Fender Classic Player Telecaster Thinline Deluxe Electric Guitar (with Gig Bag)

Get full, classic tone from this guitar, which combines the best elements from the '72 Telecaster Thinline and the Telecaster Deluxe models.

Overall User Ratings (based on 3 ratings)
  • Overall:
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Sound:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Features:
    4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Ease of Use:
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Quality:
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Value:
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Manufacturer Support:
    5 out of 5 stars
  • The Wow Factor:
    5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(3) (see rating details)
Submitted January 16, 2011 by a customer from verizon.net

"This Tele Doesn't Disappoint"

Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I won't replace this guitar, it has a unique design with a sound that is quite different from the single-coil teles. I compared this guitar to Fender's Deluxe tele and the Thinline tele model. I liked the Deluxe control layout, frets, and pickups but I didn't like the strat-style neck. I liked the Thinline's neck and semi-hollow body but I didn't like the small frets. If it were stolen I would replace it. The guitar's best feature is it's unique sound. There is nothing I don't like about this guitar. The soft case is inadequate for it's protection, though. I got a hard-shell case for it.
Sound
The neck pickup is nice and warm while the bridge pickup has plenty of raw bite. These wide-range humbuckers have a unique noise free presence. The bridge pickup responds well to agressive picking and it sounds great with an overdriven amp or combined with a distortion pedal. The bridge and middle positions are warmer and sound great with color pedals like chorus and phaser. For a great tone, I lowered both pickups and got some nice clean tones, the bridge pickup clean has a bit of a raw trebly tone that can be tamed with the tone knob. I play this guitar through a crybaby wah, chorus, overdrive, distortion and digital delay into a Marshall tube amp and a JMF tube amp. The sound is very sweet even sans effects.
Features
The wood is beautifully figured ash with a solid maple neck, the strat-style hard-tail brige is stable, the nut is faux bone and solid but strings (the g and b in my case) hang up in the narrow slots. I used lemon oil to stop the problem. I think the slots would need filing in order to accept .010 gauge strings. It comes with .009s. I think the nut will wear in after it gets more use. The selector switch feels solid and the tuners are tight and feel like quality parts. Coil-splitters would have been a nice feature.
Ease of Use
I love the feel of the glossy neck and the guitar is very light and comfortable to play. There are no set screws that bite into your hand at the bridge. It is easy to get some great tones out of this guitar. Do a set-up, set the pickup height and get yourself a tube amp to get the most out of it. Simply dialing down the tone and volume knobs produce some great usable sounds. Some have suggested replacing the pots with 500K value pots, because the neck pickup sounds muddy with the tone knob turned down to around 6 and lower. I think the stock pots are fine, though. I don't turn the tone down below 7 for the neck pickup. The bridge pickup has plenty of bite to cut through a mix and has good tonal range.
Quality
My instrument arrived with some finish checking on the back of the headstock and a loose selector switch. When I set up the instrument, I found that two saddles were very difficult to adjust due to some faulty saddles. The action was too high and the saddles were set up way too high. A set-up took care of those problems. The switch tightened up easily and I got some replacement saddles from Fender. Other than the finish checking, the fit and finish of this instrument is outstanding. The tuners hold tune well. The neck join to the body is tight with no gap at all and the four bolt neck feels solid. The frets are smooth and even and feel like they are hand-rolled. The pickups are snug, adjust easily and are aligned perfectly to the strings. It feels like it could handle touring, but I think it might need to be treated a little more delicately since it's a semi-hollow body.
Value
I believe this product is worth it's selling price. It is a made in Mexico product that plays and feels like a made in America product.
Manufacturer Support
Fender mailed me three replacement string saddles (I asked for only two) within two weeks after I called their customer service. They were pleasant and helpful. It was the first time I had ever used customer service for an instrument. I installed the new saddles and adjusted them myself, it wasn't necessary to bring it to a luthier.
The Wow Factor
I am happy I purchased this guitar, it looks great and has a wide tonal range. After some minor adjustments, the pickups produce a very pleasing tone. I was offered a replacement by the supplier due to the checking on the headstock, but the figuring was so nice (it's the three-tone sunburst model) that I kept it! The tele neck and body style is one of the most recognizable and appealing shapes. The combination of the thinline and deluxe tele models give me bigger frets and humbuckers on a thinline which is what I wanted.

Musical Background:

Hobbyist with band experience

Musical Style:

Classic rock and alternative
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Submitted June 28, 2010 by a customer from hotmail.com

"Absolutely blown away!"

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars
(see rating details)
Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
This review has been selected by our experts as particularly helpful.
If this was lost or stolen I might cry myself to sleep for a month...and then convince my wife to let me get another one.
Sound
To be honest, I was a little worried about the Wide Range pups being a tad too harsh but after swapping the pot in the neck for a 500k it cleaned up very well. It does not sound like a traditional Tele but for me that was fine, I have an older Tele with single coils for that. The variety of sounds you can get from this thing is amazing, and it takes care of my only gripe about a lot Tele's and that is the tinny sound that they can have. Deep full sounds are all I get from this thing and I love it. I play this every week while leading worship and it sounds right at home during some of the more modern rock worship songs as well as during some of the softer music.
Features
Well, I absolutely love the dual tone controls and volume controls for the 2 pups. It didn't come with locking tuners but that hasn't mattered much as it seems to keep tune pretty well.
Ease of Use
Very easy to play. Came setup well from ZZounds but a little high action for my taste. After lowering it a bit this thing plays lightning fast.
Quality
This is the one thing that absolutely blew me away. I was looking so long for an American made Tele that I ignored the MIM's for a long time. This thing is build like a tank. Nothing cheap here. Beautiful finish (sunburst is absolutely stunning), neck was perfect, no sharp frets or blemishes whatsoever. You are really doing yourself a disservice by ignoring the MIM Fenders. The craftsmanship is absolutely stellar. Try some out and you will see that MIA doesn't always mean that it's a better guitar.
Value
From what I can tell this holds its value very well. That and everyone I see wants to buy it from me because you never see these anywhere.
Manufacturer Support
Never used Fender support and probably will never have to.
The Wow Factor
Oh man, the sunburst is spectacular. The hardware looks top notch and the guitar stands out in a crowd. Feels like a solid built guitar and honestly, feels like it is worth a lot more than what I paid for it.

Musical Background:

Active Musician and Worship Leader

Musical Style:

Rock/Worship
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