WORTHY. I USED MY B-BENDER EXCLUSIVLY FOR A WHILE WITH STOCK P/U'S. NEVER FAILED AND ALWAYS PLEASED. THE FACTORY HARDWARE IS THE SAME QUALITY THE HAVE ALWAYS MADE NO REASON NOT TO FEEL IT WON'T LAST AS LONG OR LONGER THAN ITS VINTAGE BROTHERS. I WOULD NOT USE IT AS A BACK UP FOR IT WOULD BE A WASTE OF A GREAT GUITAR. THEY MAY NOT BE AS PRETTY AS THE POLY COATED TYPE BUT MORE THAN MAKE UP WITH TONE FEEL AND PLAYABLITY. PERSONALLY I LIKE THE NITRO COAT. THE FINISH WILL DEFINETLY CHIP AND RUB IN TIME WITH USE BUT ITS A GREAT GUITAR MENT TO BE PLAYED NOT A FASHION SHOW. IF YOUR GOING TO WORK ON AN OIL RIG DO YOU WEAR A SUIT? THIS IS THE TOOL YOU NEED FOR THE JOB AND YOU NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT EQIPMENT FAILURE. YOU WOULD NOT RACE A GO CART IN NASCAR, DON'T PLAY JUNK WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO.

NEVER DEALT WITH THEM ON GEAR ISSUE. TALKED TO THEM ONCE ON DATING AN AMP AND THEY WERE EXTREMLY HELPFUL.

PLAYING OVER 20YR. PLAYED THEM ALL. NEVER THOUGHT I'D STRAY FROM GIBSON BUT THE STUFF THIER PUTTING OUT NOW IS NOT THE SAME QUALITY THEY USED TO. FLIP SIDE FENDER SEEMS TO REALLY HAVE STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE IMPROVING ON WHAT MANY THOUGHT WAS UNIMPROVABLE. LOVE THE STUFF THIER MAKING NOW HOWEVER NOT TO BIG ON THIER IMPORT STUFF. CANT BEAT THIER USA PRODUCTS AND THIS IS EVERY BIT AS GOOD AND EVEN BETTER THAN SOME OF THIER TOP LINE STUFF, ESPECIALLY FOR THE PRICE NEW OR USED. ONLY IMPROVEMENT A HARDSHELL CASE.

This is a review of my telecaster as it stands now The Original review is apart from this the most current review.

07
22 frets
5 way switch wired like a strat with one tone knob
seymour duncan 1/4 pound neck, Seymour Duncan 59 middle (full size H.B.), Hot Rails Bridge pickup.
Alder Body Maple Neck
Neck Finish Satin? body piece of **** Nitrocelulose
3 Saddle tele bridge
Jumbo Frets

The guitar before was great and there were alot of things I really liked but when it comes down to it kids want to learn Kerry King not Roy Buchanan and this guitar has a job to do. wired the way it is I have a thick single coil in the neck the fifty nine does everything well, really a nice in between for the Hot Rails and the quarter pound. The Hot Rails is a monster and when I am forced to play Metalica or Some such Monster It handles the task easily. Thats not to say it cant be used for other situations because its tone retains what I would call the heart of a tele bridge pickup.

Properly routed well almost, Finish Ha!, Action spot on. I have downgraded my rating because I routed the sucker. Its not the cleanest but by the same token this guitar answers to the name Tina (as in Tina Turner) she can handle a beating.

finish no way, guitar yes

Hardware is good to go

I do depend on this guitar 6 or 7 hours a day.

The guitar has two distinct followings thats not to say that there isn't some crossover between the two groups but its a fact either your a player or the guy who constantly tinkers with mods and the likes. I guess where Im going with this is you mod a guitar so often nothing has a chance to break or you are willing to take the effort to replace that old pot or redo some of fenders horrid solder work. Unless your neck splits in half you should be fine and if it does get a neck from warmoth hell make it a AAA birds eye maple with An Ebony Board, or AAA flame maple with matching maple Fingerboard problem solved.

The Tele is great, its simple and elegant and for some reason the only guitar I am willing to modify (my only two teles and modded guitars for that matter are this and american deluxe strat o tele with S.D. little 59 in the bridge). I love how you can make a tele your own and it just does what you want it to with no fuss (Just like Tina Turner).

07 American
Alnico 3 pickups (I think)
Maple Neck
Jumbo Frets

Style-Funk, Jazz, Bluegrass, Classical, Neo Classical, Classic Rock all of which this guitar handles well.

Effects? huh funny the amp has reverb and maybe a wah but thats all you need.

60 cycle hum but who cares

This guitar has the biggest piece of shit finish you could imagine. deduct three points here.

The neck and the actual body itself are great and thats why I bought this guitar. The 3 saddle thing is vintage and It can be intonated so no problems there the pickups are dynamite. The neck is great input jack aligned I say top notch on everything else.

Everything but the finish is going to last. My buddy has one from 03 worn away about a quarter of the original finish to bare wood and the rest has somehow lost that ugly dull appearance. To be hohnest I bought this guitar because I like the vintage look and I know in six months Im going to have it(and all without paying the custom shop 3 grand to do it for me).

I am a guitar teacher this is my second telecaster the first is an American Deluxe, Apart from that I have Am Dlx Strat, Yamaha AEX 1500, Ovation 1763, etc etc. The tele is a great guitar with great tone and playability and a classic look to boot. I bought the guitar to do the dirty work and by this I mean take 20 hrs of lessons a weak, play gigs and to generally be abused in the way I wouldnt want my other guitars to be treated and for that purpose it performs amazingly.

Brand spankin Highway 1 Tele. You know the story it has frets (22 Jumbos of) Great new High-Octane Alnico Tele Pickups (2 of), satin finish in black, modern locking machines and hole to plug into. If i was after tons of features i would have bought a Swiss army knife, or anything but a Tele. But I was after a guitar. Its got everything I needed so I gotta give it a 10 here. I know this is going to sound like an add for Fender but I really love this guitar. I compared this guitar to a range of more and less expensive guitars in the shop, Luckily they had a large range, and this one was my first choice, price did not come into it.

I went with a friend who plays way better than anyone I know to try this axe out. We played every Strat, Tele and G&L in the shop. I just handed them to him without telling him exactly what they were and this was the one we both loved the sound and feel of. Wow those strats were noisey too. Single coil hum like you would not believe, you couldn't really put up with the noise some of them made. This Tele is almost silent when not being played, no matter where the selector is set. It has a powerful sound and a huge array of flavours available from only 2 pickups. I love the middle position as I play mainly country and blues but the neck pickup also offers a wide range of colour. the bridge is pure Tele , a real chicken picker. I would have given it a 10 for sound, but I've heard my friends Deluxe B Bender and it is even nicer.

The factory setup was ok but luckily the store I purchased from, Haworths Guitars, has a master luthier and a few guys he's trained. It took them only 10 minutes to get it to what i would describe as beautiful. No buzz and low and fast. i love the feel of the neck too, wide enough for my fat fingers and smooth and fast. Its Rosewood btw. Pickups factory set - fantastic. I've been all over this baby with a fine tooth comb and have found absolutely no flaws. Also love the satin black finish, makes it look sort of vintage but modern, I dunno what it looks like, but i like it.

Can't really comment here because its so new. But i will say it is lighter than some of the other Fenders i tried out and for my back that is a real plus. My friend has a 1980s strat that requires a second man to carry it for you it is so dammed heavy.

Having had a little bit of dealing with the manufacturer i would not ever bother to contact them if I had a problem. Fortunately, however, the retailer, Haworths Guitars, is a top noth dealer with fantastic staff and I'm sure any problems that may arise will be sorted out for me.

I've been playing professionally since i was about 15 and Im now 45. Most of my career I've been an acoustic man and a singer but bI've moved over to the3 electric side of things about 5 years ago. I have a 1969 Guild acoustic - the nicest Acoustic I've ever played, A couple more acoustics , a banjo, Ukelele, A profile Vintage Strat and A line 6 Variax. I mainly record and play for love now days having semi retired from the game 12 months ago. The Tele has been a dream for a while and it lives up to expectations. Now that music is my hobby rather than my profession it is more important somehow that I have the best toys I can get. It leaves all the rest in its wake.

2006 60th anniversary. It has the standard tele features and Alnico magnets. Only extra: the greasebucket tonecircuit.

I'm using it with a 70's Silverface Fender Vibro Champ. This guitar makes it sing in a way I've never heard before. It's a match made in heaven. The sound has everything: it's bright, rich and warm. I can't stop playing!

The finish is great. The neck is as soft as the skin of a baby. Once you oick it up, you will never want to put it down. It's a masterpiece, especially when you look at the price.

It's a tele, it's American. It will be around for the next 50 years.

I give this a 10 because it has everything I need on a Tele without any other junk....I like it simple and this is perfect in that regard..I have the sunburst with maple neck...

This suits my style PERFECTLY...I use a Peavey Bandit (once again a no frills product)....Very little noise, a bit more with mild distortion which is normal for single coils..The sound is what I have been looking for in a tele...Nice mid-rangy bark and a good warm neck pickup which compliment each other very well. I normally remove the chrome cover from the neck on any other tele I have owned (lots of them) but will leave this one as is. I like it....a lot

I bought it used, the strings were changed to 10's which I use anyway but it did need a complete set-up due to the previous owner and really can't comment on the factory set-up. I will say the fret work is superb, I really like the jumbo frets. The finish reminds me of a very nice vintage instrument. The only thing I found that wasn't perfect was the routing for the bridge is visible on the bass side indicating a miss-aligned bridge. This really doesn't bother me but would be unacceptable to most people..Otherwise everything else is perfect.

