What's the deal with baja teles?

chrisj1602

Jetfire said:

One of my students has one and they are horrible IMHO. Huge plasticy feeling neck, heavy and the pick ups are VERY weak and quiet.. Could be a Friday one but otherwise, they are all sorts of terrible..

The pickups are Custom Shop Broadcaster and Twisted Tele!

Lev

I recently bought one and tried quite a few over the last few weeks. Although none were feather light I don't think any were back breakers either. You do need to try them as the finishes can be hit and miss and you need to be sure the neck works for you.

But IMHO they sound pretty damn awesome. Forget the extra pickup switching options, the traditional positions of neck, neck & bridge, bridge all sound amazing to me. I believe Fender sell bucket loads of these so they must be doing something right with this model.

ThePrettyDamned

martinw said:

SidNewton said:

 I've seen a clip on youtube of the Mexican factory and the bodies are, I suspect, a five piece spread with a laminate on the top.

This one isn't:

http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/bajage.html 

I remember this.  1/2lb of finish! 

Looks lovely now, though, despite being 4 pieces - I think it is really very pretty, and I don't think I could have imagined a good looking 4 piece body before that!

jaygtr

So the moral of this thread is,

Try one first because you may love it or you may hate it.

benmurray85

the moral of this thread is everyone likes different stuff. who'da thunk it!

juansolo

lustycourtier said:

I've had 2 and hated them. Thick Plastic paint, stupid switching and really heavy.

I really liked mine even before I removed the 'thick plastic paint and stupid switching'... It currently weighs 7lbs, though it was 7.5lbs with the poly on.

We're all different.

ThePrettyDamned said:

martinw said:

SidNewton said:

 I've seen a clip on youtube of the Mexican factory and the bodies are, I suspect, a five piece spread with a laminate on the top.

This one isn't:

http://juansolo.demon.co.uk/stompage/bajage.html 

I remember this.  1/2lb of finish! 

Looks lovely now, though, despite being 4 pieces - I think it is really very pretty, and I don't think I could have imagined a good looking 4 piece body before that!

Cheers dude. I was very lucky it was a really nice bit(s) of wood!

Loobs

1/2lb of lacquer is insane! 

57Deluxe

...its the Balsa ones you wanner steer clear of...

Lev

With all this talk of Baja weight I decided to weigh mine - 6.8lbs. I guess I did pretty well. 

jaygtr

Lev;172221" said:

With all this talk of Baja weight I decided to weigh mine - 6.8lbs. I guess I did pretty well. 

Or possibly not, if you read the "heavy guitar " thread

fretfinder

Lev said:

With all this talk of Baja weight I decided to weigh mine - 6.8lbs. I guess I did pretty well. 

Unbelievably light for one of those. Are you sure the scales were accurate?! 

Lev

fretfinder;172292" said:

Lev said:

With all this talk of Baja weight I decided to weigh mine - 6.8lbs. I guess I did pretty well. 





Unbelievably light for one of those. Are you sure the scales were accurate?! 

I used one of those suitcase hand held scales, i put the guitar in a case, strapped the scales to the handle to get the weight, then subtracted the weight of the case. But for a second reading I used a bathroom scales with me holding the guitar, then subtracted my weight and got the same result so I'm pretty sure its accurate.

It did surprise me though as I wouldn't have thought it was much different from my 8.5lbs strat. I wonder if the hefty neck gives the impression of additional weight because of the way the weight is distributed between the neck and body.