Ntd

[Duffy]

Just received my new Fender Telecaster Special Edition from Fender; just got to the shop and I picked it up.

It is the solid mahogany body w mahogany set neck, black cherry flammed maple top FMT HH; with a Seymour Duncan Custom 5 in the bridge and a 59 in the neck, open coil.

Wow. That's all I can say. Paid 570 for it. Made in Indonesia at the Cort plant I believe: IC09 are the first four in the serial number.

I'm playing it thru my Crate V32 Palomino 212 clean and overdriven and it sounds great. Low action, no buzz, black nickel or chrome hardware, rosewood board, coils split on push pull tone knob.

Stunning guitar in looks, especially feel and playability, and of course the humbucker combination makes it a special sounding telecaster. Doesn't sound like a Les Paul but is smooth and sweet and full, and noiseless.

The push pull gives it a split coil sound but not exactly like a tele of course but useable and a very nice sounding single coil sound. Seymour Duncan seems to know how to make great pickups.

I might get SD Blackouts for my EMG LP copy when it comes in, at least the bridge blackout. Direct three prong plug up to the EMG harness and uses the same electronics and 25kOhm pots. Supposedly a very easy mod.

Anyway the Special Edition HH Seymour Duncan Fender Tele is an awesome guitar that has a sound of its own; a very pleasant sound I might add. Very nice guitar all around.

Build quality is impecable. Neck and action is heart warming. The bridge is good for palm mutes. It produces great harmonics. Great pickups if you like this sort of sound. It's something you have to like, I'm sure because tele purists will wonder WTF? So be it. Great tele for what it is and has a tone and sound way different than a typical tele or tele copy, of which I have a few.

It is a pleasure to play. Great, great bass notes and chords, great note articulation, thanks SD, chiming trebles, super lead tones, a volume control that you can roll off and it doesn't drop the volume until the end of the sweep, just cleans up the tone; this is really a nice high quality design feature and it doesn't degrade the tone as it cleans it up, you don't lose highs or lows.

The tone knob works incrementally thru the entire sweep of the pot; no staying the same five sevenths of the sweep and then a two seventh of the sweep ability to modify the tone. Tonal modification throughout the sweep of the knob at an even well controlled and distributed turn of the pot; a really nice feature if you have had the tone knobs that do nothing until you are at the almost end of the sweep and then are really hard to get a specific tone because they are all so compressed into one tiny arc of the sweep.

Beautiful abalone extra large round dot board markers centrally located and easy to see in dim light.

Stunning overall guitar in a special format that challenges all the other dual humbucker equiped teles out there go for the gold.

Of course, a raggedy old tele with only five strings, in the hands of the right player could turn this beauty rosy red with envy, as we all know; its the soul and the hands that make the music, not the fancy guitar. In any case this is one fancy guitar that plays well and makes great music, in my own small way.

Picture definitely to follow and I'm working on getting my recording rig set up. My Lexicon Omega auth code on the disk envelope and the manual were thrown away by my Ex wife after I moved in with my fiance. Will Lexicon send me new disks and drivers? Maybe GC has a record of my purchase still on file. Otherwise I will buy a new recording interface. Also completely lost my Sony Acid disk in the big throw away event. They threw out an authentic back East Indian arrow head hundreds or thousands of years old. Had Amish people throwing my stuff out. Nothing against them but you know for sure that they don't value things like we do, if you know what I mean. They don't believe in Earthly possessions that are not utilitarian and only authorize a few of them.

Well, my loss is my gain. Things can be regained sometimes, and my fiance is more stunning than a whole pile of my guitars and amps; but, of course, no substitute. She loves to hear me play and encourages me to upgrade my instruments and recording rig, etc. Bought me an awesome new Dell Studio seventeen inch really nice high power laptop that should come in handy with my recording rig.

[@nthony]

Nice review Duffy! Sounds like the vol and tone pots are greatly improved from standard Teles. Should give you a whole heap of different tones. especially with the pull-push pots too.

Looking forward to the pics!

[Kazz]

Great review all the way up to the oxymoron.....Dell and high power.