You could probably use this guitar as a pogo stick with no problem. Fender guitars are solid and this is no exception. Drop a Les Paul and snap goes the headstock. I'm sure the finish won't stand up to a lot of rough playing but I look at this as a plus as I expect some character marks and checking due to the nitro finish and expect it to age gracefully...I like....a lot.

I work on my own stuff....

I've been playing 35 years or so. I own maybe 25 other guitars, haven't counted lately and this is one sweet tele...If it were stolen I would cry then go get another one. I like the simplicity mainly, and the simple nitro finish, it lets the wood sound come through. As far as I am concerned there is not a better tele for any price. It has everything I need and no more which makes it perfect.

2006 HIghway 1 Tele. Daphne blue (WOW, GORGEOUS) with black pick guard, and some non-standard humbucker in the bridge position. Typical tele features elsewise... it has really big thick frets on it, which maybe is standard for this guitar, but my last tele was a 50's reissue with teeny little ones that made it difficult to intonate. My last tele had a bigsby installed after-market, which was novel and very cool looking, but a huge hassle to work with.

It's a tele, with a humbucker! Wahoo. I always use the neck position pickups (or, for some clean stuff, a mix of bridge and neck), and now I can do it without using a noise suppressor. Not sure what the pickup in there is (as it's covered) but whoever put it in made a good choice. It's very dark sounding, but works well for heavier sounds. For clean stuff, esp. with the humbucker, I find myself mixing the bridge and the neck pickup a lot more.

Mine was used, and whoever owned it before didn't hesitate to wear belt buckles with it... there's a decent amount of scratching on the back, but the front looks great. I love the sorta satin-feel and look of it (pus the Daphne Blue is a really cool grayish bluish blend).

Action was great (and the main reason I traded my previous mexican tele for it), although when I picked it up on the shop, there was some weird issue where the G string sunk all the way through the nut at the top of the neck (which caused it to fret at the first fret)... they fixed it up right on the spot though, and I ended up walking out with it, so that's a pretty good testament to how well it played.

Other than the stuff mentioned above, I think it'll suit me just fine. I don't blast my gear, but I don't baby it either... I imagine it'll show some decent wear in a few years, but I'd prefer it that way. Just my opinion.

Good guitar, decent price (esp. used), and one that'll really suit a variety of needs.

2007, USA. Yer basic stripped down USA Telecaster. Comes with wiping cloth, wrenches, and a good quality gigbag. Features are well known, all you need and nothing you don't. Number of features is irrelevant, quality of features is what I look for.

Like everybody else says, great!

Top quality construction. Satin finish just fine, it'll wear and that's OK. Setup wasn't to my taste out of the box, but I always expect to fiddle with any new or used guitar.

Like a rock.

No experience.

You want a basic USA Telecaster? Here's your guitar. You want bells and whistles, look elsewhere..

2006 Highway One Telecaster in whatever brown burst they call it.

Nothing flashy, just what you'd expect.

Quite frankly the sound is gorgeous. Straight off the bat it's been a guitar I've fallen in love with. Very very versatile (which is kind of the point of buying a tele).

I'm currently playing lead in a local rock band, and it just has great tone and is extremely easy to adjust on the fly. Currently running it through a Laney Lionheart combo and the range of sounds is just fantastic. Easy to switch from warm jazzy tones, to something more twangy.

I can't recommend this guitar enough.

Like everyone else, I've never had to fiddle with it. The setup is spot on, the action nice and low, and the quality is superb.

I have had issues with detuning after string bends with the G string (stop sniggering), but I'm not so anal as to be that bothered. That's why I bought a tuning pedal.

The only gripe I would have with it (and I have to stress it's a very minor gripe) is the rather thin laquer that chips quite easily.

It hasn't taken long to give it a "worn" look, for the reasons given above. But to be honest I like that in a guitar, the scratches and dings remind you of some awesome gigs :D

Aside from the finish it's very tough. It's been knocked off its stand a couple of times, but it's still 100% fine. It didn't even go out of tune either.

It isn't drum stick proof though, as I found out.... drummers eh? There's now a sizeable dent beneath the p/up selector switch which makes me laugh everytime I see it. Just be sure to duck any flying drumsticks and your tele will be fine. hah.

Never had to deal with them. My baby has never been ill.

Been playing for about 20 years, owned several guitars (low end squires and such), played many many more, and this is my absolute favourite.

I've played all those expensive Ibanez', and Gibson's, and they're great and all.... they just dont have the character that my Telecaster has. It's just so easy to flip from Jazz, to funk, to Rock, to Death Metal (or whatever you kerrazy kids listen to nowadays) with a quick fiddle of the amp and the tone switch.

Anyone gigging should seriously consider owning one of these. If not as a main guitar, certainly as a backup. I guarantee it will serve you as well as it has me.

I've recently played the light ash telecaster, and the highway one is certainly much better quality. The neck is thinner, and the weighting of the guitar is very balanced. When it's across your shoulder it just becomes a part of you.

Anyone looking for a step up from a cheapy guitar would love this too. At ??400 it really is a fantastic bargain.

Oh, and as my songwriting guitar it's spot on.

You all know the details but I'll just point out that mine is the Honey Blonde, maple fretboard, 2007. This model has the Greasebucket tone circuit which works quite well. I have a 2002 Fender Highway 1 Stratocaster, which doesn't have this feature. I wouldn't say that it's better because of it; it's just different. Other than that it's a fairly standard run of the mill tele. The way a Tele should be.

Awsome. The bridge and neck pups are extremely distinctive; the neck sounds that little milder, the bridge quite a lot brighter. It's very easy to get classic tele tones from this guitar.

The guitar was finished extremely well; the only exception being the output jack was slightly loose. The action is perfect. The setup is perfect. The only change I made was to put 10s on instead of 9s.

It's a Tele. It's a Fender. It's a Tank.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing about 11 years or so. I also own a Fender HWY1 strat, a Gretsch DuoJet Firebird, an Eastwood Airline Town & Country, a Tanglewood TWST28, a Tanglewood TW39, a Fender Frontman 25R, an ENGL Screamer 50 combo, and lots of other stuff like pedals...

If this was stolen, I butcher the person who stole it; I'd eat his eyes and then buy another one. I might actually buy another as it stands. I just love the neck on this guitar... I might also add that in 11 years of playing I've owned quite a few guitars - currently own six and have never instantly bonded with a guitar, until now. The guitar is light as a feather and plays beautifully. I can't believe it's as good as it is - and all for a lousy $640.

My '06 Highway 1 Telecaster is a Crimson Red 60th anniversary model, made in the good ol' USA. Alder body with transparent satin nitro finish. Solid maple, satin polyurethane 'C' neck with 9.5" radius and 22 medium-jumbo frets. Fender-Ping tuners. Vintage Tele bridge with 3 saddles. 3 ply pick guard and Grease Bucket tone circuit.

After-market changes include Fender Vintage Noiseless Tele pickups and the Fender Tele four-position blade switch.

Got a decent Fender gig bag with it. No other fancy features, 'cause it's a Highway 1.

After installing the Vintage Noiseless pickups and four-way switch, this Tele is as Tele as you can get, with a little extra Tele thrown in. The original pickups were by no means 'bad,' it's just that the Noiseless pickups are that much better. And no noise. As far as this guitar sounds, it sounds like a Tele should, you know, wonderful.

Adding the 4-way switch provides the series configuration (in the fourth position) for a better snarl, a better punchiness, a more growly sound as it were, especially if you use high gain amplifier circuitry. A very nice sounding guitar overall, with a lot of sonic capability.

Right out of the box, it needed NO setup or adjustment. I am thoroughly happy with Fender's high quality quality control. There were no flaws, imperfections, buggers, dents, dings, scratches or anything else wrong with this guitar. As it should be.

Since I like a shiny finish, and since the Highway 1 has a satin lacquer finish, I gently, hand-rubbed it with a very fine automotive polishing compound to produce a lustrous, gleaming and shiny surface in no time at all. It now looks like a very expensive glossy finish. Cool.

Fender Telecaster: See; Tough. See; Rock. See; Reliable. See; Impervious. See; Dependable. See; What is a cool electric guitar and why did everybody else copy it and why you want one.

I'd give it an 11.

Fender uses dealers as our personal link to its products and service. My particular dealer is stellar when it comes to helping me. Though I've had no problems with my guitar needing any service or repair, if I needed any, it would be a breeze.

I started playing acoustic guitar way, way long ago. I always wanted an electric, a Telecaster to be specific, 'cause they look retro and cool. So I finally ups and gets me one. I did look at lots of other guitars first (too numerous to mention here), but no other is a Tele, 'cept maybe other Teles. That was the hard part, deciding which of the many Tele models to choose from. The great price, superb quality, nitro finish and no-nonsense, basic basic-ness of the Highway 1 finally won me over in the end, as a true Telecaster should be a pretty basic, straight-forward and reliable instrument and shouldn't cost tons o' dough, dontcha know.
This guitar is wonderfully easy to play and maintain. Musicians I ALLOW to touch it, to play it, are pleasantly surprised and agree it's as good as any they've ever played before. Then it becomes an ordeal to pry it out of their clutching hands. That says a lot for the quality of this Highway 1 . This is no second-string guitar. First class. There is nothing I don't like about this Highway 1 Telecaster.

It is a classic Tele!! Everything you'd expect.

Solid, versatile, responsive, detailed. Simply put, if you know what you are doing... this guitar will make you VERY happy.

I love the finish. Matte, soft... it just wears so well. Feels like it's old and worn in already. Each tiny scratch or bump, or rub mark just makes me love it more and more.

Action was nice right away. Minor adjustments on the g string and it was GOOD to go.

Everything is just solid and well-made feeling.

One of my favorite things about this guitar is how rock solid the tuning is... easy to get in tune... and takes a lot to knock it out. Just awesome.

I am a professional musician. This guitar is played 30 hours or more a week between practices and shows... it has been on the road for extended periods and i've had no problems, no concerns.

