I want a cheap Telecaster!

[mcnach]

4 hours ago, AndyTravis said:

This cropped up on Facebook - Fenix (Young Chang who made for Squier in the 90’s)

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/278585416627431/

 

It looks like it sold already, but thanks! I have actually played a Fenix Tele and a Strat, they were pretty decent.

[mcnach]

4 hours ago, Matt P said:

sorry, that was meant for @mcnach i have dealt with him before, (i think the first was a squier badtz maru that we exchanged in a coffee shop in Edinburgh.

i could pick this up (and do cash for the seller) and then probably take the neck off and post it up to you. it does need a bit of work though.

 

Thank you  

It looks like it sold already, but thank you for the offer, it's very kind of you! 

[mcnach]

17 minutes ago, stu_g said:

i have a Farida tequila club,can pick them up quite cheap i think they where made in same factory as squier classic vibes,i have had a few tele's but i love the sound of the farida

 

Oh yeah, Farida make some decent instruments too, one more to consider, thank you!

I've been considering SX too. I was a big fan. When I sold most of my stuff, the two guitars that survive the 'purge' were my Fender Sambora Stratocaster and a SX Les Paul style with P90s... the SX was surprisingly good. Just a couple of tiny cosmetic marks, a couple of sharp frets, and that was it. Even the nut, despite being cheap, was cut adequately. I did nothing to it and was compared favourably to a Gibson Les Paul Junior one time I took it to a guitar bash type of event. 

[prowla]

On 04/06/2020 at 11:44, Lozz196 said:

The Affinity range is often overlooked being the cheapest in Squiers range, but properly set up they are great guitars. Our old producer had one at his studio and I couldn`t get over just how well it played. Def worth checking out.

I think Bullets must be cheaper, based on the quality.

[mcnach]

 

I've just ordered a SX Telecaster. Let's see if it is similar in quality to other SX guitars I've played (and the one I've got)...

[Matt P]

that is a great looking guitar! such a good colour combo

 

Full report when it arrives please.

 

Matt

[mcnach]

25 minutes ago, Matt P said:

that is a great looking guitar! such a good colour combo

 

Full report when it arrives please.

 

Matt

 

It's supposed to be a bit like candy apple red... I was going for black/maple or natural/maple but this caught my eye

Let's see how it works out. For £139 I'm ready to do some minor fret levelling and nut work etc.

[madshadows]

3 hours ago, mcnach said:

 

I've just ordered a SX Telecaster. Let's see if it is similar in quality to other SX guitars I've played (and the one I've got)...

I have one of these and it's great, played well out of the box and had a good gig bag with it as well, the candy Apple Red is terrific when you see it in person, great value guitar

 

John 😎 

[mcnach]

17 minutes ago, madshadows said:

I have one of these and it's great, played well out of the box and had a good gig bag with it as well, the candy Apple Red is terrific when you see it in person, great value guitar

 

John 😎 

 

Oh, I'm even more excited now!

 

[BreadBin]

On 04/06/2020 at 16:48, mcnach said:

 

Very nice! And £150??? that's great!

The Thinlines certainly got my eye, although I really want standard Tele pickups, so my finish choices are reduced. But this one is not bad:

I just missed one of those on FB marketplace yesterday. £25 😬

[Bankai]

In the Sue Ryder madness that overtook this forum a few years ago, I picked up one of their Telecasters alongside the bass. If you find one on eBay or somewhere, they’re good enough. Not going to beat a fender but fine at Squier standard.

[Bassassin]

Late to this thread, otherwise would have very strongly suggested grabbing one of these for £118:

J&D Thinline Tele

Had one for about 18 months, quality is ridiculous for the money, and I've barely played anything else since I got it.

And what's interesting is if you dig around, what looks like exactly the same guitar only with a Fender headstock & vintage style tuners can be had for 3x the price. That extra 200 quid buys you a Tokai sticker.

 

[bnt]

Around the beginning of the year I almost bought a Squier Bullet Tele, one of the FSR Purple models that Anderton’s got made exclusively. I couldn’t justify it at the time, though. I think I was influenced by Steven Wilson, who used one heavily on his last album, initially because it was the only guitar he had around while he was writing songs. It worked so well for him that he got a reliced Tele for live use. At one point in his concerts, he had just that and a little practice amp, but it sounded huge. 
 

