Telecaster for rock - what is recommended to look at?

No pb here with asian guitars, I own three , one made from stock squier parts, very good mojo & deep soul to me (hear that custom squier strat here . I turned up selling the US strat because of a lack of mojo & tone , next one to be sold are 80's japanese ( SG1000 & ibanez artist ).

I keep the chinese & korean for recording 95% of my track , they respond so well to good profiles and are easy to play ( with a good setup ) , bonus is that you don't care about spilling beer on a 250€ guitar. They also got much more mojo that most metal guitars I have tried in the past, that sound pretty sterile & generic.

The classic vibe series is really better than the 90's squier crap I used to play. Same story for Vintage V100 Les Paul, a stunning guitar compared to all shitty epiphone & Gibson studios I could try.

I don't understand people buying US guitar over 1500 € / $ since a very good Luthier in my area can build a classic strat tailored to your exact needs with hand wound PU & unique design for less than this ????

Quote from DukeOURL

The 60's & 70's didn't need custom shop.. ..

I didn't say anything different. I said custom shop wasn't available, but NOT because quality was always high but because there simply wasn't a market for it yet, partly because there was no historic consciousness established concerning guitars, and no vintage terminology or market.
Quality, believe me in the 60’s or 70’s was sometimes only so-so, and sometimes bad.
E.g. I played a ’62 pre CBS extendedly that couldn't hold a candle to one of my 2 end 80’s Fenix strats.

When we play historic instruments from that time TODAY that sound so awesome it is mainly because they are and have been very good instruments from day one. Otherwise they wouldn't have survived and would have ended up in the trash ages ago.
A classic example of a positive bias.

Quote from guenterhaas

I actually don't like Korean or Chinese guitars, they are ok for the -little- money, but they don't have any "soul". Very different to a 70's-tele, like DukeOURL pointed out right, Fender made very good teles back in the 70's and because they're not "vintage" yet, they are affordable and often less expensive than a custom shop model.

Well, this, OTOH, is a classic example of a negative bias.

I've owned a '89 Fenix Strat (Korean) for a very long time. Bought it when it was 1 year old which is 24 years ago.
I was surprised by the quality then, and even more so now, after having had so many guitars in hand over a quarter of a century. Lots of 'mojo', plenty of 'soul.'
I set these terms in quotation marks because it remains unclear what they mean and a lot of people get fooled by wrong or non-defined terminology.

To me a guitar is like an input device to express my feelings as a player. An instrument either speaks to me or not. This one did, plenty, and as I got better as a player and way more mature with my musical preferences I learned to appreciate this guitar even more.

I even started to try to find another one like my first one and to my surprise, about 5 years ago, I was able to get one on Ebay.
And this one is just as good, no kidding.

Quote from Ingolf

Well, this, OTOH, is a classic example of a negative bias.

I've owned a '89 Fenix Strat (Korean) for a very long time. Bought it when it was 1 year old which is 24 years ago.

Hey Ingo, just to get one thing clear: I'm talking about Chinese/Korean guitars from today and not from 24 years ago....

Squier made some excellent stuff and the Japanese guitars (I own seceral ones like a Tokai Les Paul Goldtop and and a black ESP Mirage from the first series) can be awesome, too.

My experience refers to the newer Asian models (not Japanese) and in the last years I never found a good one, especially in the price-range around 500 EUR. It doesn't have to be an expensive guitar, but it's a difference if the wood is matured or new, if the guitar is built from massive wood or plywood ect.

Nevertheless even Chinese guitars can do a great job, considering the low price.

Vintage guitars can be very bad, too, from about 10 vintage strats I played in the last time I just liked one.

waraba: here in Germany you won't get a custom made handbuilt guitar for $1.500 or less.

Ok I got you wrong then, I agree that there were periods with better quality in Asia as well.
Still I think with the underlying working ethics of the luthiers that work at the Tokai factories in Japan and China where they build the guitars to the old specs you can get incredible value for money today.
Lance knows more about this than me, maybe he will chime in.

Ah I forgot, Guenter: You posted about Rick Vito on Facebook and I made the remark about him being a Reverend player.
Reverend is another fine example of today's Korean craftmanship.
I play a Rverend Jetstream with 3 P90 PU's myself.

Too bad I can't make it to Rick Vito's gig.

Quote from Ingolf

Well, this, OTOH, is a classic example of a negative bias.

I've owned a '89 Fenix Strat (Korean) for a very long time. Bought it when it was 1 year old which is 24 years ago.
I was surprised by the quality then, and even more so now, after having had so many guitars in hand over a quarter of a century. Lots of 'mojo', plenty of 'soul.'
I set these terms in quotation marks because it remains unclear what they mean and a lot of people get fooled by wrong or non-defined terminology.

To me a guitar is like an input device to express my feelings as a player. An instrument either speaks to me or not. This one did, plenty, and as I got better as a player and way more mature with my musical preferences I learned to appreciate this guitar even more.

