Confused by Telecasters

nathan_393

nathan_393

Inspired
Hey folks! I am doing some Telecaster shopping and am kind of confused. I've not owed a Telecaster before, and Fender's lineup feels messy to me.

When it comes to Telecaster, what I'm mostly after is a versatile single-coil instrument that doesn't sound like a Strat and will be good for lower-gain situations while recording. So what's important to me is that it has two single coil pickups (not a Nashville configuration). I'm using this in a studio environment, so intonation is important, so 6 saddles. And it would be nice if those pickups were noiseless, but folks are welcome to talk me off that ledge.

Based on my 6 saddle requirement and SS configuration, I think I'm left with just a couple options:

  • The Player model, which I've played a bit and find fairly uninspiring.
  • The Player Plus model, which I've not played. But it's got noiseless pickups, S1 switching, a belly cut (which is nicer than not having one, to be honest), locking tuners, etc. I don't love the neck or the glossy finish, but for less than half the cost of my next option, perhaps I could live with it.
  • The next time 6 saddles shows up in the lineup is at the Ultra level, which has similar specs to the Player Plus, but a different neck profile (augmented D), and (I think?) different noiseless pickups (with a "vintage voice"), as well as a neck heel carve. (I could also buy a used Elite, which is not unlike the Ultra, but has previous generation noiseless pickups. This would save me several hundred dollars.)
  • Finally, there's Ultra Luxe, which is the same as Ultra, but a little more de-luxe or luxe-urious. Stainless steel frets, rounded fretboard.
I am sure I am missing something. Why would I buy the Ultra or Ultra Luxe over the Player Plus? Is there any advantage to getting the Player Plus instead and just upgrading the pickups?

I haven't been able to find an Ultra or Ultra Luxe in store to play, so I'm not even sure what I'm missing. I did find an Ultra Strat, and the neck profile on that (assuming it's similar to the Tele) was very nice. (It also sounded great.)

Anybody have any advice? I have no desire to build my own, but I understand why many would default to that suggestion.

Thanks!
 
Telecaster bridges and saddles are not hard to swap. They’re the Lego of guitars. If you find one you like but want more control over the intonation of each string a swap wouldn’t be much work.

That being said, I’ve come to greatly prefer the Glendale offset saddles in the 3-screw configuration with a proper bridge plate that surrounds the pickup. Since the bridge pickup on a Tele is in conductive contact with the plate it has an impact on the field and thus the sound. That full plate just sounds correctly Tele to me.

Or maybe it’s all placebo? Whatever the case, after building Teles with modern and vintage bridges I’ve come to prefer the vintage bridge setup. Intonation with the offset saddles has never been an issue.
 
Oh and my advice would be to build it from parts. Telecasters are probably the easiest of the electric styles to assemble. Lots of great parts makers out there. You end up with exactly what you want. Not cheaper, in my experience. But exact.
 
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got my first Tele a while ago, only to get that unique iconic old school country telecaster tone (not a frequently used guitar for me but I love that sound and dabble in trying to play old country styles). During my research I noticed that telecasters can vary hugely in terms what types of tones they do / are asked to do - you can see them doing everything from clean country to metal. I'm guessing some of this range is due to having widely varying pickups / pickup configs deployed in them. I could only afford up to Fender Player pricing, but upon A/Bing, I found the Squier CV 50s tele to be more vintage sounding to what I wanted (ie reference below) while still approaching in basic quality to the Player, so I went with the CV as a good quality mod platform option. I've swapped in hipshot locking tuners and compensated brass saddles n pickguard + am thinking of doing bridge plate / electronics also but those are pretty decent stock. The bridge pickup is perfect for what I like but the neck pup is bad so maybe I'll swap to a better full set some day while ensuring I don't lose the sound I'm getting out of the stock bridge pup. Not sure but I feel like the old ashtray 3 saddle bridge style which the CV has compared to the more modern Fender Play 6 saddle bridge style might have given the CV a leg up for this type of tone - hard to tell though - maybe I imagined it during A/B testing (was a miracle I was actually able to compare two guitars directly in this case given being afflicted with leftyitis). I can do my own fret level/crown/dress so those type usually minor issues in this level of guitar does not bother me. I also A/B'd to a Fender American something or other tele model and still preferred the CV - go figur

 
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I've had a few Telecasters now and done a lot of modding on them.

