Is there anyone who didn’t like the 52 AVRI Tele?

My favourite one.
sorry.

 

Me.
The finish color, neck shape, and on older reissues, the original wiring all bug me.
The newer (more recent) models are nicer.
Does that mean I am banished?

 

I have thumb arthritis, and the neck of the late 1998 AV52 I had bothered me. I know most guys don’t have thumb arthritis, and a ton of guys love bigger necks, but make sure you like that before ordering one.

Mine was light weight, looked good and sounded great. Too bad it didn’t work for me, but there are a lotta Telecasters out there.

 

I have played a lot of them in stores. I can't stand the thick gloss on the fingerboard coupled with the ultra low vintage frets. Just a personal preference, otherwise I thought they sounded great and were built really well.

 

I didn't care for my '52 because of the tiny frets and the radius bugged me a bit. Couldn't get that real slinky feel that I need.
So I went with a Baja.

 

Neck radius ruled it out for me when I played one. And the nasty orange colour didn't help. Prefer my Baja.

 

The more recent versions are way better (and more correct spec wise) than the older ones.

 

I recently saw that Fender has the "American Original 50's Telecaster" - I would love to play one of those. I never really warmed up to the 7.25 radius or vintage frets. This new model has a 9.5 radius, and vintage tall frets - probably closer to what are on the American Professional. That sounds like a winner to me (if I could justify spending that much).

I also really like the American Professional. If you are drawn to "more vintage" specs, that one is also worth a look - but the neck on the AmPro is a lot thinner than the U on the 52 / Original 50's.

 

The recent series often referred to as "pure vintage" are all very nice. I actually have one of the previous era and I love mine. Then again mine's copper and not butterscotch, and as the other coppercaster owners know, they are the best guitars ever created. My brother has one of the more recent 52RI in butterscotch and it is an excellent guitar.

 

The 52 reissues are very well made guitars. I had two of them. Things I didn't like-

7.25 radius.
Tiny frets.
Vintage style wiring that had to be changed over to make the neck pickup remotely functional.
Color.

Love that the new 50's tele in the American Original series has a flatter fretboard, taller wire, and modern wiring out of the box. Still dislike that it's only available in freakin butterscotch.

 

I also have thumb issues and couldn't hack the neck on the outgoing AV '52s (the August 2012-2017 models) but loved the sound whenever I tried one out. I did own a 2003 AVRI '52 - I happened to find one with a somewhat smaller than usual neck, but eventually let it go for more modern-spec instruments that worked better for me.

They are all great guitars, but try before you buy to make sure you like the larger U-shaped neck.

 

I had a late model (2013?) MIJ 52 RI that was pretty expensive but I never took to it. The neck was so goddam chunky that when I switched to playing this guitar after playing a strat my thumb would immediately start cramping up. Not sure if this guitar had the same radius as the AVRI.

 

This is the only thing keeping me from buying one. It looks weird to me.

 

We'll see when it comes in the mail, but I loved the ones I've tried in shops.


Most of my Tele's were vintage spec anyways and the ones with the 9.5" & up didn't sit around here very long, and I can't recall a neck size other than wizard w/flat radii ever bugging me so that should be fine. Hell, I'm probably gonna swap the blend wiring kit into it too.


I applaud attention to detail in reverse engineering something thus I appreciate reissues which are as close as freakin' possible to what that cat was opening up in 1952. If they used junk lacquer, slid the frets in from the side, and carved the necks all over the place I'd be even more impressed with the AV's, a boy can dream.

Everything else is just another guitar (and I have those too) IMO, a reissue should mean something.

 

I accumulated 8 of a variant they made in 2006, that shares everything but body color and pickup choice with the 1999-2011 usual versions. I actually prefer the 2012-2017 versions in a lot of ways, but I can't really fault the ones I already have. I wonder if there's a significant number of guys like me who strongly recommended the new/final version of the AV52, but we didn't buy even one for ourselves because we already had no space left for more guitars.

I'm suspicious that sales numbers were not so good, on these last version AVs because of market saturation combined with the increases in MSRP and retail price.
I saw a few guys buying them but I saw many more, buying "modern" style Teles and Strats, and buying Bajas and Brad Paisley models and so forth.

 

Like others, I don’t like a neck quite THAT big, especially when coupled with vintage radius, vintage frets and a gloss coated fretboard. Great guitar, but certainly not for me.

 

lovely guitar, almost bought one... before I found out about the Baja telecaster. looks identical, but has thew S1 (I removed mine) and V neck and modern frets.Not too many guitars are wroth over 2,000 dollars, in my opinion, so thats why I couldn't justify it.

 

Im not a and ... mostly the nec size frets and radius. Colours is also a bit meh. I too would look into the new American Original series. That being said the AVs are great builds Im just not a fan of vintage radius and frets. I’d prefer the 58 or 64 to the 52 as their necks are much more to my liking.