A bit of an update for you all.
I went to Vintage and Rare guitars today to try some Teles out, so I can add my comments to those of AndyR's earlier:
Fender NoCaster Relic - A complete non starter for me. The neck is HUGE. Half a baseball bat huge. I didn't like it at all so it went straight back on the stand. Far too uncomfortable.
Nash Sunburst 60s Tele relic - It played nice, with a comfy C-shaped strat-ish neck. Matt finish was good but it looked fake. Very fake. A nice 'bitsa' partscaster but I didn't think it was worth the £1300 asking price.
McGuire Black Guard 50s Tele - This is where it gets interesting. Very nice 'chunky C' shaped neck with rolled edges. Very comfortable to play. Relic'ing was pretty heavy and as Andy says it looks 'abused' rather than 'used'. Quite a fat sounding guitar, but a bit closed if that makes sense? More like a punch than an open hand slap in the tone department when you belt a chord out. Could well have been the pickups doing that (they were Lollars). It would have taken gain very well. I would swap the pickups for something lighter and see if that opened the guitar up a bit. But it might not. The finish was a bit too glossy for my liking, which was a bit of down side. Still my second favourite though, and superb value for money. It reminded me a lot of my Baja Tele, if it had been heavily abused for 50 years!
Fender '58 Custom Shop Heavy Relic - What can I say. Awesome. Light, resonant, every note was clear, relic'ing was heavy but appropriate, superb rounded V neck (like a worn in Baja), great pickups, lovely open sounding guitar that rang like a bell. Exactly what I imagined a great Tele should sound like. Not in the least bit harsh, but bright and zingy. Incredible. Goes to show Fender still know how to do it!
Oh, and the young lass in there is cute ;)
