affordable Telecaster

[surfinbernard]

I want a telecaster- on the cheap! I am a bass player mainly and already have a really nice Tokai Les Paul so I don't want to go mad, I just want a decent 'knockabout' Tele. I was looking at the Squier ones and they sem pretty good for the money, I've seen them go for as little as £100 used on eBay. Is there anything else in the sub- £200 price range worth looking at? Cheers chaps and chapettes.

[Dave Vader]

I have a Sue Ryder Tele. It will be nice one day (when I'm done tweaking it) but out of the box it was a piece of sh1t.
just in case you were tempted.
Squiers are good, as are old arias etc.

[clarkpegasus4001]

If you only intend to spend about £200, then the Squire is probably the best option. Some Fenix tele's are nice if you can find one.
Here's the best Squire I have seen and only £10 over your budget.......

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FENDER-SQUIER-CLASSIC-VIBE-TELECASTER-VIRTUALLY-MINT-CONDITION-WICKED-GEETAR-/251093690858?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item3a7659a9ea"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item3a7659a9ea[/url]

I have the Strat version of this Tele below in the same colour, It sounds and plays great, and I use it for recording and for messing around on....you could do a lot worse! They do different colours of this guitar. The actually play and sound better than you might think.

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60s-Retro-Tele-Electric-Guitar-Vintage-Surf-Green-/180907382344?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item2a1eeb9648"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item2a1eeb9648[/url]

Good Luck Tony.

Edited June 28, 2012 by clarkpegasus4001

[surfinbernard]

Sue Ryder? As in the charity shop? Yeah fair play, I am willing to do some tweaking but ideally not loads, I'm also gonna take a look at these old Arias you mentioned, thanks for the reply

[surfinbernard]

Thanks Tony! That white tele is nice, hmmmm could I do white....?
I do like the look of the unbranded one as well, I wish I could play it first!

Edited June 28, 2012 by surfinbernard

[essexbasscat]

Get the classic vibe Tele. Job done.

[KiOgon]

I've got a Vintage AV2 'thinline tele' & it's excellent, not that I'm an expert but IMO it's a lovely thing for notalot of squids
[url="http://www.jhs.co.uk/Catalogue/Guitars/vintageadv_2010_web.pdf"]http://www.jhs.co.uk/Catalogue/Guitars/vintageadv_2010_web.pdf[/url]

[surfinbernard]

KiOgon thanks, nice suggestion. Love your avatar pic, my hero!

[surfinbernard]

Hmmmm crippling indecision is taking hold hahaha

[clarkpegasus4001]

Yes Those Vintage Tele guitars are good. My mate who play's in Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash and ex-Showaddywaddy guitarist (Danny Willson) has one of those, it sounds cool, but I found it had quite a fat neck. It is NOT the thinline version though, that may be different.

Edited June 28, 2012 by clarkpegasus4001

[surfinbernard]

I might see if they've got them in PMT as it's local...

[KiOgon]

[quote name='surfinbernard' timestamp='1340902116' post='1711348']
KiOgon thanks, nice suggestion. Love your avatar pic, my hero!
[/quote]
I first tried a AV2H whatever in my local shop & was well impressed, even at £400 +, I couldn't get a Fender thinline at the time. Then I searched around & found them for less than 1/2 shop price, bit of a bargain if you can find one cheap like The Humbuckers & the roll off to single coil makes them very versatile & IMO knock spots off a Squier.

Edit: There's one [url="http://www.dv247.com/b-stock/vintage-advance-av2h-honey-burst-flame-b-stock--94579"]http://www.dv247.com...-b-stock--94579[/url]
Another one: [url="http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/DISC-Vintage-Advance-AV2H-Electric-Guitar-NFM/7ED"]http://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/DISC-Vintage-Advance-AV2H-Electric-Guitar-NFM/7ED[/url]
Lot more money but it's got some spec & a foto

Edited June 28, 2012 by KiOgon

[Wil]

The Squire vintage modified/classic vibe (?) deluxe teles with P90s are great bang for buck. Might be slightly upwards of your budget new though.

[BassPimp66]

I have a Squier Afinity telecaster (made in china) that I'm going to offload. It's in excellent condition as it has spent all its life on a wall collecting dust. It sounds very good for a budget guitar.
Gimme a shout if you are interested.

[stu_g]

i got a peavey generation exp custom for £100 quite nice with piezo saddles etc

[skankdelvar]

My Squier 'Standard' Tele is a fine little instrument, but the nut width is quite narrow at 40-41mm. I've got freakish,stubby little fingers so that's fine for me, but my mate considers it unplayable.

The other thing is that the fretboard overhangs the end of the neck by one fret, making it nigh-on impossible to remove the scratchplate without removing the neck first. I just trimmed the plate, though I could have sawn the end off the board, so infrequently do I go up the dusty end.

Pickups aren't bad, but I swapped them out for some hotter GFS's when the dollar was cheap. Other than that, I wouldn't change a thing.

[Beer of the Bass]

For a cheap tele-ish sounding guitar, these are worth a look, typically for about £100;
[url="http://www.axlguitars.com/guitars/badwater-eldorado"]http://www.axlguitars.com/guitars/badwater-eldorado[/url]
They're either hideously ugly or sort of interesting looking, depending on your taste (or lack of), but they have nice chunky necks and decent sounding alnico pickups. I put a new nut on mine, but that was all it really needed to play well.