I am a fool for Blondes, Blonde Telecasters – Fender Telecaster Deluxe #fender #fendertelecaster

I am a fool for Blondes, Blonde Telecasters that is. Lately if I am looking to purchase something I am looking through the eyes of what can I do with it on the channel. Meaning what repairs or upgrades I can perform for a video. Every once in a while I see a potential for a good deal for just me. This happened recently while I was scrolling through eBay. I spotted an American Deluxe Ash Telecaster Blonde that was made in 2003. From the pictures it was in excellent condition with little evidence of use. The (original) owner wanted $1500. I offered $1000 to see what he would do. He came back at $1100, and the rest is history.

The American Deluxe line of guitars from Fender were built from 1995 to 2016. They were the top-of-the-line models that Fender made at the time and had many upgrades over the standard USA made model including –

• S1 Switching System
• Two Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Pickups
• A six-saddle bridge that has chrome plated brass saddles
• Abalone dot inlays
• Locking Fender Tuners
• Featured what Fender called the ’52 Tele U Shaped maple neck
• Premium Ash body

The first thing I note is the S1 switch which does not do a lot on this model of guitar other than offer for two wiring configurations when in the middle position of the three-way switch:

• While you are in the middle position of the three-way switch and have the s1 switch in the Up or (off) position the Bridge and Neck pickups are in parallel.
• While you are in the middle position of the three-way switch and have the s1 switch in the Down or (on) position the Bridge and Neck pickups are in Series

The two Samarium Cobalt Noiseless (SCN) Pickups really surprised me. They are VERY bright and punchy. I was really surprised by how much of a punch the guitar has in the middle position regardless of what position the S1 switch is in. The sound from the guitar in the middle position – POPs!

I will be honest, I have had many of the Fender Noiseless pickup over the years and in a Tele, I have never held a high opinion of them. This is the first time I have played this specific model of pickup and would say I have no intention or see any need to do an upgrade to improve the sound. I really like them. They sound great and have everything I would want in a Telecaster pickup. I will have to compare them to the new Fender Cobalt Chrome Telecaster pickups to see if they are similar.

Introduced in 2004, the SCN pickups were designed by Bill Lawrence with the intent of reducing noise while improving the “single coil” tone of the pickup.

The overall design was of the pickup was based upon using miniaturized samarium cobalt alloy magnets instead of Alnico V. Samarium cobalt is a rare earth magnet that is more powerful than the Alnico V magnets traditionally used in pickup design.

Neck pickup resistance measured at 6.5kΩ
Bridge pickup resistance measured at 11.5kΩ

The six-saddle bridge does not look complimentary or correct for a Telecaster with a Blonde finish and black pickguard. It does however have brass saddles hidden under the chrome in an attempt to still provide the same resonance or sound of a traditional three-barrel brass vintage telecaster bridge. The primary improvement with this bridge is the six-saddle bridge allows you to set intonation on each of the individual six strings. Normally on a Telecaster vintage bridge with two strings per barrel you would need to split the difference when setting intonation. To be honest I guess that most telecaster enthusiast don’t really care about that and feel it is part of the overall charm of the guitar.

The guitar is a beauty. There is some wear on the frets as I can see the owner did play the guitar. The overall finish except for the fretboard does not have any checking. I had another Deluxe Tele a few years back and the finish on the fretboard was showing the same aging as this guitar.

The only thing that was not original on the guitar or had been modified was the tuners. Originally this guitar came with Fender Locking Tuners and the prior owner had switched them out with standard Fender Modern Two Pin 10 mm tuners. I opted to install the Fender Classic Gear tuners because I prefer the look and functionality of them over the locking tuners. They fit the overall vide of a blonde tele with a black pickguard but are a direct replacement for the modern two pin tuners from Fender. They fit a 10 mm hole and have the same locking nuts as a Fender Modern tuner.

I am happy with my guitar and will get many years of playing out of it. Oddly enough for me other than the tuners I replaced I will leave the guitar just as I purchased her.