FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

[everdrone]

what do I need to know about these awesome Fender products? Is the fender jaguar as indestructable as the telecaster?

Telecasters are known to be the guitar where if I fall down a hill, I may be all banged up but my tele will STILL play out of tune

I am a newbie to Fender and non-humbucker pickups. I am wondering about this cause fender telecasters are indestructable, and fender tube combos are lightweight enough to carry easily and sound great, and are cheap, $500 for a guitar, $500 for an amp. I prolly wont buy anything for a year, I acted on really bad gas last year. I would be using it for blues and rock, hard rock, modern rock, and maybe some emo. I could put a telecaster in a gig bag on my back and wouldnt have to carry stuff. great for bar jams and stuff. Never liked wammy bars, but dig the style of the tele. other fenders too. jaguar is really awesome. would the jaguar be as indestructable as the tele? I am hard on my guitars, my epiphone SG has cracks in the paint around the headstock on both sides, might snap off eventually; so its not going in a gigbag.

telecaster = single pickup, right? humbucker is wrong to do to that? is the $500 telecasters any good? would I be able to deal with stock pickups?

I like the fender blacktop telecaster: http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...H61566.product

I like the Fender Standard Telecaster Electric Guitar Ash http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...5000832063.sku

this one is prolly out of my pricerange as it is over $600, telecaster with factory installed SD pups: http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...9000954000.sku



fender jaguar looks perfect for me: black and chrome http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...511323.product

as far as the fender combo amps go, the combo amp for me definitely needs to be under 40 pounds/lbs. I want to be able to walk into a venue/practice room with my amp in one hand, my pedalboard in the other hand, and my guitar in my gigbag/backpack. anything over 40 pounds and I would get the Orange Tiny Terror combo, but that would weigh too much for me. I need things light. I really seem to dig these fender combos.

I dig the fender pro junior: http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...1000000000.sku

I dig the fender blues junior: http://backstage.musiciansfriend.com...483711.product


heh I endulged mah gas. cheers!

[FuseG4]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

So for a grab and go no frills setup, a tele and a blues (or pro) jr will get you for blues and rock and since you said you have a pedal setup, I'm sure you could get some hard rock going.

The thing about fenders is that you can very easily take em apart and replace whatever. I think that's a large part of what makes them easy to use for gigging guys who are hard on their gear.

Teles are cool. Simple, easy to play, and intonate fine if you wanna go with the modern 6 saddle bridge. The tone is less snappy that way, but many people get along with it fine.
If you wanna go with a humbucker, i think you lose a LOT of the Tele sound. You DO end up with a fairly balanced, lightweight, easy to play guitar with some power. Since you don't seem to be after "the Tele sound" I wouldn't worry about it.

The $500 telecasters are fine. My MIM standard has held up well for a year. I still really like it and will only ever get rid of it if I find a tele I like better. Just play a couple, as there are duds. Maybe 2 in 10 are definite duds (bad neck pocket gaps, no resonance, awful nut), and 1 or 2 in 10 are absolutely fantastic, the rest are "good" (maybe minor problems with nuts, could use a minor fret touchup, but still decently resonant).

The stock MIM ceramic pickups (both the singles and the buckers) sound kinda modern, with medium high output, decent mids, and kinda a bright (almost ice picky) top end. I'd never keep them in though, there's just way too many better pickups out there. They're not unplayable like epiphone's stock neck humbucker though.

As for a blues vs pro jr, if you want versatility, I'd go Blues jr. Master volume and an EQ section make a big difference. The Pro Jr's smaller speaker and simple circuity make it more of a one trick pony. Also, many note that the blues jr usually benefits from a speaker change, the stock one sometimes can be kind of harsh and can get farty.

Unless you're looking for a really loud clean tone, or doom metal, it'd be hard to go wrong with a simple fender guitar+small fender amp setup. It just somes down to if you like the fender flavor.

[everdrone]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Thanks much brutha, this is super helpful.

my pedalboard includes a RATII distortion pedal and a Decimator noisegate, so distortion and noise control is not an issue.

I prolly better go with humbuckers - I usually play rock and hard rock - that is my bread and butter for what I can do, I might get better at other stuff but I need to find my guitar-zen. good to know the pups are useable. my silver sparkle epiphone les paul standard pickups were useable, but to me they sound pretty bad, I replaced the bridge with a dimarzio fred.

I like the look and $500 price of this fender telecaster, I am glad to know these are fine for what I want it to do - jam sessions, recording, maybe gigs; I can always get split coils, I dig the chrome/black retro color scheme:

[Inferno]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Since you're not necessarily looking for the telecaster sound, more the durability that a telecaster brings to the table, the blacktop telecaster that you posted looks to be a good choice. The bridge that it comes with it should also offer better intonation than a vintage 3 barrel bridge.

As for amps, my guitar teacher had a blues jr. and he could get some good tones out of it simply by adding a dirt pedal in front of the amp.

Good luck with whatever you choose. I'm sure it'll rock!

[FuseG4]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

I'd rock that, that's a nice look. That looks like the kinda thing one would put the Jazz/JB combo in, maybe.

I had a squier H-H tele for 4 years and unfortunately I sucked at setting up guitars back then, so I got frustrated and sold it :/
But, I sure do recognize the versatility of a tele with 2 buckers. The longer scale length and brighter woods seem to be great for keeping things from getting too dark or muddy with buckers.

