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View Full Version : Found the Tele I want!



Sada Yairi
July 1st, 2012, 04:50 PM
I've never owned a Tele, indeed I've never owned a solid-body at all and I've decided to rectify that. Having looked around at a lot of options, I've decided a Tele is the way to go both for the music I play and for something different to what I currently have (semihollows - a Dot with humbuckers and a Wildkat with p90s). I was thinking about a build project, and I may still do that, but I'm thinking it's time for a new guitar.

Only problem is that there are about 572 million varieties of Tele available, so how (being a very inexperienced Tele player) do I choose? Of course I needed to play a bunch, so I went down to the local Fender dealer on the weekend and asked them to help out. I got the guy to line up all the Teles (Fender only, there are plenty of options there) ranging in price from $500 to $1200. In Australia (cos everything's so much more expensive here) that means a range including the Blacktops, Modern Players, Standard Tele, Nashville, some re-issues, Highway One etc, so a range of Chinese, MIM and MIA.

I told the guy not to tell me how much each of them cost, and not even to say which model they actually are so I could have no bias (I don't know the Teles well enough to identify which is which by sight). I played them all through the same amp (Mustang on a clean channel and a gain channel). I was looking for playability, tone, and to a minor degree looks.

After playing each of the Teles for 5-10 minutes I came up with some very surprising results:

1) Even though I have very little experience with Teles, I could hear significant differences in tone from each different guitar. I was really surprised that the tones varied so much, and that those differences were so obvious to me.

2) The guitar I liked least for playability and tone was the Standard Tele (MIM) which I would have expected to be the one I liked most! They go for around $700 here.

3) The ultimate verdict - of all those Teles across a significant price range and across three different countries of manufacture, and based on playability, tone and looks, I liked the Modern Player Tele Plus more than anything else! Turns out it's the cheapest of the lot ($585 in Aus) and I liked it much more than any of the others, no question. When the guy told me which model it was, and how cheap it was, I couldn't believe it.

I liked the tone of the position between the neck and middle pickup best. I found the neck beautiful to use (never owned a maple fretboard before), the body felt super comfortable (with belly-cut), and the thing looked great. In reality it's much more red to honey coloured than the pics on the Fender website, almost like a cherry sunburst Gibson finish. I was so glad to have decided what I like with a "blind" test of lots of Teles, and to find that what I want I may actually be able to afford! And when I do get it, I'll honestly be able to say that I tried a whole bunch and got the one I liked the most. Very pleased!

Pickngrin
July 1st, 2012, 08:40 PM
I really like the way that you approached that, Sada,. So many psychological factors/biases otherwise play into instrument preference. Glad that you found a Tele that you like!

Brian Krashpad
July 2nd, 2012, 05:49 AM
Congrats!

Only, basic rule of teh internets: if no pic, guitar does not exist. ;)

Just sayin', mate.

Tig
July 2nd, 2012, 08:00 AM
Nice way of demo'ing. Yes, there is much truth to your observation: "I could hear significant differences in tone from each different guitar. I was really surprised that the tones varied so much, and that those differences were so obvious to me."

My favorite tones came from the American Special, followed by the Baja Tele.

I was playing my Hell Guitars tele style last night using the neck pickup, with the Fender Super Champ X2's Vox amp model, driven fairly hard. The classic wood like tones were awesome!

Brian Krashpad
July 2nd, 2012, 09:45 AM
Nice way of demo'ing. Yes, there is much truth to your observation: "I could hear significant differences in tone from each different guitar. I was really surprised that the tones varied so much, and that those differences were so obvious to me."

My favorite tones came from the American Special, followed by the Baja Tele.

I was playing my Hell Guitars tele style last night using the neck pickup, with the Fender Super Champ X2's Vox amp model, driven fairly hard. The classic wood like tones were awesome!

I live on the Vox channel of my SC XD! By happenstance (a tube bass amp I was going to let my rhythm guitarist use ended up being used for bass after all because the engineer did not like going direct), all my guitar tracks on our current album were done on that ittybitty thang! Despite that live I use a 50W Sovtek (that's what I let my rhythm guitarist use on the album) into a 4x12.

OK, back to bizness. Pics mate?

NWBasser
July 2nd, 2012, 02:32 PM
At the end, Sada noted "when I do get it" which means no pics until guitar is in hand.:D

PS - That sounds like a great way to approach guitar selection.

Also, I noted that Modern Player jazz bass is an extremely nice playing bass. Seems a good series for Fender.

sunvalleylaw
July 2nd, 2012, 03:31 PM
Nice! Looking forward to full review and pics when you get it !

Spinshred
July 9th, 2012, 01:35 AM
I always love Telecaster, and in spite of it would the last guitar on earth to be played, I would still be a big fan of that guitar and For me this is the most versatile guitar I ever heard even some rock use it, including Jims roots of sklipnot.


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Jipes
July 9th, 2012, 07:02 AM
A friend of mine (excellent player) did the same with Strats but also blinded for real (a mask on his eyes) and came up with a Japanese model up from all American series so I guess they're not really any rules just take what sounds the best in your hands is a great criteria :thumbsup

Did you had any Thinline in your collection of Tele's ? To me since I'm playing a Thinline Custom 72 (a year or so) I have hard times to go back to any other guitar even to my loved MIJ Esquire

Sada Yairi
July 9th, 2012, 05:09 PM
I didn't include Thinlines, no. Main reason is that I have a Dot and a Wildkat - I want a solid body, that's the point of looking at a Tele in the first place. I did look at the Thinlines before I bought the Wildkat (not long ago) but went with the Wildkat instead. Now I'm after a solid body cos it's different to what I have (and I also want single coils for the same reason).

Jipes
July 10th, 2012, 12:52 AM
Cool Sada I was just curious to hear why you didn't mention the Thinlines :AOK