Fender Squier Fat Telecaster

2001 Fat Tele. Candy Apple Red with Maple neck. This is a tele with a humbucker. Not much to say.

The finish...is fantastic. This is what sold me, you would think I had learned after buying that crappy Westfield Strat.

Not bad out of the box. But it needed sorting for my kind of music : grunge and hard rock. After some work, it sounds fuking fantastic !

The stock pickups are shite, but what do you expect for a couple of hundred quid from Fender. They save the good bits for the #350+ guitars. The humbucker was really muffled and the bridge single-coil was far to twangy, even for a Tele. But the combined setting sorted all that out perfectly, I used it for a couple of months like this before sticking a Seymour Duncan '59 in the neck position. This new pickup keeps a real warm single coil sound when clean, but can still sound grungy when distorted through my Marshall Guv'Nor and my Fender RocPro 1000. I had contemplated putting a SH-6 in there...maybe I should have... I plan to put something in the bridge, probably a hotrails or a JB Junior that can shred nicely. It deserves a 10+ now, but out of the box, it's no more than a 5.

The action was absoloutly abysmal. Unplayable, all six strings were sat along the neck, which was bent backwards and all the saddles were on the deck. This guitar was clearly straight off the factory floor and had never been out of it's box since. Also, the neck was not on straight and was angled up toward the low E , so the strings were not parellel to the line of the neck, this requied the screw holes to be filled and re-drilled. The neck then was straightened with the truss rod and then a serious fret dress to get rid of the buzzes. This enter fix and setup was done by a local guitar tech for #75 and was worth every penny, this guitar now plays better than any Squire or Fender Tele out there, I know, I've played em !
Also, the jack socket fell out after the first week so I got a new one imported from Stew Mac. This one cannot fall out...EVER !
This guitar also snapped strings at an alarming rate, I replaced the bridge saddles with graphtech ones. NICE !

It took alot of work and a bit of money. New pickup, a professional setup, new bridge sadles, straplocks. But I got there eventually. This guitar now kicks ass and is used regularly at gigs (10 so far this year). I gigged with it out of the box, and was shocked at how bad it was, but now I have 100% faith in it, this guitar is the dogs bollocks and plays better, and sounds better than any stock Tele out there (excluding custom shop, which I haven't tried yet). So again, it deserves a 10 now, but out of the box...it's a 5. Sorry Fender.

I've dealt with them many, many times, Arbiter UK are shite. They don't deserve to have a prestigious distribution deal such as Fender. I didn't bother when I needed support, I just went to my local guitar tech and handed over the dosh.

I know this may read as a bad review. I feel these reviews are about how good the guitar is without having to modify it and out of the box...this is a pretty sh1t guitar and you might be disappointed with it. Bear in mind however, this is a budget guitar, and wipes the floor with Honers, Encores and the crappy Westfields (see my review of Westfield Strat Copy) that find themselves under christmas trees every year. (even if mine was unplayable out of the box).

BUT after spending #75 on a setup, #25 on bridge saddles, #80 on a pickup, and #15 on a indestructable jack socket (from StewMac), this guitar is really fantasticly sounding and reliable. It doesn't break strings, it stays in tune, the straps don't fall off (thanks to a Planet Waves strap mroe than anything), it croons, it wails, it sustains so long you can go for a cup of tea, come back, and it's still going.

If it got stolen, I'd replace it with another, definately, it's a tool I can't be without. I *NEED* something this reliable on stage.

I have abused this guitar on stage, thrown it, dropped it and "played" it with a mic stand and it still doesn't have a scratch on it, it's as tough as old boots. I love my Squire Tele.

Four Your Info - I've been playing for 10 years or more, I currently own this Squire, a Fender Jag-Stang, a Westfield Strat, an old '69 Top 20 and a Martin 000 acoustic.

Squier Stander Fat Telecaster: agathis body, maple neck, "sherwood green" finish, string-thru-body-bridge, crappy tuners, crappy hardware, crappy pots, crappy electronics, crappy pickups, all these things you get when you buy a Squier. There's no definite style of music this guitar fits into.

