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!