Well friends I just had to share my good fortune. After months of surfing the net I find a beautiful blond nitro Maple necked 50s Road worn MIM Tele. 15 minutes from my house. Man is she a beauty and does she ever howl. The body is Alder and weighs in at 7lbs even. This little ax has mojo for days. The PUPs are Tex Mex singe coils and man I really think they sound great. The reason I rolled the dice on her is that I have a 96 MIM strat that I really like better than my Am Std Strat. (Thats a story for another time and place). I couldn't be happier with this little guitar and in my opinion the road worn MIM are a steal. I spent all afternoon setting her up ( I don't think she had ever been intonate as it was pretty far out of tune). Sorry for going on about the little Tele. Ill post a few pics let me know if you want to see more as the checking is really well done
NGD 2012 Road Worn 59s Telecaster
- Thread starter sammy1
- Start date
Steve Holt
Friend of Leo's
Man I wanted a roadworn tele so badly when they first hit the market. But I was a broke college kid and could never swing it! I wanted a yellow one with a white pickguard.
Glad yours is a good player! It looks awesome.
Glad yours is a good player! It looks awesome.
The big chips in the wood at the tail edge of the front tag yours as the first series of Road Worn Tele's. What year is it?
hoaryoldfox
TDPRI Member
I’ve got a 2012 Road Worn and they are beautiful instruments but I’ve also got a 2007 and they have the heavy relic treatment. I’ve heard a couple of theories as to why they phased out the heavy relic in 2008. One likely theory is that Fender were losing out sales of their Custom Shop heavy relics to the much more affordable RWs.
Congrats!
IrishBread69
Tele-Meister
Don't suppose you have some photos of both examples? Don't worry if you don't and certainly don't go out of your way to take them.
Just curious how they compare to my 2020 version.
Nice!
Many folks really like their Road Worns. They're the right combination of features and playability.
Possibly, but... If I had Custom Shop money to spend wouldn't choose a Road Worn at 1/4 or 1/3 of the price just because I liked the relic job the same as the CS. I'd get the Custom Shop because I wanted that CS level of quality.
My theory about changing the relic job from the first series to the lesser wear of the second series: The main complaint from people was that all the wear/damage was unnatural. The fret board was worn in a pattern and locations that weren't logical. No one played a guitar that way. The big chips out of the wood of the body didn't look like wear, they looked like significant physical damage. It would have taken a lot of hand labor to create all this wear and damage. Fender may have decided that the cost of that labor wasn't worth it.
If one came along and spoke to me, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Road Worn.
IrishBread69
Tele-Meister
Agree with you. If I had CS money I would be buying a CS. For the same reason I buy Ultras and AOs instead of Classic Vibes.
That said, my RW is one of my favourites, well built, great specs and US pickups. Nothing to dislike about it at all.
noname_dragon
Tele-Holic
I have a later, lesser reliced 59RW. After a couple tweeks it's my favorite tele I ever owned. Light weight, love the taller frets, very resonant, neck is perfect... and it looks cool no doubt. I'm putting a good degree of gig wear on it myself, and it sounds great. I got lucky on this one. Ordering a hi $$ CS guitar might be nice, but you won't know how you really like it till it's in your hand.
howardlo
Tele-Afflicted
Nice guitar for sure, but the last thing I would want is a guitar that howls (or screams).
hoaryoldfox
TDPRI Member
Yes that is the other theory and I also tend to think this is more likely. With the early RWs you either love the heavy relic or hate it. From 2009 onwards the lighter relics are aesthetically pleasing to nearly everyone so more people should in theory buy them
Twang Tone
Friend of Leo's
Nice. Mine's an ash-bodied, 2013 RW 50s, like the one Tim Lerch plays.
PurpleSage
Tele-Meister
Excuse my ignorance, but what're the necks like on these?
Dylan888
TDPRI Member
I had a 2017 50s RW. The neck was great. Not too thick C profile I think it was… and with little or no finish so it was very smooth to play. My only slight gripe was the fret wire: I don’t know if they had kind of scuffed them up as part of the relic process but they were quite rough and my fingers would kind of catch on them when I moved up down the neck. Probably could have been solved with a fret dressing/polish or something.
TattooedCarrot
TDPRI Member
Sure it's a 2007? Road Worn series started in 2009, the first run of heavy relics, white pickguards and vintage radius necks went through 2012 then they went to the current version of lighter relic, black pickguards, and 9.5 necks.
hoaryoldfox
TDPRI Member
Let me dig it out and check. Haven’t played it for a while
2012
It is an average size C
