Fender Telecaster

Standard MIM Telecaster, midnight wine with upgrade to white pearloid pick guard. Upgraded tex-Mex pickups, locking strap buttons.

Love the tex-mex pickups, a little hotter than some, but can be very sensitive and I really believe that, along with the solid wood body helps the sustain a lot. Man can this thing sustain. Amps Gibson skylark tube 1957 to 1961 vintage, Fender super reverb tube. Sounds great at any volume, any style.

Bought it used but seems it had never been played. The neck was too concave, and the action was too high. Easily fixed and now perfect. The neck on this is unbelievable, smooth and perfectly fits my small hand. I have a Stratocaster MIM Deluxe Players, which I thought was good, but once I got this Tele, the Strat just gathers dust. I can play a lot cleaner and faster on the Tele. I am going to sell the Strat and get another Tele probably with a humbucker in it.

Probably last the rest of my life. Love the locking strap buttons. Finish is gorgeous and the neck has a very minimal finish. Perfect and very fast, much less sticky than the heavily lacquered necks. The pickup selector switch button needs some stickum, no big deal.

Never needed, do my own stuff.

Been playing 40 years. Have a MIM Strat. Had a Gibson SG, hated it. Couldn't tune/intonate it to save my life. Had 6 and 12 string electric/acoustics. This Tele is a revelation, it is really hard to put down. I am wanting another one.

2009 MIM, 21 frets, standard controls, pickups etc. Throught body stringing, 6 saddle bridge. Not sure of the exact colour may be vintage white as it is more of an ivory colour. Bought it on holiday in the US, played lots in several shops and this one was by far the nicest, better than the $1000 american std I tried. Cost $445 Approx ??300! Heres the tip. Take lots of bubble wrap with you and space in your case, remove the strings and neck wrap well and put the bits in your case. Because its a tele it can stand this treatment. Re-assemble at home and hey presto one cheap duty free guitar.

I play a broad variety of styles but wanted a nice tele for that unmistakeable sound. Play it through a Peavey classic 50 and fender cyber deluxe and it sounds great, perfect stones early zep tone. I know that mexican fenders are supposed to be the low end but this one was honestly better than all of the others in the shops I visited, better tone and really nice action.
Need to be careful with the tone control, neck pup can be overly muddy. but thats why its adjustable.

Factory set-up was flawless. Perfect intonation, low action and no fret buzz.

Its a tele.

No opinion

Been playing 5 yrs own a very nice les paul standard, hot rodded strat several custom built electrics, two flat top acoustics, a vintage giannini 12 string and a nasty cheep bass. If it were lost or stolen I hope that I'd be able to find another one this good. Oh yeah it came with a bloody awful gig bag, I'd rather have had discount, a lead, spare strings or something else.

MIM 2000 model with 21 frets. I think the body is Alder, if memory serves me well. Maple neck. Standard Telecaster S/S pickup configuration. Mine was finished in a THICK (too thick for my liking) black finish, with white pickguard. Got a generic hard shell case with it.

It's a Tele. It has the features it needs.

When I got this guitar 8 years ago, I didn't really have any pre-conceived notions about how a Telecaster should sound. I really was just getting my first "real" guitar, so I was pretty new to everything. That said, I always loved the way it sounds, and I still do. I find myself always coming back to my Tele. My playing style has pretty much developed around using my Telecaster, so it suits my playing perfectly. I've got a bunch of amps, but generally I run this through either a Hot Rod Deluxe, or a vintage Traynor tube P.A. head that sounds killer for guitar. I also use a vintage Tube Works Real Tube overdrive pedal, as well as a marshall compressor, an Ernie Ball volume pedal, and a couple other non-important miscellaneous effects.

The single coil pickups are a little noisy, but that's just how it goes. Doesn't bother me at all. I love all of the sound combinations this guitar has. From bright, biting twang to smooth jazzy tones, this guitar is capable of it all. It's a great workhorse guitar.

As an interesting side note, a few years ago, I put some different pickups into a G&L legacy (strat) that I have. I put a seymour duncan alnico II tele pickup in the neck of it. The seymour is a way duller sounding pickup than the stock mexican neck pickup on my tele.

