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Fender Vintage Hot Rod '52 Telecaster
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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2
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9395
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Mon December 31, 2012
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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$1,600.00
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9.0
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Description:
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The Vintage Hot Rod '52 Telecaster takes the best of old and new Fender craftsmanship to create a fantastic guitar built for the serious player! Visually very accurate to the look of a '52 Telecaster, it has a list of sought-after Custom Shop upgrades to make any Tele player drool. It's got a top-of-the-line thin-skin nitrocellulose lacquer finish that ages quickly and beautifully as well as letting the natural tone of the wood shine. The neck has been streamlined for smooth playability with a satin-finish back, 9.5" fingerboard radius, and medium-jumbo frets. The three brass saddles on the vintage-style Tele bridge are compensated to allow for more accurate intonation. And a Seymour Duncan Vintage Mini-Humbucker at the neck and a custom-wound Tele bridge pickup deliver the hot tones called for in modern music.
The rest of its features are true-blue '52 Tele, like the American Vintage model it's based on: a premium ash body, one-piece maple neck with U-shape profile, Fender/Gotoh vintage-style tuners, a one-ply black pickguard, and chrome hardware.
The U.S. Vintage Hot Rod Series from Fender offers new instruments with specs, looks and features that make them feel as if you were the third owner of a vintage instrument. Here's your chance to own that beautiful player's guitar, but in brand new shape and freshly set-up from the Fender factory!
Features
Thin-skin nitrocellulose finish
Premium ash body
1-piece maple neck
U-shape profile with satin finish on back
9.5" fingerboard radius
21 medium-jumbo frets
25.5" scale length
Nut width: 1.650"
Chrome hardware
Fender/Gotoh vintage-style tuners
Vintage-style Tele bridge with 3 compensated brass saddles
1-ply black pickguard
Custom Vintage Tele bridge pickup
Seymour Duncan Vintage Mini Humbucker neck pickup
3-position blade pickup selector
Master volume and tone controls
Setup with Fender Super 250R Nickel Plated Steel strings (.010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046)
Includes Vintage Tweed Case, Strap, Cable, and Meguair's care kit
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Keywords:
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Seymour Duncan Telecaster Hot Rod HR52 Tele Vintage HR 52 |
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Find the lowest price for the :
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Posts: 12
Registered: April 2012
Location: Barcelona
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Author
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Jamis
Registered: April 2012
Location: Barcelona
Posts: 12
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Review Date: Thu May 10, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $2,000.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Beautiful finish. Super confourtable neck. Great balanced sound, hot and powerful, but still twangy.
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Cons:
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Harder to get a smoother rhythm sound than in other more classic type teles. (52 Reissue for example)
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It's classy and beautiful. It delivers a very balanced, sustained and powerful sound but still retaining a lot of the classic tele twang. I felt it's quality in both finish and tone right at the moment i put it in my lap and played the first two notes. (Which, by the way, didn't quite happened with other American Vintage Fenders).
The Seymour Duncan Hot Rod Mini humbucker on the neck is hotter than the single coil you get in the very similar Fender 52 Reissue, but not as dark as in the Hot Rod 52 Tele-bration version. This allows you to play lead on the neck position with a more powerful sound, but still retaining that classic tele twang.
All three pickup positions deliver absolutely usable sounds on the fly, and rolling the tone knob you can get softer, more subtle and mellow colors without it getting too muddy on the low strings. The neck pickup is very bluesy, the middle position is the more twangy one, and the bridge pickup sounds articulated and balanced, not harsh but still piercing.
A con: I do find it harder to get a more mellow rhythm sound than in a Mexican made Baja or the 52 Reissue, for example. Nonetheless, in the middle position (curiously not on the neck pickup) and juggling with the tone knob you can get it without really that much of a fuss.
The U shaped neck is extremely comfortable to play. The satin finish in the back makes it less sticky than the 52 Reissue, and it's size and radius are perfect (for my playing style anyway).
The lacquer finish is a little thiner than in the 52 Reissue, if i'm not mistaking. It makes the grain of the wood more visible and makes it classy and really beautiful.
Now, the price in Europe is about 1.800€, approximately 500$ higher than the US price. it's a bit more expensive than other American Vintage Fenders, and that is something to consider, but IMHO the difference in price between this and other American and Mexican models is very much worth it, if you're looking for what this Telecaster offers. The truth is, i choose this one over the great American Vintage 52 Reissue.
So, i do believe, like they say in the adds, that it's a classic telecaster with a subtle modern tweak in both sound and playability that adds balls to the sound and, for some of us, more comfortable playability.
These are my thoughts on the Hot Rod 52, excuse any mistakes on the few technical details i introduced, i used my only my memory for the review.
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Fernandomania
Registered: December 2012
Location: Sunny SoCal
Posts: 272
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Review Date: Mon December 31, 2012
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $1,199.99
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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hot pickups, modern neck radius and larger frets, thinskin nitro finish
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Cons:
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neck sometimes seems sticky, case
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This is the tele I've always wanted. That's not to say that I've always wanted a '52 Hot Rod Tele, but rather when I first played it, I realized that it had all the things I was looking for in a Tele.
I've had various Teles in the past and for various reasons was never completely satisfied with any of them. I started with a Standard model but kept going back to a Strat. Later I got a '72 Thinline Reissue which checked off most of the boxes on my list but couldn't get past the vintage frets and 7.25" radius. I thought about a '72 Deluxe since it had the bigger frets and larger radius but the Strat neck and 4 knobs were getting away from the Tele design. The '72 Tele Custom would have been closer to what I wanted except it had the same neck as the Thinline.
Eventually I realized that the '52 Hot Rod had what I was looking for. Larger neck radius, medium jumbo frets, humbucker and single coil sounds. The only thing that was giving me pause was the $1699 street price. Fast forward to November 2012 and I was at my local Guitar Center and saw that they had a Buttersocth '52 Hot Rod for $1199 which made the decision really easy for me.
Pros:
- 9.5" radius and medium jumbo frets
- versatile tones with humbucker and single coil
- Thinskin nitro finish will age over time
- classic Tele look
Cons:
- Neck sometimes can feel sticky
- Thinskin nitro finish more delicate than poly that I'm used to
- Tweed case is heavier and less protective than the modern SKB case that American Standards have. Also, the tuner for the 1st string hits the padding and knocks the first string out of tune sometimes when I put it away.
Overall, I'm very pleased with the '52 Hot Rod. I think it's got a nice vintage vibe but with some nice modern features. I've always been more of a Strat guy but lately it's getting more playing time than my Strats. The items on my "cons" list are nits at best--the neck should wear in and feel less sticky over time, and I also got an SKB case to put it in instead of the tweed (I kept the tweed as well though).
No guitar is perfect so that's why I rated it a 9 instead of a 10 but I have no reservations about recommending the '52 Hot Rod to anybody looking for a Telecaster.
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