NGD: A Telecaster... Finally!

PC_Dave

I had started a thread recently saying that I think I want a Telecaster, having never really liked any of the ones I had tried over the years, but I really wanted to see what the fuss is all about. Having looked around at the various Mexican models, I was going to try one of the Vintera series, maybe the roadworn, or the Nashville Deluxe (seeing as i've been a Strat player all my life, I thought that would be the easiest way in), but then I came across the Guitar Guitar Exclusive Player models. These are the standard Player series, but with a different spec - in this case a Roasted Maple neck and fingerboard, and Custom Shop Nocaster pickups.

Fender guitarguitar Exclusive Roasted Player Tele Butterscotch Blonde Roasted Maple Neck/Fingerboard with Custom Shop Pickups

I bought one off a chap on eBay for considerably less than the shop price (still had swing tags and plastic on etc), and it arrived last week. I unwrapped it, and instantly took it to my local Tech as the set up was absolutely appalling - anyway, got it back today and I have to say that i'm extremely impressed. The neck is gorgeous (I have a Roasted Maple neck on my Suhr Classic S and I adore it), and the pickups are fantastic - quite hot, I think, but easily tamed. Build quality isn't too bad - there are a few little things here and there, but in the main it's not bad quality.

I haven't tried it through my amps yet as they're locked away at the rehearsal space, but through Helix Native, S-Gear and the Cory Wong Archetype plugin it sounds great! I'm looking forward to playing it live through my normal rig, but first impressions are very, very good.

chris78

Congrats. I’m surprised you found the nocasters hot. They’re about 7.5k and Alnico 3. 

The limited edition players look a good bang for the buck, but if you want it to sound like a tele, change that bridge for a proper 3 saddle one. It’s not a tele if it sounds in tune 

merciful-evans

Congrats on your new Tele. I was a latecomer to them as well.
I love the neck pickup sounds, but the bridge is fun too. That the old style look I prefer too. 

The 6 saddles are a much needed improvement. As are the 9.5" radius and 22 frets. Enjoy!

PC_Dave

chris78 said:

Congrats. I’m surprised you found the nocasters hot. They’re about 7.5k and Alnico 3. 

The limited edition players look a good bang for the buck, but if you want it to sound like a tele, change that bridge for a proper 3 saddle one. It’s not a tele if it sounds in tune 

Maybe hot is the wrong word. Not as smooth as the pickups in the Suhr - they just seem to dirty up a lot of the presets I have more than the other guitar.

I was looking at the brass saddle bridge, but I quite like my guitars in tune.

The one thing I think that does need changing out is the machine heads - they’re not great.

PC_Dave

merciful-evans said:

Congrats on your new Tele. I was a latecomer to them as well.
I love the neck pickup sounds, but the bridge is fun too. That the old style look I prefer too. 

The 6 saddles are a much needed improvement. As are the 9.5" radius and 22 frets. Enjoy!

Thanks, yeah it’s nice learning how to play around the different sounds. I’m not sure a Tele would ever become my number one, but I’ll keep my options open.

Greatape

merciful-evans said:

Congrats on your new Tele. I was a latecomer to them as well.
I love the neck pickup sounds, but the bridge is fun too. That the old style look I prefer too. 

The 6 saddles are a much needed improvement. As are the 9.5" radius and 22 frets. Enjoy!

Neck pickup on a Tele is my favourite sound on any guitar 

Voxman

PC_Dave said:

chris78 said:

Congrats. I’m surprised you found the nocasters hot. They’re about 7.5k and Alnico 3. 

The limited edition players look a good bang for the buck, but if you want it to sound like a tele, change that bridge for a proper 3 saddle one. It’s not a tele if it sounds in tune 

Maybe hot is the wrong word. Not as smooth as the pickups in the Suhr - they just seem to dirty up a lot of the presets I have more than the other guitar.

I was looking at the brass saddle bridge, but I quite like my guitars in tune.

The one thing I think that does need changing out is the machine heads - they’re not great.