I have a Les Paul with p90's that just sits in it's case as a back up that i NEVER need.

I haven't dealt with them on this guitar, but have on other stuff in the past and found them to be your typical customer service experience... I got what I needed and all was well.

I've been playing guitar since 1988... as a 16 year old.

I own a previously mentioned 1996 Gibson Les Paul RUBY w/p90's, a Gretsch BST 1500, a mid 90's reissue Fender Mustang, and about a dozen 60's and 70's japanese weirdo's.

I play through a black face modded 1979 Fender Twin a/b'd with a Musicman HD165 head into a Roccaforte 2x12 open back with redcoats.
I use a tubescreamer when I need a bit of gain.

I love this guitar. It just always sounds good. It is fun to play. It looks awesome and gets better looking with each day.

I was originally looking at mexican tele's but after I played this one, and looked at the price difference... a couple of hundred bucks more for a guitar I would keep 'til I die waws more than worth it.

I am absolutely going to go ahead and get a highway one strat now too.

This is a 2005 Upgraded Highway 1 Telecaster. It is everything you would expect from a Telecaster to be..

This guitar sounds like a classic Telecaster with a hot bridge pickup.
I'm using it with a Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 401 and a Fender Blues Junior loaded with a Greenback speaker, and it sounds amazing through both amps.
The pickups produces the hum you would expect from a single coil vintage pickup when using an overdrive/distortion - nothing surprising.

The range of sounds you can produce with this Telecaster is huge. The tone controls are very useful.
The neck pickup sounds similar to a Stratocaster neck pickup - very pleasant...
The bridge pickup is very bright, and when used with overdrive it produces those screams you would hear on led zep early recordings... that pickup is significantly hotter than the neck pickup.

The factory setup was perfect.

I compared the Highway 1 to other American models and this guitar is a pure American Telecaster!

I had and still have the money to buy any Telecaster I want, but I don't see why I should do that? The woods are right for me and the sound is there, and that what counts! this guitar is a pure sound machine!

If you want to buy a Telecaster and this one sounds too modern for you, buy it and replace the pickups!

Well I quess you allready know all the specs but I'll list them anyway.

Alder body with Daphen Blue finish
Maple neck and fingerboard with 22 frets
"hot" tele pickups in bridge and neck position
3 way picku selector
1 volume and 1 tone

just the way it should be...

The sound? GOOD GOLLY! Whne I plugged into my small 15w Vox valvetronix I was just amazed! The sound was just what I was looking for a classic tele sound with a little extra punch. I mostly use the bridge and middle positions on the selector but neck PU works also alone just fine.

I play blues, classic rock and sixties "pop" and this is just the sound for that. And if you want to go to the extreme put o a Dunlop Fuzz Face and rock on!

I bought this one mostly becose the finish. I never really liked the "all-shiny-finy-fender-gloss" finishes. Ok the finish is thin and it gets beaten up pretty fast but it doesn't change the sound and that is what truly counts.

The action was good right off the wall I just restrung it and woila!

well it's a Tele. You can hammer it with an axe and the axe braks sooner tahn the guitar. It's a true journymans guitar-

It's a classic like tele with a touch of modern influces.

2006 Hwy-1 60th Anniversary Model with some mods. Satin Tri-color sunburst Alder body, Rosewood fret board, black pick guard, Wilkinson compensated vintage style bridge, Fender Standard neck pickup, Duncan Vintage Lead Stack on the bridge, push-pull pot for single / humbucker on bridge, Fender Locking tuners, Fender tolex HS case.

With the new compensated bridge and both the new Fender and Duncan pickup, I can get the sound I was looking for. A most definite Telecaster sound. Quite a bit of RFI interference, so I lined all the cavities with copper tape and that eliminated most the hum in single coil positions. For amps I use a Hughes and Kettner Zenamp and a Fender Blues Jr. The guitar sounds great through both. Again, IMHO the pickups made a tremendous difference in the overall sound.

Initially, the factory job was "OK". Didn't come near to my US Strat or PRS, which I use as a basis. After three minor fret dressings, and a good polish, I finally came up with action like the Strat. Not quite as good as the PRS, but far better than Fender factory specs. Because Fender offers this guitar as the low end USA made model, I will give it a 9 due to the ability this guitar is capable of with a little attention to detail. The neck to body fit is perhaps some of the best I have seen for a bolt on neck. The resonance transfer from the neck to body is extremely good.

The guitar is very well built with quality components. There was nothing wrong with the hardware I replaced. Simply a matter of personal preference. The nitro body finish is thin, but it seams to have a positive effect on the body resonance. I think Fender did the right thing with the thin nitro as apposed to a poly finish. I don't "gig" anymore, especially frogs, haven't in 20 years, but it is a solid guitar that should be able to withstand any average playing style.

In my 36 years of playing, I have never had to contact Fender for any customer support. So I don't have a clue how good they are on a one-to-one basis.

In the time I have been playing, I have bought and sold a number of higher end guitars. I have owned this unit for about a year now, and it remains one of my favorites to play. It's the simplicity and how it forces you back to your roots that I like.

Three color sunburst with unpolished nitrocellulose lacquer, satin finish maple neck, Fender Hot Tele pickups with three way switch. Fitted with a vintage style Tele bridge sporting three chrome finish barrel type saddles. Machine heads are standard sealed Fender units with chrome finish.

Excellent biting tone in high gain or clean mode. Pickups are noisy with the gain set high but the middle switch position eliminates most of the crackle. The guitar maintains its' bite even with the tone control rolled completely off, which helps compensate for the noise in the single pickup positions. Played through a clean amplifier this guitar sounds as good as it's more expensive brothers, although the pickups are hotter than the classic models. They're also better balanced, providing near equal volume as compared to the '52 Reissue and vintage models. That's a plus in my book.

The maple neck with satin finish is this guitars' best feature, smooth as glass with no friction, and the fret finish is outstanding. Every bit as good as most of the Custom Shop Tele's I've played. The switch tip fell off within days after purchase - so what's new? - one tiny drop of Bondini on the very tip of the switching arm has held it in place for months now. The matt finish body is unusual and very attractive in sunburst, not so hot in Daphne, Honey Blond, or Wine. The black position dots are good enough but are less attractive than the abalone inlays on my Strat 50, they look slightly out of place on the maple fretboard.

The bridge pickup routing is slightly off center and the cavity is visible peeking out from under the bridge plate on the control plate side. I didn't notice this when I bought it but apparently it's not the first time Fender shipped one with this problem. It's a minor flaw and totally inconsequential in the overall picture - there's no apparent effect on the tone and I have yet to hear a microphonic feedback squeal even at club volume. Anyone who thinks exposed cavities are a big problem hasn't yet taken a good look at the new EVH Frankenstein Strat - say what?

The guitar was quite playable right off the rack but I've done some hardware changes and had a complete professional setup job done at Evans Music City in Houston, TX. Guitar tech Mike Juarez did the work and I highly recommend him for anybody in the area. This guitar now has perfect intonation and balance to compliment it's gut wrenching tone. Amazing work - thanks Mike!

As mentioned the switch tip problem was easily solved. Controls feel smooth and solid. Stock tuners are too loose for my taste but easily replaced as detailed below. Some say the nitro finish won't last but who cares? This guitar is easily driven into feedback/sustain with sound pressure and I believe that's due to the light finish. It's a light weight instrument and very well balanced, makes a Les Paul feel like a quad cab truck, with two flat tires... :)

Know what you're buying and you'll never have to call the Geek Squad in Corona. As long as they keep producing guitars like this I won't bother them. For that reason I'll give Fender a 10 in this category. They're an American icon and hope they'll be here a century from now.

A good guitar tech is a great investment - find a good one and get to know him. The payoff is the best instrument you could ask for. Shipping charges alone could cost you more than a complete setup in a good guitar shop.

This is a great guitar at a great price. With some well chosen modifications it can be a totally professional platform. I installed a Glendale bridge with the Aluminum/Brass saddle set. This allows perfect intonation with increased sustain. A major improvement over the stock Fender set.
I prefer the vintage Kluson in-line tuners as found on the Custom Shop guitars from Corona. But I settled on the Schaller locking set sold by Fender. They are highly effective and again a major improvement over the stock sealed units. And they're a drop in replacement that won't require any drilling on that wonderful neck.

The bridge set and tuners are finished in brushed stainless steel which really sets off the matte finish nitro paint job on my guitar.
So I now have a perfect neck, perfect intonation, great tone, and an unusual and handsome finish on a $700 guitar. Cost of the upgrades with installation and setup was about $200.

I played a Custom Shop Tele last week at the GC on Westheimer in Houston. It was priced at $4999 (they're proud of those CS Tele's, even more so than the Strats!). It had really good tone but played like a dog. I'm sure a setup job at Evans Music would help, but the point is - that guitar is priced at $5000! Fender shouldn't let them out of the house in that condition. At all.

I visited Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas last April during the Dallas Guitar Show weekend. They've got a great setup man working there named Clay. I asked him if they had the new '52 Hot Rod Tele and he told me they had received one and sold it in 24 hours. And he told me this... "I called the factory in Corona and asked them why am I paying three to five grand for these CS Tele's when your shipping guitars like the Hot Rod at $1500? " Good point. And I must say that my Highway One plays and sounds every bit as good as the '52 Hot Rod.

3 tone sunburst. Came with a gig bag. Otherwise like the other stock specs listed in these reviews.

It's got a little attitude and I like it. I'm big on the chiminess of a Strat. I have a 50th anni. American deluxe Strat which I absolutely love and thought I needed a Tele to cover country sessions. I thought that was all that a Tele was good for. Man was I wrong, this baby will funk, will rock, will Jazz with attitude. The sound is still bright and chimey in a way I like, but it also has a bite to it - that's the attitude.