IMO don't worry about 3-saddle bridges not having good intonation. The modern ones have compensated saddles which pretty much takes care of the issue. I swapped from 3-saddle to the modern 6-saddle and ended up switching back. I just preferred the feel and tone of the old school 3-saddle bridge.

If you have to buy new, I like the American Professional best as it's got all the good features. The only thing it's missing is either locking tuners or vintage tuners depending on your tastes. Modern die cast non locking tuners on a Fender are weird. But you can easily swap out for locking for $50. Everything else is really good and with a setup should be great without modding.

Next ones I like are the American Performer, which are the slightly cheaper version. These have a little cheaper pickups and have vintage style tuners, but they fit the modern ones if you want to upgrade to locking. My Tele is the older version, the American Special, and it's a solid guitar.

I'm not a fan of the Player series guitars. The frets on most of them I've played are terrible, and as the price inches closer to $1000, it's not worth it to me. Maybe the Player Plus with better fret work, but those have noiseless pickups that can be a little off if you want traditional tone. I had the older MIM Standard and it was a complete dog and I could never get it to sound or play right.

I had an older American Deluxe as well and that was a good guitar, a bit odd with the compound board and noiseless pickups, but a nice guitar. I ended up trading it a couple different times into my current American Special.

No experience with the high end ones or many of the non-Fender brands. I've had three G&L ASAT guitars which are like Teles. The ones with traditional pickups are really good IMO. The ones that look like P90's are way too bright and I didn't like them. I think used prices caught up on these as they used to be under $1k for mint ones.

TL/DR - if I were buying a Tele today I would try and find a mint used American Professional, then swap the tuners for either modern locking or classic gear vintage style. I'd also keep an eye out for G&L ASAT Classics (USA version) if they are clean and under $1k.
 
I built my tele from parts and it's an absolutely stellar instrument.

I also owned and gigged an Ultra for a few years and I absolutely loved it. It's a much more versatile guitar than your traditional telecaster. If you're not into building one, I'd go for the Ultra.
 
Possibly NOT super helpful, but I am a big fan of 90s ESP Vintage Plus teles. They just seem like the ultimate "traditional" tele to me.
 
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Budda said:
Buy a used vintera and go. Cheaper version of an AVRI.
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FWIW, I didn't mention Vintera because of my six saddle wish, and the ones I've played have had 3 saddles. But all the Vinteras I've tried have had sharp frets and would need a lot of work. Similar-ish to the issues Jarick mentioned with the Player series.
Jarick said:
I've had a few Telecasters now and done a lot of modding on them.

IMO don't worry about 3-saddle bridges not having good intonation. The modern ones have compensated saddles which pretty much takes care of the issue. I swapped from 3-saddle to the modern 6-saddle and ended up switching back. I just preferred the feel and tone of the old school 3-saddle bridge.
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Your whole post was helpful for me, thanks, but just wanted to comment this in particular. I much prefer the six saddle feel in my trials. Something about where my palm wants to rest makes me find the three saddles somewhat painful and mildly uncomfortable (it's easy for me to tear skin on those). So apart from the intonation thought, I do prefer the feel of the 6 saddles, and feel is pretty important for me.

I played five Performers the other day, and maybe they were bad samples, but all of them had really bad buzzing issues and strange setup flaws related to the three saddles being the wrong heights and intonated poorly. These were new from the factory. The Player models I A/Bd them with out of curiosity stayed in tune more reliably, but didn't sound as good. The Squier CV sounded better than all of them in my opinion, but felt terrible.

