A Tale of Telecasters

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zaphod B
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Zaphod B

Zaphod B

Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
As I mentioned that I was going to do in another thread, I went to the local GC on Saturday to demo whatever Telecasters they had hanging on the wall. I went to the one on Hulen St. in Fort Worth. It's not as large a store as other GCs but they still manage to have about a zillion guitars and amps stacked up to the top of the 15' ceiling.

There was an excellent selection of Telecasters. I was interested in comparing the MIMs with the MIAs.

I lucked out and ended up with a young salesman who was knowledgeable about the Telecaster line, and had plenty of patience and time.

They had a MIA '52 Reissue which is absolutely gorgeous with its butterscotch finish. After playing it I was very disappointed. For starters, the neck is finished with a high-gloss poly that slows the action to the point of unplayability. Also, the neck pickup, which is said to be built to '52 specs, is muddy, bassy, and toneless. The bridge pickup sounds about like you'd expect - very bright, biting tone. Another thing I don't like about the '52 reissue is the bridge - faithful to the original '52, it uses three bridge saddles rather than six. This means that the intonation will always be a compromise (and I don't care if it's a reissue - it still looks cheap on an expensive guitar). The neck on the '52 reissue is one-piece maple with a U-shape profile. It's a very broad and chunky curvature but very substantial looking.

What I like about the '52 reissue is that it is drop-dead gorgeous, and seems to be a fairly accurate statement of the state of the art in 1952 (finish aside - I doubt that they were spraying poly in 1952). After I had demo'd a few of the other Teles, I commented to the salesman that I could not imagine anyone selecting the '52 over the others. He said that that seems to be the concensus among players, and that the '52 is regarded as a collector guitar rather than a player's guitar.

Next on my plate was a MIA Deluxe Ash. This model looks identical to the '52 reissue with the exception of the bridge saddles (six) and the satin finish on the neck, which helps it play nicely. Again, a drop-dead gorgeous butterscotch finish on the body and neck. The pickups are noiseless selenium cobalt and the guitar has great tone. This model also has a button switch in the middle of the volume control that, when the pickup selector is in the middle position, allows you to have the two pickups either in series or parallel. This is a nice feature and adds flexibility to the tone. The neck is identical to the '52 (one-piece maple, stained butterscotch to match the body, U-shaped profile). Very nice piece of work.

Up next was a MIA Ash, which looks a lot like ermghoti's MIK Light Ash. The switching is standard. The pickups are alnico. The neck is a thinner profile than the '52 or the deluxe ash, and it was unstained maple with a satin poly finish. The neck felt about identical to my '91 Strat Plus, which is a good thing. The body is natural-finish ash with beatiful graining. This model sounded very similar to the Deluxe Ash but it was a bit brighter overall. Excellent playability, and a very nice guitar.

Next I played a couple of MIM models - a Standard and another variation that I can't remember exactly. They were both very impressive. Lighter weight than the MIAs, with good tone and playability. Not quite as hot as the MIAs, though? There was a tonal difference that I noted, not that they were at all bad, just different. These had opaque color finishes. Very nice guitars for the price.

I would like to mention here that I had familiarized myself with the on-line seller prices of all the models I looked at. To my surprise, GC had them tagged at almost identical prices as the on-line sellers. My experience with GC in the past has been that they mark their merchandise a bit high, and it's up to you to be an informed customer to negotiate a fair price. So I was again surprised when the salesman immediately offered to negotiate on price on the model in which I expressed interest.

In the end I left the store to think about it. But Sunday afternoon found me driving home with an American Deluxe Ash in the back of the SUV. It's a beauty, and has wonderful, rich, clear tone - a tone I've been looking for for years, and that the Strat just can't quite get. I got a reasonable deal, getting out the door (including tax) for less than I could have gotten it for on-line.

Here's the picture from Fender's web site:
 

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Thanks, guys. As you can imagine, my fingertips are sore today. ;)
 
Track Rat said:
VERY nice sir. Everyone should have at least one Tele.
I'll agree with ya there, Track Rat, and mostly 'cause I have 2...a Squier Standard Fat Tele, and a Fender Standard Tele. I'm also looking to add a Strat to my collection, in the future, as well as another Squier...a Tele Custom II w/Duncan Designed P90s. I'll add a Bigsby B5, change the pickups and tuners, and I should have a decent surf guitar companion to my yet to be upgraded Epiphone Les Paul Jr. 90.

Matt
 
Gorgeous, you will enjoy the hell out of that.

Re: '52 RI's, a couple of comments and corrections.

The "neck" position on a '52 RI is actually the neck pickup with a cap, making for an extremely rolled-off tone knob sound. The cap is a higher value than any tone knob, so it is indeed very dead sounding. The middle position is the neck pickup, wired normally. The '52 wiring was quickly abandoned, it was intended to suggest the sound of an electric bass. RI's ship with the extra bits and instructions to rewire to normal switching.

