Best lefty tele… is there any?

I’d get a lefty Standard and drop in a good pickup, get your favorite strings. That’s the majority of it.
When you’re picky or antsy about modifying righty might as well be lefty—that is, if you’re particular.
That CV is really nice btw.

 

I'm a lefty and last year bought an American Standard Tele.
They are out of production now.
It's got the twisted Tele neck pickup and Broadcaster bridge pickup.
I really like it and feel no need to change anything out.
Fender ships these with right handed volume and tone pots,which are totally unusable.
My tech replaced them with CTS left handed pots and now everything is beautiful.
You can probably find an American Standard cheaper than the new model.
I play mine through a Mesa Mark V and can't help but smile every time I crank it up.
I gigged a Gibson 335 for over 20 years,but moved onto Strats and Teles.
I soley gigged a Strat for the last 15 years,but now have gone back to the Tele.
I plan to play this one for a long time.

 

To the great suggestions already made, I would add the best lefty Tele is the one you build for yourself to your own tastes & specs. That isn't necessarily a budget option though.

Also, if you ever cross paths with an 80's Tokai Breezysound, definitely take a close look.

 

For me this was the answer. Even if you don't build it yourself, get the specs you like best and have someone build it for you. Or check out some of the smaller builders. Better than any production Fenders and in most cases pretty good pricing too.

 

I've been playing S and T styles for a while now. I would look at G&L as well and their Tribute ASAT Classic. It's a mighty finely crafted axe and sounds lovely with the MFD pickups. Other than that, Fender makes MIMs and MIAs. If you can pick up a Japanese tele for a decent price, I would say do it without thinking. MIJs are VERY nice guitars as well.

Food for thought. Go lefites!!

 

I just got a lefty squier tele for 200.00 canuck pesos, I have to say I am blown away , first by the sound, then by the playability, this is the first fender I have ownd that I did not want to rip the guts out of it, I built 7 pickguards for my strats before I found a sound I liked, but this right from the box was great ( and cheap)

 

The one that's right.

 

My AM Standard is a 2016.
I'm not sure what years they used the Twisted Tele,Broadcaster pickup comb.
Maybe starting around 2013.
I like this pickup combination over others I've tried.
Another nice looking Tele is the MIJ double bound.
Haven't played one,but have heard good reports and they are really good lookers.
I've seen lefty ones for sale in Europe.
Shouldn't be hard to track one down.

 

Did you have a budget for the new tele? That will definitely narrow down the selection.

 

Your choices as a Lefty playing left handed, are somewhat restricted so my recommendation is to focus on the sources and companies that provide you with more choices:

1) USA G + Ls;

2) Japanese Fenders;

3) Chinese Squiers; and

Some vintage Fenders.

Otherwise you're stuck playing a small number of models in limited colors. That would irritate me if I played Lefty.

 

I found a few items that may interest you, on Craigslist;

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/msg/d/2017-fender-squier-classic/6313208299.html

https://waco.craigslist.org/msg/d/left-handed-telecaster/6291968914.html

https://nashville.craigslist.org/msg/d/left-handed-fender-telecaster/6311731823.html

https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/msg/d/fender-telecaster-neck-lefty/6294078725.html

https://cnj.craigslist.org/msg/d/2013-fender-telecaster-52/6267520052.html

https://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/msg/d/lefty-mim-telecaster-body/6307920665.html

https://daytona.craigslist.org/msg/d/2012-mim-lefty-fender/6283567931.html

* Now I feel like a bozo...you're in Sweden!

 

I've made as many lefty teles as righty teles for players/friends....

I'm surprised more leftys don't resort to building their own..to get the one they want.....

never too late to start a new hobby.... you must have some nice timbers in Sweden to try out....

hardware is easy to source/post as well... pickups, etc....

.... that's a black guard under the protective paper..

 

You got it right - G&L produced a lot of lefties from day one. Fender Japan also produced more lefties than the US factory. Somebody (MF probably) ordered like a million lefty BSB Affinity lefties that are surplusing now on CL and Ebay. Other imports like RW produce lefties. In general, and this applies to other instruments, the imports from the East and Europe produce more lefties than in the US. PS - its much easier to find lefty Fender products and copies, than Gibson products.