If you're experienced with guitars(which you probably aren't if you're planning on purchasing this guitar) then you could probably imagine what it sounds like. The humbucker is not all that bad. It's very muddy but some people like that. One solution I find is that a compressor can really relieve alot of that muddiness, but that's just me. The bridge, however, brings down the whole sound of the guitar. It's not that bad distorted, but clean, it's horrible. It is horribly twangy and bright. I've played Fender Teles before and I know how they're supposed to be twangy but man, it's pretty damn twangy. Ya, I think about new pickups which might help alot, put i'm not to quick to trying to spend the same amount of money that it cost me to buy the guitar, just to make it sound better. As you'll find in the Reliability section of this review, it's best just to trash it,! I can't even sell it to a pawn shop for more that 10 bucks! But it might just be that I got a bad one.

Action, not that bad. I got it setup twice, but the second time, they cut the nut down so far the strings buzz on the frets all the way up the neck. But that's not the guitar's fault. What gave it the 6 is the finish. It is way to thick. The smallest dings will make dents in it.

This guitar has slowly fallen apart since the day I bought from the local Mars Music. This thing doesn't stay in tune for more than 3 minutes! The jack fell out countless times since I bought it. Ya, the whole thing hanging by the wires. The strapknobs fell of after a performance and the guitar came plummeting to the concrete floor cracking the finish directly below the control panel, which also fell out, once again, this was also hanging buy the wires, striping the screwholes. As of now the screwholes for the strapknobs are stripped and the standard procedure for this instance was taken; sticking toothpicks in the holes and redrilling the screwhole to fit the screws, the jack is being held in with epoxy, after my failed attempt of drilling a hole in it and permenantly screwing it in. Yes, I still do live performances with this guitar and love it like my own son yet hate it with all my heart and can't wait to take it into my high school's parking lot and have people pay me so they can beat the hell out of it. But hey, then again....I might have just gotten a bad one.

I don't really care about that.

All you middle-schoolers out there that don't have jobs but can't wait until that bright morning on Christmas day when you come prancing down the stairs in your in your fuzzy baby blue pajamas so you can open up you new Squier Standard Telecaster with that awesome "sherwood green" finish, make shure you fall down the stairs head first so you don't have to put up with the misery of owning this sorry excuse for a guitar. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh ya, feel free to express any feelings you have towards this guitar if you own or have previously owned one or if you just have a question or something by use of electronic mail. WOOHOOOOOHFHOIHA:ONFR

This is an Indonesian guitar that is fat (weighs a ton), but sounds like it was sold by the pound; I bought it on E-bay for $300. It came with a buzzy low-E, but a little allen wrenching took care of that. This is an oddball, though, since it has a black headstock matching the body, and, Lord above, a maple neck, which looks great and I like for performance.

I am new to humbuckers, but these seem a little muddy, and my get replaced with some S.D.s. I swapped out the switch with a 4-position, so I get series and parallel combinations. They give it up when you get on them, so that's good. I may go from 10's to 11's just to hear what's what. I have a couple of other Asian teles, and the heavy, dense woods don't mean they're crappy, just different. Overall, I like this tele, second only to my Japanese JD, which is magic.

This is pretty bulletproof, as are most teles. Love them and they love you. Treat them rough, and they look rough, but go on. I like to swap out the switches and pots, but when you buy a $250 import, that's what is prudent. ;

I have a guy. He's been into guitars since I was crapping my pants, so I go to him and he does what I want, and then some. That's customer support.

I've got all Asian teles, and a weird-ass Guild acoustic/electric, a bunch of pedals and effects, but I use them sparingly. I swap out the selector switch to 4-ways on the teles; on this one, it gives me series and parallel positions. I hate white pickguards on black guitars, so that went, and with the black tooled-leather and nickel-hardware strap, this is a stage guitar that speaks volumes. I liked this guitar from the day I got it, even though I had Squier predjudices. It just delivered, and I can go with that. If you get rough with it, it comes right back at you with a nasty bite. This is a rare bird, and it would be hard to find another, so I would consider it a real loss if it were gone. If it is stolen, check out death.com. I have friends everywhere and weapons.

This is your basic tele configuration, except it has a chrome covered humbucker in the neck position. Staggered pole piece single coil in the bridge position. From what I was told by a Fender dealer this is an upgraded model from earlier Squiers i.e. the bridge and saddles and tuners. And when I recieved my first Fat Tele I could see what he was talking about. Schaller type tuners the torqued steady and evenly. The bridge was a six saddle rust proof w/black allen screws for height adjustment. It was crafted in Indonesia (as it says in the headstock) Very nice so far!

