Fender Telecaster (partscaster) and some revelations

[Stringswinger]

OK, I was not looking for another guitar (I have 15, way more than I need), but a fellow forum member posted a guitar for sale on this forum last week at a price that I could not pass up. So after trying two Telecasters in the past, I find myself with a third. It has been said the third time is the charm. Certainly so in this case.

This is not a high end partscaster made from the finest parts, but it looks, sounds and plays great. I used this guitar on a solo gig yesterday and it performed well and many compliments came my way. Revelation number one: You do not need to play a high end guitar to sound great on the gig.

My first two Teles were a 52 reissue (I did not like the thin sound of the stock neck single coil pickup) and a Hot rod 52 reissue (I did not like the sound of the neck mini-humbucker, nor the U shaped neck). This guitar with it's slim C shaped neck and neck Humbucker works very well for me. Revelation number two: Telecasters are great jazz guitars (many of you know this already. I have always preferred a Les Paul or Strat for a solid body jazz guitar. My opinion has now changed).

Here are the specs of this partscaster as best as I have been able to suss them out:

Neck: A MIM Fender neck from a 2013 Baja Player's Telecaster. The neck has been reshaped and refinished (and possibly refretted). This neck originally was a soft V neck, but someone reshaped it into a slim C shape (my favorite) and gave it a very thin coat of either Nitro or oil. It feels like a well worn vintage neck. The frets are tall jumbos.

Body: A custom American made body made out of Northern Ash with a neck pickup routing only. Northern ash is a heavy tonewood (Fender used this wood in the 70's) and indeed this is a somewhat heavy Telecaster. It weighs 8 pounds 10 ounces (Some 70's Teles made of this body wood can weigh as much as 11 pounds). This guitar is at the top of my comfort level (it weighs as much as my Super 400CES), but is doable for me today as I approach my 65th birthday. In 10 years, it might need a different body or a new owner. I will cross that bridge when I get there. I did need to install a couple of strap pins. The seller is shorter than me and since he only used this guitar sitting down, he never installed strap pins. I need a strap to play this guitar seated and truth be told, if I was playing rock or blues and was doing a three hour gig standing up, this guitar would not leave the house. All of that said, the wood grain of this two piece ash body is beautiful and the sustain is off the charts. It sustains as well as any Les Paul. The pickguard is a Warmouth custom blackguard made for a single neck humbucker. I installed a couple of Allparts nickel strap pins. It is an oil finish and the guitar is very resonant.

Tuners and neck plate are from an American Standard Telecaster.

The Bridge is a Korean made Wilkensen short Tele bridge with some compensated graph tech saddles installed.

The Pickup is a Duncan 59 with an alnico 2 magnet replacing the stock alnico 5 magnet. It sounds much like a Gibson 57 Classic. Warm and creamy.

The case is a serviceable Chinese made hard shell electric guitar case. It does not fit the guitar perfectly and is not heavy duty, but for storing the guitar at home it does the trick (I use a gig bag when I take a guitar outside of my home).

The electronics, knobs and control cover all look to be of high quality. It has the Eldred "Cocked Wah" set up. This gives a one pickup Tele three tonal options using a standard three way switch. Position one is a volume pot only with a capacitor attached for a warm somewhat honky tone. Position two is a normal volume and tone pot setup. Position three is a volume pot only as this gives a slightly hotter and brighter tone. I used position two on my gig as I like a little tone roll off to get a warm jazz sound.

I think I will be keeping (and using) this guitar for awhile. Thanks again to the forum member who sold this too me. He asked for way too little money, but if he had asked what the guitar is worth, I would not have bought it (and it might have taken awhile to sell as "jazz" Teles might not be in particularly high demand). Thay say things happen for a reason. The seller wanted this guitar to go to a good home. It has.

Here are some pictures (isn't looking at guitar pictures the real reason most of us log on to this forum in the first place?):

[skykomishone]

Very Cool SS!
Congratulations!
I like your story, kudos to the seller too!

[QAman]

SS
A big congrats and thoughtful insight into this guitar. It's true, you don't need to spend huge dollars to make great music, and it's obviously found it's rightful new owner.

You are also an experienced professional player who can make a 2x4 with a pickup and strings sound great.

Wishing you lots of fun with the new Tele.

