Are Fender Custom Shop Telecasters Better Than Other Telecasters?

In this video, we compare all of our Telecaster guitars to see if the Fender Custom Shop guitars are better than other Fender Telecasters and a Reverend Gristlemaster. James has recently bought a Fender Japan 70s Thinline and decided to bring that and his USA 60th Anniversary over so we could complete the battle of the Telecaster series. The Studio Rats are core band members Paul Drew on guitar/production/mixing, drummer James Ivey and Dan Hawkins on bass. They collaborate with singers and musicians to produce radio-ready songs.

[@kenhaas7905]

Thanks for the kind words gents!

[@themayor6836]

Didn't realize how great of a session drummer James is/was. I listened to many of your recordings with Abi and was blown away by your feel and groove. And Paul well studio ace guitarist all day long!

[@glennevans5824]

Enjoy yr channel..being a older guitar geek…I’ve been playin long time have 15 guitars lol..I’m 66…had a lot of awesome guitars through my journey....yr channel you guys are giving good tutelage…on the variables…watch it in morning with my coffee..keep ‘em coming..Retired but love guitars..🤙🏻🤙🏻🇺🇸nyc

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Once you get to the American made Telecaster the law of diminishing returns applies. I mean under 2k for an American made tele versus 5k plus for custom/masterbuilt.

[@j_freed]

When people say “a light and more resonant body” a heavier body may be just as resonant in other ways, but a light body often vibrates against the player holding it, and people associate that with “resonant sounding.”

[@toploadtele]

The guitar that started it all!

[@lazvt8469]

Picked up my 9th Tele...now the range is from $150 HB TE52....to a Cu$tom $hop...and all in between (FGN, G&L, TeleMex, Pro 2, LSL TBone1, Squiers). All great...but all have upgraded pups (Fralin, MFD, Lollar, McNelly, Suhr, TimShaw, Chicago Specials, LSL Handwound, Seymours). 62, lifelong player...only recently became obsessed with Teles. My son has a great Tele partscaster with those GristleTones...wonderful tone! I have a Reverend Double Agent...amazing quality, tone, and versatility. ..same Korean factory Duesenberg uses.

[@glennevans5824]

This tele comparison is interesting…u tend to think they wud sound almost the same..I liked the thin line…sounded airy if that’s a term..picked up recently a fender vintera road worn..blonde 50’s I’m impressed only have it 2 weeks..I may change pups to a set I have of Don mare Nancy pickups ..they are spot on for that “Roy Buchanan…bite..that transistor type bridge pick up sound…Don examined Nancy and the bridge pickup was broken in a sense..that’s why it’s so cutting and different…..Love yr channel guys🤙🏻🤙🏻

[@faridh2999]

Telecaster is definitely going to be my next purchase, I quite like the look of the Gordon Smith options…

[@neilevans6229]

I agree they all sounded different and they all sounded great 👏👍🍀🍻

[@chickenlickin3820]

Yeah cool enjoyed the content thanks x

[@hollywoodactress]

To me all the telecasters sounded great in this video.

[@MrBossei]

Could you please tell me what the pickups in the custom shops are? In my experience the pickups are most important, then wiring, then wood. Thank you for your great videos!

[@alexb4913]

Out of curiosity, I have a 60th anniversary telecaster as well and mine has a different bridge and saddles, and I checked online and the ones I see have the same bridge and saddles as mine, did you change yours out?

[@SergioFigaroa]

They all sounded great, the pink one had something special to it though.

[@cubano100pct]

What is the weight of each Telecaster or what weight is considered a light Telecaster?

[@boatingforbeginners7949]

All tele's sounded good but the Custom shop models just had that extra quality tone edge i feel, Fab playing & tone too

[@horrifyinggelatinousblob]

PROTIP: buy a decent quality middle of the road Made in Mexico fender, and a set of luthier tools, a wiring harness by ObsidianWire and then do a full luthier setup, fret polishing, rewiring etc. You'll have a guitar that performs just as good as something that costs 3,000 for 1500 or less. The fact people still spend over $2k on a guitar in 2020 blows my mind, expecially on fenders where you can get an amazing neck to throw on for like $500 and the body is fundamentally just a piece of wood to hold electronics.

[@attillal4821]

Paul… i hear you play that riff a-lot, any chance you could show us how to play it?

[@kmichaelp4508]

Hogwash. Very southern US also. But then again we are mostly of British decent. With a lot of Viking mix (ME). One cannot go wrong with a tele.