I bought mine at Guitar Center. It was sitting by the door with one other sporting a markdown tag because it was a store demo model and had a slight scratch/ding by the jack. I took it home and checked the intonation and it was very close. I love the feel of the neck; it's just like my Strat which I love so much.

I know a lot of players feel that a guitar should be a sculpture of art and I respect that, so I'll say that the fit and finish on mine is excellent (other than the minor ding). For all my years as a musician I've never been up on all the different finishes. My guitar is not glossy/shinny like the Strat, and I really like it. Its finish matches its raw attitude.

All the controls work perfectly and have a solid feel. I especially like the selector. Why does the selector switch on a Paul always feel flimsy?

I gave it a 10, because its not Fender's fault that store customers can't find the jack without dinging the finish.

You know Tele's and Strat's last forever even with reasonable abuse. If you didn't, now you do. Every session player's 20 year old one I've ever saw looked used, abused, cared for, and still sounded sweet and functioned perfectly.

I put Schaller strap locks on it. I do it on all my electrics - I like the accessibility of them, they are great quality, and they are an easy mod for anyone. They are certainly not necessary for this guitar, because it's relatively light.

Gig on to your heart's content.

Yes, I'd buy it again.
I love the neck.
I hate that I waited so long to buy one.
Favorite feature is that it's a great compliment to my Strat.

It's another great tool in the studio with a great sound and excellent playability. I got mine at a great price and it's made in the good 'ol USA which is somewhat rare for the price I paid.

USA Made
Most recent Highway 1 Tele with nitrocell finish/ Alnico-3 pups, 70's headstock and logo, jumbo frets, three-saddle bridge. Mine is Honey Blonde with a rosewood fretboard. I replaced stock white-ish pickguard with a thick slab of tortoise-shell Italian celluoid. No turtles were harmed. I also replaced the stock bridgeplate-saddlles with a Glenrose model. More about that later. Fairly feature-free, it's a Tele, you can't make frozen Pina Coladas with it.

Sweet, sweet, sweet. Two pups and a 3-way switch provides (1) bridge only for Hair-Splitting Treble, (2) neck only for Warm Sweet Pocket and (3) neck and bridge joined to form a More Perfect Deep Well of Shimmer. If I were marooned on a desert island and I could only have one electric guitar, a Tele would be my choice. Oh yeah, and my '66 Blackface Princeton Reverb , electricity, a well-stocked beer fridge and some wimmens. For those that want to remain convinced that a Telecaster is for Twang only, don't search YouTube for Booker T or Sam and Dave footage 'cause it seems that Cropper performed and recorded through his Tele a whole lot (and through tiny amps in the studio). And then there's Roy Buchanan, Robbie Robertson etc. etc. It might look a little weird on stage with a metal band, but blinfold the audience and it would probably sound fine.

I installed the Glenrose bridgeplate/brass saddle and A-B'ed it with the stock setup under strict Laboratory Conditions. Played the stock version plugged directly into a Red-Knob Twin for an hour, while pulling on a beer, then loosened the strings, removed the Fender
unit and installed the Glenrose in about 20 minutes, tightened strings, performed expert field intonation adjustments(OK, within a couple %) and played for another hour, no changes made to guitar or amp settings. And I didn't drink another beer. (Taking notes?) A noticeable increase in sustain, the sound is just...beefier. Yet brighter. Great unit. Glemrose. They have a website. Not a cheap mod, but with as little as the guitar costs, it's a winner.

Guitar was put together very well at the factory , and Sweetwater provides their own pro setup if when purchased through them.They used round 10s. It was very good, but Gary Gilbert at King Bee Guitars in the Nashville area dressed the frets, set it up with Chrome 11s, cut and installed the pickguard, made a new nut and shielded the entire guitar's electronics. He's the absolute best and a great guy to boot. I give the stock version a "9" only because there was a bit of visible glue in the skunk stripe laminate on the neck near the body. Not really visible to most people but when viewed under an electron microscope...

If the Cossacks had a band they would have played Teles. Very durable slab of wood that gets the job done night after night, and also handy as a weapon when you're retreating back to the van, surrounded by a ragged mob of alchohol-fueled Arkansans who've taken umbrage because you've only played "Freebird" three times a freakin' set.

Backup guitar ? You won't need no stinkin' backup.

I've never used Fender's customer support, then again, this is only the second new guitar I've owned, and I've owned way too many to clearly remember them all. Most problems with instruments seem to arise out of design and expectation, not poor manufacturing. So far, so good.

Hello, my name is _______ and I've been a guitar addict for more that 40 years. (At this point you reply, in unison, " Hi _________, join the club".) Over twenty years fulltime in the Music Industry as a player, performer and finally ( to the collective relief of the session players who recorded with this Mel Bay One-Finger Guitar Chords Institute graduate) producer. What styles? A veritable smorgasbord of styles.

What would I do if it were stolen? I would hire Dog the Bounty Hunter and together we would search the four corners of the World and hunt to ground those responsible for this Unspeakable Crime. And I would probably have to braid Dog's hair some along the way.
But it would be worth it. Really.

The features are all the already mentioned, mine is a 3 tone sunburst with a rosewood fretboard. I actually wanted a maple one but ordered this one because the picture in the store web page did not match the description. No big deal though. It has all the features a tele shoudl, so I give it a 10.

Well, this guitar suits my current music style (reggae, funk, jazz) better than any other I have. I use it with a Tonelab LE, also have a Marshall 6101 (which is nearly worthless for the types of music I'm doing). It has that classic fender sound. Bright spanky, tons of attack, mellow if you roll the volume or tone off. The greasebucket circuit is a very significant even if subtle addition. It does bring a whole tonal rannge to the guitar that few guitars can do. I am totally happy with it. If you want smooth, clear, non piercing cutting clean sounds a Telecaster is the guitar for you. The only thing I don't like is the 3 saddle bridge. It has 6 strings damn it!!! I may leave it as it is though, it depends if I get intonation problems or not.

Well, it came with the usual banjo strings electric guitar ship with and after I put some 11's on it there3 was a great improvement. The volume pot is the only real flaw on this particular guitar. It only works from 80-100%, and it's silent anywhere else. No big deal replacing it but I am giving this guitar a 5 here because of that.

Well, the finish is very thin. If you bang it against anything it will get damaged. For a bedroom/studio guitar I think it's fine though.

Don't know.

I have been playing for 17 years. Own a ESP 901 (from the metal days, it's now my MIDI synth guitar), a epiphone sheraton with SD phat Cats and a stock Epi 56 Goldtop. I Own a Marshall 6101, a Tonelab LE, and a home studio with more stuff I can be bothered to mention. This Highway one is my favorite guitar ever.

It's your standard american tele stripped down. love it though, 2 single coils of course. Standard as far as this category goes.

The really great thing about this guitar is the grease bucket system they use. It won't overdrive quite as easily as a standard tele, but when you push it hard enough it gets a nice muddy, vintage sort of tone to it.

Set up was great right out of the box. I adjusted the intonation to suit a .10 gauge set. Stock is a 3 saddle bridge which I replaced with a G&L brass 6 saddle bridge. (world of difference, trust me)

If you don't want to scuff/scratch it don't buy it. The finish on it is very thin. But then again, it is a tele...they're only more badass if you beat the living hell out of them. Rarely needs any TLC other than a little fast fret, all bolt-on necks need that every couple weeks or so, in my opinion. Even with the 3 saddle bridge you'll have no problem with strings breaking. Unless you play straight up punk rock as fast and hard as you possibly can. In which case, go buy an SG.

I worked for guitar center at the time...I was my own support.

This is the only Fender I own. For good reason. The only other fender I would want is a closet classic tele. Not saying I wouldn't snatch up a vintage tele/esquire if I had the money...but you know how it is being broke. After all, everyone that reads this IS a musician right?

For the price, you CAN NOT beat it for an american made instrument.

Love this Tele. I've been looking for the right Tele for quite a while now and I think I finally found it. Mine is a Daphne Blue model with a rosewood fingerboard. I was considering getting an American Deluxe Tele but this particular guitar has such a good vibe to it and so bought it instead. I did end up switching out the pick guard for something else but past that I love the looks. I am considering putting a set of locking tuners on it down the road, but this thing stays n tune very well as is so I'm still trying to decide whether or not locking tuners would be worth it or not. Past that, this is a pretty straightforward set-up.

Rowdy, rowdy, rowdy. Yet smooth and refined. It all just depends on where you put the volume and tone knobs. This thing sounds great with whatever I throw at it. Heavy tones. Smooth lead tones. Dirt tones. Clean. I wouldn't go to this guitar for metal, but it seems to suit everything else if needed, including hard rock. I've never liked single-coils much, but lately I've been starting to see the light. The bridge pick-up reminds me very much of my vibey Gibson Melody Maker's P-90 (in a good way) yet it isn't noisy like most single-coils. The neck pick-up is very traditional late 50's Tele sounding and very warm and smooth with just the right amount of top-end and chunk. The Greasebucket circuit is extremely cool and I find that I rarely leave my tone knob wide open any more. I like the Greasebucket idea so much that I even modded my American Roadhouse Strat with the Greasebucket. I'm getting tones ranging from Billy Gibbons to Jeff Beck, David Gilmour to Eric Johnson, and recent Buddy Guy to recent Andy Timmons. It is like I found several Holy Grail tones all in one guitar. Would've been cool to have the old style of pick-up switching like an old 50's Tele, but I'm not complaining.

