Nocaster vs other CS Teles

teleile

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Hey,

I wonder how nocaster is different from other teles like 59 and 60 version sonically and feel wise?

Do you have one that you prefer?
 

gwjensen

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Nocasters have big U necks generally, but you have FCS Wildwood 10 Nocasters spec'd with smaller 60's oval necks, which is weird to me. Wlidwood and Humbucker Music also have Thinline Nocasters, which is even weirder, but they also have Nocasters with the more correct larger U...

There are also Nocasters spec'c with the 10/56 V and the '57 soft V, and then you have '51 Nocasters, '52 Nocasters, and '54 Nocasters, even though by 1952 they were all Telecasters...

By '59 Fender was using mostly rosewood fretboards, I believe, with noticeably thinner necks, and there are number of different 60's carves as well...

As for Nocaster pickups, some have '51 Blackguards, the Wildwoods have have Twisted Teles (Wildwood loves Twisted Tele pickups), others have Nocaster pickups, some have the old school wiring with a blender in the tone knob, others have the modern 3-way wiring...

60's pickups are generally hotter and spankier than 50s pickups, I think.

Nocasters are all over the map... The only thing in common is all the Nocaster variants only say "Fender" on the headstock...

I haven't studied the 60 Teles as much since I prefer larger one piece maple necks typical of early 50's Fenders, so thats what I look for, but there are a lot of variations there as well in neck carves and pickup selections...

Happy hunting!
 

jazzlettuce

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Like what was said above, the Nocaster body specs include a thick U neck and a maple neck.

Sonically there’s a pretty significant difference between Nocaster pickups and 60s teles, I’m not sure how to put words to it but there’s a good amount of demo videos out there to listen to.

I’m having a Nocaster built with very untraditional specs: 60s oval neck with 7.25-9.5 compound radius, dark rw board, front and back binding, and modern wiring. I love the Tele overall but wanted something to differentiate my Tele from other more common builds.
 

burntfrijoles

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The Nocaster can be anything the dealer (or individual) specs it to be. It's just a custom shop that doesn't have the Telecaster badge on the headstock. As posted above, Wildwood has Nocasters with different specs, not just neck profile but pickups as well. Dave's, Eddies, etc all have Nocasters with different specs.

It's no different than ordering the "transition" Fender logo rather than the vintage spaghetti logo on the headstock.

In the Custom Shop Design Guide there is no specific "Nocaster" neck profile. There is the 51 U and 52 U which are both baseball bat thick. There are two different "nocaster" pickups.
 
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zephyrR1

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My Nocaster is a 2010 60Th Anniversary Ser# NC30 purchased used. I love this guitar, really has a special tone still has the blend circuit, took a little bit to get used to. I also have a CS 52 1 pice swamp ash body, C neck, and Twisted Tele pickups, great guitar. My Nocaster sit’s in regular rotation.
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gwjensen

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My Nocaster is a 2010 60Th Anniversary Ser# NC30 purchased used. I love this guitar, really has a special tone still has the blend circuit, took a little bit to get used to. I also have a CS 52 1 pice swamp ash body, C neck, and Twisted Tele pickups, great guitar. My Nocaster sit’s in regular rotation.View attachment 1329501View attachment 1329498View attachment 1329497View attachment 1329500View attachment 1329503

Nice! How's that little Carr compare to a '57 Champ RI, if you know. I've had the Champ on the brain...
 

telemnemonics

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Leo made the Broadcaster Nocaster and Telecaster to be the same guitar, the first ones called Broadcaster got him sued by Gretch who had a drum set called Broadkaster.
So for a short time Leo had the shop snip off the word Broadcaster from his supply of headstock decals and put just “Fender” on the headstocks, until he got decals with the new name which was Telecaster.
All the same guitar aside from fairly small changes like necks got changed over and over and were hand shaped all a bit different.
The first production used A3 magnets and 43awg wire so those pickups actually sounded different and it was a clear change from one to the other.
Neck shapes changing was ongoing and did not really make a different guitar.
All were the same model just different names.
 

zephyrR1

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Thanks gwjensen, my Carr Rambler is 25/7 watt’s very nice club amp, I haven’t read through Fender 57 Champ CS I added NOS tube also changed out the Weber speaker, something in the treble just couldn’t take. It now has a Jenson 8. I use my Champ all the time, I also run it with a Swart Night pretty much cranked. Sounds awesome it’s my go to small amp. Love the way it sounds with out attenuator.
 

telemnemonics

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The neck shapes, dimensions and even fretboard radii varied wildly during those years, at least according to the historians.
Yes but more randomly, as opposed to one board radius for Nocaster and another for Broadcaster.

Certainly the earliest necks were huge U shape and the shape then changed gradually, but not like three different models with different model names as the OP asked about and FMIC sells.
 

gwjensen

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Thanks gwjensen, my Carr Rambler is 25/7 watt’s very nice club amp, I haven’t read through Fender 57 Champ CS I added NOS tube also changed out the Weber speaker, something in the treble just couldn’t take. It now has a Jenson 8. I use my Champ all the time, I also run it with a Swart Night pretty much cranked. Sounds awesome it’s my go to small amp. Love the way it sounds with out attenuator.

Oh, thats a Rambler! Not little... For some reason I thought it was the 5-watt Raleigh... Where'd I put my reading specs... Good to hear about the Champ. I check everyday for used ones that might come up locally. I have a Muchxs Champ-type amp with an old 6" Magnavox speaker that's juicy as all get out and has me gasin' for the '57 with the 8" speaker.
 

RJLII

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Mine is a little off the normal formula. It's a light ash body with the big "U" neck (.990 for the whole length) but with a 9 1/2" FB Radius. The build sheet calls out "Modern Wiring" but it has a factory treble bleed. The color is listed as Vintage Blonde. It came stock with Nocaster Pickups. It's crazy light. I'm made a couple mods, namely Lollar pickups, a set of Callaham Bridge Saddles, and an Electrosocket jack.

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