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Any opinion on a Mexican-made Tele?


heymisterk

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I need a single-coil for my stable (have my beloved P-90s already on my Classic) and am looking at some Made-In-Mexico Telecasters. They seem very reasonably-priced when bought used, and I have heard mostly good things about their fit and finish. I simply cannot afford a USA-made one right now.

 

Any opinions?

Thanks!

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Bought mine new in 9/07, it's one of my "go to's" after a couple mods....

The only real weakness it had was the p'ups....low volume, not much tone, and a LOT of 60hz hum.

Installed a Kent Armstrong "Hot Twinblade"(noiseless) in the bridge position and now it sounds GREAT!

Someday i'll put a Texas Special p'up in the neck, but I usually only use the bridge p'up on a Tele anyhow.

I also installed a Bigsby B7 Vibrato w/a roller bridge....just to add some "fun" to it.

It still needs better tuners, the stock Mexican tuners feel like they have sand in them, but hold tune quite well,

even with the Bigsby

 

On the plus side.....

The fit and finish were BETTER than the American Standard sitting next to it in the store....flawless.

The Tele-thin satin finished neck is amazing to feel...the frets are nice & fat, and the ends are dressed as well as

anything i've ever played....the machine rolled neck edge is almost as nice as the hand rolled edge on my Amer.Dlx. Strat.

 

I'd buy another Mexi-Tele in a heartbeat!

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I have a Mexican Baja Tele. It has some custom features including 4 way selector and S1 switching. I love it.

At the time I tried a couple of mexican classic and USA standard. To me the classic has more of that expected tele punch & twang at a low price. I was really disappointed by the american standard in comparision. It looked better but sounded very weak in comparison, especially considering the price.

 

For me, the Baja Tele had a bit of everything in there, price, custom features and tele twang.

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The MIM Fenders are very good value. Generally the woods, hardware and pups will not be that of the MIA versions but pretty good nonetheless. As noted by Bender 4 Life, the pups can be a little ordinary but easily up graded. Having said that I played a Tex Mex Strat through a Fender valve amp (can't remember which one) the other day and the pups were fantastic.

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I have been Gassing for a Tele, and would prefer to have and American made. Because of the holidays and recent remodeling of my house, I'm going to have to look into a MIM. Let me know how it works out for you. Supporting pics would be nice too. [smile]

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I got chuckle a bit - sounds just like Epi guys saying how great their Epi is compared to Gibson "crap".

Not a valid comparison.

Mexican guitars share many parts with American pieces, lotsa parts commonality.

 

American versus Squire?

No contest there, Squire is comparable to most Epiphones if that's what you're after.

 

I would compare Mexican Fenders to Japanese Gibsons and Fenders in many cases.

Close anyway.

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I have said for some time that I think MIM Fenders are the best bang for the buck guitars out there right now. As someone who has owned many USA Fenders and G&Ls I can tell you that the gap between MIM Fenders and USA models is not as wide as Epis and Gibsons. I own a MIM Strat at the moment; it looks like a Strat, feels like a Strat, sounds like a Strat........its a Strat.

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I have a MIM Tele, and I like it. It's not my main player, but it's a good guitar none the less. When I got it, it was in desperate need of a set up, but now it plays pretty darn good. My next Fender will most definitely be USA, but this Mexi tele good, and I don't ever see myself getting rid of it.

 

Now I think I'm going to pull that guitar out of the closet and restring/play it for the first time in for ever. lol

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I need a single-coil for my stable (have my beloved P-90s already on my Classic) and am looking at some Made-In-Mexico Telecasters. They seem very reasonably-priced when bought used, and I have heard mostly good things about their fit and finish. I simply cannot afford a USA-made one right now.

 

Any opinions?

Thanks!

 

My first electric was a mim telecaster and since gone on to several others, having talked to serious fender homers i can tell you the differences between mexi teles and american is much smaller than say an epiphone lp and a gibson.

 

You can change the nuts and the pups and you basically have an american tele.

 

But honestly, the mexi pups sound pretty decent as is, i wouldnt even bother and the great thing about a tele is its VERY easy to sell/trade them because so few people do. The squier series actually makes a custom tele 2 that's modeled after the american 72 tele and its a really good buy for the money. Mexican teles are too.

 

The only prob i ever had with mine was the selector switch knob seems to slip off to easily and required some super glue, a minor complaint but all in all the sound on mim teles is beautiful and much as i love my strat if i could trade back today i probably would.

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I tried out quite a few MIM Strat's, and I found them to be pretty decent guitar's. They seem to get good review's. Some of the Artist model's are made in Mexico as well. Like the Jimmie Vaughan Strat. and the Buddy Guy Strat. are both made in Mexico, and are very nice guitar's. And they cost more than the Highway 1 and the new American Special.I have a MIJ Tele Custom(93) and a 07 American deluxe Tele. in my collection, but didn't have a Strat. I almost bought the Jimmie Vaughan. But as a collector, as well as a player.I decided to go MIA and ended up getting a very good deal on a new 07 Vintage Hot Rod 62 Strat... If you really want MIA you might try looking for a used Highway 1. If you don't mind the satin finish...

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Well gents you sold me. I pulled the trigger and got myself one from ZZsounds. I got her in Candy Apple Red.

 

Here's a stock pic.

 

0131600309_md.jpg

 

Looks nice. You can always slap some good pups in later. I'm a big fan of the RS Guitarworks kits too. Generally the stock electronics parts in those guitars are pretty bad. It's a little more dough than buying the pots, caps, switches, etc separately, but you can slap them in a a couple minutes!

 

http://store.rsguitarworks.net/PWVINTTELEKI.html

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Not a valid comparison.

Mexican guitars share many parts with American pieces, lotsa parts commonality.

 

Key words - "sounds like". . . . I'm not talking about parts or which is "better".

 

I'm talking about the buyers extolling the virtues of their MIM Fender treasures, while trashing the AM Fender "crap". . . . Classic [rolleyes]

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