The high E string had a lousy buzz to it once winter started changing to spring. Turns out that the neck had taken on quite a bit of moisture at the local music store where I bought it and the neck just needed a little truss rod relief. A little adjustment there and a fresh set of strings and all was as it should be again. The fret polishing is excellent but not quite in the same league as my Gibson Les Paul Classic or my American Deluxe V-Neck Strat, but the price wasn't nearly as much either. But this Tele practically plays itself as is. Great string bending. Great sustain. Very dynamic response to pick attack and easy to work a one channel amp with. No real glaring faults, especially for the money. Possibly the only thing I would have preferred differently on this guitar would be to have a V-neck instead of the C. I just really like those V-Necks these days, but honestly the neck on this guitar is very comfortable and I can't justify knocking it too much. Again....no complaints.

The finish is thin (as advertised) but it feels broken in as a result of that. A gloss finish on this guitar just wouldn't feel right to me. I'm sure there will be some wearing out of the paint and wood showing through eventually, but I'm actually excited about that. the satin finish sets up the vibe of this great guitar and I wouldn't change the finish for anything else. I'd definitely gig without a back-up. It's a Tele for crying out loud. If I bust a string then I'll just keep playing Keefer style. taking a back-up would be a slap in the face to this particular instrument. Some guitars you just choose to rely on without a safety net. This is that sort of guitar.

I like them OK. I've met the regional Fender rep on several occasions and he is always quite nice and he asks lots of questions about what I like feature-wise, etc (and I'm not a dealer or store employee). Seems to know his stuff forwards and backwards. Past that I've never needed any Fender support, which says something in itself.

Overall this is a great Tele. It does what it does, and it always makes you want to keep playing on it even after you put it down. This strikes me as a guitar that I won't eventually trade off or part with. Well worth the money and what a great vibe!

Its a tele, so everything you would expect- great looks from its satin finsh that wears away a treat- it is thin and knocks easily, but it makes it look like a classic blues machine- which is wat i use it for, that and some classic rock.
In terms of features though, its a tele so it wont get a 10

great sounds from both pups, especially the front one which to me sounds very woody like a strat and the middle position just adds a little extra bite to the sounds which distorts nicely too. The bridge pup was great for a lot of stuff but i took it out on mine and fitted it with a dimarzio chopper t- something id recommend for you rockers that want extra bite.
This tele also comes loaded with the "greasebucket" circuit, which apparently allows you to roll off the highs w/out adding lows- this works very well and is exactly what is needed on a guitar with as much highs as a tele does.
With my chopper t in place, sound definately gets a 10

everything great from the box- people are complaining about sharp frets but on mine they are fine

the finish wont last but everything else will - thats the idea of the highway one, its a workhorse.
everything is solid and works like ir should, sept the switch nob always comes loose, but that was easy enough to fix.

N/A

Unfortunately, fender dont make my version of the highway 1 anymore but its upgrade, which i would have thought would be better as its an upgrade, but still this guitar rocks for blues, rock, country, and pretty much anything except metal- it can handle high gain but you'd look an idiot in a metal band with a tele

Pretty guitar, maple neck, nice matte finish. Classic tele bridge.

Terrible, won't play in tune anywhere on the neck. Had it in the shop twice. I guess its possible the luthier was clueless.

I believe the nut is too high. Otherwise the neck feels fast.

One of the pickups died two weeks after I bought it. The place where I bought it couldn't even tell me where to get it fixed.

The fender website was good. I was able to locate a place to get it repaired under warranty there.

If somebody stole it, I wouldn't miss it. I only play it when I feel sorry for it.

telecaster body with two alnico pickups. Three way switch and one volume one tone chrome knobs. Maple neck and fingerboard. Alder body (very light for a fender). Came with deluxe gigbag a couple of stickers and allen wrenchs. Neck is like a american standard .finish is very light satin in honey blonde. This is the first year made. 2003 in USA.

It sounds the way it is suppose too. twangy enough for country and mellow with plenty of sustain for blues. I play through a vox amp for country and through a fender super reverb for blues. When I play through my Marshall it sounds a little flat so I have to use a ibanez tubescreamer pedal. It tends to be a little noisy for recording. But I won't change that as it is the character of the guitar. It has the vintage telecaster sound. Many of the telecasters today have a more modern sound.

The guitar was setup very poorly from the factory. the worse setup Ive ever seen on a fender product. The frets sliced my fingers and had to be sanded. the intonation was so bad that I replaced the three saddles with 6 individual saddles from a 52 tele reissue. Had to replace the pickguard as it looked warped already. (Cost covered by Music store)

This is a US fender telecaster. Pound by pound the toughest electric guitar on the planet. If I ever get to do a world tour this is the guitar id take.

Never dealt with company. always deal with music store if I have a problem.

Been playing Fenders for 25 years. Also have a strat,squire 51 and Fender acoustic.I find the quality of Fender has dropped. Years ago a wouldn't have had to do all the work to get this guitar to where it should have been from the factory. I compared this guitar to other telecasters but found this one to have the best vintage sound I was looking for. If your looking 50's style tele without the large price tag of the reissue relics or original this Highway 1 is the guitar for you. Just be careful and play a few of them as Fenders quality control is not that good anymore.

Basic Telecaster layout with "grease bucket" circut on tone pot that cuts high frequencies without rolling in bass. Pickups are AlNiCo 3 and are slightly overwound. Also, thin nitro-cellulose laquer finish in some very nifty colors over alder body. All things considered, it is still a Telecaster. If you want extra features don't buy this.

I have 3 other Telecasters and am not new to this type of guitar. I was intrigued by the articles and buzz surrounding this one, and thought it would be a nice backup to my others. It has actually filled a "hole" in my sonic pallate, sitting somewhere between the Deluxe and the Standard Telecasters I also play. I find the bridge pickup leans more toward the Broadcaster range with more output, definately not thin sounding. The neck pickup is more Strat-like to my ears, but doesn't push the amp into break-up as quickly as the bridge does. It tends to stay cleaner up through the volume knob until wide open, when it gives the tubes a little extra shove. I don't notice any more 60 cycle hum than I would with any other single coil equipped guitar. If you cant live with it, there are options such as extra shielding (which I wish Fender had done a better job on this guitar) or one of the noiseless pickup options widely available. I really enjoy the overall tone quallity of this insturment. It still retains the twang factor, but the top end feels different than a traditional Telecaster. I run this guitar through smaller/med-size Fender amps (Deluxe, Silverface Princeton and Blues Deville). For my ears, it really shines with the smaller amps. On the floor, I use Radial Tonebone Classic and Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive for extra grit. I also have a Boss compressor and Visual Sound H2O at the beginning and end of the chain respectively. It does not react as well as the Tele-Deluxe to higher gain settings from the pedal board, but for low to medium gain stuff it has a nice brisk quallity that any "roots" or "acid-country" player like myself would enjoy.

Pulled it out of the box, stretched the strings out and gigged the same night. The neck pickup needed raised ever so slightly to balance better with the bridge, but that was the only setup issue. As with any American made Fender guitar (even this one), the quallity was good out of the box as it should be. I really dig the finish (matte black) and the other color options on the Highway One insturments are really cool too. If you are looking for a guitar to stay mint for ever, this is not your best option. As previously stated, the thin laquer finish is going to wear quickly. Mine is wearing at the top (elbow) corner after only 6 shows. Cool!

Always take two guitars to the bar. One to play, the other to crack the drunk that spills a drink down your amplifier over the head with.

Dig it!

2005 model, satin sunburst finish, string through body, fender tuners, rosewood fretboard. Along with the guitar came a fender gigbag(real nice one by the way). Basic tele features really. I dont buy guitars for the features on it, but for the quality of 'em, and in thruth i don't really trust all of that digital, electronic mambo jambo. Oh and this guitar also has some kind of special cirquet called "greasebucket" that doesn't add bass when you turn down the treble. Handy. Not a lot of features but good ones, don't need to fly to the moon when you've a nice earth. Or something like that.

Hmm this is where the highway really shines. I mostly play harder rock, like Led Zeppelin, Guns 'N Roses, Foo Fighters and Arctic Monkeys but also a little "popier" music like Beatles and Oasis for instance. This thing does it all. When i first bought it was on the lookout for something that had a nice clean tone but didn't fall trough when you add gain(cough"strat"cough). And this thing does it. Of course i don't rock as hard as 60's SG and it don't have the magnificent cleans of a vintage strat, but it has something neither of the can, BOTH! This guitar aint as twangy as most telecaster, but it doesn't bother me. I'm not that much of a twang fan anyway.
I use with a Boss DS2(soon to be replaced by a ZVEX Fuzz Factory)-> Marshall Bluesbreaker Pedal set for boost-> crybaby->Fender Blues Junior. Admitted the distortions in this rig aint a bragger, but the cleans is another matter. I've got almost AC15 like cleans(I.e. holy grail IMO).
The guitar gets quite a bit noisy with distortion and booster engaged. This is strangley avoided by touching any metallic part of the guitar with a finger.
Rythm on this baby rocks, on bridge pickup a little distortion and turn of the highs and you've got a classic tone like noone of your friends.
It's a perfect match for me, there are no dislikes on my behalf. I can't complain on the distorted sounds, as the distortion units i have SUCK! A solid 9

Everything as I like it. Medium action, poor strings but hey easily replaced. No flaws no errors. This guitar is definitely the easiest playing guitar ever! So it's nescecary to have i a higher action than other guitars or there would be no challenge playing:)

The finish on this guitar is very(!) thin and i chip easily. some would say shite i say PERFECT!. Makes the thing look used. Seems steady. I've always had the thing about telecaster, they seem to be able to take a beating. I would definitely be able to could on it. Who knows it may even outlive me.

Haven't dealt with 'em.

I've played about three or four years(stopped counting). What can i say this baby is perfect! The only thing i wish it had was as sister. Then i'd have two. I chose it because of the fantastic value and tone nothing else really

Standard fare for a Tele. No surprises.