[ZMAN]

Like this?

[Tig***]

I love FMT Tele's! I've played a few used ones at the local CG, but never had the $ at the time. One had Pearly Gates pickups, and the other had some unknown model Gibsons. I loved the tonal range these guitars have.

Enjoy your sweet Tele. Who cares if it isn't traditional? You can always buy one of those as well!

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats!

I have a Custom 5 in the bridge of my LP Classic. Good stuff.

[ZMAN]

I don't have mine any more I just could never bond with it. It was very light and very thin. It has a 15 degree radius on the neck and jumbo frets. The pickups were nice, and I like the single coil option. Set neck as well which was nice. It was a sweet looking guitar, and the black chrome hardware was very nice.
I have already mentioned this to Duff so he knows my feelings about the guitar.
I traded it with cash for a 50th Anniversary Deluxe MIA Strat.
As he mentioned it is not your everyday tele guitar, and purists would not like it.
To me is was almost toylike, and didn't feel like a guitar when it was strapped on. I don't know if I am expressing it in the correct way but this is what I felt.
I did ok on the trade and didn't lose a lot so I just chalked it up to experience.

[Duff]

That is the picture of the guitar.

My mistake though, it has a Pearly Gates open coil at the bridge and a 59 at the neck.

Compared to the picture mine has a very much more pronounced flammed maple top with a heavier contrast in the bands of flame.

It is a light guitar and I really like that aspect. Most of my other teles are a lot heavier.

The quality of sound is amazing and the worksmanship is stunning and flawless. The tone is great. The black chrome makes the otherwise flashy guitar look more demure, along with the dark vibe of the black cherry flame. Not a flashy but a classy looking guitar that stands up to its looks with playability and tone that blows my mind. Really a great guitar.

Let me take and post some pictures. No sun today here. Like to get some nice natural vibe pictures posted, taken in natural light.

Can't wait to get my Nikon D5000 digital SLR. Probably be a week or so, but I have two other point and shoot digitals, an olympus and a 10 Mpixel Canon Power Shot that take great pictures. I'm really looking forward to that Nikon though with the Nikon lens and will probably be going picture taking all the time. Another nice rip off item. Remember my Fender Hwy 1 super strat and my brand new Gibson SG faded brown guitars that were stolen? I replaced them with a Micheal Kelly Patriot Custom and a Fender American Standard '09 strat in blizzard pearl with an awesome gold and copper snakeskin pickguard I had put on before I picked it up, along with the bridge tone mod. Both new.
Next on my list is an ESP LTD EC 1000 Deluxe blinged out one with EMG 81/60 pickups in gloss black with gold trim. Not my usual type guitar. My CV 50s Strat with the aged pearl pickguard fitted with Fender Texas Specials is in my avatar. Awesome guitar, but the stock burst one is also awesome. Those CVs are really awesome. Maybe I should forget about the blinged LTD and get the new CV tele with the binding in burst and an Agile 3100. Same amount of money but no EMG tonal characteristics. Plus I'm thinking of replacing at least the bridge pup with a Seymour Duncan Blackout direct fit pup, three prong plug.

[ZMAN]

Yea Duff it was actually a lot darker and the flash as usual washed it out.
It was more of a black cherry than a red. I just could not get my fingers to like those Jumbo Frets. The 15 inch radius is very flat.
As far as bling goes, it IS amazing how lovely those guys at the Cort plant can make those look.
And yes Duffy the Tele custom with the double bound body is a sweet guitar.
More of a purists tele, but amazing quality.
I had no problems with the FMT HH other than the overal feel of the body.

