Fender American Special Telecaster Review

If you’ve been our reader for a while you know that I have a really solid connection with Tele’s, all because of the Led Zeppelin’s legendary guitarist Jimmy Page, that has inspired me on my music journey, ever since I heard Stairway to Heaven for the first time.

Fender has been a company that has always been known to balance amazing value for its price, performance, and looks on its guitars, and the Fender American Special Telecaster is no different.

This special edition American Special Telecaster boasts an impressive build quality, classic Tele sounds with upgraded pickups and circuitry and is incredibly playable, it doesn’t get any better than this electric guitar under $1000.

Like a proper Telecaster, this American Special boasts an alder tonewood body that amplifies the tonal resonance without making it too heavy and combined with the maple neck it provides the trademark Tele sound that achieves a good balance between sharp and warm tones.

It features a single-cutaway body shape the same as it did back in the day, that was very advanced for the day, and even today it showcases amazing playability. The Fender American Special Telecaster has a urethane finish that is available in different colors, Sunburst, Olympic White, and Blonde for example.

The neck of this guitar has a modern C-shape and a satin finish that makes it very pleasing to play and on top of it, it features a maple fretboard that delivers clarity and sharpness.

Furthermore, it has 22 jumbo frets on the fretboard and has a 9.5-inch radius, the headstock is also classic Tele and complements the overall vibe of the guitar. This American Special Tele is built in America and has an amazing overall build quality, and has a decent setup out of the box.

The hardware consists of a three brass saddle bridge and a twin-pickup layout, more on the pickups later. The bridge provides excellent lengthy sustains, and the Schaller tuning machines keep things stable on the headstock, all chromed up in proper American fashion.
The Fender American Special Telecaster shines in the electronics department and this sets it apart from countless other Teles on the market.

This particular model comes equipped with a pair of Texas Special series single-coil pickups positioned on the neck and the bridge. These pickups are famous for having a higher-output than traditional single-coils, meaning that it sounds a little thicker. Furthermore, it is the only American Special guitar that features a Greasebucket tone circuit, giving you the ability to amplify the high-frequency sounds, without touching the low end.

I found that this Tele could achieve excellent sounds over the whole tonal range. It was able to achieve clean and bright sounds, but it also could achieve dirty and overdriven tight sounds. The distortion and gain were simply excellent, no bad remarks on the sound.
A truly special guitar for rock n roll fans, but not just them, an overall excellent instrument.