Sent from my SM-P610 using Tapatalk

[ESCC]

Congrats. My Tele has become my favorite solid body guitar as well. Would love to hear it????

[Skip Ellis]

Very nice Tele - what more do you need?

[Filmosound 621]

what more do we need ?

10 Archtops, minimum.


happy new Telecaster day to you, me like.

[wintermoon]

Nice grain

[citizenk74]

Nice T, SS! Congratulations, and play it in good health!

[Stringswinger]

what more do we need ?

10 Archtops, minimum.


happy new Telecaster day to you, me like.

In fact, I do own 10 archtops. That said, having done a couple of gigs with the Telecaster, I have to say that with the exception of Rythym guitar (which no solidbody guitar does very well, particularly if they are humbucker equipped) a properly equipped Telecaster really is the only jazz guitar a gigging jazz guitarist needs.

But need and want are two different things, as many of here know perfectly well.

[itsmyname]

I like the idea of a neck humbucker on the tele like Ed Bickert played for example.

Your tele looks great !

(I will buy one in a few moths, I'm thinking to a humbucker neck (with split to single) and a traditional tele bridge pickup cause I love this sound from the tele too a kind of american performer )

[ronjazz]

Good that you took the plunge, and if it becomes too heavy later on, there are all kinds of lighter Tele bodies around. I had a nice one some years ago, but decided I liked the shorter Gibson scale better, and eventually discovered the Gretsch Electromatic series with 24.6" scale. What floored me when I acquired one were the Filtertron pickups, as I had tired of the warm, creamy and somewhat dull sound of standard hum buckers after thousands of gigs. The snap and articulation of the Filtertrons made me fall in love with electric guitars all over again, and I bought a second one with better upper range access. Both have Bigsby tailpieces, which I use sparingly but really add to the sustain. It's really interesting how we fall into habits and often ignore other options like the Tele or Gretsch in my case. A real plus was that I was able to purchase both Gretsches, very well-made pro-level instruments, slightly used and great-looking on stage, for a total of about $1275.

[jim777]

Congrats! I love Teles myself and have a few. I do find it odd he replaced the logo on the headstock, but you don't play the logo Play those frets off her!

[Max405]

SS,
When you posted this Guitar originally, I didnt REALLY look at it. Thats a really NICE guitar! You will make it sound better than a guitar should sound at 20x the price. You know how to coax the best sounds out of anything you play.
When I was at GC last week trying out amps, I left my strap there. So I had to go back yesterday to get it. There was a really attractive Natural Telecaster with F-Holes just sitting there.. So I picked it up. All I could say is, Oh my God..
It blows me away, just how playable these guitars are. They make the other guitars we play feel big and cumbersome. The Telecaster becomes a familiar guitar, immediately. A good player can play these guitars almost effortlessly.
I did not go into the store to try out a guitar. But I wanted so badly to buy this guitar. But buying this guitar would SO ABSOLUTELY SCREW ME UP with all my other babies. But I've been thinking about it ever since..
As usual, great review bro. Thanks for doing what you do for all of us.
JD

[mr. beaumont]

Ah, a "Reversquire!" Love it.

[blille]

I just saw this!

SO glad you’re digging it and that it’s being played. It punches way above its weight. Really nice post

[Stringswinger]

Good that you took the plunge, and if it becomes too heavy later on, there are all kinds of lighter Tele bodies around. I had a nice one some years ago, but decided I liked the shorter Gibson scale better, and eventually discovered the Gretsch Electromatic series with 24.6" scale. What floored me when I acquired one were the Filtertron pickups, as I had tired of the warm, creamy and somewhat dull sound of standard hum buckers after thousands of gigs. The snap and articulation of the Filtertrons made me fall in love with electric guitars all over again, and I bought a second one with better upper range access. Both have Bigsby tailpieces, which I use sparingly but really add to the sustain. It's really interesting how we fall into habits and often ignore other options like the Tele or Gretsch in my case. A real plus was that I was able to purchase both Gretsches, very well-made pro-level instruments, slightly used and great-looking on stage, for a total of about $1275.

