Tele made in Indonesia Worthless?

[fenderchamp]

I have had excellent experiences with three Bootstrap pickup sets. Made In Ohio, USA. They are the best value in aftermarket pickups I’ve found.

One more thing: if you do order from Bootstrap, check with Ryan, the owner, what set(s) he would recommend for coil splitting. I’ve had experience with an Epiphone 339 Pro that was good, and it had usable tones when split. Almost all the coil-splitting configurations I’ve experienced other than that were disappointing. JMO.

Make sure if you're going to buy some bootstrap pickups, to put in your cheap guitar, that you waste as much of owner's time as possible and not just order them off of the web, and have a little faith that the they actually wind good sounding pickups and somewhat accurate descriptions of what they are on the website, so that if he takes his time into consideration, he goes from making little to making nothing or even losing money on your purchase.

 

[Ronzo]

Make sure if you're going to buy some bootstrap pickups, to put in your cheap guitar, that you waste as much of owner's time as possible and not just order them off of the web, and have a little faith that the they actually wind good sounding pickups and somewhat accurate descriptions of what they are on the website, so that if he takes his time into consideration, he goes from making little to making nothing or even losing money on your purchase.

Wow. Just wow.

Where did THIS come from, pal?

 

[telestratosonic]

Thats what i was just told,tele squier thinline made in Indonesia are worthless,is this true? i was trying to sell it,,,brand new,,,took $150.00 off what i paid,had 3 people tell me their no good.TRUE?

I have one I bought 10 years or so ago in the Walmart parking lot in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta. I saw the ad on Kijiji; met the guy after work and paid $170.

First off, I swapped out the stock tuners for Grovers. Waste of money as the stock tuners worked fine. Have since swapped out the pickups, electronics, knobs/3-way switch, jack and bridge. Only original parts are the neck, body and pickguard.

I play this guitar every day at home. So far, there's no fret buzz and the neck is fine.
Truth be told, for what I use the guitar for, the upgrades except for the vintage bridge were not necessary. I'm a fan of vintage bridges as I like to hook my pinky finger on the underside of the lower bridge lip. Helps me when I'm picking.
If I lived near you and had seen your ad, I would have snapped it up.

 

[preactor]

My Indo-Squier I keep at Church. Not really a good guitar but not really a bad guitar. Hardtail with a super thin plywood body. Sorry it's not a Tele.

 

[fenderchamp]

Wow. Just wow.

Where did THIS come from, pal?

It came from

1. All of the OCD tone talk on here, and the rest of the internet.
2. Knowing what a nice guy the bootstrap guy and how good and reasonably priced (READ as criminally underpriced) his product is.
3. All the times I've seen him have to close down his website to catch up with orders.
4. Add that, to instead of just clearly sharing whatever knowledge he gave you regarding picking out the right pickups for your coil splitting application, you just said "call him up!" so he can repeat it all again.

I just feel sorry for the guy, and I respect him, and I respect his time.


My reply was snarky though, and I apologize for that.

 

[Ronzo]

It came from

1. All of the OCD tone talk on here, and the rest of the internet.
2. Knowing what a nice guy the bootstrap guy and how good and reasonably priced (READ as criminally underpriced) his product is.
3. All the times I've seen him have to close down his website to catch up with orders.
4. Add that, to instead of just clearly sharing whatever knowledge he gave you regarding picking out the right pickups for your coil splitting application, you just said "call him up!" so he can repeat it all again.

I just feel sorry for the guy, and I respect him, and I respect his time.


My reply was snarky though, and I apologize for that.

Apology accepted.

I understand your feelings about tone-chasing. But that’s one of the purposes of forums like this - to get a read on other people’s experiences with various pieces of gear, among other things. I also agree that Ryan, Bootstrap’s owner, makes an excellent product, and sells it at a reasonable price.. I also think that one of the reasons he has become successful and has an order backlog is that the members of this and other guitar forums have sung his praises for the product quality AND his accessibility, which usually leads to better customer satisfaction.

Now, regarding your apparent issues with me:

• I have bought three sets of Bootstrap pickups: two Palo Duro sets that I’ve installed in a Squier Bullet Tele and a Squier Affinity Tele. All are single coils. I’ve also purchased, but haven’t had the opportunity to install yet, a pair of Bootstrap ‘54 Vintage neck and middle single coil plus a humbucker Vintage Clean bridge pickup, that will be installed in a Squier Bullet Strat when I get to that project sometime after Christmas.
• I have NOT done coil-splitting in ANY of my project guitars - including the DiMarzio Dual Sound bridge pickup I installed with a neck DiMarzio PAF in my Hagström II back in 1984. Personally, I find coil-split humbuckers to be weak in output compared to a proper single coil design. Most guitars I’ve heard with that option aren’t pleasing to me. The one implementation I’ve heard where it seemed useful was in a friend’s Epiphone 339 Pro. The statement I made to the Original Poster was that, if he was planning this specialized installation, he should contact Ryan at Bootstrap to make sure that they would meet his needs. This may avoid Ryan some return shipping and additional conversations with the OP, protecting him from increased costs. In my former positions before my retirement, managing a customer’s expectations before the purchase resulted in reduced costs and better customer satisfaction.

I hope this clarifies my positions for you.

 

[cleantones]

I have two Teles made in Indonesia.

Regardless that they are Fender branded, at some point I thought that the JA-90 might be a Squier whose brand was changed at last minute for marketing purposes, but actually it is a very good guitar with amazing sound coming from those P90s. The machine head tuners were crap and I replaced with Fender Locking Tuners that required some drilling made by a Luthier (I don't trust myself drilling on a guitar). I might upgrade the bridge and saddles but it will be in the future.

I got recently another MII with such a long name: Special Edition Custom Telecaster FMT HH. This is an awesome guitar, very happy I bought it, it sounds great and it plays so nice. Very well built and it is a keeper with no mods intended at this stage.

 

[2HBStrat]

I have an Indonesian made Squire Bullet Strat that I love. However, I know there isn't a lot of resale value there.

 

[stantheman]

Again - Indonesian Squiers are GREAT.