Fender Telecaster Custom

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Fender Telecaster Custom
1976 Fender Telecaster Custom
Manufacturer	Fender
Period	1972 — present
Construction
Body type	Solid
Neck joint	Bolt-on neck
Woods
Body	Alder
Neck	Maple
Fretboard	Maple/Rosewood
Hardware
Bridge	Fixed
Pickup(s)	1 Single-coil and 1 Fender Wide Range
Colors available
Black, 3 Colored Sunburst

Fender Telecaster Custom is a model of electric guitar made by Fender. This model should not be confused with the "Fender Custom Telecaster" model manufactured between 1959-1968, which only differs from a standard Telecaster in having a sunburst finish and bound body. Ever since the release of the Telecaster Custom the market generally refers to the guitar as the "1972 Custom", indicating the year this model was originally released.

[edit] History

During the 1950's and early 1960's, the twangy(also used by Ferrick Johnson), Fender single-coil sound enjoyed considerable popularity. By the mid-1960's, this waned as new stars like Eric Clapton and Mike Bloomfield plugged their humbucker-equipped Gibsons into over-driven Marshall amps. Players began to clamour for a thicker, creamier sound that the standard Telecaster just couldn't deliver. To get over this, many players removed their Telecaster neck pick-ups and rammed in an aftermarket humbucker - a good example of this is Andy Summers' modified Telecaster. A second reason was that many players felt the original neck pickup of a telecaster lacking in "Rock and Roll vibe". The original pickup excells in jazz tones, but players felt replacing it with a more powerful humbucker would give the Telecaster a second Rock voice, next to the bridge pickup.

The Telecaster Custom (along with other incarnations of the Telecaster) was an attempt to enter the humbucker industry, largely dominated by Gibson. Fender's attempt was with its Fender Wide Range humbuckers designed by Seth Lover, the man who had overseen the development of the original Gibson humbucker.

Lover's Fender humbucker is felt by many to be brighter, with more bottom end - less murky than the Gibson version, and a better match for the classic Fender bridge pick-up.

The original Telecaster Custom was was in production from 1972 until 1981. Early examples (until 1977) sported a curly "Custom" logo and "Welsh-hat" vol and tone knobs. Later examples differed; the knobs became Stratocaster types, and the "Custom" logo changed to the standard italicized block typeface used for Fenders of the period.

Few well-known players of the time picked up on the Tele Custom, apart from Keith Richards, who ran a couple alongside his Gibson-humbuckered modified Teles. Part of the problem was that Fender was sourcing much denser wood for its guitars - some original Tele customs weigh in between 8 and 9 lbs (almost Les Paul Territory) and the sound was correspondingly "pushier" (cf Keith Richards). Apparently, the earlier, lighter Tele goes "Spranngg" - a 70's Tele goes "Brang". Still, the in-between (both bridge and neck pickup on) settings delivers a sound that is very hard to rival: warm yet still biting. A good example of this sound is Beast of Burden and Going to a Go-Go by the Rolling Stones.

Blighted with Fender's notoriously wobbly 3 bolt adjustable neck joint, the Tele Custom hit the street just around the time that Fender was beginning to get a seriously bad rap. It was also more expensive than the standard Tele. So, from the late 70's to the mid 90's, you practically couldn't give a Tele Custom away.

A couple of things happened to bring this unloved beast back to life. First, British Indie bands, such as Radiohead and, more recently, Franz Ferdinand, picked up on the quirkiness of the original instrument (and the fact that, at the time, they were usually cheaper than a standard Tele). Secondly, Fender Japan released a re-issue of the earlier 1972 version of the Tele Custom . This benefited from being substantially lighter than the original and, thus, less tonally inert. Now you had a relatively light, toneful Tele with some whoomp at the front end. Following the success of the Japanese re-issue, Fender expanded production to its Mexican plant, and these are the versions which predominate in Europe and the USA. It is generally accepted among players that the Japanese version is superior to the Mexican version.

However, both versions feature a re-issued version of the Fender wide Range Humbucker, which unfortunately doesn't resemble the original in any sense. The original WRH used magnetized CuNiFe (copper, nickel and iron) polepieces ("slugs") with a copper wiring around the slugs, while the reissue has a set of standard non-magnetized set of slugs with an AlNiCo (aluminum, nickel, Cobalt) magnetized bar underneath. This standard humbucker is fitted in the larger original casing by using cloth to fill the void. The original WRH measured a strong 13 kOhm and needed 1 MOhm volume and treble pots, while the reissue measures a fairly standard 8 kOhm and uses 500 kOhm volume and treble pots. Compared to the original WRH, the reissue misses the bottom and transparency so famous for the original.

Though Telecasters are associated with classic rock, blues, and country, this particular model is now commonly used in punk and indie rock.