It sounds unreal. Period. A little background first, I have been carving up Teles for many years putting humbuckers in the neck position. Regrettably some vintage ones I probably should have left alone. But back in the days there were no "jap teles" or Squiers around. You wanted a Tele w/ a humbucker out came the router.
I own many teles in this configuration and aside from a 63 Frankentele that is a freak these Squier teles sound as good if not better than any of them.

The finish on both I own (vintage blonde and 3 tone burst) are fantastic. Both guitars needed some fret work (about 1/2 hour from my tech). Not unusual for me as I am pretty discriminating. I'm a tele guy so I know what I like.The pick ups were adjusted fine and they balanced fantastically (a must for this configuration.

So far so good. I bring average of 3 Teles on a gig so I would have no problem using these guitars on gigs. Plus listen to this THEY STAY IN TUNE!

Can't say for sure about Squier as these are my first ones. But Fender support has pretty much been bad for 30 years or so

I love these guitars absolutely. Buy one NOW before Fender realizes that these guitars blow away the Mexico Fenders and are as good as any MIJ teles I own or have played.
One thing I can add too is that both my guitars sound very similar, but the vintage blonde one is pretty heavy. Not unlike the 60's era teles these are supposed to be based on. Honestly I like little idiosyncratic difference in my guitars especially Teles. It reminds me of the 50's and 60's teles I cut my teeth on. The agathis wood they used on the burst tele ain't ash as far as looks but it comes alive when in proximity to any amp I've used.
I can't believe this guitar $249 bucks for a tele with a humbucker and a rosewood board.

A 2000 Squier 'Fat' Strat' crafted in Indonesia. Solid body classic tele style with humbucker at the neck and a single coil bridge pickup. Mine is red (I think it's called candy apple red). 3 way pick up switch, one tone and one volume knob. The neck is very thin at the nut and took a bit of time to get used to butafter a year it feels just fine.

I mainly play soul/r'n'b/blues in my 10 piece band. This is the dogs swingers for my sound and style. Fat tones and still enough harsh edge to funk it up. I find it more versatile than my recently aquired Epiphone Les Paul, but then again I think it takes a while to settle in to a new guitar and get the best out of it. I have a Marshall 80 watt which I still haven't really got to grips with but with the Tele it sounds perfect. A very versatile guitar that looks great.

Factory set up seemed OK and i got a free 6 month service from the dealer. After a bout 4/5 months the screws on the scratchplate started to rust but I think that is because I didn't wip it down propely after gigs. The top of the toggle selector came off after about 10 months but I super-glued that back on and the jack plug socket came loose. Action is great, finish is great. Once seviced and set up to my style it hs become my favourite guitar. The

This guitar has been gigged since the day I bought it. It is reliable and robust. The finish looks as good as the day it left the dealer (I do spend a fair amount of time looking after the thing, cleaning polishing, intonation etc.) and tha hardware seems to be solidly fitted. I have just changed the strap buttons for lockin Schaller ones (personal preference). I would'nt gig it without a backup simply because I am, by nature, a string breaker. But I would gigi with two Fat Tele's!

Thankfully I have not needed to speak to Squier.

I have been playing on and off for aout 20 years. In the past I have had several guitars, some have been sold and a couple are still with me. I wish I had bought the Tele a long time ago. If it were nicked, I would be devastated, this is my favourite guitar. I chose it because i thought it looked good and a lot of soul, blues, funk comes from the Tele. If you are thinking about one, go for it. I am not a guitar snob, I am not really that fussed if i have Fender, Gibson, Epishone or Squier on the headstock. I need a realiable and versatile gigging guitar and the Squier Fat Tele is just that>

Fender Squire 'Fat' Telecaster.
List $379 Paid $310 new.
Made in Indonesia. 'Blonde' color.
2 pickups. 3-way switch.
Humbucker at neck gives extremely 'fat' sound.
Single-coil at bridge gives traditional Telecaster twang.
Middle selection gives smooth blend of both.
Neck is a light wood, perhaps maple.
Fairly slender and easy to grip. Very nice feel.
Tuning pegs look like standard Fender hardware.
Sound-wise, this is a great guitar.
The humbucker is extremely quiet, but 'fat' and sounds great
with distortion.