It's been a long time, but I don't remember the guitar being setup poorly when I got it. From what I can remember, it's always been set up pretty well. Pickups were adjusted pretty well. I raised both pickups to get more grunt out of my amps.

The finish on this guitar is interesting. The neck is beautiful maple, with a really nice grain pattern on it. It almost looks like bird's eye maple, which is really something on a guitar in this price-range.

When I got the guitar, it was a solid black finish with a white pickguard. A few years ago, I decided that I was going to sand the finish off, and get a black pickguard to give it a more classic Tele look. As I was sanding it (past the point-of-no-return) I realized that the finish was WAY thicker than I thought, but I continued to sand it BY HAND down to the natural wood. I ended up just sanding the top down, which looks really cool. From head-on it almost looks like it has black binding on it. The real surprise with this guitar is that under all of that thick black lacquer is what looks like a solid maple cap! It's one piece - no bookmatching or seems in it. I wonder if they originally intended for it to have a clear finish. I'm considering applying some honey-tinged lacquer to it to give it that butterscotch blonde look.

This guitar will, and has, withstood plenty of live playing. I always bring a backup, just in case I break a string. There's not a whole lot that can go wrong with a tele. The hardware is great. No problems in 8 years. The tuners actually work REALLY well.

Never had to deal with Fender.

I've been playing for about 11 years now. Other guitars I've owned or currently own are: Washburn EA10 elec/acoustic, Godin Radiator, the Mexi Tele, Epiphone double neck, G&L Legacy (stratocaster), Epiphone Les Paul Custom, P-Bass, American Standard Stratocaster, 1973 Gibson J-45 Deluxe acoustic, and a new Gretsch Duo Jet (not electromatic). I also own or have owned: Fender deluxe 90 solid state amp, Feder Hot Rod Deluxe, 70's Fender Twin Reverb, and a traynor Voicemaster p.a. head circa 1967 that I use for guitar, which sounds killer. I run the traynor through a Peavey Classic 410E tweed cabinet (I took all the peavey logos off of it!). I also own some vintage keyboards, and a couple drumsets.

If the Tele was lost or stolen, I'd definitely get another one, but most likely a US made model, or a Nashville tele, or an Esquire.

Over the years of playing, I've realized that this tele doesn't have the best feeling neck. Compared to my U.S. strat and my Duo Jet, the neck doesn't feel as smooth. For a guitar in this price range though, it's a great guitar. It's still my #2 guitar after the Duo Jet. My strat plays nicer, but doesn't sound like a Tele, so it takes a backseat to my TacoTele.

I gotta say that although fender quality can be hit or miss I lucked out with this one. I bought mine in a small town music store that I pass by about 2 or 3 times a year while on the road. Now figure this out if you can: This texas tele sat on the rack for well over a year. Every time I'd stop in it was still there. It has a ONE PIECE ash body, almost unheard of even for the American series, or the 52 reissue series for that matter. This one has the blonde finish & it looks stunning. It is an 07 model. Price was (get this) $675.00! I couldn???t find a used one @ that price. And they had a hard shell case w/ minor freight damage they threw in for $35.00. Now, if only I could get that lucky with my wife!

I am looking for that classic tele sound & in my opinion the only real tele is one with an ash body & maple neck, otherwise, why not get a strat? I really can???t say how great the pickups ups are yet because my tube amp is not working properly & I plugged it into my bass amp. I knew that I would probably change the pickups out going into the deal anyway, so if they sound great than that is an added bonus. Through the bass amp it sounds pretty good, esp. the bridge pickup. I???m not a fan of ???hot??? or over wound pickups. I have 2 american strats, both ash bodies & maple necks, one w/ stock p.ups & one w/ texas specials & I prefer the stock one to the texas specials (the sound muddy to me). Might have some pick ups for sale.
(BTW, if you think teles can???t rock you tube Prince???s performance of ???while my guitar gently weeps???. Be prepared to get blown away, & I???m not even a Price fan).

Again, I lucked out here. I have read that other hwy 1 texas teles have sloppy or uneven finishes but mine couldn???t be further from that. It is absolutely stunning, nice & even through ought. I felt a little guilty about buying it until I took it home & I opened up the case, pure Woodrow city! Neck pocket is tight, tuners feel great, intonation is slightly off, but it is not going to be perfect with the vintage bridge. Again, going onto it I knew I was going to change the bridge out to a vintage single string type. Fretting feels a little stiff, not sure what gauge the factory strings are, they feel like 10???s instead of 9???s.

