Fender Modern Player Telecaster

[Netgeist]

Hello folks,

I am investigating purchasing my first tele. I love the look, price and versatility of the Modern Player Telecaster and I've read some reviews on it. The one thing I have not been able to find out is...can I get that telecaster twang from it?

It sounds like it when I hear it on youtube but that's hard for me to judge because those guys are good players and I am new. So I don't have the technique yet. I want a guitar that gives me that twang when my skills are up to it!

So...experiences?

- netgeist

[joshmalory]

Did you see any reviews on youtube?

[Rolling Estonian]

IMO, tele twang comes from a single coil in the bridge. Now there are other factors but that's the biggest one.

M

[Netgeist]

Josh...I did and they sounded twangy but I am not sure if that's a quality of the guitar or the player in those videos.

- netgeist

[Netgeist]

There are so many tele versions out there, I am not sure what to buy as a new player. I want comfort of course - the Baja neck sounds too wide for me, for example. But the twang is paramount for me.

So if not this tele...what's good for a new player on a budget?

- netgeist

[waparker4]

Squier Standard Telecaster
Squier CV or CVC Telecaster
Fender Standard Telecaster (Mexican)

All have the single coil bridge for the twang. Try them out and go with the one that feels best.

IMO a tele with a bridge humbucker... just doesn't work. Which is why I'm getting rid of my blacktop tele.

[musicalmartin]

If you want a traditional tele sound then go go a traditional tele type .A CV will serve you better in this direction .Humbucker guitars are fine for most tones including country in fact many country recordings are actually on Gibsons but if you feel you need twang then get a "proper" tele.

[Tred]

I would find a guitar store that stocks Fender Tele's. Then sit down & play several of them, till you find one that gives you what you want, sound-wise.

[Netgeist]

Thanks folks. I am looking at the Tele Standard. I know the CVs have a good reputation, but my first bass was a Squier and after finding that it was made of particle/chip board, I have a very bad taste in my mouth about them now.

- netgeist

[jklotz]

Hard to go wrong with a MIM tele. IMHO, either wait for a 15% off coupon from one of the big sellers or find a nice copy used on CL or the like. My last one cost $275 and will twang with the nest of em'

[jklotz]

BTW = I've got a modern player with P90's. I like it a lot, but I had a few teles already and wanted something different. If it were me, I'd go for a traditional tele first.

[InfiniteRhino]

Originally Posted by jklotz

BTW = I've got a modern player with P90's. I like it a lot, but I had a few teles already and wanted something different. If it were me, I'd go for a traditional tele first.

Same here.

[Toto'sDad]

If you could find a used FSR Ash MIM Tele, from 2007 it would have Tex-Mex pickups, and twang for days, you don't have to do anything to make it twang, probably can't keep it from twanging with a sponge over the bridge pickup. You can buy these for $250-$350 used and they are great guitars all around.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by Netgeist

I am investigating purchasing my first tele.

I was just thinking about the TDPRI'er in Europe who never played his JA-90 Tele and was wondering how much to offer to sell it for. I am kinda concerned with P-90 Teles also, in the way that they differ enough from regular ones and may have a way of not quite getting you in the front door at Tele Land.

I agree with the others who say a "traditional" configuration Tele is the right first step.

[alltruenews]

netgeist,

I am new to the Tele too. I just bought my first about a month ago and I had the same concern.

I found that the combination of the right guitar with the right amp creates that "Tele magic" sound.

I bought an American Standard and it sounds like my Strat on my little practice amp, but it sounds like a Tele on a real amp.

[Rolling Estonian]

Originally Posted by alltruenews

I bought an American Standard and it sounds like my Strat on my little practice amp, but it sounds like a Tele on a real amp.

This is up there for quote of the year. Good tele + Good amp = Good.

M

[Netgeist]

I love the sound of those Tex-Mex pick-ups, too. I feared it wouldn't give me the twang I want but I will look in to it.

- netgeist

[soulman969]

Originally Posted by Netgeist

Thanks folks. I am looking at the Tele Standard. I know the CVs have a good reputation, but my first bass was a Squier and after finding that it was made of particle/chip board, I have a very bad taste in my mouth about them now.

- netgeist

Top of the line Squiers like a CVC have alder bodies just like the MIM Standard and the CV 50's have a pine body which Fender America has been using for years. The top of the line Squier Basses use basswood which would be similar to alder. You don't have to worry about a particle board body. That's nonsense.

The Squiers are about $100 to $150 less expensive and in the opinions of those who have played and owned both a better built and better sounding guitar. Don't turn away from them just because of a previous bad experience. You may end up liking the MIM better but you should at least evaluate a Squier CV.

Quite frankly I've never even heard of a Squier with a particle board body. Laminate plywood yes but particle board? Are you certain that it was a Squier?

[Netgeist]

Yes....Squier Affinity - came in a Fender kit with amp, cables...etc.

It was about two weeks old when the strap button ripped out of the body, taking a chunk of the wood around it with it. I got a good look inside and was not happy when I saw that particle board. Took a lot of wood glue and toothpicks to repair it and then it went straight to craigslist.

- netgeist

[boris bubbanov]

The hardest thing to do, I think, is make useful generalizations about "Squier" guitars.

Since they're made at different plants by outside contractors, FMIC doesn't have precise control over what the product ends up being. So, some Squiers are really nice guitars while others are kind of shocking. There's an ebb and flow to this, where sometimes the whip was used and results got, and other times things slipped through.

Unfortunately the Modern Player, although called a Fender, is also such a contractor guitar. The natural assumption was, since the CV bested all expectations, that the Modern Player would be from the same place and be good or even better. I am beginning to see it is none of those things. There are a couple of the Fender models in the recent years that are what I think of as "Honorary Squiers". This would include the Special Editions (026) that first were made in S. Korea and now Indonesia. Not bad in some ways, just not consistent and not possessing enough Fender DNA. And it would include the Acoustasonic and other previous attempts at making Fender labeled guitars in China. And now it includes these new Modern Players.

I'm going to keep exploring this theme, but at this point I am gonna suggest to anyone who is convinced to get a Chinese made FMIC label product, to buy the CV line because it had proved sound thus far. If I can convince a guy not to buy the Chinese sourced product at all but try the others instead, that would be really nice but the only things wrong with the CV are this trade differential mess we have between Nations, and the necks are so thin. The MPs have way more problems than just that sort of thing.