I've been playing guitar now for nearly 50 years. I started messing with a child sized acoustic guitar and learning chords from my Dad when I was just 5 years old and I am 55 years old now. Around 1966, my Dad bought me one of those Harmony vintage style guitars with three chrome single coils on it. Instead of a selector switch it had on off switches for the pickups. It was really versatile because you could use the bridge pickup alone, the bridge and middle pickup or the bridge and neck pickup or you could use all three. Along with that he bought me a Fender 5 watt tube amp with a 10 inch speaker. All it had was a volume control, but when you cranked it up, you got amazing crunch. I was formed my first band in 1966 called Southern Pride (I am from the Southeast in the US). We mostly did cover songs of the Stones, Beatles, Cream, later Hendrix and Zeppelin. In 1969, my Dad gave me his 1962 Fender Stratocaster and I was in heaven. In 1970, military service interrupted my musical career and I was off to training and then Vietnam. When I got back from Vietnam in 1973, I formed a Band called Thunderstruct (this was before AC/DC was ever heard of) and I put my 62 Strat aside and got myself a 1958 Gibson Les Paul for $600. We played basically 50's, 60's and 70's rock and blues and it was during this time that I would use my 62 strat for some of the songs we did, but something was missing. I had saved myself about $3,000 in savings bonds, so I cashed them in and bought myself a 1952 telecaster, Gibson SG and a Marshall Plexi Amp all in one package for $2,999.99. I was left with a penny.
Now I am a stratocaster lover. There are just sounds you can pull out of a strat that you can't get out of any other guitar and anyone who says you can't play hard rock or metal with a stratocaster doesn't know what they are talking about. However there is this certain "twang" that only a telecaster will deliver and over the years, I have always kept a telecaster around for when I needed that particular tone. Like the strat, there is a tone that a telecaster will deliver that you just can't get out of any other guitar. Over the years I've owned the 52 telecaster, 66 telecaster, 70's custom telecaster with the single coil at the bridge and humbucker at the neck with two volume and two tone controls and the selector switch up where a Les Paul selector switch was. Basically other than having the single coil at the bridge it was more like a Les Paul than a telecaster and it was a really good guitar, but it got stolen from me during a gig. Since that time, I've owned a Fender American Standard Tele, Fender American Deluxe Tele and about 5 mexican made telecasters of various styles, i.e., the standard, the Nashville, the mexican "Fat" tele and the thinline mexican tele with two humbuckers. All of them had their good points and certain tonal aspects you could not pull out of another guitar. I gave my last telecaster, which was the 67 telecaster to my son last year.
Well, I kinda missed the telecaster, so I ordered one of the Xaviere Thinline Tele clones with the single F hole with P-90's on it and it sounds really good - ass kicking guitar all the way around. However it doesn't sound like a telecaster. So I sorta started looking around for a traditional style telecaster.
I am not on an ego trip about what is on the headstock. In fact, back in the 70's it was common practice (still is for some) to remove all the decals from a headstock so that it did not appear the person was "endorsing" any particular instrument, especially those who use several different types of guitars. I did that along with hundreds of other guitar slingers.
While up in Baguio a couple of weeks ago, I ran across a traditional style telecaster with a headstock like a Fender headstock with LIVE! GERMANY on the headstock at Music World. It is made of solid mahagony, even the neck is mahagony with a maple fretboard. The guitar is heavy as hell. I asked to play it and for about 30 minutes, I just played it without plugging up. Always do that because if it sounds good when it is not plugged in, it is more than likely going to sound awesome when it is plugged in. Same for sounding like crap. If it sounds like crap acoustically, it is probably going to sound like crap when it is plugged in.
I was impressed by the quality of this guitar. There is no cheap hardware on it at all and it sounded awesome acoustically - almost like an acoustic guitar with good sustain unplugged. They had a Peavey Classic 30 there for sale, so I asked to play the telecaster through that. It sounded friggin incredible. Sustain for days, nice beefy twang at the bridge, great classic rock sounds from the middle position and incredibly awesome blues tone from the neck. I had never heard of the brand before and the guy said he didn't know much about it, except that it is supposed to be made in Germany and that it had Fender Texas Special telecaster pickups on it. I didn't believe him, so I asked him to show me. He pulled the pups out and sure enough they are texas special pickups. I was impressed. This guitar sounded pure vintage telecaster with just some extra balls because of the pickups. I bought it for 8k. I kept in my mind that I would reserve judgment on the guitar until I got home and played it on all of my amps. When I got home, I was sick a couple of days, so I wasn't able to play. After three days, I pulled it off the stand and it was still perfectly in tune. I ran this guitar through my Laney, Peavey and Behringer moded tube amps and it sounded awesome. Anything from country twant to death metal to blues - this guitar can do it.
I've got a lot of guitars, more than twenty. I've got Gibsons, Fenders, Epiphones, Ibanez and even a PRS but this is the only guitar I have played since coming back from Baguio. That should tell you a lot right there. If you run across one of these - get it. Yeah - the LIVE! GERMANY on the headstock might look corny, but I have not removed that. This is absolutely without a doubt the best telecaster I have ever played. The solid mahagony body and heaviness give it a richness in tone that is only comparable to the 50's telecasters. The sustain is incredible and it sounds awesome on my Orange Crush amp. Pure vintage tele to over the top metal - it is all here. Considering I have had some telecasters that sell for over $2,000, if this guitar company ever starts to actually make a lot of guitars, they will kick Fender's butts if they keep the price down. I also saw stratocaster and a setneck Les Paul there by the same company.
Ok - if I ever figure out how to do soundclips, I'm going to post one. I think I am a computer moron, and I haven't been able to successfully do that. I can email people whole songs because my computer hardware allows me to record songs on MP3, but can't figure out how to do a sound clip.
Here's the pics guys. Ignore the headstock decal and look at the guitar - even in the pics, you can see the quality of work on it. Notice the string through body, vintage ash tray style bridge and the bone - not plastic nut:
God Bless,
Doc