Ron, I am glad that the Gretsch guitars have worked for you. I have had a couple of Gretsch guitars come through my hands and the Filtertrons were too bright/articulate for my taste (I dig the creamy humbucker/flatwound sound). And Bigsby tailpieces make string changes "challenging" for me. But your discovery that you like the Gretsch along with my recent discovery that I like a Telecaster proves that an old dog can learn a new trick. I am with you on the 24.75 scale and I also prefer a 1 11/16 nut so for me it may be a custom Telecaster with those specs and a lighter body (after three gigs with this guitar, I can see that the weight will be an issue for me up the road).

For guys like us who make our living playing music, it is important to have a tool that inspires our playing, but at the same time, bringing a guitar that is super valuable to a gig where the instrument is at risk can be distracting and on some gigs we need a low cost guitar to avoid that distraction. For me, a Telecaster is a way to check both boxes.

[Stringswinger]

SS,
When you posted this Guitar originally, I didnt REALLY look at it. Thats a really NICE guitar! You will make it sound better than a guitar should sound at 20x the price. You know how to coax the best sounds out of anything you play.
When I was at GC last week trying out amps, I left my strap there. So I had to go back yesterday to get it. There was a really attractive Natural Telecaster with F-Holes just sitting there.. So I picked it up. All I could say is, Oh my God..
It blows me away, just how playable these guitars are. They make the other guitars we play feel big and cumbersome. The Telecaster becomes a familiar guitar, immediately. A good player can play these guitars almost effortlessly.
I did not go into the store to try out a guitar. But I wanted so badly to buy this guitar. But buying this guitar would SO ABSOLUTELY SCREW ME UP with all my other babies. But I've been thinking about it ever since..
As usual, great review bro. Thanks for doing what you do for all of us.
JD

Thanks for the kind words JD.

I am tempted to build a custom Telecaster with a lighter body and Gibson neck specs. I would also like two pickups as I like the variety of tones available. This guitar is making me rethink things. In many ways, Leo had it right.

[Stringswinger]

Ah, a "Reversquire!" Love it.

With the custom Esquire wiring, this one pickup Tele gets some variety of tones, but truth be told, I think a bridge pickup is useful, particularly for blending. That said, I have used this guitar on three gigs now and it gets the job done.

[Stringswinger]

Congrats! I love Teles myself and have a few. I do find it odd he replaced the logo on the headstock, but you don't play the logo Play those frets off her!

Thanks! Whoever reshaped and refinished the neck left the headstock alone so the logo and serial number (on the back of the headstock) are intact.

[Stringswinger]

I just saw this!

SO glad you’re digging it and that it’s being played. It punches way above its weight. Really nice post

Thanks again for the great deal. I have now used this guitar on three gigs and foresee many more to come. This guitar really does punch WAY above it's weight. You have made a Tele player out of me. I see at least one more Tele in my future (one that weighs less among other things). But this guitar gave me a "road to Damascus" revelation. Teles rule! My Strat and Les Paul are getting lonely.

[jim777]

I did not go into the store to try out a guitar. But I wanted so badly to buy this guitar. But buying this guitar would SO ABSOLUTELY SCREW ME UP with all my other babies. But I've been thinking about it ever since..
As usual, great review bro. Thanks for doing what you do for all of us.
JD

[jim777]

Thanks! Whoever reshaped and refinished the neck left the headstock alone so the logo and serial number (on the back of the headstock) are intact.

That's not a Baja headstock decal though, unless I misread your initial post. It's also the wrong string tree in the wrong place. This is a '13 Baja headstock (this was my guitar).

EDIT: I believe it's a mid 90's MIM "black label" neck.

[Stringswinger]

That's not a Baja headstock decal though, unless I misread your initial post. It's also the wrong string tree in the wrong place. This is a '13 Baja headstock (this was my guitar).

Interesting. The serial number indicates a 2013 Baja Player Tele from Fender's website. I wonder if there were variations during the production run that year? If it is counterfeit, why would someone do a made in Mexico decal? That is the thing about Fender guitars. It can be hard to determine originality.

[jim777]

If it is a 90's "black label" neck it would have been labeled as MIM but was most likely leftover/overstock USA made. Anyway, like you said, that's Fender for 'ya!

[Stringswinger]

If it is a 90's "black label" neck it would have been labeled as MIM but was most likely leftover/overstock USA made. Anyway, like you said, that's Fender for 'ya!

Here are some headstock pics. The neck feels a lot like the profile of my 95 American Standard Strat.