Fender Telecaster

1995 American CS - 22 medium jumbo frets. Body is sundurst light weight ash. It's a 2 pu - typical tele bridge and Sermor Duncan flat strat pu in the neck spot. It's typical passive electronics but wired in series instead of usual parallel so whwn selector is in mid position the output goes up. the neck is map;e but with an ebony board. The neck is big but one step down from the baseball bat deal. Very soft V with a skunk stripe. Tuners are typical vintage tele with the exception of the low E which is fitted with a Kieth banjo tuner (set to detune to a D). It's fitted with a b-bender- the Parsons-white style- not the Green type used on the Nashville b-bender model. The pickguard is tortoise shell 3 ply.

my setup is tele (usually)>>>carl martin compressor>>>fulltone CS deja vibe>>>budda wah>>>>budda phatman (12ax7s changed to Raytheon blackplates)>>>>TS10 with Keeley mod>>>>Guyatone MD3 echo (the tiny blue box)>>>Gibson GA15RV. I play pop-rock, 60s rock, R+B, rockabilly, funk. The people I gig with do stuff 30 - 60 year olds like - fun, dance stuff - no dark message music. I'm a pick and fingers player - lead style rhythm if you know what I mean. I have owned 5 teles over the years. This one is larger sounding than the others - A bit more sedate than my older maple neck tele clone but brighter than my rosewood neck tele. This is my only tele where the volume knob is really useable (maybe because it's wired in series) I get more variety of tone with this one - strat sounds on the neck, etc. It hums a bit (all good pickups hum) If I want that gnarly cuntry blues tone my maple neck clone is best. But this one is good for doing one gig with one guitar because of the variaty.

I got it used and had some setup work and fret polishing done. He changed the neck pu from a staggered pole alnico which was too mid heavy. The b-bender is as good as my other one. I do this wierd thing where I add heavy rubber bands to avoid inadvertant B string bends. I'm not a country person and don't overuse the bender-I just throw in occassional stuff with it and I also do a lot of behind the nut bends. The big downside of ebony finger boards (one reason not many teles are ebony) is that the wood shrinks forever. The frets needed some shaving down on the edges and the frets are a bit high overall. This is a trade off because the plus is that the ebony sound is BIG. I didn't buy it fore the look but it is pretty. The sunburst ash is nice.

I've had it out a bit. The hardware is decent. I'm a strong arm type player. I like to get my sound from the pick and my fingers and not high volume. I bang on it pretty hard with medium triangle fender picks - scratched up a little. Strap buttons are good. I take a backup.

this doesn't apply.

I've played way too long and have way too much stuff and am looking to acquire more. The ONLY thing lacking is that it doesn't have my perfect neck style which is a 50's strat soft V. This neck is only one click off and this is personal taste anyway. I really like to play in little places where people dance hard and I need a variety of tones and don't like the "digital solution". Of my 22 guitars this one is the most adaptable to all styles. Like all guitar nutcases I REALLY want a different amp and guitar for EACH tune but this tele does ok.

This guitar is a 1968 Telecaster fitted with a early 50's bridge assembly and 50's pickup. I feel it's the best of both worlds as you get the warmth of the rosewood neck and the power of the 50's bridge pickup. (Measured at 9K)

I play indie power pop and it's perfect for my style. I've been using it in the studio through a variety of amps, Matchless HC30, Vox AC10, AC30, and AC50, 59' Tweed Bassman, Callaham EL84R and EL84V and VHT Pittbull 45 112 and Pittbull 50 112.

The guitar sounds amazing through anything it goes through. The pickups have been potted so they are suprisingly very quiet. Overdriven it's very ballsy and hot. Clean it has a lot of sparkle and chime. I'm really not using it too much for clean sounds as I prefer humbuckers for that task, but it really is nice. The main thing I use it for is hot overdrive. Using either a Boss SD-1, Ibanez TS808 or Matchless Hot Box, I can really push this baby. Recording wise it sits very well with humbucker type guitars. The neck is nice and fat, but not uncomfortable. It's really a thing of beauty.

Set up very nicely with 10's....No complaints here.

I don't use it live, but concidering it's 35 years old with a 50+ year old pickup and bridge, it's held up great.

Don't need em, never will.

I don't own this guitar, but thanks to my good friend Larry of Rose Recording, I'm able to use it for my band's debut album. All I can say is thanks. I now see why people seek out vintage instruments. If your lucky enough to find a good one, it's the way to go. It's gonna be very hard for me to go back to my modern guitars, because I've been spoiled by this Tele. Hopefully my band does well, so I can afford to purchase a few cherry vintage axes.

