What's your biggest Tele buying regret ?

[Scotland]

I bought a '72 around '78 but the pickups were terrible and doubt if they were original, the neck was warped and the tuners were all shot. I bought it unseen through a newspaper ad. and sold it the same way although my ad. was more honest. I lost a lot on it but what annoyed me most was the disappointment in that guitar I had waited so long to get.
Oh well, I got another one or two or three since then.

[rhinocaster]

It's funny, I don't regret buying any of my Teles over the years, even when they ended up being a disappointment. I simply sold them and moved on.

What I DO regret are the guitars I passed on. The one I regret the most was a '66 blonde with factory Bigsby. Super clean, light, toneful and $1,400.

Now THAT'S regret!

[e-merlin]

I can't recall ever regretting a Tele purchase. I regret selling a few and passing on a couple.

These days I can't imagine not keeping the one you bought and sold, but this is a different guitar climate than back in '78. Was anyone even making replacement parts back then? Would anyone have even thought about taking it back to a Fender dealer for a replacement neck?

[mellecaster]

About 65% of what I buy on E-Bay...the Classifieds here, and on The FDP...and just discovering what some consider "Awesome" "Plays like Butta"....and the Modification Skills of some.......

[getbent]

haven't been happy with an SSH Vintage modiefied squier I got as a present.

just don't like it... it is disassembled right now and i"m considering keeping the neck and selling the body and guts, but haven't decided just yet...

I read RAVES about it and put it on my wishlist and got it.... ruh roh.

I may have gotten one that just doesn't have it.. dunno.

I've worked on a bunch of teles for friends that were just too dang heavy for me and have those 6 saddle bridges that are square... me no likey cosmetically.

I've gotten some pickups that I was disappointed in.... so it isn't always 'instant bliss' but for the most part... any tele is a pretty good place to start.

[timmer]

a '69 I got that was refinned, humbuckered, and fretless.

Seeing as I spent top-dollar for it I decided to restore it and it is now in the hands of Gord Miller. When the body is done I'll send him the neck.

Don't get me wrong, the guitar was beautiful as is!



But it was a fretless wonder.

I've been trying to keep my mouth shut about this restoration, especially since there have more than a few restoration threads here but I've always been the "in for a penny, in for a pound" sort of guy.

So, not so much regret now because I think I'm doing the right thing.

BTW - I have the original neck pickup and all of the electronics and hardware is original. What you see in the above picture is an SD Antiquity in the original pickguard. I'll probably have to spend another grand for an original 3-ply pearliod-back pickguard.

BUT

In for a penny...

Thanks!

[boris bubbanov]

Any Telecaster with a full size 'bucker in the bridge I bought has been a disappointment.

That's Ok. The prices were right and the necks were nice.

[Oster]

Ibanez 'Lawsuit' Tele-Thinline. Hunko Junk.

[csapo]

is that I didn't discover the joys of the Telecaster earlier in life.

I had always been a Strat guy...young and naive

[lewis]

In the late '70s a pawnshop had a '72ish olympic white Tele. I didn't have the $400 to buy it, just the $125 to buy the no-name copy hanging next to it.

[gtrman911]

"What's your biggest Tele buying regret ? "

sorry, those words don't even make sense to me....especially the last 4.

no comprende', amigo.

[Bill]

I guess it was a '54 I bought off of ebay some years ago. I knew some stuff had been done to it, but when I got it, it had been drilled for an extra tuning peg and some holes had been drilled through the body, and the pickups were shorted out. So I regretted I'd bought it and that it had issues that weren't mentioned in the ad, even though I'd checked with the seller.

I contacted him and arranged to send it back. Then it turned out he'd sold it for a buddy who was the actual owner and had already given his buddy my money and that his buddy had taken off with the money. So it took about three months for me to get my money back. Fortunately, I was dealing with an honest seller and I didn't need to send the guitar back til my money was on its way back to me.

That was my original regret. Now my regret is that the guitar was $1300 with the original case and I should have hung onto it even in that condition.

Still, it sent me back to looking for my dream Tele, which I finally found some months later with the help of the TDPRI. So all's well that ends well.

[mudbean]

My only regret is that I can only afford to own one.

mud

[CatfishStudios]

My first big guitar purchase will always be my biggest regret..saved up 700 bucks..walked into a store not knowing a guitar nut from my, well..Long story short, I walked out with a new Epiphone Les Paul Custom flametop burst...nice guitar...but man .... I should have got a Telecaster.

