Fender American Performer Telecaster HS Rosewood Fingerboard Electric Guitar Aubergine

Well I feel very qualified to write a review about this guitar sheet owning six now. I started with a squire affinity, then classic vibe...then bought a standard performer with single coils, then a professional ii, then an ultra. After a few years I sold them all because even though I really wanted to love telecasters they were a bit too lifeless for clean and rythym guitar playing... except for chicken picking stuff. But then I decided to give the hum version a try... and for my style the tone is perfect. I play clean 90 percent of the time in the middle position... and the blend between the bridge and neck pickups retains the clarity and chime of a standard telecaster but had more warmth and fullness. It's the perfect blend. I loved the curves on my ultra telecaster but to me the performer hum sounds significantly better than all of the other teles I've owned. I know it's hard to swallow until you've owned all of them and played them side by side for hours. But for some people I understand they want that traditional tele single coil sound. With the coil tapping on the hum it comes extremely close... but to me the blended tone sounds so much better than any standard tele tone... I'm never going back or wasting more of my cash on more expensive teles that don't really give you more for your money. The hum tele I bought is flawless...

I don't want to come off as a 'Country of Origin" snob here because I'm well aware that excellent instruments are being put together from all over (these days) - even China, with those Epiphone Inspired by Gibson series especially. Having said that, I wanted to list some of the electric guitars I own/have owned over the years for reference here: -Fender Strat (Mexican) -Jackson Concert Bass (Indonesia) -PRS Custom 22 (WMI, S.Korea) -ESP LTD EC1000 (WMI, S.Korea) -Ibanez K7 Prestige (Japan) ..as well as having played a few other Japanese guitars owned by friends over the years. All of that to say, this Tele is my first American made guitar and I'm simply blown away at the quality. Entry lvl American or not - this is the best feeling, most well put together example of a guitar I've ever touched. Above all else I think this speaks to the QC of the Fender Corona, CA factory rather than the Country per se. But I'd like to further elaborate on this, starting out by confessing that I've learned it is simply unreasonable to expect online ordered/delivery instruments to be properly set up out of the box. I chalk that down to the fact that these instruments are traveling great distances at times, and are also at the mercy of the UPS/Fed Ex drivers care. Having said that, this particular guitar began its shipping journey from somewhere in Kansas, and ended up here in Louisiana (very quickly) and was still 100% playable out the box - meaning zero fret buzz, proper action height and near dead-on intonation. Now this may be luck as opposed to QC and I wouldn't have factored that into my rating either way, because I was fully aware I'd need to set it up to personal preferences. Still..awesome surprise. However what I do consider an indication of quality is that I was able to achieve the slightest bit of relief in the fretboard, which indicates the care that was taken in filing the nut and leveling the frets. Typically, I will use fret buzz as a guide when setting string action, lowering until I get buzz and then slightly raising until it is gone. But in this case, it just kept going to the point of me learning I do have an action preference as opposed to "as low as it will go". The frets themselves are smooth. There wasn't a single flaw I could find in the construction of this guitar. I mean, the tone knob was secured a hair low and would make contact with the plate when rotating but that is getting extremely nitpicky lol - adjust with small flathead, done. Now on to some actual thoughts regarding this model. The satin finish on the neck feels great in the hand. Definitely my preference on neck finish from here on out. The finish on the guitar body is listed as gloss on the Guitar Center site, but that is incorrect (which I knew). It is actually a satin poly finish, aka matte in appearance. Lends itself really well for the seafoam green color, absorbing light rather than reflecting, making it less "loud" which adds some class to the color imo, and it feels awesome. It kind of brings to mind something that an ASMR channel would feature..just running a hand along the finish for a satisfying sound and feel hahaha. Don't call me weird until you feel it too lol. At a scale length of 25.5", 22 frets feel perfectly spread for my larger hands, and the standard nut width of 1.685" is imo the perfect balance between chording and scaling. Be aware if comparing Teles, that some models have a thin width and feel very different to play. The "Fender Made in Japan Limited International Color" model currently on offer comes to mind. I did not like how that guitar felt at all when I played it at my local GC. Completely different beasts there, just saying. Back to this Performer model, the Yosemite bridge pickup sounds incredible. Tons of character. The humbucker in the neck position has that perfect warm and round sound that I look for in necks, and the split position here adds that delicious jangle with minimal loss in volume. A side note on the split neck position - that jangle also transforms into a mean, djenty snarl when pushed with high gain, even in C sharp. The Greasebucket circuitry is described here essentially as a treble roll off with no loss in definition, and I agree - but more interesting is the fact that the bridge and middle positions take on more of a humbucking characteristic when rolled off. I'm telling you; this Tele can do it all. All strings articulate very well when playing chords through higher gains. Very much worth mentioning is that the humbucker loves to send out a microphonic squeal if pushing high gain and facing the amp. Recording through an audio interface, this doesn't occur (even when getting crazy with gain levels on the Neural DSP, Fortin Cali suite). However, I do think for a stage performing guitarist this is definitely something you need to look into and test out in person to ensure its tame able. There are fixes for this that can be found easily on YouTube, fyi. Remember also, most Fenders including this one come with a gig bag (a nice one at that. Finally, just some advice for any newer players that may read this - if you're going to get a rosewood fretboard on any instrument, go ahead and have some fretboard cleaner and oil on hand. For maple, it is not required or recommended (just a very weak Dawn soap/water solution for those). Purchasing online, many of these instruments have been stored away for sometimes up to 2-3 years. Rosewood requires just a tiny bit of care. It needs to drink. It's thirsty. The oil applied at the factory has often been completely absorbed by the time we get our hands on them, and usually a thin layer of dirt is formed between the frets and a small build up has formed near the frets. Have your favorite pack of strings handy, be prepared to go ahead and snip away the strings that came on it, and take that opportunity to easily clean the fretboard, headstock, etc. It's also a convenient opportunity to remove all the plastic film.

I thought really do I need another Tele, well yes I did, and got this baby. I love the tone and feel of the neck and fretboard. It's easy to play and very forgiving, too. What's best is the unique tone you will get out of this pickup combo.

Better than what I was expecting. Beautiful color, sounds great.

I use this guitar for practice, recording, and performance. This telecaster is great because it has vintage aspects (such as the tuners, brass saddles, etc...)and it has modern aspects (such as the humbucker with single coil split, modern C neck, Yosemite bridge pickup). Both of these aspects make for an incredible sounding American telecaster at a reasonable price point. This guitar is very versatile and can play a multitude of styles ranging from country to jazz to hard rock. The satin surf green finish is absolutely beautiful and the neck is very comfortable making for a guitar that feels great to hold. The pickups are good but I personally find the bridge single coil pickup to be a quite hot and I find the humbucker to be a little muddy at times (you can easily remedy this with an amp/pedals).

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