Highway One Telecaster. No features.

Sound covers the audio spectrum from too much bass to too much treble. The tone control really does evenly roll on and off between bass and treble regardless of the 3-way switch setting. Pots are a tad scratchy...almost imperceptible. When the pots hit the stops, I get a microphonic "click" so I have to be careful rolling up. There is a usable and appropriate tonal configuration for just about every style of music on a Tele...covers a lot of ground. Clean sounds are impressive. Slightly broken up sounds are convincing. Full on saturated overdrive works OK but just doesn't go where HB's can.

Action was just right right off the rack. Intonation was perfectly accurate. Bought it from a real guitar store, that may have something to do with the set-up. Finish is a matte lustre...not a high gloss. I can see the grain through the "honey blonde" color. While not a beautiful piece of wood with highly figured grain...it is still very pleasing to the eye. It looks like an old guitar in perfect condition. The look is so plain that I find it beautiful. It seems to say listen to me...don't look at me. The maple neck and fretboard are comfortable all the way up and down on both sides. Neck pocket is snug...no shim. Set screws in the saddles dig into the heel of my hand.

Simple. There are no fancy, delicate or un-necessary features on this instrument. I can't imagine something failing on an electrical or mechanical basis.

I've traded at this music shop for 10 years. I would recomend them to anyone who needed an instrument. Trade locally with a trustworthy shop that employs people who like what they are doing and you won't have customer support problems.

37 years. I have lots of other stuff. This is my 2nd Fender, but my 1st Tele. I'm kicking my ass for waiting so long to get it. I play it through a Fender BJ with no effects. It is a simple guitar...and plugged into a simple amp it provides a full palette of pleasing sounds. It's amazing what can be coaxed out of this basic combination. The best part is I can get sounds out of these relatively new products that sound just like the sounds I got from my 64 Strat and 67 Ampeg back in the day. OK so maybe they are fooling these old ears...but if they are...they're doing a damn good job of it!

I was looking for a tele, but never seemed to find one that had a really good feeling neck on it - I ran across mine, a "antique" yellow colored one with a maple neck while testing some digital amp simulators....and decided that it played really well. Mine was the standard two pickup tele set up, with one lipstick one at the neck and a standard one at the bridge position, three way switch.

Well tone wise at first seemed perfect for what I wanted to do.....Then after payment was made and was playing it at rehearsal, then the guitar went from good to not so good. The pickups were the noisest, scratchiest pickups I had ever on a guitar, without a doubt.

So I did some research and found that Fender made another set of pickups for it (+$110.00, "Noiseless" tele set)so I bought them and installed them. They cut out some noise but the guitar began to pick up another buzz.......So back into the guitar I went. The replacement fender "noiseless" pickups do not include a ground wire and make no mention of adding on in their instructions. So I added a ground wire running from underneath the plate and soldered it onto the back of the volume pot. Had a friend not mentioned that too me I would never have thought to do that, being as it was a brand new guitar and replacement pickups never should have had the problem in the first place.

The neck also seemed to play better in the store.....The neck seems to set itself differently every time I change strings....sometimes to the point it will make a "hollow" sound at the fifth fret, no matter what string (e,a,d,g,b,or high e) is played. It plays ok now but I do not trust it to be consistent all the time. I knew from word go the neck quality was nowhere near Gibson or Rickenbacker quality, but if all else fails I will buy a warmoth neck and just solve that problem for good. The cost of the guitar overall (before the noiseless pickups, but with a case $482.00) still makes it feasible to add stuff onto it without feeling too guilty.

Set up was good on it, probably helped sell me on buying the axe, but I question the neck construction bigtime. It was meant to be an fairly inexpensive mass produced guitar, and sure enough that is exactly what it is.

Although I will probably never buy another new off the rack Fender again (I would just rather build my own, and get it "right" from word go), I wouldn't say to a person "Never buy Fender." The problems I encountered on my axe were fixable and thats exactly what did. The main reason why I will hang onto this guitar is that I am seriously determined to get my money's worth out of it and all the stuff and work that I had to do to it.

It is fairly reliable as an axe, and a nice alternative to a Les Paul/Gibson style setup but I have actually been to auditions where they considered the Tele a setback!! The Noiseless Tele pickups, when grounded correctly do exactly what they should, vintage tele tone without vintage fender pickup squeals and noise. BUT ONLY WHEN IT IS GROUNDED PROPERLY. Paint seems to be good quality, overall it is an upgrade over a squier. Will probably change the saddles to graphite ones at some point in the future, but for will wait until these are well worn

My advise is this: If you plan on buying a Fender......Tack on three hundred to the price tag to afford a nice case and new pickups. Count on getting the axe sorted out before any serious amount of playing time......You will be a lot happier with it.

