Wow, fret buzz on a brand new guitar seems like a completely unacceptable quality issue to me, like a new car that only turns left. It’s not like it’s a very hard problem for the manufacturer to avoid, but its a very hard issue in some cases for a customer to understand and fix themselves, or find a non-bozo technician to fix it for them (and why should they pay to have a new guitar setup properly?). I can maybe see if it’s just a low-bridge issue, but having the frets themselves be different heights is just ridiculous.
Hiya **squeegee **- let’s be clear: POD’s can be great and extremely versatile. I know a bunch of guys who use them in studio and live settings and really enjoy them.
Speaking as a Primadonna Tone Snob™, however, I stand by my initial POV - I hate them. Why? The short answer is that they interrupt the path between artist and tool, and tone suffers as a result. Digital technology does this in any music use - digitizing the signal is great for a bunch of reasons, but the stuff you lose via the digitizing process matters. That’s why CD’s sound different than vinyl, mp3’s sound different than CD’s and vinyl, etc. Technology improves and you can get closer, but never replicate the actual tone of old-school analog equipment.
But let’s be clear about one *other * thing: a Primadonna Tone Snob™ POV rarely matters in the real world. Most folks look at all the benefits they get from CD’s and mp3’s and just roll their eyes when somebody argues for vinyl.
Same with digital vs. tube amps - and a POD in your signal chain is basically adding a digital layer, so it counts. For the most part - and certainly for BBVLou’s situation - a digital amp is more than fine.
But man, if you get to play a vintage Gibson or Fender through an old, handmade Marshall, Fender or Vox amp (or a new top-quality handmade “boutique” amp) - trust me, the difference is obvious and amazing.
(Oh - and **squeegee ** - I notice you are from Garlic Town - cool! I grew up in the Bay Area and my parents live on the Monterey Peninsula (do you know Pacific Grove?) so I drive through Gilroy whenever I am back on the West Coast. I got my last speeding ticket right next to Garlic World!)
WordMan - I respect your position, a great deal. Hell, 25 years ago it would have been my position as well, being a tube amp snob. I’d play with guys that would show up with Peavey transistor heads that sounded like mud on a wet day. Ick.
However, I don’t have vintage gear – I ditched a bunch of stuff years ago. Right now I’ve got an 80’s strat clone that I really like (and a sorely abused 70’s SG, only good for bottleneck at this point), a clean amp, and some studio monitors. And the POD is way fun for noodling on, and sounds a great deal (and yes, I can tell the difference, but its OK) like a good amp on speaker stack. I’d have killed for the flexibility back then, tubes be damned!
Heh, we’ve lived here about seven years, actually in the unincorporated hills nearby, after 14 years in San Jose. We love it; theres nothing nearby but cows and horses and rolling hills. My dear neighbor has a tractor that he mows my back acre for nothing, despite repeated attempts to compensate him, so now we take them baked goods regularly. I know Pacific Grove fairly well, that and Monterey in general being where we take the family tourists that come see us. Please tell me you stopped at Garlic World and bought some of the Garlic Wine or ice cream. 
[/hijack]
Nah - too squeamish! But we got some of that Garlic Sauce - can’t remember the name, but the chunky kind that tastes good on pretty much anything if you are a garlic fan…
And as for your amp comments (this is a guitar thread, right? :)) - all good.
FWIW my brothers first “real” guitar was a Mexicaster and I would say that it was the best cheap guitar I’ve ever set hands on. They’re sweet players and by the time that you can tell them apart from the American ones you could afford the new pickup set and neck to make them identical.
Is this true? I thought that Fender made true Strats and Teles in Japan (not just Squires) and that these were the next best option after the American made models.
[guitar geek hat firmly on]
Fender established the Fender Japan line around 1980, with the same factory (Fuji Gen Gakki) that had been churning out replicas under a variety of names that were better than U.S. Fenders at the time (Fenders and Gibsons of the 70’s and early 80’s had real quality AND design issues - at least when compared to their 50’s forebearers. The Japanese replicas were a key factor in straightening them out due to competitive pressure).
