Well, it finally happened. I’ve needed a Tele for an awfully long time.
I’ve had Strats, I’ve had Les Pauls, I’ve had superstrats aplenty, I’ve had a bloody seven-string… I’ve had Flying Vs, LP Juniors and a Jazzmaster, but one thing I have never owned until very recently is a Telecaster. Every time I play it, I wonder what took me so long.
Oh, don’t get me wrong – I’ve played loads of Teles and I’m very familiar with them. Indeed, the first electric guitar I ever played was a Tele, my dad’s mid-80s Japanese Fender blue flower reissue (it took me a few years to realise how lucky I was). My dad’s other mid-80s MIJ Tele (a pink paisley, no less) remained my benchmark for this iconic design for years, and years. The perfect weight, almost hilariously resonant, with a tiny little neck and a gruff bark from its aftermarket Lollar single-coils, it was and remains a fabulous guitar. Every time I put it down, I knew I needed a Tele at some point, but only if it gave me as good a feeling as that one.
Fast forward to February this year (sorry for such a long break between posts, by the way). I’d met up with my friend Pete, a man not short of an excellent guitar or two, and he mentioned that he had a ‘partscaster’ Tele kicking around if I was interested in having a look. A Mexican Road Worn body, and the huge maple neck from the limited edition Brad Paisley signature model. My interest was piqued.
Financially inopportune it may have been, but upon playing this Tele I realised I was in trouble. The huge neck was fantastic, the body was resonant as you like – even louder, if anything, than the 80s pink paisley. The pickups, stock Fender though they may be, growled with the authority one would hope for from a significantly more expensive model. The relic finish is pretty crap though – Fender’s cheapest mass-produced Road Worns, perhaps understandably, can’t really reach a significant degree of realism for the money they cost. It doesn’t bother me unduly though – at some point I imagine I’ll probably cough up for getting it refinished…
Having lived with the guitar for a little while, and gigged it too (pre-lockdown), it is consistently impressive. It’s not one of my more expensive guitars, but it plays and sounds good enough to firmly earn its place alongside guitars I own which cost a lot more. The set-up is perfect, it’s strung with Elixir 10-52s and sounds enormous. And, funnily enough, it is exactly the same weight as the old pink paisley…
