Don't buy these 3 Telecasters | Telecaster Review

okay so I played every Fender Telecaster in the range of 500 bucks to 5,000 bucks and there's three Telecaster models that you in my opinion shouldn't buy now if you're looking for a Telecaster and ideally you wanted to sound something like this then jump aboard because we're going to start right now okay so first Fender Telecaster you shouldn't buy in my opinion is the fender Venta 2 telecaster and the reason is actually pretty straightforward let's look at the Venta 2 Telecaster price point compared to the much more affordable Squire classic Vibe you will find that the vintara 2 costs about twice as much as The Squire classic Vibe let's just say you're going to get a squire classic Vibe you will find after a while that the pickups are not as good so you probably have to change pickups after a while add that to your investment of around 500 bucks problem is with the Venta it's the exact same problem the Venta pickups are not great you will have to switch them because the definition is not good they sound pretty trebly and they don't have a particularly great uh string separation I would say they're lacking in body I would say too so you would have to change pickups anyway now my question is if you have to change pickups anyway why would you get the more expensive guitar in a nutshell you're going to have to pay double just to have the fender deal on your headstock and to me that doesn't sound like a good idea especially if you have a limited budget and you want to get the most guitar for your money plus if you're that crazy about the deal on your headstock you could easily change that too another reason why the Venta doesn't really make sense is if you're comparing that to the classic Vibe the classic Vibe is likely to be a lighter guitar than a Venta because the classic Vibe as far as I know is still made out of pine not out of Alder or Ash which makes a much lighter guitar which to me is not only better when you're standing up but it's also better because lighter guitars in my opinion tend to be a lot more resonant so all things considered if you're buying a classic buy for 500 bucks you're getting the same not so great pickups that you have to change uh you're getting a lighter guitar it looks the exact same except for The Deco and it costs half the price so the Venta really is the introductory Fender thing but it doesn't really offer that much more than the Squire classic Vibe so threats aren't worse the neck isn't worse the body is probably lighter anyway so Fender Venta 2 not the best option in my opinion [Music] ah I love this Telly Tellies are just great aren't they well some of them are others I think don't make that much sense number two it is the Fender American Vintage 2 I feel like for the price of 2,300 bucks there's a couple things wrong with this guitar and this is where you may or may not learn something about telecasters today because the playability of a Telecaster which is pretty wide ranging I would say depending on the model that you're trying is super dependent on three things in my opinion first of all neck shape right neck shape is pretty straightforward depending on the size of the neck it's going to be more comfortable for you or less comfortable depending on your hand size and all these different things but there are two other things that the American Vintage 2 Telecaster doesn't get right first of all they come with the 7.25 in radius that radius is also known as the Vintage radius and it is pretty hard to play when do you notice that the radius is not right you notice it while bending whenever you're bending a note that is more than half a step you will find the string might get stuck or it doesn't ring out perfectly that's all due to the the radius and the American Vintage 2 has that radius so if you're a modern player you want to bend a lot you want to play a lot of leads the 7.25 in radius is probably not for you a much better radius would be a 9.5 radius because you will definitely notice a difference in the bending it's much easier notes are ringing perfectly when you're bending up it's just a lot easier to play that is not the only issue the other thing that is a little strange with the American Vintage is that they're also putting on super super tiny Frets they're calling it The Vintage tall Frets which to me as a medium jumbo player is pretty misleading because these Frets are not tall at all in fact it makes bending the thing that we just discussed a lot harder and you also get stuck on the fretboard quite a bit with your fingers with that tiny Frets again for a modern player the combination of a 9.5 radius and at least medium jumbo fret is perfect in my opinion that's where I feel the most comfortable and sometimes if I want to fly over the fretboard or something play something fast I'm super thankful to have a 9.5 radius and a lot bigger Frets because bending is easier Fring is easier Everything feels a lot smoother and all these different things combined with the fact that the American Vintage 2 at least the blackard one with the maple neck the 52 has a 51 u-shaped neck so the baseball bat kind of neck that's three variables that make the American Vintage to a pretty pretty difficult players instrument so let's say you're a player with pretty small hands the 51 un neck profile is not for you let's say you want to bend a lot or play a lot of leads the 9.5 radius is not for you let's say you want to have a modern feel on your fretboard like on a modern guitar you're going to need bigger Frets than the ones that are on the American Vintage 2 all these different things are pretty outdated in my opinion yes they're vintage correct I understand I get it but the way we play guitar today we need a little bit different specifications I feel so that's why and especially for the price of 2,300 bucks a guitar like the American Vintage Telecaster should have a much better playability [Applause] and last but not least all the way up there in the price range I think you shouldn't buy a Masterbuilt Custom Shop Telecaster now this might be a pretty ridiculous take especially regarding the fact that I own uh 52 Custom Shop Telecaster but I think the masterbuild telecasters are often times not worth the money because let's think about the price range like Master build Telecaster okay that's around 6 seven8 grand or something uh that's ridiculous for a guitar anyway right but if you're willing to pay that much money I have found that the team buil ones so the let's just say the run-of-the-mill custom shop uh telecasters just like this one are a lot more value for money if that is even a thing up in this price range anymore because I realize what a ridiculous price that is for a bolt on guitar you know but still Master buil guitars I have found I haven't played many but the ones that I have played weren't particularly better than the teamu ones you're up there in the area of absolute diminishing returns at that point now if it's your dream and you want to have a Telecaster built by one person only that's cool but you're going to get the feel of a vintage instrument the feel of a well-used Telecaster you're going to get that with the team bu custom shop as well the master build stuff is really something else it's really for the 0.1% of people I feel like um you can get a very very good guitar for much much much less than a mill guitar so I think if you ready to Shell out the money for a custom sh guitar go team build go run-of-the-mill team build um there's a practical reason behind that as well because you have the opportunity to go through dozens of Team built uh custom shop telecasters in a shop with Master bills that's a lot harder to do because usually there's only one in a shop or maybe two so that might not be the sample size that you want to have to get the best for your money so a team build is practical for that reason too there's a lot of them and you can go through them and try different ones find the right neck profile and uh get the best guitar that you could get I feel like um if you're really willing to spend a lot of money on a guitar on something like this if that is your Vibe the team bu custom shop thing is your best bet which is why my recommendation would be if you want to go lowbudget go for a squire classic Vibe if you want to go pretty high budget but not ridiculously high budget then get an M Pro too because that guitar has all the bells and whistles and modern player could need and if you want to spend a ridiculous amount of money go for a team built Custom Shop Telecaster but as always that's just my two sents and your mileage may vary uh but that's all my experience from playing over 20 years and trying different telecasters I hope you learned something in this video I hope this was somewhat of a guide for you if you're in the process of buying a Telecaster I hope you had fun I'm Joey and I'll see you in the next