Pure fender, wouldn't think twice about taking this one into a bar fight.

Never dealt with fender on waranty issues.

Some people feel that you shouldn???t have to fork out big bucks on an axe & then change things out (i.e. pickups, tuners, ect). Look, this isn???t one from the 50???s & each player has his own preference. I bought this axe as a foundation to build upon. I think it is a good value considering that the American series & the 52 reissue teles cost a considerable amount more, & you would probably wind up changing some things around any way. Also, dollar for dollar I think this is the closest thing you can get to a vintge tele, American made, nitro finish, ash body, maple neck. I want to play this axe & nick it up & I???m not going to hurt it. I had an original 1982 /52 tele reissue that was never palyed, it even had the factory strings on it. I was afraid to even breathe on it, what a shame. I???m gonna beat this thing like a red headed step child, & then some! It was bought to be enjoyed. If you looking for a texes tele visit a few stores & compare the quality of different guitars.

New 2008 Fender MIM Telecaster. Wine Red. White pickguard. Maple neck. Came with the Deluxe Gig bag with the brass Fender logo plate on it. (Guitar Center sale)
Basic Telecaster, everybody who reads this knows what they look like, and their specifications. No use typing it all in again.
The gig bag was a pleasant surprise, expected a cheapie.
Also came with complete instructions, tools, cleaning cloth, registration card. Nice.

I own the following electrics: Grestch Electromatic Hollowbody 5120 with double HH pickups, a Epiphone Les Paul quilted top with double HH pickups, a S101 strat knockoff with SSH pickups, a Rogue Lipstick triple pickup, and now the Fender MIM Telecaster.
Setting my Line 6 Spyder III practice amp to clean, with all settings the same for all guitars, (Low at high, Mid at mid, and High at high, Drive at mid). Clean channel, no reverb or chorus, nothing like that. I then proceeded to try each one with all settings on all guitars.
The Fender was the only one that distorted with any of the pickups, specifically the bridge pickup. Rather disturbing since it was on a clean channel.
Otherwise, it falls about in the middle of my pack in brightness, with the Epiphone leading the way, followed by the the S101, then the Fender, followed by the Grestch and last and lowest the Rogue.
Didn't think the Fender would be that low on the list, trying it out at Guitar Center.
It does have some nice sounds, and with my larger Line 6 Spyder Jam it does very well, especially on the Albert Lee setting, but the pickups, well, they are not anywhere as bright as the American units I tried. but I just couldn't pay $699 for a Baha Telecaster.
No real hum. That's good.
Does put out a nice twang with the neck pickup, setup right. Overall it is what it is, a rock and roll guitar with some country overtones. Since so much of country has more rock in it now, that's why some people probably see this as a country guitar.
It's just OK - overall, against my little pack of guitars, just OK.

It seemed like it played well enough at Guitar Center, but when I got it home and took a real look, I changed a lot. Each step helped a lot. First, of course the strings. Put 9's back on, GH Boomers. Then the saddles. They were all set as high as they could go. Don't know why, could not really play the frets above 10-12. Started out lowering them a LOT. Checked intonation, still off at most positions, have to set the saddle distances, they were all in exactly the same position when I bought it. Finally, after a couple days, began to doubt the neck. Checked it, it was way too concave. Put at least a half turn on the truss rod, now just a hint of concave, and at last, the strings are riding close to all the frets, evenly and with no fret buzz. Action is now where it probably should be, give or take. Also raised the neck pickup, lowered the bridge pickup. Made it sound cleaner and got rid of the piercing highs on the high three strings.
Finish is great, no scratches, no dings, no runs, nothing. Love the maple neck, nice C pattern on the back. Guitar plays small, but is not really. I do find my pick climbing close to the neck if I'm watching the fretboard.
Big problem is that the selection switch rides against the volume knob in the bridge position. History be dammed, they should put that a little further away.
Fit of the wood seems excellent. Hardware seems OK, stamped and heavily chromed. Tuners work good, it holds tune nicely. Knobs and strap buttons seem good and solid.