The customer support from Fender is only good for the original purchaser, and that is only as good the store you bought it from.

I have been playing for about fifteen years, semi pro. I run my axes through Peavey Ultra 120 amp half stacks (tube amps). I use Boss foot pedals and a Korg AX1500G.

My mind was sort of made up, but their will be no next time for me buying a Fender.

No, If I had to have another Fender type product I would just build it myself and get it right the first time.

It does have a good feeling design to it, nice and simple for stage use, when set up right a good axe for blues, rock or country. It definitely has that Fender twang to it but mine seems a little "fatter" sounding with the Noiseless Tele pickups, overall very versatile tone-wise. But take the stock pickups out and toss them over your shoulder and forget about them from word go. They are that bad. Not too bad money wise even after the pickups.

For those reading this, the tele needs no introduction.....or list of (non) features. It's as basic as a guitar can be. All you need and nothing you don't. The first modern production guitar and ( as many say ) the best! The 10 rating indicates it has "tons of features"....as we tele lovers know, it does not. Again, it has the features needed to make great, beautiful music! This one has turned a rich, velvety butterscotch color over the years. Lift the 3 ply whitish / fading P/G and you can see the original blonde color. After all these years, it still plays like butter, keeps in tune and sounds twangy and rich. This one came with the original case and a cancelled check from the guy I got it from. He bought it in 1974 for $140 from a pawn shop.

This guitar would suit pretty much any style of playing you can throw at it except that detuned, death metal creamed Korn style. Great for country, blues, jazz, rock, pop, folk, reggae, world, etc. This particular guitar had the infamous 1meg vol & tone pots. I took the whole control plate off, put it away in a safe place and dropped in another one I soldered up with 250K CTS pots, new 3 way and new caps. Doing this smoothed the tone out considerably and did away with the ice pick treble. Actually, I was suprised how good it sounded with the 1megs. The stock neck pickup sounds very, very good. The bridge pickup ( while not as good as some I've heard )twangs pretty darn good. I have another homebrew USACG tele that out plays this and sounds much better, but for this baby's pretty darn good for a 70's tele. A lot of people pooh pooh 70's teles. I happen to think they are fine guitars.

The action on this baby is low and fast. I prefer the action a bit higher, but since my other tele is my #1, I keep this one as is. No gap in the neck joint. Nice weight...not to heavy, but no feather. Nice finish...you can see a bit of the the ash grain. It's 33 years old and it looks and feels great. A very good, workhorse tele. Of course, you can say that about pretty much any tele!

Reliable?? Durable?? Are you kidding me!!?? It's a tele for crying out loud! You could use it to paddle to a gig, smack a few rowdies, plug in and play the gig without ever tuning it! Back when I was gigging, I could not afford a backup, so I usually played the gig with one guitar. In those gigging day's I generaly played strats or 335 type guitars. I was always worried about what I would do if something happened to the "delicate little guitar". Now, if I had been playing a tele back then, I would not have given it a second thought! Probably the most durable, reliable guitar ever made.

Never, ever contacted a company for service.

Great guitar. Again, not as nice as my homebrew, but a guitar I would be happy and proud to play anywhere at anytime. Classic tele tones abound. I really have way to many guitars at the moment. I need to thin it down a bit. That said, this one will stay. I managed to get this guitar at an excellent price. The old gentleman I got it from bought it with the intention of learning to play. As that never panned out, it sat in his closet from 1976 until I bought it in early 2003. I can't tell you how many 70's tele's ( among other things )I bought, sold and traded in the 80's. I managed several music stores from 1978 to 1985 and got first pick when something of interest came through. I always wished I would have kept a few, so it was nice to come across one. Teles are probably my favorite guitars.

UNDER THE TOGGLE SWITCH IS A PIECE OF MASKING TAPE WITH A DATE 10-19-54 AND THE NAME VIRGINIA, I IMAGINE THIS WAS THE QUALITY CONTROL PERSON AT FENDER. MADE IN USA. 22 FRETS. SOLID BODY(ASH)BLONDE IN COLOUR.ONE VOLUME ONE TONE CONTOL 3 WAY TOGGLE SWITCH, ONE BRIDGE ONE NECK PICKUP.MAPLE NECK, ASH BODY. IT CAME WITH A TWEED CASE AND AN AMPLIFIER-A MAGNATONE MELODIER. I BOUGHT IT USED IN 1963 FROM THE MUSIC SHOP MY GUITAR TEACHER TAUGHT AT-EP MELVIN ON COLORADO BLVD IN PASADENA,CA. I WAS 11 WHEN I GOT IT. OWNED IT FOR 40 YEARS.THE MIDDLE POSITION AND RIGHT POSITION ON TOGGLE SWITCH ARE GOOD BUT FAR LEFT TOGGLE IS VERY DULL SOUNDING.THEREFORE I GIVE IT AN EIGHT.