Plus, never forget that Jimmy Page played the solo on Stairway To Heaven on a Tele. 😎

Edited June 8, 2020 by bnt

[Bassassin]

3 hours ago, bnt said:

 I think I was influenced by Steven Wilson, who used one heavily on his last album, initially because it was the only guitar he had around while he was writing songs.

Bizarrely enough, that's why I ended up with Tele GAS. Couldn't really get into the album (a massive step back/down from Hand Cannot Erase imo) but loved that big, brash guitar sound.

[prowla]

11 hours ago, bnt said:

Around the beginning of the year I almost bought a Squier Bullet Tele, one of the FSR Purple models that Anderton’s got made exclusively. I couldn’t justify it at the time, though. I think I was influenced by Steven Wilson, who used one heavily on his last album, initially because it was the only guitar he had around while he was writing songs. It worked so well for him that he got a reliced Tele for live use. At one point in his concerts, he had just that and a little practice amp, but it sounded huge. 
 

Plus, never forget that Jimmy Page played the solo on Stairway To Heaven on a Tele. 😎

When I made my Tele from parts, I plugged it in and played the riff to Communication Breakdown; it was one of those "Oh yes, I get it!" moments.

[mcnach]

On 07/06/2020 at 18:54, BreadBin said:

I just missed one of those on FB marketplace yesterday. £25 😬

 

what???

[mcnach]

On 08/06/2020 at 01:06, Bassassin said:

Late to this thread, otherwise would have very strongly suggested grabbing one of these for £118:

J&D Thinline Tele

Had one for about 18 months, quality is ridiculous for the money, and I've barely played anything else since I got it.

And what's interesting is if you dig around, what looks like exactly the same guitar only with a Fender headstock & vintage style tuners can be had for 3x the price. That extra 200 quid buys you a Tokai sticker.

 

 

I had a J&D bass, it needed some minor work (unsurprisingly for the price point: sharp fret ends, one tall fret and nut slots a little low on a couple of strings), but it was pretty good considering the cost. It took me all of 20 minutes to get it playing nicely (took it to rehearsals straight away and played a few gigs with it), and a bit longer to permanently deal with those issues.

I'm not sure the Tokai is the same bass, I can see a few small differences. There are a lot of similar guitars out there, and you are right 'though, some of those must be made in the same factory. It doesn't mean they're built to the same specs, however. 

Hmm, so many guitars, so little time.

 

[mcnach]

16 hours ago, bnt said:

Around the beginning of the year I almost bought a Squier Bullet Tele, one of the FSR Purple models that Anderton’s got made exclusively. I couldn’t justify it at the time, though. I think I was influenced by Steven Wilson, who used one heavily on his last album, initially because it was the only guitar he had around while he was writing songs. It worked so well for him that he got a reliced Tele for live use. At one point in his concerts, he had just that and a little practice amp, but it sounded huge. 
 

Plus, never forget that Jimmy Page played the solo on Stairway To Heaven on a Tele. 😎

 

I heard some once referred to Jimmy Page as the guy who sold most Les Pauls while using a Tele

 

[mcnach]

I'm no longer looking to buy, but I still look  and came across this interesting variant by Stagg. Now, every bass (never tried Stagg guitars) I tried by Stagg was ok, it worked, but I never really like them... but this thing has a very interesting design and if I see it in the flesh I will have to give it a try. That P90 on the neck is an interesting take too. It may just make it sound distinctly enough to justify buying one if I see them around 😛

Around £150-160 (also in sonic blue, natural...)

[mcnach]

Ugh... what a terrible demo!

That distortion pedal direct into desk sound  and a P90 *humbucker*? I could do a better demo playing a broom plugged into a dustbin.

 

[Bassassin]

7 minutes ago, mcnach said:

I'm not sure the Tokai is the same bass, I can see a few small differences. There are a lot of similar guitars out there, and you are right 'though, some of those must be made in the same factory. It doesn't mean they're built to the same specs, however.

