Hwy 1 Texas vs. Baja Tele

[jisham]

I'm in the market for a Tele and am considering these two models. I've read through threads here about both and they seem get high ratings overall. My main question is the neck shape on the Hwy 1 Texas Tele so if anyone could share info in that regard, I'd appreciate it. Other comments/suggestions welcome as well. Thanks.

[rolijen]

I have both and here are the differences I note:
Hwy 1 Texas has tall narrow frets whereas the Baja has medium height, wider frets.
Hwy 1 Texas has a flatter radius than the Baja (12" versus 9.5").
Hwy 1 Texas neck profile is a bit thinner but still beefy compared to say a Strat, very soft v.
Baja neck profile is more substantial with a bit more v. I can hear the difference in tone due to there being more mass to the Baja neck. I like it more than the Hwy 1.
The Hwy 1 neck wood is really WHITE (almost goofily so) whereas the Baja neck is the same color as my AV52 neck (not a heavy tint but not white either... really just right IMO).

Between the two, I play my Hwy 1 for more modern rock and the Baja for everything else.

Just my 2¢

[jisham]

Great info. Thanks.

[vanguard]

i got your email, but i'll respond here for universal benefit. both the texas and the baja are great guitars, but your chances of getting a great texas are far higher. i have witnessed at least 2 dozen of them and never found one over 7.5 lbs. i've also seen lots of bajas and have never felt one under 8-8.5 lbs.

the baja has that nasty, bulletproof finish, whereas the texas has a nice thin satin coat.

the baja is the clear winner in the pickup dept. i swapped my texas tele's pups first thing.

i think (and i am part of a large crowd) that the texas tele neck is the greatest neck fender's ever released. i also own a real 67 and a CS nocaster, so i have some pretty sweet necks to compare it to. it's chunky, but not clumsy, and just fits like a glove with that flat-ish radius and medium frets. fender said the idea was to create a neck that felt like your favorite old chair, and they accomplished this in spades IMO.

with the texas, you're guaranteed a 2-3 piece body; lord knows whats going on under that bomb proof cryptonite they put on the baja.

[Woz05]

To comment on vanguards body comment. I have a blond Baja, so you can see the grain very nicely though it and it looks great, I cant see any seams where the body is spliced together so I would assume it is also a 2-3 piece Ash body. The desert sand model doesn't have a transparent finish but I would assume it would have the same body.

Also, the neck on the Baja is amazing.

[telo]

There was another thread concerning this not too long ago and I bought a Baja... which is now up for a trade in the Classified section.

I like the Baja and may end up keeping it, but the big selling point was the big neck. Well, it might be an anomaly, but the neck on mine doesn't feel very big.

I think it's the extremely narrow nut that's throwing me off. Fender lists it as 1.625" or 41.3mm - I measured mine at less than 41mm. The Highway One Texas Tele should have a 43mm(?) nut and while it doesn't have a huge profile, the one that I played was slightly bigger than your average 'modern C' neck.

Also, call me crazy, but I didn't think that the pickups were bad at all.

['55 HRDX]

I had a MIM Nashville Deluxe Tele for a few years and I liked the neck on that model a lot. I think it was a "C" shaped profile. I don't know all the technical aspects about how thin, or how thick it was, but it had a nice feel for me, but I wanted a Tele w/ the standard 2 pup config, not the 3 pup config so I started looking and reading up on the different mid $$$ Tele models. I found a Baja blond model cheap on C.L and checked it out. The guy had lost the knob for the S-1 switch and he didn't even know what the S-1 switching was. It had acouple dings but otherwise in good shape. Action was low and the intonation spot on. I got it for $400! The more I play it the more I like it.
I sold the Nashville withi n 1 week and the Baja is my one and only Tele now.
Love the chunky soft "V" neck and the weight doesn't bother me. My other main guitar is a Norlin LP Deluxe. I had to find to find an aftermarket S-1 switch/knob. I also put on a bakelite pickguard and put in an R.S. Jenson PIO Cap. So I dropped another $60.00 in to it after I got it.
Everyone who hears it comments on the wide range of tones it can produce and how sweet it sounds. I'll be keeping the Baja for a long, long time!