Very bright sound. In fact a little too bright at times. It doesn't have nearly the warmth & twang of my '73 Tele but it is useful as a backup. Clean sounds are this guitars forte. It does not react well my Maxon OD-808. The 60 cycle hum is slightly louder than my other single coil guitars. I'm thinking of changing the pickup to Barden's or Kinmann's.

Where do I start? The fit & finish out of the factory was nothing short of a disaster. The fret edges needed to be filed and recrowned. (It did it myself). I had to cut a new nut (tusq) as the slots were too low. The neck pocket is not as tight as it could have been, reducing sustain. Fender doesn't make them like they used to.

The jury is still out on this one as I've had it for a couple of months. I never gig without at least 3 guitars.

I've dealt with Fender in the past with vary results. They usually pass the buck back to the dealer.

Had the guitar been described accurately I would have never bought the guitar, as I had to put in considerable effort to get the guitar in playing shape. Fender's fit and finish is nowhere near what it used to be IMHO. If it were lost or stolen I would probably buy a G&L ASAT.

This guitar is fine. Do you know how to play?

I play what I play.

Some of you complain about the finish. What is that? I banged it around playing every night and even got a girl to chew on it and I can't get it to chip well. And she's Romanian from Transylvania. I'll have to use a hammer to get the paint lookin good. By the way...a ten for all Eastern European women!

No problems. I play out every night. It works.

What? Who cares? If it breaks I'll fix it.

This guitar is better than the American standards I used to play. I hate thick plastic paint. My guitar is a workhorse. I play it. I love it. It gets beaten up. I like it. Why even change the pickups? Just get a good amp!

satin finish, die cast tuners, maple neck, sunburst, 2 single coil alnico pickups..3 way selector, vol/tone knobs..GORGEOUS

mine is a 2003...sunbust body, maple neck..you know the rest..marked on headstock made in usa..i am a blues player, but currently playing in a classic rock/oldies band..i use this guitar with a rivera r55-112..the single coil alnico pickups do the trick for me..the tonal variations between the 2 pickups is quite varied for the stuff i do, which is pretty much everything..i can do a rendition of horace silver's song for my father, or i can do girl from ipanema on the bass or middle pickup and fingerpick and the guitar sounds great..it is clear and articulate and to my ear can duplicate an acoustic type sound..when i drive the british channel of the riv, using the treble pickup, boy, does this guitar sing..to my ear, it covers just about every sound you can think of that a guitar and an amp can create..i do not use any stomp boxes, so to my ear, the guitar is not noisy, although it does exhibit a bit of a warm ac hum..i like everything about the way this guitar sounds..i would rate it a 10

i bought this guitar sight unseen through the mail from a big chain store..it took me 3 attempts though, for me to find the right highway 1 for me..first one had some bad damage at the butt of the guitar..to my eye, it looked like a factory cover-up..2nd try..the guitar just did not feel right, and the neck joint was sloppy..3rd try..the guitar looked and played fantastic right out of the box..i like the matte finish..mine is starting to get shiny, i guess from playing it a lot and sweating all over it..it gets hot down here in florida..the screws that adjust the saddles are a bit high..i thought about cutting them down, but i've gotten used to them and they are really no bother..otherwise, i have not turned one screw on the guitar..the intonation is nearly dead on, the action is as good as it gets..the neck feels like it was made for me..no problems..so discounting the 2 bad ones i returned, i would have to rate this category 10

it is a fender..i used to throw my strat into the air on stage, sometimes i missed catching it..i would drag it around and beat it with my guitar strap, other than re-tuning i never had any problems..i do not do that stuff anymore, so this guitar kind of gets babied a bit..this guitar would survive just about anything you could do to it..built like a tank..the hardware seems heavy and well plated, and should last a lifetime..pots are smooth and quiet, switch is smooth, acurate and quiet..i would definately gig without a backup, and i can count on this guitar being there for me, everytime i reach for it..rating 10

my few contacts with fender actually yielded results..they are a big company, but if you are patient, i think you will be able to find your way around them and find that their support is A-1..from my own personal experiences, i have to rate this category 10

i have been playing profesionally since 1972..that is a long time..i have played and owned gibsons, prs, musicman, mesa boogie, fender, danelectro, supro, silvertone,martin, dobro, etc..etc..i have earned a living playing music, and i figure at this point, i know what i am doing..i love this guitar..it was not as costly as an american std tele, but that is a good thing..the sound of this guitar is clearly pro..there are certainly better sounding, fancier guitars out there, but for the money, this is a nice guitar..it covers every aspect of the music i play, which covers folk, blues, jazz, rock, pop..the guitar retains the original design that leo fender developed in the 1950's..it is a standard of the industry, and i could not imagine a better guitar for the money..i rate it a 10

The features of the Highway 1 tele are well known to the readers. This was my 1st purchase of an electric guitar in many years. I have owned mostly high end acoustic guitars including Martin's, Taylors and one custom, luthier made 12 fret Dread. My guitar has a maple neck and a satin, 3 color sunburst finish. The Fender gig bag was included and I plan to get a hard case to replace it. It looks and, more importantly, feels great. It is a basic, straightforward Telecaster.

It sounds just like I would expect a maple neck Tele to sound. Very bright using the bridge pup, nicely mellow in the neck and full in the middle position. I have to say that mine also sounds great acoustically, with no amplification. I can noodle around watching television and hear and feel it without driving my family crazy. I play the guitar through a '74 Princeton Amp. I think they were made for each other. The "Greasebucket" tone control seems to do what it claims. Frankly, as a mostly acoustic player, I don't have enough experience with other electrics to compare it to others.

This is where I do have some experience. As I mentioned I have owned some pretty nice acoustic guitars. Frankly, I always looked down on electrics as just an assembly of plastic parts and wires. My Highway 1 Telecaster is beautifully made. The neck is perfect, the body nicely finished and all parts seemed to be of high quality. It came equipped with 9's and I replaced them with 12's. The shop adjusted the action and intonation and it has played perfectly in tune since. I can only say that, in my opinion, it is as nicely made an instrument for it's type as my '94 HD-28. I was not able to find any flaws in it's construction and I am pretty picky. Considering it's price I think it is a bargain.

The guitar is built like a tank. I did have one problem with it a few weeks after purchase. One day I plugged it in and it's output ( volume ) dropped by about 75%. I thought the problem was my amp, but it turned out to be a wiring issue that was corrected when I took it back to the dealer. I haven't had any problems since. I have heard some complaints about the finish being thin and subject to wear. I can't say that I agree with that. I think it looks great and with reasonable care should last well. I prefer the soft satin finish to a slick, shiney and "sticky" finish, especially on the neck. After you play it for a while it wears in and gets a bit brighter. For those who are rougher on their guitars it will "relic" well. I have no reason to think it is not reliable except that any electronic part can someday fail.

So far the dealer has covered anything I have wanted, including set up and repair, under warranty. I have not yet attempted to contact Fender other than to register the guitar on line.

I have been playing since 1965. I try to keep my music life simple so I currently own a '94 HD-28, Fender Jazz Bass a Yamaha Classical and the Highway 1 Tele. I have sold off more nice guitars over the years than I want to think about. As I approach my mid 50's I have concluded that guitarists should spend more time and money on learning music and less on the hardware. Just my opinion. There is nothing about this guitar that gets in the way of playing music. It is a comfortable, well made and fine sounding guitar.If it were lost or stolen I'd buy another one without hesitation.

standard strat, not versatile really

Horrible way to much treble on the bridge pick up, just a nasty cheap tacky sound

action was horrible my first guitar which was #20 and second hand was nicer to play. When your playing it feels like you have to work so hard to get very little out of it

ok nothing special

crap

do not buy this insturment ite at first but do not be fooled its a pile of shit and fender should be embaressed for making such a poor quality instument

Ash body, maple neck, greasebucket circuit, 21 frets, you know the rest..

I'm a blues/rockabilly player and feel I have an excellent ear for tone when it comes to Tele's. Greasebucket circuit lets you roll down the volume without losing treble which is cool. Pickups are no noisier than other single coils. The bridge pickup is dark with a lot of mid range, the neck pickup is slightly gritty, and the best sound seems to be in-between with both pickups. This doesn't really suit me and I will be changing over to Roy Wrap pickups immediately. On the good side, this guitar plays excellent, I have 3 other Tele's to compare it against, with one being a Custom Shop Gatton. Bends are fabulous with no dying notes, due to the Dunlop 6105 frets. Fretboard almost feels like playing a Les Paul with the 12" radius. If it weren't for the pickups, I'd give this a 10 for everything else it has.

Setup from Fender had slightly high action, neck pickup was adjusted too far from strings, finish was perfect, could not find any construction flaws. Neck has rolled fingerboard edges which feel great. Neck is very nice feeling, not too small but also not a baseball bat like the Gatton.

Solid ash body with sharp '52 contours should hold up very well, don't care if the finish wears, to me that's cool. I bought the Fender Tweed case from Musicians Friend the day I got the guitar, I never consider keeping a guitar in a gig bag. Would use on a gig without a backup, although my Tele's are all configured differently, some with Bardens, Texas Specials, Roy Wraps and I like to have the whole arsenal with me at all times.

Never dealt with Fender.

Been playing 25 years, other guitars are '92 Gatton Tele, 86'Made in Japan 52'Reissue Tele w/Bardens and Vintique control plate, an American Series Tele w/ rosewood fretboard, Gibson ES 335, Ibanez ES175 copy, Fender Custom Shop Bass Breaker amp, Fender Pro Junior, Ampeg SS150 combo. I use a Fulltone OCD, Barber LTD, and Radial Tonebone for overdrive, a Keeley compressor, Boss DM2 analog delay, a POD 2.0 for recording and EH Holy Grail reverb pedal. Once I change the strings to DAddario 10's, swap out the pickups and change over to a black guard, I'll feel like I have an excellent vintage Tele. It really is that good of a guitar.

not many features,then again all you'll need!
Alder body,rosewood neck,basic and perfect really.

