vockins wrote:At the rick of sounding like a shill, unless you have $4000 to spend, anyone looking at Fender Telecasters should be buying a G&L ASAT. They are superior in every way.

There are ASAT Specials on ebay for under $500 regularly. Do yourself a favor.

What kind of dumbass would spend $4000 on a Fender? Oh yeah, a really dumb one... There is no way I would spent that much money for a bolt-on.

G&Ls are deffinately cool. I just don't understand why alot of their Teles seem to have top loaded bridges, instead of through the body. Musicman does make some cool axes too. I used to have an Axis with P-90s. Sweet guitar, nothing but quality. I think those are the only EBs I would own. The dual humbucker models remind me of Eddie Van Halen too much. He makes me want to put my face through a wall.

bent_christian wrote:I just don't understand why alot of their Teles seem to have top loaded bridges, instead of through the body..

Leo designed the MASSIVE MASS of the G&L bridge to provide resonance and sustain. Thru-body string is not required.

"theres no way I would spend that much money on a bolt on"

woooahh, thats a totally different debate. Glued necks? What's all that crazy shit about? eurgh.

and, in addition, the Tele Deluxe is 2 humbucker, the Custom is one humbucker and single coil and normal Tele bridge.
The old Deluxes are the best guitars ever built, if you get one that came out of the factory OK that is. The pickups on the reissues aren't quite as cool sounding to my ears. The old Fender humbuckers are ace, they're really twangy, none of that mud.

chrissummerlin wrote:"theres no way I would spend that much money on a bolt on"

woooahh, thats a totally different debate. Glued necks? What's all that crazy shit about? eurgh.

Gibson's short tenon "fill it with 1/2 a gallon of glue" method is not the only way of attaching a neck to a body. You can have a set neck that requires less glue and has a long tenon, you just have to make the joint tighter. There is also the "deep set tenon" that goes into the body even farther, as well as a completely through-body design. IMO, bolt-on Fenders only get so good, unless it is made out of some rare kind of wood or something. Other than that, you are paying for some Custom Shop guys name. I've seen plenty of $3000 "Masterbuilt" Fenders. You could build a Warmoth for far less and I think it would sound just as good. It may not have the name attached, but I don't care about that. It's just my personal opinion. Most bolt-on neck joints are just uncomfortable to me. Ernie Ball makes the most comfortable bolt-on joint IMO, certainly NOT Fender.

I like my brandspankin'new American Standard Tele. For the money, I'm very pleased. I also liked the G&L ASAT I played many times, many years ago. I have no point.