I'm obsessing again (as
@PonchoGreg, who sits on the bank of desks behind me at work will wearily confirm).
Once again, I have a burning desire to try a Telecaster. I have had four and only one lasted more than a year. That was a Mexican Classic 60s and once it had new BKP pickups in it, it was great.
I'm not sure why they don't last - maybe because my go-to music style is more AC/DC and heavier rock than Tele-style stuff, but I now find myself listening to a lot of Americana, so that's that sorted
I know what I definitely do want and that's a second hand guitar with a RW board. I also reckon I'd like a slightly fuller neck (not a baseball bat, though) and I think I want the vintage-style bridge, though I suppose that could be retrofitted even if I end up with a more modern affair. I've been thinking about buying a candidate for a refin so colour is less relevant. Budget should be conservative - well sub-£1k - given my history with these wretched instruments and re-sale potential will be a strong consideration.
I've seen a nice Inca Silver USA Standard from around 97/98. Are the necks on these very slim?
I've also seen a scruffy, already-refinned Baja which is relatively local and would most certainly need to be stripped and sorted again. The neck on this is likely to be more meaty right?
Any other sage words from you bloody Telefans?
Comments
I actually quite like the dreaded Fender "modern C". The only issue with USA teles tends to be dull pickups and "meh" modern bridges, though I don't reckon the bridge has as much to do with the Tele sound as people would have you believe, though iirc the mounting holes for the modern USA bridges are different to the regular vintage ones, so you have to be careful if thinking about a bridge swap. Inca Silver is also a fantastic colour, if that helps.
That said, my go-to cover-all-bases guitar is an SG, so I say buy one of those - it'll very happily do ACDC and Americana
But hey, if the purchase of a Tele require a little 5E3, then so be it
@stickyfiddle - thanks for the warning on the modern to vintage bridge issue Mike. I sold my SG (incidentally a guitar that my colleague I mentioned in the top post sold me and we bother regretted it). But I now have a Feline LP and it's a dream so my rockier moments are very much catered for.
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
https://www.gak.co.uk/en/fender-2016-deluxe-telecaster-thinline-3-colour-sunburst
Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder
My trading feedback - I'm a good egg
I did that with my strat and ended up with a pretty special guitar. I'll be doing the same thing with my tele build once I get the time to tske it down to Jonathan.
Beyond that it depends how amenable the Baja vendor is to do a deal outside eBay, and if not what offer he'd take. 500+ might be a bit much, but closer to 400 and you could be onto something. If he's not willing to take the neck off and provide a body serial number, you could always do that first thing and if it doesn't match, send it back. Mind you, chances are the sticker in the neck pocket (if that's still where the serial is for mex fenders) might have been removed during the refin...
What the vendor could definitely do is take the pickguard off (doesn't require removing anything else, even the strings). A round tooling hole in the body underneath the pickguard will be a good giveaway that it's indeed a MIM fender body.
Saying that, if you do get it, I'd be more that happy to clean up the electronics for you, sounds like easy/cheap fixes.