I play country/pop/rock and this axe is IDEAL!
Stick it straight through a Marshall and it's show time.
plenty of twang without loseing the rock crunch.
Bright without being harsh.

Not much finish but to my taste I prefer it!
Good action,off the peg playability!
Maybe I got lucky but I've never needed to adjust anything!

I Gig in confidence,every time,I keep an old Les Paul to hand just incase but never needed it...The LP is great but time for the new recruit.

Don't know,never needed it.Being from the UK not likely to get it anyway.I bought the tele on a trip to Florida for $600 got a hardshell instead of a gig bag for the flight home.

Been playing over 20 years,I own :Peavey Falcon,Gibson Les Paul Custom,Fender Tele Highway 1,Takamine accustic,various bits and pieces,must mention my Marshall JCM2000/4x12 rig,everyone should own one! (when you just have to upset everyone in the whole street,accept no subtitute!).If it were stolen I would sell my Television to get another one! I really do rate this guitar,and in the $600 {#360} range it has nothing to fear!

A tele is a tele, right?

22 frets, made in the USA.
Vintage 3-piece bridge.
Maple neck.

I play it through a Hot Rod Deluxe. The neck pickup has a mellow sound, great for jazz if I adjust my tone control. The bridge pickup delivers that classic tele twang. Both pickups combined is great for rhythm playing. They quack, but not as much as a strat.
This guitar gives a broad range of sounds, from mellow to twang. But I can always hear that I play a tele.

Setup was fine. It has 0.9 strings, but I will change them later to 0.10s.

People have commented that the finish wears off easily on the highway 1s. It doesn`t matter to me as I like a telecaster with a battered look.
Everything on this guitar is rock solid, a real workhorse. No fancy details that are easy to break.

Never been in contact with customer support.

I have played for 20 years and I have owned some guitars during the years. This is my second tele and it is a defininte improvement from the Mexican standard I sold 2 years ago.
My favorite feature on this guitar is definately the neck. It has medium jumbo frets, is quite chunky, but fast and easy to play. I own two strats and a Les Paul copy and this guitar adds something new to my arsenal.

This is a review of the body only. I'm building a parts Tele using a Highway 1 body, American Series neck, pup assembly from Acme Guitar Works(excellent to work with) with Lindy Fralin blues specials and 4 way switching, and a bridge assembly from Glendale Guitars. I decided to save a little cash and bought this body off of Ebay. I'm wishing I didn't. 4 count 'em 4 frickin pieces of Alder. The holes for the string ferrels look like they were drilled by my 9 year old. They're too big and the egdes of the holes are uneven. They had tape over them to hold them in place during shipping. I see below that others mention that they fall out when changing strings.

With the high end parts I have and the thin finish the guiotar as a whole should sound good, but would probably be better if it wasn't 4 pieces of wood.

Finish is crap, but I knew that and wasn't expecting much, but the ferrel holes make me cringe. I assume these bodies are made by lower skilled workers at Fender (maybe Mexico?) to save additional money and in my opinion it shows. The cavity routes look pretty good although not up to the higher end stuff.

Don't see any problem here

yeah right

I've been playing 30 years. My other current guitars are a G&L Commanche and a 335. This is my first Tele and first project guitar. I did a lot of searching for parts and decided to save $100-200 by going with this body. Will see how she sounds and if it doesn't work out I will sell and get a nice light weight swamp ash body with a lacquer finish. I've played several of these in stores. These Highway One series are bottom of the barrel Fenders. They obviosuly don't get the attention to detail in fit/finish or quality of parts. For the money I'd go MIM or MIJ over one of these. I can't beleive this was 4 pieces of wood and it's touted as an American model. Should be 2 pieces, 3 at most.

It's a Telecaster what more is there to say.

Granted it does sound like a Telecaster due to Alnico magnets within single coil pickups and the correct windings albeit on cheap nasty plastic bobbins.

Action was good, guitar very playable, but then again so is a Pacifica.

The guitar is poorly finished with Fender tryting to kid you that the cheap matt finish will improve the sound. It will fall off in days.

I challenged Fender on the phone and by e-mail on the quality of this product with no response.

As a guitar technician and teacher with 40 years experience, this is the worst case of ripping you off by trading on a name that I have come across. The once great Fender company are cynically devising ways to relieve you of your hard earned by producing cheap nasty variants, using by their own admission non US parts from anywhere around the globe. If you really want the F word on your axe, buy a Jap one or failing that a Mex vintage which are just about value for money, and don't fall for this corporate theft! Better still but high end Yamaha - they have standards.

2003 USA Highway 1,for the buck cant be beat,no need to change the PUs,sound awesome as is,that twangy tele sound,a bare bones axe at a bare bones price

Play this Axe thru a traynor YCV20,15 watt class A,You can pretty much dial in the sound you want,twangy to creamy it is there

Yeah well,i cant add anything that hasnt been said,if you beat your axes then there are better choices,take care of it and it will take care of you.had mine two years the fifnish is like new.

Durability wise it is a fender American made piece,will take all you can give it and keep on ticking,have had no problems other than the cord poppoing out of the jack,a minor adjustment.

Havent used

Also have a 1989 fender Strat/japan dont play much,been stored in original box for 15 years,but in comparison i prefer the tele,i play blues and rock,find the tele better suited to my playing,prefer the control setup to that of the strat,once you play it you will have to admit that for the buck youget a lot of bang

I am reviewing an H1 Tele with 3-color sunburst, one piece maple neck, and other Tele standards. I've owned it for about a year. I really got this as a PLAYING guitar, not for collecting, although I have to say sometimes I find myself just staring at it on the stand. The thin finish actually looks better than the standard finish; somehow, glossy now seems cheesy to me. It's best, most useful feature is its simplicity. Pick it up. Plug it in. Play.

The one (minor) drawback for me is the bridge. My hand pushes against the lip of the bridge when I'm palm muting and playing a lot of tight stuff like funk, and it can get a bit annoying after a while. Really not a big deal.

I am a restless guitarist who plays many sounds and so I have many guitars. I was addicted to a heavy (Gibson BB King Lucille) sound for a while, then suddenly realized my tube amp wasn't fading; I just needed a guitar that could cut through the thick tube sound. So I got this Tele. As with most reviewers here, I quickly changed out the stock pickups, which have the distracting hum. I put in Bill Lawrence pickups; these are amazing pickups (and not expensive) which are super clean and transparent. The best PUs, IMO. With these pickups, I can hear the quality of the wood, and the sound is stunning. Knowing I would switch pickups to BL's, I paid a bit more for an H1 rather than an MIM Tele just for the quality of the wood and construction. I cannot emphasize how amazing and distinctive this guitar sounds with the PU switch.

The stereotype is that Tele's have a sharp sound best suited for country, punk, etc. True enough if everything on the guitar is dimed. Roll back the tone control, add some crunch, and (with BL or some other noiseless PU) you can get amazingly creamy heavy sound. This is the sort of guitar that just feels right and is easy to grab-and-play. By varying where you attack (over the bridge vs. near the neck) and playing with the tone and amp, you can basically get any tone. Even acoustic-like. This flexibility of sounds rivals the best Strats, and the Tele's inherent simplicity is just the way guitar playing should be. I would just emphasize the importance of changing the PUs.

I think factory setup is over-rated; I recommend getting a book on how to set up your own guitar, as setup will degrade with the seasons and with playing. The parts are flawless; they really show Leo's basic genius. And again, I know the finish will wear more quickly and I even agree that a worn Tele is cool. But basically I like the flat finish and hope it stays as is (it won't).

This guitar exudes quality and solidity. I believe the original Teles were referred to by competitors as "boat paddles". Yup, rock solid.

NA

Oh, I own a lot of gear. Ten guitars, notably a Gibson Lucille, Fender Strat, Italia Mondial (now that's a wild guitar), BCRich Mockingbird, etc.. One tube amp (Apeg G20) and various SS amps. I find myself most often grabbing this Tele, because it is the most flexible guitar. There is something to be said for starting with a sound that cuts through the mix and piling effects on afterward. This guitar does it, and like all great guitars it is addictive to play. The sonic possibilities are all there if you are creative both with your mix and with the guitar itself. Maybe the purest guitar experience.

MY 2003 serial number, rosewood neck, crimson transparent finish. A standard USA Highway One Tele.

I play '70's and '80's pop and rock, plus my own compositions, just for myself, have had small gigs in the past. Was looking for that twangy, edgy sound that is so recognisable from this model guitar, as I didn't own an instrument which delivered that. Certainly got it now! Bridge pickup is bright and distinct, neck pup is more mellow without being too muddy - and I reckon the output is just right. This instrument sustains into next week... You can vary the tone a lot with only small changes of volume and tone knobs, which I like. I did need to re-think some settings on my Peavey amp. Getting to know it now, found the lovely clear, ringing tone really nice to listen too, but more sensitive to mistakes and variations in playing style compared to my other cheaper guitars. Guess I'm getting the experience of owning a better class of guitar, and it's certainly forcing me to be more acccurate with my playing, and pay better attention to my tone. I get the feeling we're going to grow a lot together over the years. I use it clean a lot more than my other guitars, if I'm playing something requiring a fair amount of overdrive/distortion etc will probably grab something else... Is as noisy as any other single coil, certainly no more so, lovely and quiet if I get rid of external sources of noise and hum around the house. Am considering the brass saddles, a cheap and easy way to just mellow it a bit, see if I like that even more...