The humbucker at the neck position gives an extremely
fat, full sound. If you are looking for a Stevie Ray Vaughan
kind of sound, get a single coil at the neck position.
This is less bright, and thicker. But it is extremely
quiet and full.

The finish is excellent.
The neck (a light wood) is extremely smooth and fast to play.
The body is a banana-blonde color with a white pickguard.
Very pleasing to the eye with no apparent blemishes.
The 'blonde' color is traditional for a Telecaster.

I haven't used this guitar for live performances
and don't intend to. However, it looks very rugged and solid.
I doubt that durability is an issue here.
It is as heavy as a log.

N/A
Never needed customer service.

I've been playing for over 30 years, classic rock and blues.
I've owned a Fender srat and Gibson SG in the past.
Sound-wise, the Squire guitar is as good as the other ones.
My only complaint about the guitar is the weight of its body.
It is extremely heavy. I have also played a Fender 'fat' telecaster
and I would estimate the Squire is 2-3 lbs heavier.
I use this guitar strictly for recording, using a variety of
direct boxes. The weight of the guitar would make it difficult
for me to play standing up (I have low back pain).

If lost or stolen, I would get another Fat Telecaster.
But I would compare the weights of various models.
The weight of this guitar may not be representative
of all Squire Telecasters.

It's a 2000 Squire Fat Tele, Crafted in Indonesia, 3 Color Sunburst finish. 22 Med Jumbo frets, Solid hardwood (Agathis or Alder) with nice grain showing thru the sunburst. See Frank H.'s exc. description below. The nut on mine is similar to the others, high E seems a little to close to edge of neck (maybe 1/32 inch).

PS - If I could, I'd get the Vintage Blond finish, but it's no longer available. The 3 color sunburst, while done well, is too Yellow for me.

My style is everything but metal, with Blues, Country, and some Jazz as main styles. This guitar suits all these. I use a Blues Cube amp, and the PAF style Humbucker sounds very Jazzy, the Bridge PU is a nice Tele style - Alnico, needed some adjustment to match the HB output. Covers a wide variety of styles due to the HB, Single Coil, and combo switch settings.

Out of the box, it needed everything cleaned up / adjusted. The truss rod was loose, tuners were all lose, bridge set up very high, pickups needed height adjustment. One of the neck screw holes was oversized, but I fixed it myself with dowel/glue. Strings were "bent" - how? I don't know...Replaced them with Fender 150's - the best Tele strings.

Good finish, cavities are painted with cond. paint and clean, hardware looked good, tight neck pocket, has 500K pots for Vol., Tone. Needed Lemon oil on the fretboard. After all that - I'd now give it an 8.

It's a solid body Telecaster (says "Telecaster" in somewhat gaudy label on headstock)!! Is there a more durable guitar out there???

Hardware is above what I expected. Any problems down the road can be fixed with new hardware. I am impressed with it for the price paid.

I bought it partially because my Granddaughter likes to "Play" it while I'm playing. She uses whatever is near as a "pick!" So I need a DURABLE guitar.

I didn't ask about the neck screw, and MF has not yet answered me.

I been playing 30+ years. Have a Squire Protone Strat that is a beautiful, great playing and sounding Strat. Also have a Martin HD-28, play thru a BluesCube amp, BOSS DD3 and SC1 Super Chorus, Dano 7-band EQ and Temolo pedals, and a RAT. All "Toys" and fun to play with.

If lost, I'd look at a Fender Squire again. It's a great value, after it was set up and adjusted properly. At this price, I think it beats the Epi's, and other brands easily. I would gig with it along with the ProTone Strat. They cover all the tone ranges I'd ever need.

If you are a newbie, I recommend that you buy it where you can get it set up, or get the "How To" book, then have fun!