[tele12]

Originally Posted by vanguard

1.... both the texas and the baja are great guitars, but your chances of getting a great texas are far higher. i have witnessed at least 2 dozen of them and never found one over 7.5 lbs. i've also seen lots of bajas and have never felt one under 8-8.5 lbs. ..........................

2......the baja has that nasty, bulletproof finish, whereas the texas has a nice thin satin coat.

3......the baja is the clear winner in the pickup dept.

4.....i think (and i am part of a large crowd) that the texas tele neck is the greatest neck fender's ever released. .... it's chunky, but not clumsy, and just fits like a glove with that flat-ish radius and medium frets. fender said the idea was to create a neck that felt like your favorite old chair, and they accomplished this in spades IMO.

1. Agree

2. Agree

3. Agree for most music.

4. Really Agree

[Woz05]

Idk, the Highway One Tele I played had huge frets which I wasn't a big fan of.

...And those necks are just so Fugly - they're as white or whiter than the Squier Affinity Tele I have. Yuck.

[rolijen]

I agree Woz. I like mine but the things you mention (freakish whiteness of the neck and the tallness of the frets) are turn offs for me. I have a John Mayer Strat that I don't like as much as I should primarily because of those tall frets. Don't mind wider than vintage frets but you really have to like these tall ones to get along with a Texas Tele. Other than these nits to pick at, the Texas is a fine axe. Although the frets are a little much for me, it still puts a smile on my face when I crank it up.

For the record, mine weighs 7.25 pounds. About the same as my AV52 but lightish compared to my Baja and Classic 50s (both solidly in the 8 pound club).

My 2¢ (guess that makes it 4¢ for this thread...)

[boris bubbanov]

Those necks will darken if you expose them to light. If you have a room you might keep the light on in for security it does seem to darken the neck, I have found. Or indirect light in a window.

My take is that the tallness of the frets on the Texas Tele is no problem (for me) but the Upgrade Highway One necks are frustrating. I just do not see how you could play these and also be expected to play other Teles with normal frets. That means issues with most Grestches, Gibsons, and almost any non superStrat Fender Strat.

[chrism8922]

Keep in mind, everybody is different, so each guitar is probably just right for some players, and not for others, otherwise, they would all be the same.

I had both at the same time; I used my Christmas money last year and bought a blond Baja. It sounded great in the shop, and it felt really good. I then read someone on here who said they got the Hwy 1 Texas, and it was far superior. Since I could return either one, I bought a blond hwy 1 texas and A/B'd them in my living room with my amp.

My conclusions:

- For me, the Baja neck was by far the better of the two. Much more comfortable with the "v" shape, the 9.5" radius, and the frets. I'm not very picky about necks, but the hwy 1 felt very weird to me. Maybe the flat radius or the huge frets, but I didn't dig it. I grew up playing a Les Paul and acoustic guitar, so I was really surprised that it didn't feel good.

-For me, the Hwy 1 Texas sounded far superior to the Baja. All tele, nice and twangy all the way through glassy cleans. It made the Baja sound like a toy. I really liked the "twisted tele" p'up, but the Texas just sounded better to me. It sounded much fuller - not just more bass, but all the way through the spectrum. The pickups were adjusted on both, I think it was just the guitars. We even got out a 52 RI, and the Texas sounded better to everyone across the board. That day we had 3 guitar players and 3 non-musicians listening to both.

-The color looked better on the Baja, but the thin finish looked better on the Hwy 1.

Ultimately, I sent them both back. After a couple of days, I thought to pull out my partscaster with SD pickups, and it was head and shoulders above the two fenders. As much as I wanted a blonde tele, I got a Gretsch instead...

Now I see that if I had to play both so closely, over and over again, to make up my mind, that either one probably would have been a great guitar. If they made a "nocaster blond", nitro finish with the texas p'ups and the baja neck, I think that would be the ideal combo... for me!