Why I Like the Fender Modern Player Telecaster

As a guitar player for over thirty years, including several tours and dozens of recording sessions, I have learned something about what makes a guitar great. Over the years I've played a wide variety of electric guitars, including some truly exceptional instruments -- I have always been partial to Gibson Les Pauls, for example. But recently I encountered a guitar that really me with both its quality and the benefits it offers in terms of tonal flexibility: the Fender Modern Player Telecaster.

The Modern Player is intended as an entry-level Tele, which means it's affordable. The tradition of affordable "first" Fenders includes the Bronco and the Bullet series, all of which are easy on the wallet and have that great Fender biting tone. 
  

Fender Modern Player Telecaster Thinline Deluxe Black with MXR M169 Carbon Copy

The thing I really like about the Modern Player Telecaster, however, is the fact that it comes armed with three different pickups. The Telecaster was originally designed with two pickups as an answer to the Gibson Les Paul, which has two humbucker pickups and was starting to compete with Fender's hold on the electric guitar market in the 1960's. That's also the reason for the Telecaster's interesting single-cutaway design, which riffs on the Les Paul's body shape and allows players to more easily reach the higher frets. But the three-pickup design on Modern Player breaks from tradition. By having a representative of three major pickup designs, the guitar gives you all kinds of sweet versatility in terms of tone and timbre.

 
One of the most useful elements of the Modern Player is the sharp humbucking bridge pickup. The odd name comes from "buck the hum," which means it resists the interference, or "hum" that was generated by early pickups made from a single magnetic coil. In the 1930's, an engineer at Electro-Voice realized that placing two magnetic coils head-to-toe had the effect of cancelling out the hum. The idea was applied to electric guitar pickups in the 1950's by Gibson. Fender continued to rely on single-coil pickups, so to see one on a new stock Telecaster is unusual.  

A stock humbucker on a Fender is a cool feature that increases the guitar's versatility -- you can easily go from chiming single-coil tones to a heavier, Slash-like sound. The Modern Player compounds this by adding a single-coil tap out switch, which means you can choose to use the humbucker, with its warm, heavy sound, or hit the switch and convert it to single-coil, for the trademark biting Fender tone.

Other features on the Modern Player, like the 5-way toggle switch, are less surprising, but I do like the fact that they've kept the stings-through-the-body saddle arrangement. This style of bridge, which is generally unique to Fenders, makes changing strings a pain. But it does provide nice sustain by putting the strings in contact with more of the Modern Player's alpine aspen body.

A Nicely Matched Amplifier for Your New Guitar

If you get a guitar, you're going to need an amplifier. There are lots of decent little amps out there for less than a hundred bucks, and if you've never played through one you're going to be surprised how versatile and how LOUD, they are. I like this Mustang amp -- it's not going to break the bank, and it gives you enough punch and versatility to represent in most band practice and smaller gig situations.

My own playing days go back to the late 1970s when I was the "blazing" lead guitarist for a high school hard rock band. We were just barely good enough to play in the high school gym for 50 people, but I knew I had found my calling. At that point I was playing the only electric I could afford -- a Teisco Del-Rey, obtained for $65 from the Sears Catalogue. Good times! Now that I can afford a higher-quality guitar, I have found the Fender Modern Player Telecaster. It's affordable, but has features that you'd expect from Fender, one of the classic guitar brands of all time. In fact, some would argue that Fender is THE top manufacturer of electric guitars, and I would have to admit they have a strong case. One look at Jimi Hendrix throwing down on his sunburst Fender Stratocaster and I'm sold (the video of him setting that same guitar on fire is pretty good, too).

Fender versus Gibson -- two classics go head-to-head.