This is a Fender Squier Standard Fat Telecaster made in 2000 in Indonesia. Its most distinctive feature is the humbucker neck pickup combined with a traditional Tele single coil bridge pickup. Otherwise, visualize a 90?s Telecaster. 22 fret rosewood fingerboard on a maple bolt on neck (Fender offers no maple fingerboard option on this model). Body is "solid hardwood" according to Fender, medium weight and traditional Tele shape. Standard Telecaster control arrangement: 3 way pickup switch, one master volume, one master tone. Bridge is the same design as current US and Mexican Teles, a six-saddle cast rectangular footings setup on a stamped metal pan. The neck profile is medium shallow with a C section and the fretboard has a noticeable radius. The specs say "60?s style neck", and its possible that it has a 7.25 inch radius instead of Fender's current 9.5 inch radius. Vintage style (smallish) frets. Tuners are no-name sealed units, nut is plastic, and two folded steel string trees.

In short, this is Tele from the top of Fender?s low end line with a mix of a vintage neck with a modern body/pickups/bridge. The overall quality of the features ranges from acceptable to surprisingly good. This is not a fancy switch-laden shredbeast with double locking ball bearing pickup covers, but it is a very versatile Tele.

I play whatever comes into my head to play, and listen to and enjoy a wide variety of music varying from folky stuff, to blues, to some saturated rock?n?roll. A lot of what I do lately is guitar instrumentals and so I?m paying a lot of attention to interesting and varied guitar tones. I play it though a POD, a 1960?s Fender Princeton "blackface", a Music Man combo amp, and some other amps that I don?t use as often.

I was shocked by how good this thing sounds. The neck pickup sound is a nice humbucker with good note definition combined with warmth. The humbucker seems to be vintage (meaning lower) output level. The bridge pickup is outstanding for a stock pickup on a bargain line guitar. Note that I?m looking for vintage tone here, but this particular guitar on the bridge pickup has a grainy, slicing, slightly hotter than vintage sound when plugged into a cranked or overdriven tube amp: very nice. This pickup seems to not have the very top frequencies so it doesn?t have get glassy or shrill, but as with any good Tele lead pickup it has good bite and presence. In summary, I think it?s ideally voiced. As with most single coils it can pick up interference/electrical equipment noise.

I raised the bridge pickup slightly and lowered the neck humbucker to balance the sound between the two. The Tele "both pickups sound" has always been one of my favorites and the screaming "cut" of the bridge combined with the "fat/warm" neck humbucker makes for a rich sound when recording a song with lots of guitar in the front of the mix. Besides using them in combinations, the difference between them means you can go from mellow jazz/bluesy sound to an overdriven "woman tone" on the neck as if you were playing a Gibson style guitar and then flip back to the bridge and get all the Tele slicing scream to clean chicken pickin?--all with one guitar hanging on your neck.

The tone control has more range or a quicker taper than many others I've played. In general I don't use it with the neck pickup but with the bridge pickup its easy to get the Roy Buchanan "sighing" sound by turning the tone control down, hiting a note and bending it up with the left hand while rolling up the tone control and then wiggling it with the right hand.

I think this single coil/humbucker layout offers at least as much variety and the three single coil pickup/Strat switching Nashville Tele. The US Fat Tele has an extra switch position allowing for a split coil sound on the neck humbucker.

Off the rack the action was on the high side. I have no idea what the quality of the factory setup is in Indonesia and if the mass-market store I bought it from did anything to it before hanging it out. Many of my guitars have a flatter radius fretboard, and I?ve often preferred that. With the radius and as the neck sits it I cannot achieve super low action on this example even after I did my setup work. This is OK with me as most of my other Teles are not setup for this kind of action either. As one other reviewer here mentioned the high E string seems about 1/32nd of an inch too close to the edge of the fretboard up near the body, but you can fret it all the way up.

As I purchased it, it was playable, but it did require a setup. I did the setup myself when I got it home. It comes strung with 9?s and put on the ?original gauge? Fender 150 set (.38 to .10) which is what I use on all my Fenders. I adjusted the bridge saddle heights and matched them to the fretboard radius, tweaked the intonation length, filed the nut slots down a very small amount and found a couple of the slots needed to be a bit wider. I checked the neck relief and found that the trussrod was right with my string gauge and it was ready to play. As I mentioned above, I raised the bridge pickup slightly and lowered the neck pickup so that the sound of both together was balanced.

After a week or so of playing I found I was fretting out a bit on bends up the neck so I raised the action just a tad. Anyway, pretty much a standard setup that any guitar needs to play its best with the string set and playing style YOU use.

