Vintera 50s Telecaster MN SBL : Needed a bit of work...

it had a good few issues for a brand new Fender ...initially I was very disappointed with it.The star ratings are based on it out of the box as it would be for someone without the experience to set it up and without replacing the pickups.

1 Neck out of alignment.

2 Nut cut so its biased to the bass side

3 Rear hole for control plate drilled too close to edge of rout,needed a little dowel to get the screw to grip.

4 Switch knob completely loose

....the tuners also seem to have a shorter split in the shaft than on the older classics,less user friendly

...the capacitor looks like something from the cheapest Squier...works fine but does not project the quality associated with the series.

The pickups were the real problem for me.......did Fender really intend to ship these with a bridge pickup wound to 9.2K?...that's not "revoicing" thats just overwinding...the hardest most unmusical sounding Fender pickup I've come across(and that includes the notorious X1 from the early 80's).

The neck is 7.8,a very dead sounding unit.

Is there any possibility these were fitted to my straight 50's but are the units intended for the Mod 50's?....

It cost me another €126 for a set of Fender's excellent True Vintage '64 units.

On the plus side

1 Excellent fretting and finish on a lovely fat neck.The tint is very good too.

2 Lovely finish on the body too.

As it is now,with the '64 pickups,the set up and neck corrected,a proper Top hat switch knob and 1/4" plain steel saddles its effectively set late 55 early 56 specs.A Mexamerican Vintera 55. It's transformed,it sounds magnificent,its a night and day contrast.5 Stars all round.

....but it should need all this,it should be fantastic out of the box.I never came across any of the old Classic series that did not sound and play great straight off.

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