Re: Fender's credibility is sinking once again
Ok I'm a huge "72 Tele Deluxe" nerd. It's one of the guitars I had always, always wanted. The reissues were marketed exactly for guys like me- aware of the originals, but not necessarily overly familiar with them. I had my first good paying job right when these got reissued-early 00's. I had been looking at actual "vintage" (never thought I'd be using that term on something from that era...) Anyway, all the old ones I'd been handling were heavy, kinda sloppily built, beat up and expensive. Also I've never been into the "relic" thing, if I'm gonna spend more than a couple bills on a guitar, I want it to look new. I could have bought two of the RI's for what an original one cost... I ended up getting an 04 RI,
it was light, the 3-bolt neck was perfectly done (nice, tight pocket and the tilt mechanism worked like it was supposed to) Sure it didn't sound like an old one (like generic humbucker, not as bright as the old ones) I'm not a pro though, so it was "close enough" for me, but I started looking for original pups to swap in. Now there's a guy/company making exact copies of the WR pups, and they can mod your RI pups to sound like the old ones. I actually bought a couple sets of pups for mine, someone aged a set of the RI pups and passed them off as originals (GRRR!) but I found a pair of NOS ones that went in. Then I got laid off, and my daughter needed heart surgery, so I sold it (at a loss, of course) so I don't have the guitar anymore.
If I was to get another one, I'd definitely get a Squier and stick P90's in it, since I know it isn't worth it to me to spend the $$$ to make one sound like an old one.