I USE IT WITH A VOX BERKELY SUPER REVERB-18 WATTS 2 10 INCH SPEAKERS.
AND THE MAGNATONE AND ALSO A CRATE GX15. SOUNDS GOOD THRU ALL OF THESE. I PLAY EVERYTHING ROCK,BLUES,HEAVY METAL,ROCKABILLY ETC.I RUN IT THRU A DIGITECH RP100 OR A KORG AX1G TONEWORKS. SOUNDS VERY GOOD VERY VERSITLE CAN GO FROM ELVIS TO BEATLES,TO STONES,TO BLACK SAABBATH TO NIRVANA.MIDDLE POSITION NECK PICKUP IS VERY FULL,MELLOW. RIGHT POITION-BRIDGE IS BRIGHT. FAR LEFT IS DULL NEVER USE IT.

I BOUGHT IT SECOND HAND SO I CANT REALLY COMMENT. IT IS NOT AS EASY TO PLAY AS A STRAT BUT YOU GET USED TO IT. HAD TO REPLACE THE NUT IN 1968 BUT NO REAL PROBLEMS THAT CANT BE ADJUSTED. INTONATION IS HARD BECAUSE OF 3 SADDLE BRIDGE.

THIS THING IS VERY SOLID. IT HAS A FEW NICKS AND SCRATCHES BUT IT HAS WITHSTOOD THE TEST OF TIME VERY WELL.IT IS ALL ORIGINAL PARTS EXCEPT THE NUT SO IT WILL LAST FOREVER. THE FRETBOARD IS A LITTLE WORN BUT STILL PLAYABLE. NEVER HAD A PROBLEM WITH STRAP BUTTONS. ALWAYS BEEN ABLE TO DEPEND ON IT. I GIGGED FROM 1965 TO 1971 AND NEVER USED A BACKUP(COULDN'T AFFORD TO )

NEVER DEALT WITH FENDER ALWAYS TOOK IT TO PEDRINI MUSIC IN ALHAMBRA FOR MINOR REPAIRS.

BEEN PLAYING FOR 43 YEARS. I OWN A KAY BASS,AND AN ELECTRIC AUTOHARP.
IF STOLEN OR LOST IT WOULD BE A TRAGEDY BECAUSE IT IS A VINTAGE GUITAR BUT I WOULD PROBABLY BUY ANOTHER TELE OR A STRAT.I LOVE THE TONE IT SOUNDS GOOD THRU ANY AMP,TUBE OR SOLID STATE BUT IT SOUNDS BEST THRU THE VOX BERKELEY(ALL TUBE)

2002 Mexican Fender Telecaster

Ohhhh, I LOVE this guitar! I love Teles in general because they have such a unique sound! I have been playing under a year but this guitar really has inspired me. The pickups are a little muddy, I recommend replacing them...I will soon have Bill Lawrence L-280s on it :)

This is REALLY where the guitar excels. It's the best-built guitar for this price that I've ever played! It's very sturdy; I even like to do this thing where I flip the tone switch back and forth real quick to get a wah-like sound and I've had no trouble with that. This is a great guitar if you just want to get it or play it as it is, but a lot of people love to buy it for it's cheap price then mod it to be a superior guitar.

Oh yeah. This baby wouldn't break if I threw it from the top of the space needle (ok well maybe in that case...)

This is one GREAT guitar. Buy it now!!!!!!

2002 Mexican Standard Tele
22 frets
1 volume knob, 1 tone, and p/u selecter

Standard stuff.

An extremely versatile guitar. I use a Marshall DX100 amp with footswitch and a DOD distortion pedal. I play indie rock, both pop-sounding and louder, and it does everything I need it to do. You can get bright, thinner tones or warm, soft tones. However, the extremes are sometimes muddy. The neck pickup can get really muddy with mids and lows turned up and the bridge can be very harsh.

The guitar was setup very well from the factory. I've had the guitar about 6 months, and I've just taken it in once to be set up. It's built like a rock and stays in tune well if the strings aren't old and stretched. There were no flaws in the finish, neck or frets. I bought this guitar because I was sick of my old guitar's tremolo not staying in tune. This guitar solved that problem. The pickups needed raising, but that's a preference for me because of the style I play.

