1972 truly was a magical year for the telecaster, launching fender into the humbucking market. Don't get me wrong, single coil twang is fun, but there are those who want a little more rock out of the tele. I am a fan of the Deluxe model, I wanted les paul style control, two volume knobs, two tone knobs and a 3-way toggle switch, but les pauls, Gibson or otherwise don't feel great in my hands, they're just a little too much for me. I'm a huge fan of Gibson's history and all, but this Buber famous model is so balky, fenders are how I roll from the woods, the neck, their look, and body shape. This is what the company did with the 1972 models, make a gibson les paul and go all Japanese and make it their own, hell they even hired Seth Lover to design the pickups for them. It all adds up to an interesting line of models ranging from a les paul esque deluxe, the equally slick single coil equipped custom, a jazzy thinline, and the rare and great addition of the strat vibrato'd deluxes.
This is all well and good, but the reissue has it's criticisms. The one I've seen most are the pickups. Many have said that swapping the potentiameters to 500ks or 1megs really bring the guitar's sound to life by removing the mud, but there are also actual pickup issues, not just the pots. From what I've read, the pickups give off a sound that resembles single coils, like the actual telecasters. That in theory is cool and unique, but what's the point if theres the custom model that actually has a single coil in the bridge position, so was it really that hard to consider putting ballsy humbuckers in there making it more gibson-esque, besides single coils are fun but the sound of these don't match up. The result is just not as good as what it somewhat resembles, and I've always felt some chords starting on the low E string aren't very fun. What's worse in the fact that it's a reissue, they put the pickups in larger than normal covers, so if you want to swap them, its going to be tricky. I could also say how I would've thought the pickgaurd going around the entire bottom horn would've looked even more slick and the hardtail bridge looks a little boring, a stop-tail or a wider marketing of those with with vibratos, and at least for the deluxe an option for rosewood fingerboards along with maple, come on.
It sounds like a huge rant, but to be honest its so minor when after i put the strap on and start rocking some riffs, and I intend to make those riffs sound even better. As stated putting new pickups in is going to be tricky, so I ordered an entirely new pickguard with suitable holes for new humbuckers from Terrapin Guitars. That, and after debating for months on what pickups I should get, going from the Dimarzio super distortion, then to an endless amount of Seymour Duncans, the pearly gates, 59s, and others, I settled on a Sh-11 custom custom in the bridge position, and an alnico ii pro in the neck. I hope to gain a really great hard rock sound through this as I've always liked humbuckers in an alder body, its not even the weight of the guitar, it sounds very natural whereas mahogany is a little too dark for my taste. Just a few hours ago I took it to my local guitar tech and teacher, I'll see the results probably by tomorrow.
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