Vintage Hot Rod 52 Question

My 52 avri is satin/matt..

 

Same.

Tip: disconnect the neck mini humbucker from the tone pot and set it low. Best balance of everything.

 

I bought mine new in 2010, it came with the gloss pick guard. I immediately swapped it out for a hand-tooled black leather guard which looks "matt".

I love the guitar as much today as when I bought it. Pure classic!

 

The best and the only mod i made

 

Mine is from the first batch of 52 Hot Rods. I wouldn’t call the pick guard a high gloss, but it is more gloss than matt.

I went the other direction on pickups. I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan BG1400, replaced the posts with 250kOhm pots, and added a 5 way (N, NB, B with tone, B no tone and B cocked wah positions). Good tones from the factory, great tones with the new setup. Overall, a wonderful guitar.

 

While we are on it...

Here's mine. I swapped out the body which was a touch heavy to a new ash one in ultra thin nitro LPB.
I simply swapped out the body (I'm keeping the original body, of course). It made the guitar much louder acoustically.

As I mentioned I took the mini hum out of the tone stack and actually this is wired as per the original broadcaster with the tone pot as a blend. The sweetest spot is with the mini hum blended in by a touch like 1/5. You get the growl and bite of the broadcaster type bridge pickup with the sweetness and beef of the mini hum.

 

Where does the Hot Rod fit in within the Tele line of guitars?

 

The old USA Fender American Vintage line. Was produced for a shorter period than the regular AV models.

 

I have a hot rod in black with the white pick guard. bought new. it is gloss, not matte.

 

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/guitars/fender-vintage-hot-rod-50s-telecaster-593792

 

Yep; the Hot Rods were extensions of/additions to the AVRI series.

Personally I consider the current American Originals to be more of a current version of the old mid-2000s-early 2013 Hot Rod series than to be a current version of the AV series (referring to the AV series of August 2012-2017).

 

I owned 2 different 52 hotrod teles and one AO50's tele. My opinion based on my experience is the A)50's has a better neck (at least for my preference) but the 52 hotrod was better quality over all. I'm not impressed with the AO series quality having also owned and returned a A)50 strat whose quality wasn't as good as what I've seen in the Vintera series.