Guitars are like shoes. They either fit you properly or they don't. Sometimes you can get by with ill-fitting shoes, just as you can manage with a so-so guitar.
There are no two ways about the fact that this is one excellent guitar, although quite heavy for a Tele. The build quality is exemplary, the range of available tones is impressive and the new design Glaser Bender is smooth and precise. Hit a string or strum a chord unplugged and you can feel the body vibrating. That always bodes well for an electric guitar and the result when plugged in is a punchy, authoritative tone.
However, as I said, guitars — like shoes — have to fit you, and this one does not fit me. The neck is too narrow at the nut for me, the 7.5" fingerboard radius is too tight and the neck profile is chunkier and deeper than I am comfortable with. If I kept it, I would have to change the neck for a slimmer one with a flatter radius. I would also almost certainly have it resprayed as well — because personally, I don't like that ugly looking matt grey primer finish.
It is a somewhat delicate looking paint finish and would undoubtedly appeal to those who like the beaten up, road worn grimy look. This one will achieve convincing 'relic' in a matter of days of regular use.
The mini-humbucker gives more meat to your neck pickup sound, without sounding all booming and mushy, and the bridge pickup gives you fairly classic Tele without being over-bright. The middle pickup is somewhat weak and a little boring on its own (yes, you can turn off the other two and have only the middle pickup active) but then I suppose its main purpose is to interact with the neck and/or bridge p/u's for Strat 'in-between' tones and more.
Brent Mason goes on about gradually feeding in the middle pickup with its separate volume, rather than simply switching it in at full volume with a five-way switch. But I found that turning its volume control up, when mixing it with one of the other two pickups, resulted in nothing happening at all until it reached the last 5% or so before full on. That is a pretty fiddly small range.
That said, with the middle pickup full on, the 'Strat' tones are very good, with just as much authority and punch as the Tele pickups on their own.
I am somewhat surprised that Fender has used a pull-pot to activate the middle pickup and not a spring-loaded Push/Push pot. I always use spring-loaded Push/Push pots. Much easier to only have to push ON and push OFF than fiddle about trying to pull the knob up when you are in a hurry and want to deactivate the middle pickup.
Perhaps when Brent was first modding his '67 Tele back in the 70's or 80's, Push/Push pots were not so easy to find. The first I ever knew of them was on a 1977 Yamaha SG1000 and they were the ONLY manufacturer to use them. Even though this guitar is supposed to replicate Brent's '67 Tele, I see no harm in taking small licence in updating or improving little details like that.
I do consider Fender is doing a bit of cashing in on the Brent Mason name and overpricing it by about €700. After all, it is just a two-planks-of-wood-Telecaster. The Glaser bender is a $650 (€550) retrofit for ANY Tele, the Sperzels are around €100 and there will be something for the SD pickups. But Fender will be getting a good deal on all of that hardware and everything else pretty much has to be on there anyway.
Nonetheless all in all, an excellent guitar for any player and, of course, pretty much made-to-measure for budding Country Tele-Slingers.
You just have to try it and see if it fits!