ANYway, there have been Japanese Fenders off and on since. They can really vary in quality, though, based on which factory has the Fender contract - which is a bummer since their rep was stellar in the beginning. Also, Fender sometimes bars access to Fender Japan products - I don’t know all the vagueries of that, but Fender Japan guitar parts can’t be sold in the U.S. under the Fender brand name - they are sold under the name Allparts - I used a neck of theirs in my Parts-o-Tele.
So yes, there is a Fender Japan; yes, their quality can be very good - and in some cases better than their U.S. counterparts (but you should really check them out) and no, I am not sure how available current production FJ’s are in the U.S.
[/guitar geek hat firmly on]
Shoot - forgot to mention: The original Squires were made in Japan - again, of such high quality that it shook the U.S. factory up. IIRC, they were a separate line from Fender Japan.
Squires have really bounced around and can be found with Made in Japan, Korea, Indonesia and now China. The quality varies wildly.
[Bigger geek hat on] Even better if you can find yourself a Tokai Springy Sound from the 70’s. It’s such a good knock off of the American Strat that Stevie Ray Vaughn would play them sometimes. [bigger geek hat on]
I’m out of the guitar scene. I guess it just wasn’t important enough for me (less important than rent that week long ago that I sold it, anyway!) but I loved my '85 Japanese Strat, and always felt it was no 2nd best. That’s why I asked. Thanks for the info.
They sell for 3X now what I bought mine for, if you can find them at all.
Yep - that’s one of the ones made at Fuji Gen Gakki. The guitar SRV is sporting on the cover of *Texas Flood * is a Tokai. Fender would rather you didn’t notice that…
…Which is why it’s cropped out of the photo in the cover, but the poster sized version that used to be available had “Springy Sound” on it clear as day. Legend has it that when the first strat was sent over to Japan with the instructions “Make me one of these” that the guitar was so perfectly duplicated that they put the scratches and dings on the new ones that the old one had.
BTW Fender is set to release an exclusive SRV model later this month that’s limited to a very few pieces but it looks pretty good. They’re supposed to get one in the “special” room at my local Guitar Center. I don’t have the weight on my plastic to even get me in that room, but I’d love to see how it plays.
I was exactly in your position. I spent some time noodling around on an acoustic and decided that I watned an electric–a telecaster, to be precise. I spent weeks in guitar shops, searching for the perfect guitar, testing out every cheapie I could get my hands on. I just couldn’t find that magical $200 guitar that sounds like a $1000 guitar that old guys are always bragging about. Oh well.
I eventually found a brand new American tele for $800, no tax. A bargain, and I see why. It sounds like a $600 guitar but feels like a million dollars. Her name is “Betty Crocker” because it’s so responsive it’s like playing a giant stick of butter.
Shit, now I really want a tele to play around on. A '72 Thinline I think since it has the humbuckers and the always cool looking f-hole. One of those just looks like it could wail.
There’s a strange fashion(?) in newish British bands for Custom style Teles. They all seem to be playing them. Very specifically the custom models, with humbuckers.
Telecasters - with - humbuckers.
Sheepishly owns up to once upon a time fitting a DiMarzio PAF in the neck position***** of his Tele. It’s all better now.
***** You see, that actually makes some sense, but a humbucker in the lead postion of a Tele? That’s just wrong.
Actually, that’s exactly what I want. I love humbuckers, what can I say?
Yeah - it’s a trend. Basically, 70’s guitars are the current candidates for cool vintage, simply because it has been long enough for them to be considered old and the 50’s and 60’s guitars are getting priced out of existence. Add to that the fact that many 70’s Fenders are utter, utter crap - ah, but Tele’s still had the 4-bolt neck and fewer other design changes vs. Strats back then - and it becomes more clear why those Tele’s are going up in value.
And yeah, Tele’s are like, the ultimate Purists guitar, which is hilarious since their nickname is “the Plank.” There are countless threads on The Gear Page where folks decry outrages such as an alder body (“not ash?! Heresy!!”) a rosewood fingerboard (“not a maple 1-piece neck?! Blasphemy!!”) or, (gasp) a 'bucker at the bridge (“BURN them!!!”). And don’t open threads on the topic of 3-barrel bridges vs. 6-saddle bridges unless you want your hair blown back - sheesh.