Like I said before, this thing is built like a rock. I've dropped it several times, been to about 15 gigs with it, everything. It shows no visible wear. I'm not worried in the least about this guitar breaking, even if it's mistreated. If you gig a lot, this is an excellent guitar to have.

Haven't needed it.

If you own one guitar (and I did, until recently), this should be it. It can't be beaten as far as versatility. It may not be as powerful as an SG, but it can be powerful. I suggest changing the pickups for a more full sound, but even without it, this is a great guitar.

Got it new, a few months back. Made in Mexico, it's great value for money. I'm not sure what kind of wood it's made of, but it sounds great and after all that's what a guitar is all about. Mine is sunburst which I think gives a great vintage kind of look to it.

I didn't care much to have an original US or vintage model, coz I knew I was gonna mod it anyways. I replaced the bridge pickup by a Seymour Duncan Hotrails humbucker, and connected it to a push-pull knob that doubles as a tone control (replacing the original one as well). The push-pull switches the Hotrails into serial or parallel mode.

All in all, so after the mod, the guitar has everything I need, and then some.

I play jazz and metal. With the Hotrails switched to serial, the guitar really rocks but not in a metal kind of way coz it doesn't have a lot of bass. But if you want a lot of lows in your sound, buy a Gibson or whatever, not a Telecaster. I mostly play my own music, but if I have to typify it the way it is, I'd say it gives you anything from Van Halen to Mike Stern. My rig is Engl 530 tube pre-amp, TC G-Force FX unit, Roland FC200 stage board, Peavey Classic 50/50 tube power amp and 2 BagEnd 12" monitor cabinets.

Switching the Hotrails to parallel doesn't change the pickup sound all that much, but it does bring its gain down which then balances neatly with the stock neck pickup. The whole setup really turns out to be great.

No flaws. The guitar's so basic that it's hard to make flaws on ie anyway. I didn't need to chop any wood for the mod so the guitar is still fine -- I'm definitely no carpenter. The guitar reads like a comic book, fine tuning it to your way of playing is a walk in the park.
I can play anything I want on it, so the action is fine as far's I'm concerned.

I don't have it long enough to say whether or not it will withstand live abuse. But considering that the model itself is 60 years old, and I'm not a very rough player, I guess it'll be fine. It feels sturdy enough.

Never dealt with them. The guys at Feedback were really helpful though (thanks Wick!)

I play for more than 30 years now. Apart from this, I have Blade R4 (SSS), PRS Standard, Gibson LP Studio, Ibanez RG7620 and Ibanez JS1000. Other gear includes H&K pre-amp, Marshall pre-amp, MesaBoogie DC50, another Peavey tube poweramp and so on.
With the mod, this guitar is a fave of mine in the jazz and cover department. I'd have it replaced in a heartbeat if it were stolen -- albeit with the mods I made.

I recently purchased a Mexican-made Fender Telcaster that I think is a re-issue of a '54. It has a Maple neck, and a dark burgundy color. Although it's in almost perfect condition, the gig bag is pretty beat up.

I play the tele through two amps, depending on the occasion: A Fender Pro 185 amp for performances, and an Epiphone Studio 10 for practice. I like the sound the Epi amp gives it: the classic tele tone that's perfect for that plucky, Fender twang. It sounds great when I play "Green Grass & High Tides" by the Outlaws. absolutely perfect for the intro. The Fender amp (being a solid state inferior Fender machine) doesn't have the same sound quality, but it sure kicks out the volume. I want to amp it through a Marshall to see how it sounds. Great tone, much better than my old '72 telecaster which I played for years, and sold a while back.

It has a standard setup as far as bridge, pickups, etc. The guy I purchased it from must've had it set up for slide, because he had the action so high. I lowered the action, and it plays smooth.

Stays in tune; reliable, lightweight, a great guitar.

Been playing for 30 years (Geez, am I THAT old?); bought my first guitar -a Kalamazoo copy of a Fender Mustang- from Banner Thomas, the former Bass player with Molly Hatchet. I've owned a Gibson Les Paul (heavy as a log), '72 Fender Telecaster (sold it a few years back not as nice as this one), and a Fender stratocaster. I like the Telecaster best right now, I DON"T CARE IF IT WAS MADE IN MEXICO, IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN MOST GUITARS I'VE PLAYED IN THE LAST 10 YEARS.
I would prefer a vintage Fender Esquire or "No-caster", but they are way beyond my price range, just like vintage Martin acoustics. This guitar will serve me well. It's the only guitar that I've ever been able to copy Stephen Stills on "Wooden Ships" -no other guitars have the same "plucky" tone as this telecaster. I love it.