Fender Squier Classic Vibe 50's Telecaster Review

The Fender Telecaster has been a standby for guitarists playing country, rockabillly, and blues for the better part of half a century. Although it has gone through many upgrades and updates, every few years a vintage model is released to pay homage to the original instrument that started it all for the Telecaster brand. One of these is the Fender Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster. Let's take a closer look to see how well it stacks up.

Features: The body of the Squier Vibe Telecaster is mad of pine wood. This is a pretty uncommon feature among Squier instruments, as they usually prefer alder or basswood for the body of their guitars. But the pine will give you a better twangy, telecaster-like sound. There is just one finish available for the Vibe Tele, and it's white with a black pickguard. Honestly, it doesn't get much more vintage than that. The neck is bolted onto the body, and made of solid maple. The fretboard is made of maple as well, and has twenty one medium jumbo frets with pearl black dot inlays. The hardware, including tuning heads, bridge, vintage style bridge plate, and control plate, is chrome. Electronically, the Vibe Telecaster has two Alnico III Custom Telecaster single coil pickups. Also, there are one volume and one tone control knobs, and a three position selector switch. Features-wise, the Vibe Telecaster stays nearly one hundred percent true to the original models.

Playability: Telecasters are known by many musicians to have wonderful necks for fast, fret jumping playing. Advanced techniques like sweep picking, chickin pickin', and quick scale runs are pretty easy to perform with this neck. Also, the action is nice and low straight out of the factory. There is very little adjustment needed to make the Squier Vibe Telecaster completely ready to go.

Sound: In true form to the idea of a vintage instrument, the Fender Squier Vibe Telecaster sounds just like a genuine old Telecaster should. The Alnico III pickups and pine body material make for a truly authentic twangy Telecaster tone. With no changes in electronics, it is perfect for the genres that made the Tele famous: country, rockabilly, and blues.

Overall: The Fender Squier Classic Vibe Telecaster, plainly and simply, gets the job done as a vintage copy. Like the genuine old Telecasters, there are few glossy frills and "special features". It's a beautiful sounding, sweet playing instrument that's all about ear appeal instead of eye appeal. You can find the Squier Vibe Telecaster in music stores for around $300.