[beep.click]

I bought a Peavey T-style back in the 90s. I don't regret it too much, because it's a fine guitar on its own merits. But it has "blade" pickups, and the neck is essentially identical to my Strats, and it doesn't sound to me like a Tele, at all.

So in my mind, it's not even a Telecaster, and that's why I consider my Baja my first Telecaster.

Still, at the end of the day, the Peavey is a keeper, because it has it's own vibe. And, it's pistachio green (yum)...

Oh! The one that got away: a sunburst b-bender, also in the 90s. I still remember how that one played, and sounded. I wasn't working at the time. I should have done it anyway.

[mjb1967]

selling my 52 hot rod

[whitebread]

I regret not buying a '78 black/maple tele custom for $500 back in 1991-92. I've been jonesin for one just like keefs for years now and the prices just keep going up and up. The RI's are starting to look real nice these days.

[Mark Davis]

Ive only had 1 Tele I really didnt like sold it 2 weeks after I got it new a MIJ JD Sig Tele.

I got it right as they were being discontinued in the late 90's I had my 50's Classic MIM with the 53 Champion Lap steel pickup in it and it just blew the JD's doors off no contest.

That particular JD was dead dull and lifeless.

[JayBee]

In the early '60s the electric guitar players that really rung my bell were, Micky Green ( with Johnny Kidd), Eric Clapton and later Jeff Beck (with the Yardbirds), that guy with Ricky Nelson (James Burton), that Stax guy with Otis Redding etc. (Steve Cropper). What did they all play? Telecasters of course.
So what was I doing mucking about with Hofners, Burns and a permanently out of tune Strat?
What an idiot I was!!
A half decent Telecaster would have taken my playing to another notch and was absolutely the right guitar for the material I was playing then.

20/20 hindsight is easy. Can I please have 20/20 foresight if I am re-incarnated!

JayBee

[BritishBluesBoy]

A '92 MIM Telecaster Special I bought on eBay. Just didn't bond with it at all. I gave it to my neighbor...

[drgonzo2]

Buying a Baja, sight unseen. Lovely guitar, but the neck's too darn big for me...

... G

[Big John]

Rob W Jackson.................I also have a pal who told me a funny story about a homemade Parsons / White style bender. First time he plugged in and tried it, he said it creaked like someone opening a door in a horror movie !

Yes ........... the "Pal" was me but what Rob didn't mention that it was a '64 Esquire and i routed out the back with a Black&Decker drill and wood bit !, splinters and swearing everywhere and ending up with a good scale model of the Marianas trench.
It was actually cheap enough when i bought it at the tail end of the '70's but what would it be worth now ?

I figured out the mechanism on paper and fabricated it with the help of some Fiat carburettor parts and it worked surprisingly well but it was that main spring at the back, however hard i tried to damp/lubricate it every time i pushed down with any volume from the amp the band would all look round waiting for Dracula to appear !!, ha ha ha very funny !!!

Wearing the guitar as high as i do it was quite uncomfortable too and eventually i thought "sod this, i'll use my fingers" so gave the neck to a friend who wanted one and threw the body in a dumpster !!

Yes, i am Big John and at times i have been a perfect IDIOT !!

[B Valley]

Not keeping the ones I've owned. My first was probably a late 60's, because I got it used from a pawn shop. I traded an old Winchester rifle to the guy for a Gibson ES-125TC and a Tele with a black spray can paint job. A couple guitars I'd like to have back.

[Ricky D.]

Originally Posted by JayBee

In the early '60s the electric guitar players that really rung my bell were, Micky Green ( with Johnny Kidd), Eric Clapton and later Jeff Beck (with the Yardbirds), that guy with Ricky Nelson (James Burton), that Stax guy with Otis Redding etc. (Steve Cropper). What did they all play? Telecasters of course.
So what was I doing mucking about with Hofners, Burns and a permanently out of tune Strat?
What an idiot I was!!
A half decent Telecaster would have taken my playing to another notch and was absolutely the right guitar for the material I was playing then.

20/20 hindsight is easy. Can I please have 20/20 foresight if I am re-incarnated!

JayBee

The worst is the stuff we didn't buy. JB, you hit the nail on the head! High school late '60s, I finally manage to get into a 9 piece soul / R&B band that's gigging regularly on the weekends. I have to step up from my desret sand Musicmaster to a more professional instrument, money saved, small loan from parents. Bought a nice Gretch Tennessean for $200.00. Had I known what Cropper was playing, I probably could have got a blackguard for less than half that! Friend of mine bought a used LP goldtop for $75...