[sumitomo]

I'll have to try one of those.I wonder how different the Mahogany sounds,I have a Warmoth Tele Alder body with a JB in the neck and a Pearly Gates in the bridge set up with splitters and it's one of my fav's.It dosent sound good at all through my Blues Jr but it is great through the Super Reverb or the Bandmaster.Sumi

[Duff]

Took the FMT HH to a music store a blues player friend of mine work at that has a Heritage signature guitar named after him. He loved it and tweaked the set up to perfection. The piano salesman came over and admired it and asked to play it. We went into the electric guitar and amp room and he plugged it into a Kustom '36 Coupe tube amp and ripped with the guitar. He is an older guy, probably sixty eight or so. He ripped the blues and played HB and split the coils. The tones were incredible with such a great player ripping it. He played a lot of what sounded like Chicago Blues influenced improvisations and worked all the adjustments, the volume and tone pots, the coil splitting and pickup selector. The guy was totally impressed and got what he thought were some fairly close tele sounds out of it in addition to some great thick roaring LPish type tones. He said he would love to gig with that guitar and I told him I would consider letting him use it at a gig sometime, awesome player: of course I will bring the axe to the gig and watch him play, if it happens.

I played a Schecter black blingy glossy LP copy with EMGs. Very nice sounding but not close to the tele; probably due to the other guys ability and talent. Didn't think the Schecter Hellraiser LP copy sounded close to the ESP LTD EC 1000 Deluxe with the EMG 60 and 81, the LTD had it beat I thought.

[MAXIFUNK]

I have that Tele in Amber made in Korea.

Seymour Duncan® SHPGP-1B Pearly Gates Plus Humbucking Pickup (Bridge)
Seymour Duncan® SH-1N RP �59 Reverse Polarity Humbucking Pickup (Neck)

Sounds great the neck took the longest of all my guitars to get used too.
If this guitar had a 9.5" or 12" radius it would be played more often.
But all and all it is a very good guitar although I must admit I have thought of selling it for a different type of Tele but for now I stand pat.

Because its is so well made and such great looking guitar and my 1st guitar it will be very hard for me to part with.

Tele's on my gas list................

Blackout Tele.
Baja Tele
FSR at musican's freinds for $599.00 ash body noiseless pups very nice axe.

Both of the new CV's Tele's but if I had to choose one of those it would be the ThinLine Tele it would be cool to have Semi Hollow until I can get a Smaller body ES Gibson.


Enjoy your new axe................

[MAXIFUNK]

Duff wrote:

"I played a Schecter black blingy glossy LP copy with EMGs. Very nice sounding but not close to the tele; probably due to the other guys ability and talent. Didn't think the Schecter Hellraiser LP copy sounded close to the ESP LTD EC 1000 Deluxe with the EMG 60 and 81, the LTD had it beat I thought."

Duff,

The funny thing is when I was looking for a guitar and bought my Tele I tried Schecter's too and just did not find one that felt right in my hands at all and they seemed poorly made as well but that could have been to many hands at GC touching them.

[BigBadWolf1171]

adding a 2nd or 3rd 9volt battery to those EMG's will bring out some nice chimes/harmonics, as well as make it a bit louder. i tried it in my (81/85's) dean hardtail and epi LP flame top.i love it

[ZMAN]

He said he would love to gig with that guitar and I told him I would consider letting him use it at a gig sometime, awesome player: of course I will bring the axe to the gig and watch him play, if it happens.

I played a Schecter black blingy glossy LP copy with EMGs. Very nice sounding but not close to the tele; probably due to the other guys ability and talent. Didn't think the Schecter Hellraiser LP copy sounded close to the ESP LTD EC 1000 Deluxe with the EMG 60 and 81, the LTD had it beat I thought.

Yes I would let him play it as long as they arent a WHO cover band!

[Tig***]

...could have been to many hands at GC touching them.

Funny, but every Schecter I've picked up at the local GC had the same problem. One even looked like a Who cover band got to it first!

[ZMAN]

I'll have to try one of those.I wonder how different the Mahogany sounds,I have a Warmoth Tele Alder body with a JB in the neck and a Pearly Gates in the bridge set up with splitters and it's one of my fav's.It dosent sound good at all through my Blues Jr but it is great through the Super Reverb or the Bandmaster.Sumi

The mahogany body is about 2/3s the thickness of a normal tele. It also has the six saddle strat style bridge. With the humbuckers you can get a lot oa great tones out of it. It is nice and light, and gentle on the back for sure.
One thing I really like about it was the simplicity. Two controls and a toggle, with a push pull switch.