Fender Telecasters in general

The Telecaster isn’t exactly a fave among Fenders guitars anymore. Originally it was designed as a budget guitar (although a genuine, especially a vintage, will sell for great prices nowadays), its chunky, workmanlike look lacks the ease of use of the Strat (and the Strat has a far superior sound) and the slinky look of the Jaguar and Jazzmaster models. A few famous Tele fans include Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, Graham Coxon, Chrissie Hynde and Rod Jones of Idlewild. The idea of the Tele was never to be beautiful; rather it was designed to be practical. However, it is very easy for a guitar to be both, as the Strat demonstrates (little swot that it is). It ...  Read the complete review

The Telecaster is an engineers guitar. When Leo Fender first started making electric guitars, this is what came from it. It's a big ugly thing really, the somewhat neglected older, less perfect brother of the Stratocaster. The Telecaster has this big heavy body, carved from basic lines and very few contours, the pick guard reflects this further, just a big bit of plastic, no style whatsoever, just purely there to serve a purpose. The pickups are basic single coil affairs that buzz under halogen lights, only two of them, a neck and a bridge pickup. There's only one volume control, and one tone control too, and then a three-pole switch for selecting ...  Read the complete review

----<Looks>---- Telecasters, and especially the older ones, are like the "Stradivarius's" of the guitar world. I had the pleasure of once owning an "original" '72 Telecaster Custom, that was blonde in colour. Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones is quotes as saying, "I know guys who hang these guitars on the wall and just stare at them", coming from "The" Telecaster master, this statement is actually quite true. When I sold mine, I really "did" miss it, 4 yrs later when Fender announced the Re-issue of the guitar, I knew I had to have one. The month it was being "Re-issued", I had ...  Read the complete review

When i first starting playing guitar, it was on one of those horrible things you find in the middle pages of argos made by Encore. Yes, the really poor black, strat- esque thing that is pretty terrible. Then, success! my birthday rolled around, and in came a beautiful blue Telecaster (a Squire you understand, the poor man's Tele). As i'd only been playing guitar for about a year when i got this beautiful piece of machinery, i was pretty crap on it. Much practice and paitence later, it was only then that i'd realised what a great guitar the Telecaster actually is. Shoved through my pretty nifty Zoom 505 effects peddle, and the Tele sounds blistering. ...  Read the complete review

The Telecaster is one of the earliest of the Guitar range and it predates the more fashionable Stratocaster by a few years. The Mid 50's designed Guitar is still popular with musicians today and is a firm favourite of Rolling stones guitarist Keith Richards among others. It looks to me like its not finished because the top of the guitar that meets the fretboard and neck is closed onto the guitar and does not have the 2 normal "cut out" sections more common on the strat. It also looks very dated with only 2 pick ups on it. Both are single coil and give a "jangley" sound when strummed. I have an old beaten up Left handed Tele (as the ...  Read the complete review