Nice metallic dark green paint with no obvious flaws. Frets were smooth and well seated though if you slide your hand up and down the fretboard edge you can feel each edge as you hand slides by. All the hardware works as it?s supposed to. Tuners seem fine and don?t slip, though I had to tighten 5 out of 6 of the nuts clamping them to the headstock.

Who knows how well the hardware will stand up to the years? At the worst it?s all replaceable if something goes.

In summary: I bought a bargain line third world constructed guitar from a mass merchandiser. It had some little things that had to be done to it, and most of these things would be covered in any good luthier?s setup. Since I could do them myself I saved the $30 or so that a skilled workman would charge for this.

This is a solid body Telecaster, it probably can be used for personal self-defense during a gig. I can?t tell if the hardware will stand up to years of playing yet, but the visible stuff seems OK to me. Some of the lower end Squier stuff feels like it?s ready to break before it leaves the store.

I always take a backup to a gig. I do that even if this was a custom shop model.

No dealings. 1 year limited warranty.

I?ve been playing guitar for 25 years. Other Telecaster style guitars I own are a MIM Nashville Tele, an early 80?s Japanese Tele copy, a Washburn hollow body Tele-shape with an under-saddle bridge pickup, and my original solid body guitar, a modded 1960?s Japanese guitar into which I put a Telecaster bridge pickup and a Gibson humbucker back in the 70?s.

I play a Telecaster style instrument more than any other kind and I still think it?s the most versatile yet distinctive sound going. From the time I modded my original solid body I?ve wanted a real Tele bridge sound with the neck humbucker combination and this was a surprisingly affordable way to get it.

I chose this one because of the sound and because I?m crazy about dark green as a body color. I?ve always avoided the lower end Squier line as I feel used instruments offer much more value at the same prices, but this one seemed to have good enough build quality. I?d love it if it had the new American Standard neck, but then I?d need to have $500 more dollars to spend on it too.

For more gear info visit my personal web site: http://www.users.qwest.net/~fhudson/

Bought 11/16/00 from Musician's Friend on-line for $259.00 2000 Squier Fat telecaster, "crafted in Indonesia". 22 medium frets, maple neck w/ rosewood unbound fret board. I bought the "vintage blonde" just because it's a cool color and I already have other guitars in cherry red and sunburst. I bought the generic black tolex case with it for $59.00 on special from Musician's Friend.

I like to play a little bit of everything. I have a an Epiphone Dot for more jazz and rock sounds and it can do almost everything pretty well except get those cool, funky single coil and out-of-phase sounds that Strats and Teles do so well. Perfect for Funk, R&B and Country. Right now I am playing this Tele through a Korg PX-3 just for practicing and it sounds really great. I liked the basic sounds that the guitar made right out of the box but there were some problems. See below...

The delivered setup was pretty bad. Either the neck was not adjusted evenly or the grooves in the nut were cut crookedly because the high E string was almost off of the neck and made it impossible to play correctly. I usually get the crappy plastic nuts that most cheap guitars come with replaced with a Corian nut anyway. The action was a little high and the guitar came from Fender with a set of .09 strings which I find pointless anyway. Almost all of the great guitarists seem to use a little bit heavier strings and I needed to build my callouses up anyway so I had a local guitar tech replace the nut, center the neck and setup the guitar with a .12 to .48 set of Fender Bullets. I also noticed that the balance of the sound level when switching from the single coil bridge pickup to the neck humbucker was way mis-matched as the humbucker was a LOT louder. With only one set of volume and tone knobs, this seems to be a big problem for playing live.

I also noticed that the Fender stock humbucker was extremely microphonic and since I tend to play a lot over where the neck pickup is, I was getting a lot of clicking as the pick would occasionaly hit the pickup. I had the guitar tech install a Noiseless Tele Vintage in the bridge position and a Texas Special Humbucker in the neck position. By playing with the pickup heights, I was able to get the volume level to almost match and these pickups sound killer compared to the stock ones. I went through the body before I gave the guitar to the tech and the stock pots and switch are crap so I had him replace them with higher quality replacements. While he was at it, I had him also replace the tone pot with a push/pull switch so that I could coil tap the new humbucker. Works like a dream and now I have a very versatile guitar, soundwise. Stock, out-of-the-box I would give this guitar a "4" for action, fit and finish. After my mods, it is now a "9"

Teles are probably some of the beefiest and most solid guitars out there. I bought this guitar to play at home, knowing that my two year old son will undoubtedly tip it over and bang into it while I have it out to practice. It's a cheap guitar so who cares if it gets a few dings? As I stated before, the stock pots, switch and pickups were junk so if you are going to buy one of these, plan on replacing at least some of the hardware before long. The strap buttons and and output jack are questionable too. The finish seems solid although I won't know how solid until junior takes a few whacks at it with some of his toys.

