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CicadaSilence's Reviews
Fender Telecaster Plus Telecaster Plus
Telecaster Plus

‎01-04-2001 12:00 AM

Overall Rating: I've been playing about seven years, and I own a bunch of cheap guitars; a couple of Squire Strats, bottom of the barrel Ibanez RGs, an Ovation Celebrity, etc. This is the first "proffesional" instrument I've purchased, and I'm glad I...
Overall Rating: I've been playing about seven years, and I own a bunch of cheap guitars; a couple of Squire Strats, bottom of the barrel Ibanez RGs, an Ovation Celebrity, etc. This is the first "proffesional" instrument I've purchased, and I'm glad I got it at the price I did. I definately love the sounds I get out of it, and I'm using the pickup configuration as the blueprint for the Warmoth strat I'm eventually going to put together. Telecasters just arent as comfortable as Strats. But thats a good thing, in its own way. I like guitars that are hard to play. This one gives me a good battle every time I pick it up. (But I set it up that way, don't think its a block of cement with strings, or something.) I do sort of miss the trem from my strats, but I've needed a good fixed bridge for alternate tuning stuff for a long time. For what it is and what it does, this guitar is perfect.

Heres the obligatory "What I Would Do If Someone Stole My Guitar" section of the review:

Oh, er, uh... yeah. I'd stab his eyes out with rusty dental tools and drag him around town behind my car so all of his friends and relatives would be embarrassed to know him. I wouldn't send him a christmas card. I'd do donuts on his front lawn in my car. And, uh... ok, thats enough.

I would seriously look for a replacement for this guitar if it were ever to be stolen. I've only had it for a few days, and its already become very dear to me. I'd definately reccomend it to anyone looking for a solid, workhorse guitar with a good range of tones.

And again, if you know a site for dating serial numbers on guitars, or books on this, or anything that might help me identify what year this guitar was made in, E-Mail me!
Features: Made in the US, not sure which year.. I checked the serial number on a webpage and it said it was between '84 - '87. (If you know a good site for checking this sort of thing, E-mail me!)
22 frets, standard fender tuning heads, brown sunburst finish, maple neck and fingerboard, Blue Lace Sensor in the neck position, Dual Red in the bridge with a coil tap switch. 1 vol, 1 tone knob, three way pickup selector, three way coil tap switch. Hardtail bridge, the strings go through the body. Standard strap buttons.

Good features, although nothing stunning or state of the art. Just simple, useful things.
Sound Quality: I can get a wide variety of sounds out this thing.. from rich and full, bordering on acoustic-type clean sounds, to nasal piercing lead tones, thick rhythm sounds for distortion, to shrill trebly tones. It is a bit noisy when I'm not playing, but I think this is due to my crappy assortment of cords.
I play sort of Tool vs Bjork meets The Tea Party with special guests Sigur Ros type stuff, and I can get it to do pretty much whatever I want it to.
Right now I'm playing through a Fender Bassman, a Dunlop 535Q wah, a Boss volume pedal, a Boss GE-7 EQ, an Ibanez Turbo Tubescreamer, and a Digitech RP-6 multiple effects processor. (The Digitech is my enemy, though... I'm thinking of seeling a few of my other guitars and using the money to replace it with some stompboxes.)
The only real gripe I could imagine having with the sound of this guitar is the sound of the Red Lace Sensors on coil tap mode. If its on a single coil in conjunction with Blue, its fine. But on its own, the Red PU in single mode is really shrill and obnoxious sounding. Even so, it does have its uses, so I really can't fault it all that much.
Reliability/Durability: This thing is a tank. You could probably pull an "SRV/Third Stone From The Sun/Live at the El Mocambo" on it, and it'd spit at you and keep on coming. The strap buttons leave a bit to be desired, but I plan on replacing them with Schaller Straplocks, so I'm not worried about it. I'm using the "bread tag" trick until then. ^_^
This guitar would last through an through an all night gig or jam session, barring the inevitable string breakage or spilled beverage mishap. It's bad policy to gig without a backup, not to mention unproffesional, but if the unthinkable were to happen, I would depend on this thing without hesitation.
Customer Support: I've never contacted Fender, but they seem to discourage it. They don't even have an e-mail address!? Seems pretty shady to me...
And their website just plain sucks. It seems if its not currently being produced in their factories, it doesn't exist.
Price: $500.00 USD USED
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Date Registered ‎11-21-2005 05:11 PM
Date Last Visited ‎03-27-2013 05:52 PM
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