Bottom line is that Tele’s are the VW Bug of guitars - any shmo who can use a screwdriver and a soldering iron can assemble and/or modify one. I know - I am that shmo 
. That’s the beauty of them - you can do whatever you want and it’s all good. Now, it just so happens that a Tele bridge pickup is a unique, wonderful voice, and I personally can’t imagine having a ‘bucker at the bridge, but I won’t begrudge anyone who wants one there. It’s a freakin’ Plank, fercrissake. I built my Parts-o-Caster so I could drop in a different pickup at the neck - I have a humbucker-sized P-90 pickup (a Duncan Phat Cat, fwiw) because Keef, Mr. Tele himself, gets a tone I love with the humbucker in the neck position of his beloved Micawber (link to some Spanish site with a photo) and I happen to prefer P-90’s but wanted the same basic tone upgrade from a standard Tele neck pickup…
And Cluricaun? I believe you are referring to the limited edition run of replica’s of SRV’s guitar Lenny. They have done production and limited runs of First Wife/Number One (the SRV Signature Strat is the production version). But since they have beat that one to death, they are moving down the food chain. Frankly, Lenny is a scummy pawnshop guitar - have you seen it? SRV could pull amazing tones out of it - but he could do that with anything. I would much rather see 'Scotch (Butterscotch - a creamy yellow Strat he played a lot) or something else…but $25,000 for a guitar that looks like this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me…
Wordman holy shit. I knew that they’d be expensive, but $25 large? For that kind of money you can easily get a real strat that would impress anyone.
Still, I love teles. They’re just so damned playable. The body is nice, the knobs aren’t in the way of your strumming hand they way they can be on strats, and like you mentioned, there’s about ten billion aftermarket parts so that you can really do it up any way you like. But since you mentioned heresy, I won’t even get into the part about how I want a tele with a Floyd Rose and EMG 81/85’s so that I could play speed metal on one. 
I don’t know the price of the Lenny replicas for sure - but $25 - $30,000 has been par for top-Guitar God replicas like EVH’s Frankenstein, the Jimmy Page Les Paul, Blackie, etc. SRV’s First Wife went for a lot less - I think $12,000 - but it was one of the first and that was considered outrageous at the time (as opposed to the prices now which are entirely reasonable :rolleyes: ). Other replicas go for a lot less - I think the Andy Summers Tele is around $10,000 and the John Lennon Les Paul Special replica (of the one he played in the 70’s with Elton John, when he (Lennon) lost the bet and had to get back on stage for the first time in years) sells for $5,000, I think.
By the way, I have no idea why I know this stuff - I happen to think that these over-priced replicas are the Mother’s Day Collectors’ plates of guitars - yuck. And yeah, you can buy real, vintage guitars easily for similar amounts - now, finding a good, authentic vintage guitar is its own challenge, but that’s a different story…
It’s hard to overcome the cachet of the marque,but a careful analysis with your ears may reveal a variety of options.Perhaps foremost in guitar criteria would be ease of play,or the ability to be properly set up for that purpose without surgery or aftermarket device.
Some people upon hearing recordings of mine have asked if I used a Tele,when it was an SG,using the bridge p/u,humbucker.Similar questions asked about my batwing Epi,with the standard single coils.Done straight to amp,no tone modifiers.Nor was I trying to simulate the Tele sound,or well known Tele players.
Like WordMan says,the guitar is essentially a plank,Leo Fender being the Henry Ford of guitar manufacturers.There are Tele kits available,some requiring a degree of woodworking skill,some simple assembly,with finishing supplied by purchaser.Outfitted with appropriate electrics,that might suit your need at reasonable price.
Epiphone at one time was a name to itself,and had a good rep.The best ones were all pre-70s,and are likely very dear at this point.My batwing long scale bass purchased used for $25,sans case,in 1970 was going for several thousand in a recent guitar mag.