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Fat sounding telecaster


jgomez

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Hey guys, I'm currently weighing over some options for a new telecaster. I'm not a fan of the traditional tele twang and the ash tray type setup, but I've seen a few humbuckered thinline/deluxe tele's that I've fallen in love with. I just passed up on this auction:

Fender '72 Telecaster Thinline RI w/ Matching Headstock on eBay (end time 09-Feb-10 12:28:00 GMT)

!BlTq1PQBGk~$(KGrHqEH-DcEt!1gpj,LBLbImuy-4!~~_12.JPG

I adore the guitar and have been looking for it for a while, but my head got the better of my heart and told me to avoid the hassles of importing... Plus at the end of the day, customs etc. included, it'd come to around 600, and for that I could pick up a brand new '72 reissue thinline tele, I love the natural wood one almost as much as the white FSR from the ebay auction, here's a pic:

72-thinline-natural_m.jpg

Another option I've been looking at are P90 equipped tele's, I really like the JA-90 Jim Adkin's signature - looks like this:

0262350538_xl.jpg

However 450 for a Korean or Indonesian built guitar sounds pretty rough... I don't have anything like this in my collection though, so it's sorely tempting me. As a cheaper alternative, I've read in various prices that the Squier Tele Custom II with P90's is actually incredibly good for it's price of 190ish - Sounds a bit dubious to me though!

What do you reckon guys? Anyone have any first hand experience with any of these guitars? I'm heading into town on Saturday, so I'll see if any of the shops have something similar in-store so I can at least get a feel for them - I've never even held a tele! Really quite looking forward to saturday... :)

So, any advice on the guitars I've mentioned or some cool alternatives to check out would be most appreciated! Cheers dudes.

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The 2 humbucker ones are ok, they're better sounding with the tele bridge pickup- that 70's custom vibe. You get the twang when you need it and the humbucker. And there's nothing like a tele bridge pickup blasting through a marshall sending the sound guys diving for the fader.....

Oh, advice. If it fits your hands and the tone is what you like, who cares where it's made? They all look the same from behind. And there's nothing like a telecaster to get you out of a bar fight, and in that scenario you don't need to worry about the pickups.

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I recently took delivery of a lovely Gordon Smith thinline Tele with a humbucker in the neck. It's corking and the humbucker can be tapped to give some single coil tones. I don't know if they are readily available as I had to wait about 8 months for mine to get built.

I also have a Mexican Fender '72 Custom which has a humbucker in the neck, they're really good for the money. I'm not keen on humbuckers at the bridge though, the single coils have some serious bite.

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The 2 humbucker ones are ok, they're better sounding with the tele bridge pickup- that 70's custom vibe. You get the twang when you need it and the humbucker. And there's nothing like a tele bridge pickup blasting through a marshall sending the sound guys diving for the fader.....

Oh, advice. If it fits your hands and the tone is what you like, who cares where it's made? They all look the same from behind. And there's nothing like a telecaster to get you out of a bar fight, and in that scenario you don't need to worry about the pickups.

Good advice - I'll hopefully find some on saturday. Speaking from experience re the bar fights Son? Tele's would definitely have a nice, heavy body for swingin'! :)

@Bigsby, totally forgot about that one - I'll follow that up and have a looksee I think. :) But yeah, the JA looks sweet. I'd like to try one - might have to buy and use the distance selling rule if it doesn't suit...

@MikeyEB, do you think you'd prefer the sound of a P90 in the bridge?

@Huw, is that the '72 reissue type deluxe? Seen them going for ~600 for a classic player MIM, looks nice I reckon, like this:

CLASSIC%20PLAYER%20DEL%20TL%20TELE.JPG

@Graham, that's a sick price man, they're all going for 599 that I've seen so far... how'd you manage that? :D

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my korean squier strats are very well put together, i prefer them to some older mexican fender strats i've played some how they feel lesser quality than the my squier.

found this going for 189.00 new, you shouls try them out to see how they feel for you

telecaster%20custom%20blond.jpg

# Colour: Blonde

# Body: Agathis

# Neck: Maple, C-Shape

# Fingerboard: Maple, 7.25 Radius (184 mm)

# Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo Frets

# Pickups: 2 Duncan-Designed P90-2 Pickups with Alnico 5 Magnets (Neck/Bridge)

# Controls: 2 Volume, 2 Tone

# Pickup Switching: 3-Position Toggle

# Bridge: 6-Saddle Strings-Thru-Body Tele Bridge

# Machine Heads: Standard Die-Cast Tuners

# Hardware: Chrome

# Pickguard: 3-Ply Black

# Scale Length: 25.5 (648 mm)

The Custom II is a super-affordable temple of tone with some tasty Tele tweaks that include a pair of blistering Duncan Designed P-90s with indepedendent tone and volume controls. The agathis body snugs up to an all-maple neck/fretboard with dot inlays, medium-jumbo frets, and a 25-1/2" scale.

some people get put off by the "squier" label, i think they are ok, they don't inhibit my playing or sound i think than if i were to get a 500+ guitar

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Good advice - I'll hopefully find some on saturday. Speaking from experience re the bar fights Son? Tele's would definitely have a nice, heavy body for swingin'! :)

Yes,somewhere in texas is a guy with a strap button imprint on his forehead from the business end of my old tele. Not a scratch on the guitar. Teles, first choice in self-defense guitars the world over...

