A Brief Fender History
Lets recap briefly on the history of the Telecaster. In the 1940’s, California inventor Leo Fender knew he could drastically improve on how guitars were being made. With his knowledge of existing technologies, he quickly streamlined the guitar making process of how amplified hollow-body instruments of the day were being made. By 1951 he introduced the prototype solid-body guitar looking and sounding different than any guitar ever made to that date. It was called the “Broadcaster.” Later re-named the Telecaster guitar. The Tele, more affectionately known, was the first solid-body electric “Spanish-style” guitar to ever to go into commercial mass production. It has been said by many that with all Leo Fenders inventions in manufacturing, Leo became the Henry Ford of musical instruments!

That same year (1951), Leo introduced the Precision Bass guitar. Which was revolutionary! The reason? Well….for the first time ever, bass players were able to amplify their playing, were before, they were extremely limited to the natural limitations of their acoustic “up-right” Basses. Usually in “big band” settings making it very hard to hear them. So you can easily see the significance of these two instruments (Tele & Precision bass) is that together, they definitely laid the foundation for early “Rock and Roll”! Leo Fender re-invented the guitar & bass……”ELECTROFYING” them making it possible for smaller groups of musicians to be heard!

The 1972 Tele Custom
1971 was the year to take the groundbreaking Telecaster guitar to a whole new level. Resulting in the ultimate “hybrid” guitar. Crossing the popular styling of the Gibson Lespaul with the Fender Telecaster. Pairing a single-coil Telecaster bridge pick-up with a special designed, for Fender, Humbucker pick-up. The body and neck being 100 % fender but the four individual controls (2-volume and 2 tone) and 3-way toggle switch are obliviously "influenced" from Gibson features. But other new additions were the three-bolt Micro Tilt neck and bullet truss rod that had already been found on the Strat and other "top of the line" Fender guitars. But not until 1972 had this ever been seen on a Tele. The '72 Custom was also offered with a rosewood or maple fret board option.

So This Must Have Been a Guitar everybody wanted…….right?
Well…….not exactly……..Here’s some reasons why. For one thing guitarist like Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) Tomi Lommi (Black Sabbath) and even Angus Young (AC/DC) were enjoying huge popularity. And the their main sound…… or axe of choice was Gibson’s! With that Famous PAF Humbucker sound! Gibson guitars were drawing a strong following in the Hard Rock market. Early 1970’s � Gibson Les-Paul Customs were everywhere. So needless to say neither the Gibson fans nor the established tried and true Fender players, seriously picked up any of Fender's humbucking Tele’s. In Addition to that, it’s not a secret that CBS's (they bought fender from Leo) rapidly declining quality helped fuel people's dissatisfaction with the Tele Custom as with the rest of the 70s Fender line. Rumor was that it was Keith Richards and Mike Bloomfield who had helped influence the Custom design by putting a Gibson Humbucker on their own standard Telecasters neck position.

Keith Richards has been seen in many photos with a normal looking Tele with a humbucker installed in it. But he also is seen using the 1972 Telecaster custom too. It really hasn’t been till the re-issues that came out in 1999, made in Mexico that has re-interested the guitar playing public…….including myself. So from here on out I will deal with the differences between a real 1972 Tele Custom, which I own one and the 1972 Tele Custom “Reissue” which I did own for about 3 weeks till I bought my vintage one off E-bay. More about that later………

1972 Tele Custom “Reissue”
So once I got the fever, I had to have one and I couldn’t wait. So I went to my local Fender Dealer to try the “re-issued” version of the Tele Custom. Actually I called ahead and talked to my friend Barry and asked him if they had any. He said yes but not any on the shelf, he’d have to go out to the warehouse and get one for me. I said “do it! I’ll be there in a half hour”. So sure enough he did and had it waiting for me. I proceeded to put it through the paces. As always I plugged it into a Fender Blues Junior, all tube guitar amp.Read about that here:http://www.epinions.com/inst-review-74E4-3C07A5D7-3A1FEC97-prod6