Shopping for Teles has really reminded me of shopping for Les Pauls. There's no clear winner, try them all until you find what your body likes. Unfortunately I haven't found a single one that makes me want to open my wallet, but I know the single coil clarity is a missing ingredient for me. And that's how I've ended up wandering towards Ultra and Ultra Luxe: maybe those will have what I'm looking for.

First-world problem for sure, but ¯\(ツ)/¯
 
I like how simple that advice is to follow. I always love hearing other people's thoughts on the core that makes an instrument tick.
 
@nathan_393 yeah that sounds familiar...the local store basically no longer allows you to play any guitar under $800 due to theft issues, so I haven't really played a good new Tele in a long time.

I think that's why I like the used ones, assuming you can get a good discount. You could factor in some money for a tech to have a good setup and the frets addressed.

Alternately, you could take a run at fixing the fret edges yourself, which is something I did with my brand new Gibson Les Paul Tribute. That guitar played perfect and had awesome frets when I bought it in the summer, but in the winter when it got super cold, the wood shrank and the edges got sharp. I think I ended up just buying a couple emery files and smoothing the edges, maybe it took 20 minutes, then polishing the frets and oiling the board.

Anyways, I've always been really impressed by the American Professional models, although they cost a good chunk of change. I think the only time I played an American Performer was when they first came out, and the one I played actually beat out the Professional and the new high end American Original vintage style, both a lot more expensive.

Contrast all that with my MIJ Ibanez which had flawless smooth stainless steel frets...that guitar played perfect from day one and never needed more than a little action height adjustment.

What I really want to do is find a great local tech and slowly convert all my guitars to stainless steel frets and bone nuts.
 
No Tele expert here, but I have had really good luck with the American Standard series Teles. You’ll have to be good with a guitar a few decades old, though, as my faves were from ‘88 to the very early 2000s. Solidly built, sound like a Tele should, and tick all your boxes for setup.
 
You’re going to get it set up for your specs anyway right? Fretwork is usually part of a setup. Sharp fret ends will happen to any unbound fretboard in a dry climate. Get it dealt with once and never worry about it again.
 
Budda said:
You’re going to get it set up for your specs anyway right? Fretwork is usually part of a setup. Sharp fret ends will happen to any unbound fretboard in a dry climate. Get it dealt with once and never worry about it again.
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You're bringing whole heaps of wisdom to this as always, Budda.

Finally found a store near me that has the Ultra Luxe, a used Elite, the Player Plus, and the Professional II in stock, so I'll get a chance to try them all and see where I land. After listening to a bunch of samples online, the Pro II and Ultra Luxe impressed me the most, and I think it's mostly going to come down to the feel of the thing in my hand. (I am preparing myself to like the Ultra the most; I am a sucker for modernity and also I am probably a fool.)
 
nathan_393 said:
You're bringing whole heaps of wisdom to this as always, Budda.

Finally found a store near me that has the Ultra Luxe, a used Elite, the Player Plus, and the Professional II in stock, so I'll get a chance to try them all and see where I land. After listening to a bunch of samples online, the Pro II and Ultra Luxe impressed me the most, and I think it's mostly going to come down to the feel of the thing in my hand. (I am preparing myself to like the Ultra the most; I am a sucker for modernity and also I am probably a fool.)
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That is a good pool to try out!
 
Jarick said:
Contrast all that with my MIJ Ibanez which had flawless smooth stainless steel frets...that guitar played perfect from day one and never needed more than a little action height adjustment.

What I really want to do is find a great local tech and slowly convert all my guitars to stainless steel frets and bone nuts.
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The Ultra Luxe has stainless steel frets, which is another thing that got me interested in it.

I mean, I know it's overpriced for a Tele, but if it scratches just the right itch, then that's kind of just... what that itch costs? My Les Paul still cost more!
 
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