Bought it in Singapore in 2005, obviously had sat around shop for a while, needed new strings and a buff (not dress) of the frets (did all myself). Build quality seems very high. Neck was still spot on, intonation v-good, slight rattle on A string at fifth fret that isn't troubling me enough that I've adjusted it out. Rosewood fretboard is not as fast as maple, but looks beautiful after sparing application of lemon oil. Neck is quite roomy, medium jumbo frets feel good, as does 9.25" radius and it fills the hand comfortably for chording. That thin finish doesn't bother me, should look the business as it wears a bit. Can't find a flaw apart from the jack being very tight, maybe just needs a touch of lube. If it wasn't for the rattle this would be a 9.5.

Apart from the finish this is a tough guitar. Feels solid in the hand, no fiddly bits. I'd probaly risk gigging with just this.

Only just got it, hope I never need it.

I've wanted an American Tele since I was about 17 - I'm now 44. I love the tone, the neck and feel, the basic philosophy, the completeness of the package and the history associated with the Telecaster guitar. My other guitars are a Greg Bennet signature AV3 (Les Paul copy) and a Squier Fat Strat, plus a Yamaha APX5 acoustic. I like almost everything about this guitar, if I had to pick something I didn't like it would be that the bottom E string can be a bit overpowering, might be my fault as I've fitted a .046", perhaps it ought to be a .042". If this was lost or stolen I'd get another Highway One Fender in a heartbeat, that only indecision I might have would be should I try a HWY1 Strat next time???

Fender Highway 1 Telecaster in 3-tone sunburst, made in the USA in 2003, came with a padded gig bag. Teles aren't big on features, but I'll give it an 8.

This guitar is fine out of the box. I don't think it needs Duncans, Fralins, or (insert some other boutique guitar pickup maker here), to make it sound good. If you're that picky, than the Highway 1 probably isn't for you, try an American Deluxe Tele. This guitar is a no-bullshit, bare bones Tele. That is the whole point of making the Highway 1. It's supposed to be twangy, noisy and rude...it's a TELE!!! The tone is bright and cutting, just like a Tele should be. There are better sounding guitars out there, but this one does what it was meant to do, and gets a 10 from me...straight out of the box!!

Finish is crap and will wear off in no time, but that's not what I bought the guitar for, anyway. It has a great neck and good frets. The only thing that takes some getting used to is the raised metal frame around the bridge pickup. It makes palm-muting kind of hard, but other than that, no issues. Gets a 7 for the finish.

All of the hardware with last forever, just like a regular Tele. As I said before though, the finish won't be around for long.

Never dealt with them.

I've been playing for 20 years, now. I have a '92 Mexican-made Tele which is also a great guitar, but sounds a good bit weaker than this one. This one also is a bit sweeter with both pickups on. If you can get past the finish, this is a great guitar. Don't be fooled by the other reviews, if you like Teles, you won't need to modify this guitar to get it to sound great. An American-made Tele for under $600? I'm not complaining!

2004 USA. Changed pickups to Pete Biltoft (vintage vibe guitars, www.vintagevibeguitars.com) overwound, passive. Alder body maple fretboard, Satin blonde finish, black pickguard (1 ply) Change bridge to fender w/ brass saddles, 9.5 in radiused fretboard which most players say makes a big difference, I am not disgusted by 7.25 even. Frets are nice, neck is very manageable, not too narrow or thin on profile, but tending toward narrow and thin. Tele features, but string thru body tele sound is main desireable feature.

Okay, out of the box only maybe a 6, a little disappointing. But I have to qualify that with the fact that all teles, even more than strats, but strats too, need to be broken in, in my experience. It had a little something going with the spanking new alnico magnet pickups, wax potted coils on bridge pickup, but weak and faint sounding. I replaced stock bridge (3 steel saddles) to unplated brass fender replacement part, no problem setting up or intonating, tone improved after replacement. I broke down and had Pete Biltoft make me sme overwound tele pickus and they are really great. I have had him make some pickups or me before and was really happy with them, but before I insisted on vintage regular output, this time I went hot. They do what they are supposed to, I was a little worried about the sound with treble rolled off, seemed to not satify like my old tele, perhaps should have changed pots to 500k to compensate for hotter output, but did not. As I have begun to play the hell out of it, it has come in, or I have lightened up. Truly, for the sound I was looking for, I should have just gone with the Highway 1 texas tele and been done with it. the ash is what i really wanted and for hotter output, I know from experience, those texas specials are more than adequate and hold their own against custom boutique pickups. All in all current setup smokes, and as it is played a little it becomes my own, very satisfying now. May have gone a different route, knowing what I now know, but in the end all, it sounds really good through Groovetubes soul-0 30 combo, deluxe, and twin, I also have a highly portable rivera, sounds good, but different story.

Setup impeccible, but I actually changed, nut to graphtech, and bridge day 1. No intonation problems though like most allude to with tele. No flaws. Acrilyc lacquer matt finish is light and will wear. This is desireable or me anyway.

Solid tele, finish will wear, I think that is desireable, use lemon oil for protection. When you hit wood, oil will protect. Will protect finish in meantime.

Never dealt with them. Every guitar player needs skills and a luthier. Everything adjustable on fenders, good, but need to know how to do it.

Been playing 23 years, not advancing in skill the whole time, but play everyday, learn and practice sometimes in spurts. I was close on lite ash tele, debated between both, but something seemed wrong about lite ash Korean guitar, you know what I mean? Prefer ash to alder, should have bought highway 1 texas tele which is ash and had texas specials, but ended up with something great after retrofitting.

Plain, simple thing: A vintage-blond finished, USA made Tele with rosewood fingerboard..
What more to say? Came with a gigbag, including tools for main setup. Simple as simple can...

Very nice, twang sound. The stock pickups were very nice and twangy, though I changed them to Seymour Duncan vintage stack (bridge) and Fender vintage noiseless (Neck), in order to avoid the SC hum, and be able to play even harder styles. Though, in country/blues/rock fields the guitar really shines.

The setup was fine. Although I usually put on .11 strings, I preferred a .10 set for this Tele, in order to perform regular and behind-the-nut bends and pedal steel effects easily. Playability is - I put it simply - fenderish. The finish is simple satin (a common mark in the highway-1 series, in order to minimize costs), though very nice one. The neck has a similar natural finish, and feels wonderful.
A minor replacement that I made are the bridge saddles. The originals have been replaced by Rockinger brass harmony saddles. These are tele saddles, like the originals (3 pairs), but a little beveled against their main screw. So, the saddlepairs (e-h, g-D, A-E) are not parallel anymore, but in slightly different length to each other, so that you can setup harmonics much better in your Tele.
All controls were as they should be...
This guitar is really a plug-and-play thing!!!

Apart from the finish, everything seems to stand a long time.. The finish already started showing worn spots, but I really like it! Soon I'll have an almost relic tele for less than 600 bucks! But - this must be clearly notified - this is the only thing to complain (???)

I haven't use that yet...

25 years in guitars, taught guitarbuilder, have had enough axes... Now I am 41, but still practicing, learning, giggin'. Originally a blues/rock guitarist, I went pretty much through jazz/fusion in the last years, and since about a year I am also very deep in country, it's a kind of music that sounds really happy and optimistic, agianst the blues/rock things. That's why I purchased my overall first tele... I looked a little around, but, I knew it from the scratch, since I didn't want to give a fortune for a tele, the highway-1 was for me THE solution!
Other stuff I own/play: Rory Gallagher Relic strat, YJM strat with EMGs DG-20, self made alder strat, also with EMGs DG-20, Gibson Les Paul standard, and a Variax 500, so - apart from the Variax - pretty much traditional axes. Amp setup is not that traditional, cause I need a lot of sounds, and cannot carry lot of amps. Therefore, I use either a Hughes & Kettner ZenTera, or a POD XT Live, and that's it.
The highway Tele is a perfect expansion to my rig. As realizing on rehearsals, I will not use it only on Coyntry things, but also on blues-rock (Aerosmith, Stones, etc.) and pretty much with Slide... If stolen, I would replace it with a similar, since I think that, for the money, you can't beat the Highway-1 series, at least for what I go for... The only thing I wish it had (but that's for all Tellys) are the harmony saddles. All in all a nearly perfect, almost 100% USA-made axe... And for that price...

Its a georgous guitar, very simple yet so versitile! you know the drill by now... Mine is honey blonde, maple neck... came with gig bag and that cool fender cloth!

well, it sounds like a telecaster, because it is a telecaster! the bridge pup can achieve a really big raunchy sound when suited up to a decent amp... these babys were built for valve amps, they just bring the guitar to life! i use the neck pup for funkyriffic chops, and with more gain, gets a great lead tone! i never really use the two blended, it always sounds a wee too muddy! if you roll off the tone a tad on the bridge pup, it tames the twang slightly! but twang is what i was after, it really cuts through the mix, without sounding "piercing"

Hmm, well heres my niggle! the factory set up was somewhat poor! i had terrible fret buzz on the 1st 2nd strings... i didnt check the intonation, because i send it for a service at my local store, now it playes like a Mo'Fo! the finish is just remarcable! ive had mine about 4 months, and allready its starting to look about 10 years old! what will it be like in a years time? If you dont dig the vintage look, then get a standard tele, or even a mexi if cost is a factor!

theres not much this axe cant do, it never seems to suit up to thrash or heavy metal... grunge would be the heaviest it could handle! I play pop rock, and its just perfect! its a great songwriters guitar, the neck is comfortable and the guitar is perfectly balanced! i swear it talks to me "pick me up, play me"! I would use this guitar in any situation, live or studio! its all solid and sterdy as all tele's are!

i havnt contacted them... i might inform them about the crap set up.

well, im actually from england, and i bought this when i was on "vacation" in the states... i saved my self a ridiculous amount of money, that ive put towards getting the highway strat next year! Do yourself a favour and buy this guitar! i have about 7 guitars now (fender/gibo/gretch/ibanez) the tele is my main work horse! and it actually cost me the least!

if it were stolen, id be a man on the edge! be warned!