Congrats, looks very nice - I came to Tele's reasonably late too.  Re the brass 3-piece saddles, I just swapped the stock chrome 3-piece on my Harley Benton TE52NA with a Wilkinson brass compensated bridge and the intonation is now spot on. 

Odd you should have a problem with the stock tuners, as those should be very good quality. They look the same type as on my 1988 USA Telecaster standard, which are very good.  If you're having tuning issues are you sure it's not string slippage causing a problem?  Have you added a bit of graphite into the nut slots and stretched the strings in, - a locking 'wind' next time you restring should stop any slippage. 

Funkfingers

It's not just the number of brass rod saddles that matters. The modern machined-from-solid bridge baseplate lacks the overtones of the vintage, stamped steel item. The latter is a POS but it is integral to the sound.

Compensated saddles go most of the way to curing intonation problems. The "proper" solution is to bend each of the strings by the necessary amount to get all the notes. 

The machineheads on the GGEP may turn out to be the same Ping Well efforts as found on the regular MIM Player series rather than, say, the Schaller-made parts from the American Pro series.

PC_Dave

Voxman said:

PC_Dave said:

chris78 said:

Congrats. I’m surprised you found the nocasters hot. They’re about 7.5k and Alnico 3. 

The limited edition players look a good bang for the buck, but if you want it to sound like a tele, change that bridge for a proper 3 saddle one. It’s not a tele if it sounds in tune 

Maybe hot is the wrong word. Not as smooth as the pickups in the Suhr - they just seem to dirty up a lot of the presets I have more than the other guitar.

I was looking at the brass saddle bridge, but I quite like my guitars in tune.

The one thing I think that does need changing out is the machine heads - they’re not great.

Congrats, looks very nice - I came to Tele's reasonably late too.  Re the brass 3-piece saddles, I just swapped the stock chrome 3-piece on my Harley Benton TE52NA with a Wilkinson brass compensated bridge and the intonation is now spot on. 

Odd you should have a problem with the stock tuners, as those should be very good quality. They look the same type as on my 1988 USA Telecaster standard, which are very good.  If you're having tuning issues are you sure it's not string slippage causing a problem?  Have you added a bit of graphite into the nut slots and stretched the strings in, - a locking 'wind' next time you restring should stop any slippage. 

Thank you - I did read your TE52 thread with great interest, but the reviews for the Player series, plus the roasted maple neck was enough for me to try it.

I’ll look into the bridge at some point, not a massive deal for me at the moment as I’ve just paid to have this one set up.

Re: Machine heads - Its not tuning, per se, it’s just that they don’t feel like they “grab” properly when turning. Almost like they turn but nothing happens, then all of a sudden they turn. Weird, but not on all of them. But I am spoiled with the machine heads on the Suhr, so it could be a case of getting used to them.

I will replace the nut at some point, as this one is appalling - it’s badly cut and is actually overhanging. But it doesn’t affect anything so no rush.

Voxman

Interesting @PC_Dave ;...the 'turn but nothing happens' thing was exactly the problem I had on the stock tuners of my HB TE52, and it too wasn't a tuning issue per se.  Couldn't figure out why, hence I swapped them for a Wilkinson set that look the same but work smoothly.

ennspek

I have been tempted by these. Thanks for the info.

Anacharsis

Nice choice. Great combination of features to my taste - especially the roasted maple and six saddle bridge. Enjoy!

DrJazzTap

Great choice, I've been hovering over that one! If it wasn't butterscotch I'd be even more tempted! Congratulations!

PC_Dave

ennspek said:

I have been tempted by these. Thanks for the info.

If you want to know anything else just give me a shout. 

PC_Dave

Anacharsis said:

Nice choice. Great combination of features to my taste - especially the roasted maple and six saddle bridge. Enjoy!

The Roasted Maple is lovely!

PC_Dave

DrJazzTap said:

Great choice, I've been hovering over that one! If it wasn't butterscotch I'd be even more tempted! Congratulations!

Thanks - I quite like the colour. It would be my first choice, ordinarily, but it’s growing on me.