Just for fun, I even tried it up against many other Fender Telecaster Standards that were there too, but I already had a good educated reference of what a good American made Telecaster should sound like because a 6-8 months before hand I had gone through an exhausting search for good American Telecaster.Read about that here: http://www.epinions.com/content_27798638212

So after checking the finish, construction and overall build quality, I was very impressed. It was a very solid feeling and well playing guitar. It sounded great! I loved the difference the Fender “specially designed” humbucker gave to the old “ground-breaking” Tele sound. The neck (humbucker pickup) sounded very warm and had a smooth bluesy/Jazz box vibe to it. Hotter and warmer than a standard Tele single coil neck pickup. While the single coil bridge had that familiar punchy snappy bite to it as a good Tele should. The middle “in-between” setting was interesting. Not like a standard Tele and not like a Les-Paul but something of a “hybrid” for sure. So I was smitten and bought it on the spot. The only thing that was bugging me was that this guitar is made in Mexico. In the past the foreign made Fender guitars from Korea, Indonesia and Mexico were very cheaply made and bad playing and sounding guitars. Note: 10 years ago a friend had me “sit in” with his band for a couple songs and he handed me his “Mexican made” telecaster to use…….it sucked! The word Sh#t comes to mind. Actually a “Major Piece Of Sh#t” would be more appropriate! Thus, not the case with this 1972 Tele Custom “reissue” this time.

So what’s your deal dude, you just said you liked it and was going to buy it right
Yeah , yeah , yeah I did and did, but I also didn’t mention that all my Fenders and Gibson’s I buy for professional use are usually “American made.” I guess mostly because of the stigma and definitely because of the “re-sale” Value. I feel if I’m gonna invest in something like a Guitar in this case it better be worth more to me in the years to come. So with that said I got over it being made in Mexico, being totally impressed with the quality and sound…….plus new it was only about $485.00 verses $1000.00- $1800.00 for the used vintage ones going on E-bay…..sigh…. and not knowing what your getting.

Live in action
I took it home, plugged it in to a few other tried and true amps like my Fender 65 Twin Verb Read about it here:http://www.epinions.com/inst-review-3774-3D28EA78-3A22D119-prod6 and my Marshall DSL 401 read about it here: http://www.epinions.com/content_104611876484

So as expected it passed all my tone test/amp combinations and sounded really good. I felt good about my purchase…….sort of…….but it was still bugging me that it said “Made in Mexico” on it. I put it away for about a week and didn’t get it out till my next gig. I took it and used it off and on through the whole gig. It did a great job covering all styles that we cover. Everything from Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” to blues stuff like “Before you accuse me” by Eric Clapton and “I feel Good” James Brown. So after the gig I put it away in the guitar rack with all my other “American made” guitars……utt-oh………….can you guess where I’m going with this next? Those of you who know me, you probably can guess.

I started to dig deeper into re-search about the “original” 1972 Tele Custom, finding most the info I gave you in the beginning of this review. Then I did it! I started searching E-bay for them……them???………. Yeah, a real one……a vintage 1972 Telecaster Custom. And as you can guess, I started bidding and in, short I won one for $992.00 “all American dollars” a vintage 1972 Telecaster Custom in good shape, all original (except for a added phase reverse pickup tap switch) from a guy in Texas!
Ok, you read through all of that to get to this……( hey I haven’t written many reviews in awhile so this one is all bottled up! You asked for it!)

1972 Telecaster Custom –VS- 1972 Tele Custom “Reissue”
Actually there are 3 versions of this same guitar made out there from Fender. From 1972 to early 1981 you can find a real one made in the USA. It was considered for about 9 years to be “discontinued”. In 1990 Fender re-issued them being made from Japan. These continued till 1999. They then changed where they we’re being made from Japan to Mexico that same year and is in current production as of today and as “Mexican made” re-issue. I’m not really sure if you can actually get a American one made today, but Id bet if you called Fenders custom shop, and for the right amount of “American made money” they’d make you one.

Anyway since there are 3 differently made ones I’m only going to cover the 2 have first hand knowledge and experience with. Besides, those of you who have read my reviews know I only rate products on actually using them first.

A SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON, things I like and dislike

BODY
From this point out I will refer to my Vintage American Tele Custom as VATC and the Mexican Reissue Tele Custom as MRTC. The body of VATC is made of ASH wood. The MRTC body is made of Alder wood. Thus my VATC is lighter in weight than the MRTC. I actually like the Mexican Reissue feel of the body better than my Vintage American Tele. Alder weighs more than Ash, so I like the heavier feel…….once again perception of thinking heavier means better. But that’s not always the case. But I just like heavy guitars

THE NECK
The neck on my VATCis a “c” shape maple neck. Which I hate “C” shape necks although the radius at the first fret is the same as the MRTC (1.650” or 42mm) the MRTC is a “U” shape neck. Which I like much better. It just feels and plays better in my big hands. Feels much like a standard Strat or Tele neck. I have a real hard time playing my Vintage American Tele Custom because of this main issue. It’s hard to grip the strings and bend doing blues/rock licks. Plus I usually don’t like the high gloss feel of vintage maple necks, they are too slick. I would guess that this was a reason other players from that time didn’t warm up to them then, and also why Fender has changed the neck to a U shape and more of a satin feel on the MRTC! I am actually debating on buying a Tele Replacement “U” shape maple neck to replace the original neck that I don’t like…..and of course just “store” it till it’s time to put it back to original condition.

The Tuning Machines
The tuning machines or “tuners” on the VATC are standard Fender/Schaller “F” tuners. They still work fine and for the most part the guitar stays in tune. The tuning machines or “tuners” on the MRTC are called Fender/Schaller “F” style tuners but are slightly different than the original with a narrower sting slot. Regardless they work just as good or better than the original.
The Color Options VS Wood
The VATC comes in Black, Olympic White, Natural Blond, Walnut, Antigua, Wine and Tobacco Sunburst. The MRTC only comes in 3-tone Sunburst and Black. SPECIAL NOTE: The MRTC3-tone Sunburst comes with a Alder wood body and the Black version comes with a Poplar wood body. As far as I know the VATCcomes in Ash wood and Alder But I don’t know how to tell buy just looking at the finishes.
Last but not least is the pickups and the tone
As I said earlier the Mexican Reissue Tele Custom actually sounded really good. In-fact when tested up against the new American standard Tele’s…… it sounded just as good or even better! BUT not until I got my Vintage American Tele Custom could I have known the difference. By far…..hands down…..with no argument my Vintage American Tele Custom with its vintage/original pick-ups sound way better. They seem to have an open ended airy-ness to them where the Mexican Reissue Tele Custom kind-of sound a little flat and sterile. The “middle/in-between” setting on my Vintage American Tele Custom has a fuller “chimey-jangle” zing to where the Mexican Reissue Tele Custom just is kind-of ?????……..just ok. Kind-of like the difference in how “real” butter taste like VS “country spread” or “I can’t believe it’s not butter”. It’s close, but no buttered cigar!

Just in general the VATC has an overall air, tone, and vibe that over 30 years of aging brings out, that you just cant package in a “re-issue” guitar of any make and model. That’s another article I’ll have to write about later.

The Low Down…. The Skinny….. The Hub…..Bub!
In short……the Fender Telecaster Custom “Re-Issue” made in Mexico, is one fine guitar. Not only that it is a very close copy of the real thing that came out over 30 year ago. It actually plays much better than my Vintage Custom, but it falls short in over-all sound and vibe. But to be totally fair, unless you have a vintage one, like I do, to compare it to…..you won’t know the difference. Kind of like the young kids today have no comparison reference to how good vinyl records on a good high system wit a good needle’stylis sounded so much better that those crappy mp-3’s and I-pods they are walking around with. Hey, that’s another article there!

But for the money, you won’t be unhappy with how the re-issued version of the Fender Telecaster Custom plays and sounds. Plug it into your I-pod you wont know the difference!
Thanks for reading
Mark Darnell
Groovebelly Productions

P.S.
After I won my Vintage American Telecaster Custom, I took the re-issue Mexican Tele Custom back to my dealer….since they have a 30 money back guarantee with no questions asked policy.

Recommended:
Yes