Squier Cabronita telecaster - three week review

littlethoughts

So I picked up a Squier Cabronita telecaster in a trade for another guitar that I was selling for a friend. I was planning on flipping it quite quickly since I figured it would sell in two seconds flat on here rather than continue to struggle to sell the other. However, after playing that first chord I was hooked - it's my first telecaster as well (although the purists might say it's not a tele...). In fact, its the first telecaster I've even played save for a fender one I played when i'd only been playing for 6 months and was convinced that the only good guitars had humbuckers in...

I've had it for three weeks now and thought I'd give you a decent appraisal.

Firstly the neck is very nice, modern c but feels like a good chunk in the palm. frets are nicely finished, tuning is very stable, not too anaemic maple either. Body is black and glossy and the minimalist scratch plate is neat as well. pickup selector moves with a healthy clunk, the pickups themselves are easily adjustable and the bridge seems pretty smart with fender-stamped saddles that intonate well (although there is no guide for the string which might cause some intonation problems in the future).

Plugged in the fidelitrons are plump and sparkly clean, with a breezy middle position that sounds quite single-coily. The bridge has that humbucker roundness but with a cutting edge while the neck is similar, but feels more humbucker-y to me. I guess any single coil character will be more apparent at the bridge with more natural treble.

With some overdrive it sings but with a transparency that you don't get with a classic humbucker. The output is a little low though, I found myself playing with a booster always on to bring it up on par with my other guitars.

I think what I really like about it is I found myself playing in all three positions equally often, getting sounds that encapsulated a lot of the things I subconsciously home in on through a combination of attack, position and volume.

all in all I'm hugely impressed, the fact that this was £228 new is astonishing. Nothing feels cheap about it and I think if someone had sanded off the headstock I would've guessed it was the full fat Fender. The only bad point for me is that it only comes in black (not that I have nothing against black guitars given that I own a fender cabronita P-bass in black, a prs tremonti se in black, a pawn shop 51 in black and a fender contemporary strat in black)  - a classic tele blonde would've been the icing on the cake.

markslade07

Nice review, keep eyeing them up myself and good to know they're really rather nice

Adam_MD

I keep saying this but I really wish they'd release these in more colours. I'd also like a bigsby model with 2 Tron style pickups instead of the current one with the singlecoil in the bridge.

littlethoughts

Adam_MD said:

I keep saying this but I really wish they'd release these in more colours. I'd also like a bigsby model with 2 Tron style pickups instead of the current one with the singlecoil in the bridge.

I don't mind the telecaster bridge pickup in that but it would be good to know how it is routed under there...

I guess the lack of colours means people may end up paying more for the full fat versions, but if they had done one in a blonde I would've bought it new last year...