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my korean squier strats are very well put together, i prefer them to some older mexican fender strats i've played some how they feel lesser quality than the my squier.

found this going for 189.00 new, you shouls try them out to see how they feel for you

telecaster%20custom%20blond.jpg

# Colour: Blonde

# Body: Agathis

# Neck: Maple, C-Shape

# Fingerboard: Maple, 7.25 Radius (184 mm)

# Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo Frets

# Pickups: 2 Duncan-Designed P90-2 Pickups with Alnico 5 Magnets (Neck/Bridge)

# Controls: 2 Volume, 2 Tone

# Pickup Switching: 3-Position Toggle

# Bridge: 6-Saddle Strings-Thru-Body Tele Bridge

# Machine Heads: Standard Die-Cast Tuners

# Hardware: Chrome

# Pickguard: 3-Ply Black

# Scale Length: 25.5 (648 mm)

The Custom II is a super-affordable temple of tone with some tasty Tele tweaks that include a pair of blistering Duncan Designed P-90s with indepedendent tone and volume controls. The agathis body snugs up to an all-maple neck/fretboard with dot inlays, medium-jumbo frets, and a 25-1/2" scale.

some people get put off by the "squier" label, i think they are ok, they don't inhibit my playing or sound i think than if i were to get a 500+ guitar

I have this guitar, and I can vouch for it. Quality piece of kit. Plays very much unlike its pricetag. I love it alot, though it's been barged down the pecking order now my Jet King is back with a new pick up.

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my korean squier strats are very well put together, i prefer them to some older mexican fender strats i've played some how they feel lesser quality than the my squier.

found this going for 189.00 new, you shouls try them out to see how they feel for you

some people get put off by the "squier" label, i think they are ok, they don't inhibit my playing or sound i think than if i were to get a 500+ guitar

Yip, that guitar is the exact one I mentioned in my first post the Custom II with p90's, at it's price i'm quite tempted to give it a punt, I think it's main contender is the JA-90 just now, I'm thinking that I don't really need to spend 600+ right now as tempting as the '72 thinline is. At the end of the day I'm just an low-end barely intermediate player that doesn't gig, and won't do in the forseeable future.

@Original Spies, if you had enough cash for either and had the choice between the squire and the JA-90 I posted up, which do you think you'd go for?

I think I'd be lying if I said the aesthetics weren't a large part of the draw of these guitars but I really want something that's going to sound great, and different from anything that we have in the house.

At the moment i've got a standard mex strat (my baby), a Vintage VS6 SG copy (my first guitar), a Yamaha APX700 electro-acoustic and I share a silverburst Ibanez ART120 with my wife. My wife's guitars are a very nice Yamaha Pacifica 112 which I ditched my SG copy to learn on, a Gibson SG Goddess - recent purchase from ebay which was slightly shabbier than it was made out to be by the seller, but it's a beautiful guitar, and last but not least her Ibanez S520ex which was bought 2nd hand for a steal and looked like it had been freshly taken out of the factory box, but has rarely been played since as it's in dire need of a setup.

I think any sort of tele is probably about as different as you could get from the above, perhaps especially the P90 equipped ones? :D

Oh, and I should probably mention the amp we use - a Fender M80 Chorus 2x12 combo. It sounds pretty nice, don't think I've ever managed to turn the volume up on it past 2 or 3 though, haha. :)

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Yip, that guitar is the exact one I mentioned in my first post the Custom II with p90's, at it's price i'm quite tempted to give it a punt, I think it's main contender is the JA-90 just now, I'm thinking that I don't really need to spend 600+ right now as tempting as the '72 thinline is. At the end of the day I'm just an low-end barely intermediate player that doesn't gig, and won't do in the forseeable future.

@Original Spies, if you had enough cash for either and had the choice between the squire and the JA-90 I posted up, which do you think you'd go for?

I couldn't possibly say. I got the Tele Custom II on the basis of good reviews. I'd never actually played one, but I hadn't heard a bad word said about it, and the pricetag was easy on the pocket. Very glad I took a risk on it because it's certainly very good. Even the DD pickups are very reasonable.

I have no experience with the JA, so I can't really comment. The Custom isn't a very aesthetically pretty guitar, but it does a job, and sounds and plays great. Mines the black one, mind. I didn't like the look of the blonde one.

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I'm keeping an eye out for a new Telecaster. I have a cherry red Squier, Original Spies owned it before me and fitted it with a Seymour Duncan Hotrail, and since I've had it I've changed the bridge, the control plate, the control knobs, the machine heads, and the neck pick-up cover from dirty old silver fittings to shiny new gold fittings, as well as putting on a white pearlescent scatchplate and a white top hat on the selector switch! It looks affa nice.

I want another Tele.

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Heading into town tomorrow and on the way, going to check out Alan Badge's custom tele, then will have a wander round R&B and possibly Brucie's if I have time. Then after a day or so's perspective after trying stuff out on saturday, I'll hopefully be able to figure out which way the GAS is pointing! :)

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I'll be happy with a half a telecaster. ;)

Anyone tried out the G&L ASAT's btw? This blueburst one is HOT...

p3_u2v2dfvwk_so.jpg

I think the singer (Joe?) from copy haho plays some sort of G+L tele. It's got a dark natural finish and a black scratchplate. Looks so, so nice. Sounds really great too. I want one.

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Well went round to Al's on Saturday to try out the custom tele, and it rocked. Proceeded to head into town to check out what R&B and Bruce Millers had, but nothing there really excited me. So it was a fight between the JA-90 Jim Adkin's signature and Al's custom tele, being able to try one and not the other made the choice fairly difficult, but finally settled on Al's Tele. And she's a beauty. Cheers Al!

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