What is the deal with this telecaster?

G

GuineaMcPig

New member
Hello-

I recently stumbled upon a unique telecaster that I decided to buy. It has some features that are atypical for this guitar, and I was wondering if any of the guitar gurus here might be able to give me some more information about it. First of all, it has 3 pickups: what looks to be a gold lace sensor at the bridge (it says "Fender-Lace Sensor" in gold lettering) and 2 pickups in the middle and neck positions with chrome covers. I was wondering if someone might be able to tell me what kind of pickups are in there.

Secondly, the guitar has a 5-way switch, as well as a tone pot with some kind of detente in the middle that I assume corresponds to a "neutral" frequency response. Is this a TBX tone control circuit? It also has another switch that might be a "phase" control, but the difference it makes in the sound is almost imperceptible.

Finally, the back of the guitar is contoured in back and on top (where the guitar might rest against your stomach).

I think this model might be a Plus/Deluxe, but I'm not quite sure. I haven't found any pictures on the internet that look like this guitar, so I'm hoping someone here might have some experience with it.

Thanks for the help!

~Jordan
 

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Looks like you got yourself a Tele Plus.

I just checked the documentation that was with mine when I purchased it in '97 and there is no mention of what specific p/ups are fitted although at the time the lace sensors available for Tele's were listed as Blue or Red for the bridge position and Silver or Blue for the neck position.

The additional switch brings in two additional p/up combinations which normally aren't available.............neck and bridge p/ups and ALL three p/ups...........if you have the 5 way set for either neck p/up OR neck/middle, the other switch will bring in the bridge p/up as well.

They are a great guitar and well worth adding to a collection.

:cool:
 
Thanks for the reply! I found out through a similar post at Harmony Central that this guitar is a Deluxe/Plus, and that the pickups are 2 tele gold lace sensors in the bridge and neck positions, and a strat gold lace sensor in the center.

If the pickups are sounding a little bit dull to my ears, with which pickups should I replace them? I'm looking for a pickup that will perform well with overdrive or distortion that still sounds acceptable (and hopefully good) clean. I'm not necessarily looking for a "vintage" sound, but I'm not really into the modern high gain/metal stuff. I'll be playing through a Fender Twin reverb reissue.

I'm considering Bill Lawrence pickups (maybe 280s in the neck and middle and a 290 in the bridge) because they're inexpensive, highly praised, and have a low enough noise floor that I could use them in my studio. Anyone have experience with these pickups in a setup similar to mine, or any other brand of pickup that you might recommend for the (very general) sound that I'm going for?
 
Looks like a nice guitar. I think there are a few different versions of the Plus, or maybe some of them are customs or deluxes or whatever. The one I really like is the one with the two red lace sensors in the bridge and one blue lace sensor in the neck, with 5 way pickup selector switch and the tap thing. Johnny Greenwood from Radiohead plays one almost exclusively. Some day I'll have one!
 
Looking through Fender's Frontline magazine from that period tell me this.........before the Summer '98 issue, these guitars were in a category titled Tele Plus/Deluxe, but the only guitars ever in that category were Tele Plus which had 3 lace sensor p/ups (2 chrome covered and 1 strat style).

The summer '98 issue of Frontline didn't list the Plus BUT instead has the Tele Deluxe which was essentially the same guitar except that it was fitted with Fender's new noiseless p/ups and the visual differences were.........bridge p/up looked similar to the Plus, centre p/up similar to the bridge but with white plastic instead of black and the neck p/up was still chrome.

McPig, you have a Tele Plus.

:cool:
 
Well I know that Fender have screwed around with models that much it is sometimes hard to follow them, and obviously that pic at guitargeek had to come from somewhere but the p/up configuration doesn't match up with anything in the Fender publications I have covering the Tele Plus era.

Also, considering guitargeek are using the same pic for both the Plus and Plus Deluxe (which btw, still doesn't show as being a valid model name in the above mentioned literature) would cast doubts over the reliability of info on their site.

I think some of the confusion concerning the model name comes from the fact that Strats had a couple of variations in the "Plus" range and it has mistakenly been applied to Teles.

:cool:
 
I agree guitargeek isn't the most reliable source. It was just the first place I found the picture.

What I do know is that guitar was oficially produced by Fender, until it was discontinued around 1995, and it was called a "Telecaster Plus". Not that this matters much. Fender is a more difficult company to get a model history on, especially for guitars. It's a bit easier to get info on their amp history. Companies like Gibson and Marshall seem to be easier to find model history information on.
 
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