As most people say, this is really a minimalist guiter, so not much to go wrong. I don't know how the wine red finish will hold up. This is a gigging unit though, no doubt about it.
I don't have any complaints about the strap buttons, but I don't dive bomb or anything like that. It does what Fender says it should do. And it seems like it will do that for decades.
No tremolo, so no problems with the bridge or saddles that I can think of. Through strings should be there forever.

Have no experience with them. First Fender product. Reviews seem to be a mixed bag on Fender products and customer service. Read many others for verification.

Been playing seriously now for about 6 months. Fourth time in my life I've taken it up. This time determined to learn. Own too much gear already, but hey, you only go around once! I play rough, heavy picks, still doing scales and learning songs at the same time.
I bought this because like a Harley Davidson, you just gotta have one if you own motorcycles. I went into Guitar Center looking for the new tortoise shell pickguard with ash finish only to find they had raised the pricing on them in one week. This one was the same unit but in wine red with white pickguard, on sale for $379 with the nice bag, so I said OK and forgot the nice ash finish.
I love that it is simple, and now that it is set up right, easy to play. Really like the maple neck, wish more of my guitars had maple.
I really do not like the bridge pickup. Not a quality pickup, or maybe I got one a little off. It just distorts too easily for me. I really like the neck pickup. The tone knob is also great, can act as a poor man's Wah-wah if you are quick enough.
By the way, good sustain. The longer length probably contributes to that with the slightly tighter strings.
I know it's a telecaster but I do wish it had one more of those chrome covered pickups in the middle with a 5 way switch.
If I lost it, I'd think long and hard about another one. Maybe go for an American, or maybe get another brand.
It's just OK, and that's the name of that. My $119 S101 strat knockoff can do everything this can and it has more sounds with the SSH setup.
But then, it's a Fender, and now I have one, decal and all...

I have a 2003 mexican
21 frets
solid top
one volume one tone and a 3way selector pretty standard
guitar comes installed with fender mexican passive pickups a lipstick style single coil neck and a regular single coil in the bridge. Not the best pickups but im also a tone snob.

Two piece alderwood body with a maple neck. I can easily say that the neck on my tele is what makes the guitar. It's so easy to play it's baffling. Of course this isn't my first i've been through a range of cheap guitars and for the money this is at the top of the list. by cheap i mean between 300 and 400 dollars.

It is a great blues playing guitar and basically anything in clean. I play this guitar whenever im in the mood for either of those.

playing through a Crate Palomino V16 with all matched groove tubes a crybaby wah, and a dan electro fab tone.

definitely more of a bright sound with the stock pickups but if you put in some lindy fralin's i promise you'll never go back.

i love the way it plays not a big fan of fenders engineering on the pickups

I play all of my fenders to the factory set-up thats the best way i think excellent action.

very sharp looking vintage style guitar one of my favorites

absolutely will stand up to live play and im rough on it.
all hardware is solid
strap buttons are solid
very dependable
i would have to say i could absolutely use it with no worries of a back up

I've been playing about 8 years i own a Fender Telecaster, an Ltd ec-300, a Fender Precision bass, I play Through a crate palomino v16 with my guitars and a hartke 1400 with an ampeg 4 10 for my bass.

First off... Standard Telecaster. Made in Mexico (MiM). Beautiful Tobacco Sunburst, alder body, no "maple top" or anything like that. Nice pickups, they are both better than I thought they would be (by far). twenty-two or twenty-one frets, I kinda forgot... I think twenty-two. Versitile, beleive it or not, those pickups can dish out just about anything... The finish on this can make up anything you find missing (which you won't). Comes with a thin gig bag, you should probably play it. The bag has backpack-like straps though.

I like to play mostly rock music, some acoustic as well... but sadly, my amp mostly only can handle the acoustic sounds... I have a Gorrilla Tube Crunch amp (which isn't an actual tube amp, it's just got a tube crunch knob to turn that makes it a bit crunchier and more tube-like), which sounds great for blues and (again) acoustic sounds, but when I try to use my Digitech Death Metal pedal, it seems to block a lot of the metal back, giving me a far too held back distortion sound. But when I played this in the store, I played though a 65 watt Fender Frontman, and it sounded pretty much perfect. It was a great, great combination.
For the acoustic, I like the neck (chrome) pickup and the middle position. It's not bad with distortion either, and you would probably like that too, just sayin'. (For distortion, I liked the bridge, obviously.)

