I wasn’t expecting to pick up another guitar so soon after the purchase of my American Hardtail Strat in May– nor was my wife, really! Thankfully, Sherry has been very cool about my recent guitar purchases and tries to understand the necessity for more than one 6-string electric!

I subscribe to an e-mail search of the Cedar Rapids Music-Go-Round on Fender Guitars and saw this 2005 Made-in-Mexico Telecaster aka “Standard Telecaster.” I thought it looked very clean and was a unique combination of Arctic White with a white pickguard and maple neck.

Initially I debated about whether I liked the color combination. I went in and played it a couple of times and eventually decided that it was as nice a Tele as I am likely to see used. MGR doesn’t get a lot of Telecasters in and eBay prices seem to be a bit inflated in my opinion. So, I traded a couple of effects pedals I wasn’t using– an Ibanez TS808 Original Tube Screamer Overdrive Pro Guitar Effect Pedal and a Boss OC-3 Super Octave Pedal I bought back in the early-Nineties for use with my bass that I never really used.

I’m really happy with it. Overall, I’d be pretty hard-pressed to find anything about it that seemed lower quality than an American version of it. The fit and finish are very good and it is a decent playing guitar. Nice clean slappy twang to it that sounds great through the homebrew tube amp I’m using. Sherry says that she prefers the tone of this guitar over my other ones.

I paid $299 before my pedal trades and it came with a non-Fender gig bag. A very good deal considering that it looks and plays new.

Check out the Fender Standard Telecasters at Reverb.com!