[everdrone]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Since you're not necessarily looking for the telecaster sound, more the durability that a telecaster brings to the table, the blacktop telecaster that you posted looks to be a good choice. The bridge that it comes with it should also offer better intonation than a vintage 3 barrel bridge.

As for amps, my guitar teacher had a blues jr. and he could get some good tones out of it simply by adding a dirt pedal in front of the amp.

Good luck with whatever you choose. I'm sure it'll rock!

cheers brutha, I dig the fender junior, with my ratII it would sound like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNi5l95CVl0

good to hear about the durability too, thanks

vintage 3 barrel bridge is awesome, but humbucker is prolly the right choice for me cause I play rock/hardrock and dig the distortion mostly

I'd rock that, that's a nice look. That looks like the kinda thing one would put the Jazz/JB combo in, maybe.

I had a squier H-H tele for 4 years and unfortunately I sucked at setting up guitars back then, so I got frustrated and sold it :/
But, I sure do recognize the versatility of a tele with 2 buckers. The longer scale length and brighter woods seem to be great for keeping things from getting too dark or muddy with buckers.

cool man, the H-H is killer, buckers are cool too, like you said the tele character is diff with the HH though, too bad you sold it lol

I dig the maple neck too, for Fender Blacktop Telecaster HH Electric Guitar
, thanks for the insights on the humbucker issue, not sure bout it cause there arent any musiciansfriend reviews yet, it might be the thing to keep it from getting muddy, I think it looks pretty sweet with the diff color neck:

[FuseG4]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

If you can swing the dough, these are great for getting right in between humbucker and single coil sounds, and I love the LP-style controls. The looks are killer, too.
There's a lot of talk about how the new humbuckers on these aren't like the originals. Well, after finally playing one, I've gotta say, at least they sound decent. One of fender's cooler stock pickups.

[guitfiddle]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Little P90 Tele love might be cool.



If you can possibly save more than 500 for an amp, try out a Princeton Reverb RI. Better cleans and OD than the Blues and Pro, IMO. Those 6V6 tubes go a lot farther into classic Fender tones than the EL84s.

[andrizzle]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Little P90 Tele love might be cool.



If you can possibly save more than 500 for an amp, try out a Princeton Reverb RI. Better cleans and OD than the Blues and Pro, IMO. Those 6V6 tubes go a lot farther into classic Fender tones than the EL84s.

This I agree with wholeheartedly... I LOVE the look of that double-P90 tele! I also love the PRRI amps, they're great.

I have the Jaguar you mentioned earlier (CIJ HH) I never got along with the humbuckers in there so I put in a set of Phat Cats and love that sound. I also didn't get along with the pickup selectors a whole lot. They are just a bit of a hassle YMMV....

Anyway, I recently re-did everything... Made a new pickguard to allow just a three-way selector on the top horn then threw on a Bigsby... just because it's awesome.

Here's what it looks like now:

[FuseG4]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

If you're looking for a 6v6 fender sound but can't afford to do a PRRI or DRRI, try a Tweaker.

Put reverb in the loop and you have a lot of very, very fender-esque tones. The tweaker lacks some of the power, shimmer and sustain of a DRRI, but the EQ is pretty dang close. I almost got a Blues Jr until I found the Tweaker.

Oh and they throw in vox-ish and marshall-ish tones as a bonus.

[everdrone]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Tweaker looks really awesome, you have a sweet rig! tweaker videos look awesome, tons of great feedback on the HC forums - 30 pages ++.

I wanna get along with H-H and p-90s but I play and listen to heavy music, so I need to listen to my music-zen and go with the humbuckers.

that P-90 fender you have looks killer! I bet it sounds great in the right hands. I did not consider the fender princeton reberb yet, youtube clips sound sweet, nice 70s tones that I am going for, thanks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj_9ZQmM6_k

[Bludave]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

I don't know much about the new ones but Jaguars used to have short scales(like 24"). I think the new ones are 25.5 though.

[FuseG4]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Tweaker looks really awesome, you have a sweet rig! tweaker videos look awesome, tons of great feedback on the HC forums - 30 pages ++.

I wanna get along with H-H and p-90s but I play and listen to heavy music, so I need to listen to my music-zen and go with the humbuckers.

that P-90 fender you have looks killer! I bet it sounds great in the right hands. I did not consider the fender princeton reberb yet, youtube clips sound sweet, nice 70s tones that I am going for, thanks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj_9ZQmM6_k

I've heard a lot of people say that turning a princeton up to 10 sounds kinda harsh, and I heard a little of that in that clip, I think. Pretty good, needs a little more warmth IMO. That'd be great tho to back off the amp vol. a little and use a pedal with some mids.

[drew_half_empty]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

If you can possibly save more than 500 for an amp, try out a Princeton Reverb RI. Better cleans and OD than the Blues and Pro, IMO. Those 6V6 tubes go a lot farther into classic Fender tones than the EL84s.

Also, for a little more than $500 you can get a used Deluxe Reverb RI, and tons of people gig with those every day

[FuseG4]

Re: FENDER: School me on Fender lightweight combos and Fender Telecasters

Man I can't seem to find any of these magic $600 DRRIs anywhere around here. Lowest i usually find is $750-ish.
They certainly seem worth it at $750 though.