From the shop, the action was as good as I had hoped and wanted, no flaw there, I don't know how it was before though. The pickups were adjusted as it was reccomended in the owner's manuel. The finish is intense, I love it. My only gripe is that I found two white spots no more than one square millimeter, which is not even a real gripe, 'cause for how many people that have probably played that guitar before i got to it, I should truly expect more. Thank you to everyone that has ever played mine before I bought it for taking care not to blemish/etc it.
Oh, also the third string was a little rusted over towards the eleventh fret. I'll change them in a few months, but it's nothing serious.

I would easily go to a gig without a backup for this. Not that I gig though. It will last for a long time, nothing loose or anything.

Yo no se, chico. It seems Okay...

Great guitar, I got it just last night, but I'm sure nothing will fail me.

it's tele, it has everything you need and nothing you doesn't

i play blues/blues rock and its great, i play it with a homemade valve amp, bridge pick up is twangy, neck pup is rich, middle is inbeetweeny, but when using the tone control, the guitar is actually really versitile

everything was great, the action is a touch to high, but i can always lower it

its a tank

love it, great guitar, amazing value for money, and the tone is just unbelievable

Early 2008 Standard Telecaster made in Mexico. Alder, with maple neck & 21frets maple fingerboard. White finish.

Bad gigbag very poor. I've preferren a small discount.

I've purchase this white tele becouse my old tele (1983 Japan '62 reissue) was modded with humbuckers and my Squier Tele is too cheap to gig without backup.
The sound is fantastic: not noising at all, The sound is what I want from a tele. Rich & Hot at the neck, twangy with both and very strong and bright at bridge.

In the shop I've tried other teles (vintage & american standard) but I'm falled in love for this mexico standard.

Remeber! In the beginning there was ony standard telecasters and not custom shop or vintage models.

Bad strings on it and bad factory setup. But is a low price guitar and I think a bad setup is normal.
In few minutes, i've change the strings (now I'm using D'Addario .095 - .044), set the action and the neck, then the intonation. Perfect guitar!

No serious flaw, But a little dirty (it's white).

I give a 7 in shop, but a 10 after setup. It so easy to play that I dont'believe.

It's a Fender, it's a Telecaster. I never use a second guitar as backup.

Never used.

I star to play bass and guitar in 1970. I left bass playin' in 1981 and in 1983 I bought a my first electric guitar a Telecaster. Now I own nine guitars 3 Telecaster, a Straocaster, a Jazz Box (Ibanex AF125), 2 acoustic (Guild & Dayon), 1 Giannini classic and a resophonic.

If stolen or lost, I fly to buy another Telecaster like this. I love all of this guitar. It's sound great with all my Fender amps (valve & solid state).

2005 Fender Standard Telecaster Made in Mexico. 21 medium jumbo frets. Alder body. Arctic White paint job. Standard Fender tuners and string-through body 25 1/2 scale. Maple neck and the standard tele hardware. C shaped neck with 9.5 radius

I use it for rock and it does it quite well. I actually prefer it for rock to my Standard Stratocaster which I have sold. I think the Tele sustains better. The stock pickups are good and all 3 positions on the toggle give great sounds. I use it with a Peavey Studio Pro amp and I set the sound mode to Vintage for this guitar. It has a classic Tele sound. I used to have a Highway 1 Tele and it had better pickups, but these one's rate a 9 on my scale.

This guitar was bought right out of the box from the factory and not on the showroom floor. It was set up well and the factory strings were even very good. I didn't need to adjust anything but after a year I took it in and had the action lowered a bit and the truss rod adjusted but after a year that was to be expected. It was very well finshed and still after almost 2 years it looks just like the day I brought it home.

I think it would be fine for live playing, though I never play live.
The hardware is typical for a $530.00 guitar. I bought it when the Canadian dollar was low vs the U.S. dollar so it was a bit expensive, but to me it is a quality made instrument for it's price.

Never had to use Fender support though there website that is little more than a catalog. No easy way to contact them.

I'd replace it if it got lost or stolen and the price now is lower so that makes it easier on my pocketbook. I bought a Tele because of past experience. Aside from my Highway 1 Tele this was the best of the Fenders I have owned.