Fender Modern Player Telecaster Review – A Modern Guitar

You simply can’t argue the fact that the Telecaster series has been one of the most versatile guitars in history, as they have been the guitar of choice for many artists from various genres, such as jazz, rock n roll, funk, and even blues.

In addition to that, I have to mention that Jimmy Page has recorded the majority of his albums with a Telecaster, so you don’t confuse the quality of this excellent guitar. The Fender Modern Player Telecaster, as the name suggests is the modern-day recreation of the classic Telecaster, but with even more power and versatility, without forgetting its roots and keeping the excellent retro aesthetics. I am really a big fan of this guitar, and I think that most of my readers will agree with me, let’s see what else this guitar offers.

If you just look strictly to its design and body, you cannot notice that this guitar is being produced right now, it rocks the same single-cutaway shape that it featured since the beginning. This guitar uses pine as a tonewood, pretty uncommon, but it is an excellent choice because it provides a warm and natural tone to the guitar.

You can get this guitar in various paint jobs, such as Honey Burst, 3-Tone Sunburst, and my personal favorite the Charcoal Transparent, however, all of them look excellent and showcase the tight grain of the pine tonewood. Thanks to its playability, I think the Fender Modern Player Telecaster makes a great beginner electric guitar. This is due to its bolt-on maple neck with a smooth and comfortable shape that allows quick transitions.

On top of it, you will spot a maple fretboard equipped with 22 jumbo frets allowing effortless string bending, the headstock is iconic Tele that completes this excellent package. It is worth stating that this guitar is made in Fender’s China factory, however, the quality and the build is on par with the Made in Mexico models, no flaws and a great finish.

Interestingly enough, the Fender Modern Player Telecaster features a three-pickup configuration. At its neck, you will find a single-coil Telecaster, in the middle a single-coil Stratocaster, and a humbucker at the bridge, I have not quite seen such a configuration, to be honest. But to my surprise, this proved to be extremely versatile, and to further enhance that there is a toggle to coil-split the humbucker, to the addition of the master volume knob, master tone knob, and the five-way pickup selector switch.

The sound from these three very distinct pickups plus the coil-splitting of the humbucker, the tonal range of this Telecaster is amazing. I tried and tested, and found that it can achieve almost all the tones, you can get from a guitar, the most versatile in the market for sure. You can get the traditional rock n roll sounds, the sharp and clean sounds of blues and jazz, and even high-gain punchy sounds for heavy metal. I’d personally consider this guitar as one of the best guitars for jazz under $1000.

The Fender Modern Player Telecaster is truly the jack of all trades, in a good way. You will never outgrow this guitar.