Fender American Deluxe telecaster

[_tom_]

Got a link to that one? The deluxe on the Fender site is that horrible looking one with 3 pickups, modern c shape neck and 9.5" radius :?

I'm gonna go to Reverb and Sheehans some time this week hopefully, to have a go on some teles :)

[badgermark]

Got a link to that one? The deluxe on the Fender site is that horrible looking one with 3 pickups, modern c shape neck and 9.5" radius :?

I'm gonna go to Reverb and Sheehans some time this week hopefully, to have a go on some teles :)

BOOYA! Just like mine, and i think they have just came out in a natural finish.

[_tom_]

Well I just had a go on a few teles, a Baja and some American Standards. Definitely preferred the feel of the American Standard to the Baja, the neck felt nicer. Pretty good feel overall, much better than a strat. However I thought the sound was utter shite on all. Really thin an horrible. I didnt try it through the best amp (Fender Hot Rod Deluxe) but I tried some humbucker guitars through it and there was none of that thin filth!

Gonna have to try those humbucker ones, or its going to be a Gibson for me!

[Twinfan]

Don't rule them out quite yet Tom.

I played a few Mexican Fenders recently as I was checking some out for a mate.  Nearly all of them were dead and unresponsive.  One Baja was quite zingy, and pretyy good, but not even close to the CS Tele I compared them too.

I don't doubt you can get good Mexica and US made Fenders, but I think you need to try quite a few out to find "the one".  The right Tele can be a beefy thing!

Oh, and it's easy to get a fat tone out of a humbucker LP style guitar.  Doing it with clarity is the trick  ;)

[_tom_]

Doing it with clarity is piss easy with a Pig 90 or MQ though :D

I just dont think teles (at least singlecoil ones) are for me. These ones felt nice and sounded fine when unplugged (didnt sound dead) but when plugged in they sounded atrocious :\

[Philly Q]

Did you try the clean sound, Tom?  Nothing sounds better clean than a Tele does.

[_tom_]

Sounded ok but again very thin and not really my kinda clean sound.

I guess it could just be the amp not getting on with singlecoils though (but that seems odd as it was a fender) so I'll give it another go through a better amp next time.

[dave_mc]

Did you try the clean sound, Tom?  Nothing sounds better clean than a Tele does.

i prefer strat cleans :lol:

but yeah, a good tele doesn't really sound thin. it still sounds like a single coil, of course. if you don't like single coils, though, that's fair enough.

[AndyR]

Uh-oh Andyr rambling essay time :lol:

There's something about teles, Tom.

I got my Baja 18 months ago because it felt the closest to whatever it was I thought I was after from a tele. But I only got glimpses of this. I really struggled to love it. I even remember asking "who's replaced pickups on theirs?" on here, and got a fairly comprehensive "not us" back.

Eventually I went - feck it, I want to own a set of pickups called "Blackguards"...

The minute I put them in, it was stunning. For me personally, the Baja's stock pickups, even the apparently divine twisted tele neck, are pretty much @rse - they just don't do it for me (I've even tried them in other guitars later, they "do the job" but they're not magical for my tastes).

What the Blackguards did for me was "unlock" what all this tele mystery is about - suddenly I loved the guitar, suddenly I could "feel the part" when playing the thing, suddenly I bought another two teles...

It happened to be the BGs in that particular guitar that unlocked it for me, it'll be something different for everyone. But once you've found out what teles can do for you, it actually sounds "thicker". It isn't thicker at all, but it feels like it is, or you dig more out of it yourself, or whatever (eg. I'm happy playing the stock pickups now I've found out how to do this).

I actually have to go through this transformation every time I pick up a tele after I haven't played one for a while. Remember I've had a couple of months where I got a new SG (all single coil guitars sound sh1t after playing that for a week or so!), and then a new strat. The other night I picked up the BG'd Baja, and it was AWFUL, utterly awful, but five/ten minutes loosening up, and there it all was again (even with dead strings on it) :D

And then when I put the strat/SG on again, I'm playing those better...

Btw - I find it easier to do the switcheroo if I pick up my rosewood boarded tele instead - that feels nearer to the other guitars, and the transition isn't so stark. Have you tried rosewood boards?

There's something really weird about teles. I fully understand why some people adore them, and then other people absolutely loathe them - I was really interested in this apparent contradiction, I felt that both sets of people are right. I can't explain what it is I've learnt or found out exactly, but I do know both are right - I'm capable of feeling both in the same 30 minutes!

I think you will own a tele one day, but when you do it'll have to be a "leap of faith" on a particular specimen that hints at what maybe it could do. And then you'll learn to love it over a period of time (or not!). That's kinda what I've done in the last couple of years :D

[_tom_]

Inspiring stuff, Andy! :)

I'm thinking it could be the amp, as I've heard from some people on HC that the HDRx doesnt work well with singlecoil guitars. I never tried mine with em so I cant say for sure. I've heard so many great clips of the Baja that it seems odd that the one I tried sounded so bloody awful!

I havent tried any rosewood ones but tbh I hate the look, its all about the maple-on-black look on teles!