Would I gig with this guitar without a backup? I don't play professionally but if I did, I wouldn't be playing a Squier. This is a cool, cheap guitar that I bought, knowing that it was cheap but with some mods, it could be a really nice guitar. The way I see it, I paid $259.00 for it new and I spent $315.00 for the two new pickups, installation, new pots and switch, a new Corian nut, setup and intonation with .12s and a general going over by the tech. So now for a total of $574.00, I have a guitar that plays and sounds better than a stock Fender Fat Tele for around half of the price. If I didn't want to spend that much money, I would not have bought this guitar, I would have srung for the Mexican made Nashville Tele which you can get for $429.00 everywhere. The quality would have been better than this guitar, but I would have only been able to get single coil sounds and I still would have spent the difference in getting the Nashville Tele setup.

Haven't dealt with them but I have heard horror stories. Find yourself a good local guitar tech and just deal with the problem! My time is too valuable to try to mess around with phone calls and e-mails to Fender to use the "free" included warranty.

Have been playing for 25 years, Also own an Epiphone Dot, Roland GR-303 Guitar Synth and a Washburn D-21 Acoustic. Nothing I wish that I would have asked before buying, I did the research and knew exactly what I was buying. If it were stolen or lost, I would buy another Tele, not sure if I would get a Squier and modify it again or if I would just look for a good used US made Fat Tele. What do I love about it? The sound. It gets those beautiful bell like chime sounds that only a Fender can do right. What do I hate? That Fender charges so much for a US made Fat Tele. I wish that they had a Fat Tele that was made in Ensenada for around $500.00. Would have saved me a lot of effort but overall, now that I have personalized it to my needs, this guitar rocks!

Oh and I forgot, I have to be macho like all of the other people on here and say that if I found the guy who stole it (women don't steal, do they?), I would tie him to a chair and make him listen to a really cheap JVC rack system stereo cranked to 10 with Brittney Aguilera doing a duet with the InSyncBackstreet98degreeBoys for a week, then I would drag him to the local Guitar Center and make him listen to some 14 year old hacker practice his favorite Korn and Limp Bizkit riffs at full volume with a Marshall JCM2000 double stack for another week. Then I would take him to a Chuck E. Cheese and make him spend the afternoon there with my kids and no game tokens!

2000 Sam Ash Limited Edition Fat Tele. Solid wood body (agathis or alder), 22 medium-jumbo frets, Maple neck/fingerboard, candy apple red body and painted headstock. 3-way pickup selector, volume, tone. Neck humbucker (PAF style) and bridge Tele single coil. 6 section thru body bridge (American standard style). No-name sealed tuners (look like Schaller).

I use a Line6 Flextone amp and a Korg AX1000G multi-fx.
This Tele is very good sounding out of the box. The neck humbucker has crunch and is not muddy, has a good bright top with a Dlx Rvb style amp. Great for Blues and Jazz. Plays nice on a clean channel. The bridge single coil has that 'ol 60hz hum. It is nice and bright, twangy, and is not microphonic (even with dual recto setting). THe output is not high on the SC...Wwon't drive a Fender amp into overdrive. It is a good sounding Tele pickup.

For the money, the stock pickups are good. I will probably replace with Fender, Duncans or Lawrence pups someday

The Candy Apple Red paint job is flawless, looks like a million bucks. The neck shape is a wonderful chunky "c" shape with a satin finish. The fretwork is good, but not up to MIA Fender standards and I had one screw that wasn't vertical. Action was set high, but that is always a personal preference. I would say that the finish level is equal to a Mexican Fender.

It's a Telecaster

N/A

This is one great Telecaster for the money. Plays and sounds great. Feels great. Buy one fast!