Fender Review: Telecaster Plus

History:

Purchase: I got this new in early '98 from a local shop, spent about $800. I was gearing up to play live and needed a better main ax than my standard Tele. Also, this seemed similar to a Strat I had unsuccessfully tried to buy from a friend who's a keyboard player.

What I Like About This Fender Telecaster Plus: Overall, it is well built for a modern Fender product. It has a nice range of tones -- I can actually play lots of blues, rock or even jazz on this thing. It has a hot, crisp bridge pickup sound, a mellower neck sound, and a nice combination of the two. Also, combining the mid and bridge pickups gives it a twangy, Robert Cray-type tone. The transparent blue finish, pearl pickguard, maple neck and chrome Tele knobs make this a really nice-looking guitar. The paint looks neat under the lights, too.

What I Do NOT Like About The Fender Telecaster Plus: Where to begin... I had problems right away with the electronics and the dealer. Fender doesn't advertise its own customer service, so that left me to search until I could find a Fender rep. The bridge pickup was bad from day one, had to be replaced. In the first six months the selector switch and both the volume and tone knobs also had to be replaced. The shop where I bought it -- Fred's in Shillington, Pa. -- failed to set it up properly, and on subsequent visits appeared unable to correct this. (Actually, a competent shop would have noticed during setup that it had electronic problems.) I finally paid for a setup from my own guitar guy and chalked it up as a lesson learned the hard way. (I later bought several thousand dollars in P.A. gear, none of which came from that shop.) I'm pretty wary of Fender these days -- you have to test everything very thoroughly.

Fender Telecaster Plus Quality Rating: The Tele plus has three Lace Sensors with a five-position pickup switch, plus a mini-toggle that allows you to play the bridge and neck pickups together without the center pickup (a classic Tele combination). The neck is a maple bolt-on with micro-tilt adjustment. Jumbo frets. Very nice to play, once you get it set up properly.

Review Summary: Fender wants you to use its dealers, so hold their feet to the fire and make sure they follow through on their commitments. I like the vibe of the Tele -- the chrome switch panel, slim neck, clear tone, simplicity. Getting a better version of it is so much the better.

Rating of this Fender product: 4

This Fender Telecaster Plus Electric Guitars Review Submitted By: Matt

Review Date: 2001-07-18