Members mschafft Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 And if so ;-) would you say it's alder or basswood, the seller doesn't know for sure. This one has serial number on headstock and Made in Japan at the bottom of the neck. It's from 1993-1994. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Musicscotty Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 I would say it looks like alder. It certainly isn't basswood, which has virtually no grain at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WilmerTheWhite Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 I say alder too. Basswood is not bad wood, it just doesn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mschafft Posted January 3, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 Thanks a lot. Do you think it's a good buy for about 750$. It's said to be in good condition with minimal fretwear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 It is probably SEN. Which is basically a Japanese type of ash. Many Japanese fenders use it. Greco and Aria used it as does fender obviously. I don't have any experience with it but I've heard it is basically the same as N. American Ash at least in terms of tone. As for the price I can't help you there. I'm not a MIJ fender expert. I do know they make models all up and down the price line so you might need to take off the neck to find a model number. A general rule of thumb with Japanese guitars is the model number will contain the original price. So if it say's something like ST75 then it was 75000 yen to begin with. Hopefully Zenbu will pop in here and offer an opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mschafft Posted January 3, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 Thanks. I didn't know that. This one is a TL72-55 VNT. So the orginal price would be 55000 yens, that is a bit below 600$. As Japanese teles go, is it a lower-end model then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 Yeah probably 55000 yen. I would say that is probably low/mid range for fender japan. I just had a look for TL72 on yahoo japan and there is one that is a TL75 65 with a buy it now price of 45000 yen. That one (yours) looks great but I personally think that is a bit pricey for the model it is. If you're interested in a japanese Fender check out Ishibashi's used page http://www.ishibashi.co.jp/u_box/e/ Just type in "Fender Japan".....there are a ton of nice ones. Just another option to consider. And they are a breeze to deal with. Very helpful and polite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Guitar Heel Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 Looks like sen to me. Nice grain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mschafft Posted January 3, 2010 Author Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 Many thanks. Is it correct to say that a low-mid guitar like this would be weaker in terms of the electronic only, or would also the wood have not as good tone and sustain as more expensive ones? I think the hardware is fine (Gotoh). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Angry Tele Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 its probably senn, they wouldn't use alder on a transparent finish, the Japanese are pretty good with vintage correct specs. (although they did use basswood a lot on opaque finishes)Id pay $600 for that Tele, throw some Fred Stuarts in it and rock out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted January 3, 2010 Members Share Posted January 3, 2010 Many thanks. Is it correct to say that a low-mid guitar like this would be weaker in terms of the electronic only, or would also the wood have not as good tone and sustain as more expensive ones? I think the hardware is fine (Gotoh). Yeah that is generally true. The cheaper ones will have cheaper asian made electronics and cheaper stock pickups. I can't really tell from the pictures but how many pieces is it? cheaper usually means more pieces but I've never seen any japanese clear finished guitars that were more than 3. I'd bet the wood is pretty damn good. The main difference would probably be a poly finish on that vs Nitro on the very high end stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GRAF Posted January 4, 2010 Members Share Posted January 4, 2010 Solid titanium actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members yellowshirtguy Posted March 5, 2010 Members Share Posted March 5, 2010 Hey, this is my first post here. Sorry to bump an old thread, but I bought a guitar exactly like this one, except it has a G serial (1987?). Actually found this thread on a google search trying to find out what wood it is. I'm fairly certain it's not basswood, even though some people have tried to convince me that it is. It doesn't really look like basswood to me, and it's quite a bit heavier than my basswood Ibanez. It's my first tele, but feels pretty nice to me. It definitely feels just as good in my hands as the MIA tele the other guitarist in my band has. I actually prefer the neck on this one to his. I'll probably need to tweek the electronics a bit. The pots a bit scratchy, and the neck pickup doesn't quite go clean. When I try to run it clean it just sounds like it has a little bit of dirt on it. The bridge pickup is very bright. Over all it sounds good, and its playable for sure in the condition it's in now. Anyway, can you guys say for sure if this guitar is Alder or Ash? Here are some more pics: -edit I actually thought this was a thread for the guitar I bought at first. Same seller and same camera angles, and the guitar looks exactly the same. http://cgi.ebay.com/FENDER-JAPAN-TELECASTER-TL72-55-VNT-1987-G-SERIAL-MIJ_W0QQitemZ280469864164QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item414d4e7ee4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundcreation Posted March 6, 2010 Members Share Posted March 6, 2010 I'd say ash for sure. Harder to tell on yours if it's sen ash or north american ash. I'm no expert but every old sen ash MIJ body I've seen has very tight grain like the original guitar at the top. Yours is a little more N. american looking grain. But keep in mind this opinion is strictly based on guitars I've seen pictures of and then saw whether it was sen or not. I'm sure there is variation in grain patterns for both species. sweet guitar! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted March 6, 2010 Members Share Posted March 6, 2010 It's not basswood. I use alot of basswoods in carving. It really looks like ash of some type to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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