They are finished in nitro, not poly, which accounts for the stickiness of the neck. There are compensated (slanted) saddles, which intonate nearly perfectly, and retain the tone advantage of a nice hunk of brass for a saddle. Despite the salesman's comment, they are very highly regarded as player's instuments in my area.

A big disadvantage, IMO, is the extremely round fretboard radius: 7.5"
 
ermghoti, on the '52 model I saw the saddles were not slanted - they were perpendicular to the strings. If you look on the Fender web site you will see the same thing.

Interesting comment about the '52 wiring - that explains the muddy sound. So I guess on that model you could get the neck pickup in two configurations but you could not combine the neck and bridge pickups?

Your correction on the nitro finish on the neck explains the stickiness. I just don't think I could have overcome it.

The neck on my Deluxe Ash has a 9.5" radius, so it's not quite as chunky as the '52. It's still fatter than I'm accustomed to, though, and it will take a bit of playing to get used to it. I'll get there!
 
Great and wise choice there Zaphod! The amber coloration on that neck gives it a beautiful aged look, and the 6 individual saddles are way better that the vintage 3 style. I bet you're twangin' on it right now!! (I know I'd sure be if I was you!) ;)
 

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Zaphod B said:
ermghoti, on the '52 model I saw the saddles were not slanted - they were perpendicular to the strings. If you look on the Fender web site you will see the same thing.

Understood. I bought compensated saddles for my Lite Ash on Stew-Mac for $14.

Zaphod B said:
Interesting comment about the '52 wiring - that explains the muddy sound. So I guess on that model you could get the neck pickup in two configurations but you could not combine the neck and bridge pickups?

Exactly. I think it was a carry-over from the Esquire, so the second pickup was viewed as an exra tone option.

Zaphod B said:
Your correction on the nitro finish on the neck explains the stickiness. I just don't think I could have overcome it.

My LP is pretty sticky, I've learned to Clean 'n Dust it periodically. The long term solution is to go to a satin finish on the back via fine steel wool or sandpaper.

Zaphod B said:
The neck on my Deluxe Ash has a 9.5" radius, so it's not quite as chunky as the '52. It's still fatter than I'm accustomed to, though, and it will take a bit of playing to get used to it. I'll get there!

I really wanted to see a Highway 1 Texas Tele: 12" radius, and rolled fretboard edges. Sounds like it would feel awesome. OTOH, Fender screwed up the H1 finishes badly on the upgrade editions.

The Deluxe Ash was definately on my short list, I just found most of what I wanted for under 1/3 the cost, and couldn't say no. I still might refinish mine in that finish, neck included.
 
Anfontan said:
Great and wise choice there Zaphod! The amber coloration on that neck gives it a beautiful aged look, and the 6 individual saddles are way better that the vintage 3 style. I bet you're twangin' on it right now!! (I know I'd sure be if I was you!) ;)
Thank you, sir. It was the amber color on both the neck and body that stole my heart. It's just such a rich-looking color tone.

And, yes, I did just put the thing back in its case! :D
 
ermghoti said:
The Deluxe Ash was definately on my short list, I just found most of what I wanted for under 1/3 the cost, and couldn't say no. I still might refinish mine in that finish, neck included.
Well, your guitar is a beauty. One thing that's unique to the Light Ash is the birdseye maple neck, which is really an eye-catcher.
 
MIJ Telecasters

hi there, since this is a telecaster thread, anyone here owned/played/tested any MIJ Telecasters before?

The attached image shows this Telecaster comes with a DRAGSTER humbucker & TEXAS SPECIAL TELE(U.S.A.)×2 for the bridge and middle pickup. I know most of the MIJs are for Japan's domestic market, but am curious of the humbucker on the neck.

Cheers!
 

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I didn't realise they were putting the SCN pups in teles too :)
I love my strat that is fitted with them.

Is the push-volume thing a variation on the Deluxe Strat's S1 Switching?
 
I like those... Damn I wish I could afford a telecaster, I've got a Squire Strat and an OLP, which are both great guitars, but they're just not in the same league! Anybody here got a TeleStrat? They look quite nice...
 
Thanks alot Zaphod, now I have to really fight the urge to run out and get a tele. Gratz on a great guitar.
 
Duditz said:
Thanks alot Zaphod, now I have to really fight the urge to run out and get a tele. Gratz on a great guitar.
You know you want one! :D
 
nice lookin' geetar you got there...

I have been modding my tele over the last week, and can't wait to finish it. I swapped out the bridge pup with a handmade english made bucker. Shielded the guitar on the inside. put a 5-way switch on it, and changed out the pots. when you get down to the nitty gritty of things, guitars are some of the most simple electronic devices ever!!!
 
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