I even started to try to find another one like my first one and to my surprise, about 5 years ago, I was able to get one on Ebay.
And this one is just as good, no kidding.

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My cousin had a Fenix strat from the late eighties, too. I can honestly say, I use that as my benchmark when it comes to strats (it's maybe a bit telling that I haven't had one since selling my 90s Fender USA strat 6 years ago...).

Cheers,
Sam

Quote from Ingolf

Ah I forgot, Guenter: You posted about Rick Vito on Facebook and I made the remark about him being a Reverend player.
Reverend is another fine example of today's Korean craftmanship.
I play a Rverend Jetstream with 3 P90 PU's myself.

Too bad I can't make it to Rick Vito's gig.

The Rick Vito Signature model will cost about 1.199 EUR and for sure it's a great guitar (solid Korina body, Korina neck with Ebony fretboard ect.), Asian or not is not important if the quality of the components is great.

But you won't get a quality like that for 500 EUR.

The Rick Vito-gig will be great, he's an excellent guitar-player, singer and an oustanding slide-player.

I'm a fan of Rick Vito since I heard him first on Jackson Browne's superb album 'Lives In A Balance' 1986 and seeing him with Jackson Browne in the Rockpalast night that year.
Such a cool musician. He brought a totally different flavour to J.B.'s music compared to David Lindley who had left the band before.

Quote from guenterhaas

The Rick Vito Signature model will cost about 1.199 EUR and for sure it's a great guitar (solid Korina body, Korina neck with Ebony fretboard ect.), Asian or not is not important if the quality of the components is great.

But you won't get a quality like that for 500 EUR.

I totally agree.

Quote from waraba

I don't understand people buying US guitar over 1500 € / $ since a very good Luthier in my area can build a classic strat tailored to your exact needs with hand wound PU & unique design for less than this ????

Ahhh... As for Italians, we buy branded guitars because

• we are obsessed with brands, just like for name brand clothes;
• we want to be able to resell guitars, and luthiers' guitars lose a lot of value

Ps: 2 of my guitars are hand made...

For me a Tele is the best sounding guitar through the Kemper...especially the bridge pickup.
I like adding the Compressor Stomp upfront to any clean or slightly crunchy Profiles.
If you find things are too bright then turn down the "Definition" a little.

These are some of my favourites that I tweaked for my Tele.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.…per%20Tele%20Profiles.zip

I also often use a Tele with my profiler (I own 4 different ones ATM).
What I love to do is to take a profile like the AC20, which is on the edge of breakup, and dial in Compressor in the amp section (not as a stomp) up to 4-5.
This way compression kicks in when you dial down the guitar volume to clean up.
It's so versatile and sounds simply magnificent.

as someone who recently aquired his first Tele after long years of searching for the right one, all I can say is play as many as you can.

Who cares what it says on the headstock and where it was assembled - contrary to common belief even cheaper models are of course made from properly prepared (dryed) woods and even custom shop guitars can have issues with QC.
Don't worry about the fretboard material, there can be larger differences between two guitars with the exact same specs than between two different makes using different woods.

There's a lot of 'mojo' surrounding electric guitars, especially the Tele, so I recommend to pick them up and play them, since the biggest factor will be how the neck feels to you. This is a very personal thing and will make or break a guitar.
Pickups can always be swapped and there are a few very talented individuals that sell hand made pickups for less than you think.

I did the above and ended up with a choice I didn't expect.

Quote from DonPetersen

as someone who recently aquired his first Tele after long years of searching for the right one, all I can say is play as many as you can.

Who cares what it says on the headstock and where it was assembled - contrary to common belief even cheaper models are of course made from properly prepared (dryed) woods and even custom shop guitars can have issues with QC.
Don't worry about the fretboard material, there can be larger differences between two guitars with the exact same specs than between two different makes using different woods.

There's a lot of 'mojo' surrounding electric guitars, especially the Tele, so I recommend to pick them up and play them, since the biggest factor will be how the neck feels to you. This is a very personal thing and will make or break a guitar.
Pickups can always be swapped and there are a few very talented individuals that sell hand made pickups for less than you think.

I did the above and ended up with a choice I didn't expect.

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Perfect advice

I have 2 Teles. A 1967 and a parts Tele,made by Tommy at USACG in Seattle. Both have Lollar vintage pups, rosewood boards and ash bodies. They sound similar. Very resonant , nice mids and beautiful highs. The 67 has more warmth and nicer mids but if didn't have the 67 I'd be very happy with the home build.
Try joptunes AC30 and JTM 50 profiles. Also try Andy,s free 62 Deluxe and a 66 Deluxe reverb that someone else did. I'll find out who and edit this later.

There's a certain ring and twang from the bridge PU in a Tele that you cannot get from any other guitar.
I guess this is due to the metal plate it is mounted on.