Genuinely curious - what differences are you seeing other than the headstock shape? The only thing I can see is that the neck might be set a couple of mm further back on mine, when you line up the 17th fret with the neck/body junction.

Anyway, really amazed by how good a guitar it is for so little money - I bought it expecting it'd be a bit bit shoddy & I might have to do some work  to make it play properly, but it really needs nothing. Even the shop setup was spot-on, the only thing I had to do was tweak pickup heights to balance their outputs.

I might well have just got lucky & landed a good one but I'm tempted by some of the other J&Ds now. Got my eye on their shortscale Jazz, might be fun & a fraction of the price of the new Sire shorty.

[gjones]

I was looking for a cheap electric guitar. The Andertons video gave the impression the Epiphone I was interested in, which was under £100 new was great. In reality, when I tried it out in the shop, it was the biggest pile of tinny, cheapo, rubbish, you could imagine.

I ended up getting a used Yamaha Pacifica, for £68, which was head and shoulders above the Epiphone (and had been set up really nicely).

This is the video. Just shows a good guitarist can make any piece of poo sound decent.

 

 

[mcnach]

5 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

Genuinely curious - what differences are you seeing other than the headstock shape? The only thing I can see is that the neck might be set a couple of mm further back on mine, when you line up the 17th fret with the neck/body junction.

Anyway, really amazed by how good a guitar it is for so little money - I bought it expecting it'd be a bit bit shoddy & I might have to do some work  to make it play properly, but it really needs nothing. Even the shop setup was spot-on, the only thing I had to do was tweak pickup heights to balance their outputs.

I might well have just got lucky & landed a good one but I'm tempted by some of the other J&Ds now. Got my eye on their shortscale Jazz, might be fun & a fraction of the price of the new Sire shorty.

 

J&Ds are great value. One think I loved was that they made a few instruments with a lacquered neck which is my preference and you don't find them often in the cheapest ranges. In addition, the Jazz neck was narrow as you'd expect but a bit deeper than usual, which suited me nicely (I don't like slim necks)... it was great! As always, with the cheaper instruments it is worth being able to set it up yourself and do a few minor adjustments. If you are handy with setups, you can't go wrong with these... and your Tele looks fantastic too.

Differences between the J&D and the Tokai... very small differences, but enough to make me think they're made from a different 'template'?

The scratchplate looks very close but the curves are ever so slightly different in places (such as a sharper corner on the top right of the bridge), and position of the screws. The first one I noticed was the ones flanking the tone control, they look pretty much aligned with the middle of the tone control on the Tokai, but a bit higher on the J&D. There's also the bottom of the neck, it's a bit longer and squarer on the Tokai. Different strap buttons... I thought I noticed more differences but I am looking at them now and I'm really struggling  Some of those things (curves) could be the different angles in the pictures but the screw alignment and bottom of the neck looks real to me... 

I don't know, it's very very close indeed but I'm not sure they represent the same instrument. Even Tokai have different takes of the same instrument at different price points. I saw a nice black/maple Tokai at just over £200 which sounded good (last one I saw was more like £500) but it turned out to be one of the cheaper ones. If I'm buying 'bottom end' I might as well go with J&D or SX then

 

 

 

[mcnach]

16 minutes ago, gjones said:

I was looking for a cheap electric guitar. The Andertons video gave the impression the Epiphone I was interested in, which was under £100 new was great. In reality, when I tried it out in the shop, it was the biggest pile of tinny, cheapo, rubbish, you could imagine.

I ended up getting a used Yamaha Pacifica, for £68, which was head and shoulders above the Epiphone (and had been set up really nicely).

This is the video. Just shows a good guitarist can make any piece of poo sound decent.

 

 

 

Yamaha seem to manage to make decent instruments regardless the price point, that's true.

I was selling a cheap strat once. It was not bad but it was far from being amazing and I never gelled with it. This guy came to try it... I almost kicked him out and kept the guitar! In his hands it sounded fantastic, nothing like what it sounded with me

 

[Low End Bee]

I bought a purple Squier Bullet Tele for £140. £12 black scratchplate added.

It's amazing for the money. No sharp fret ends and a low action straight from the box. I love it.