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Post subject: 1st impressions:VM Tele Special
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 9:03 am
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Hi all.

I thought Id share some of my 1st impressions of my VM Tele Special, that I received just 2 days ago. I bought it with a couple diffrent frames of mind. First if it was as good as I read the comments were about it, then it would make a good mod platform to tinker with. And second, if I found that it wasnt to my liking, then it would be a good inexpensive way to build a slide guitar. I will be taking a few good natured jabs at Epiphone to as just to use as comparison. And just to make clear, this is a $300 guitar so Im not going to be too critical. It is what it is, and thats a good thing.


2 things i have always liked astetically on Tele's. The Buttescotch finish and black pickguards to me, look awsome. I perfer the look of aged maple vs. brand new. And for as long as I can remember, Teles with CBS headstocks always caught my eye. This has a JM headstock, but thats close enough for me.

Out of the box, I checked it all over and everything looks good. No flaws anywhere on the body or neck. Now a couple of things that I noticed right away on this very inexpensive guitar as compared to my Epi JBLP which cost more 2x what I paid for this Squier. The JBLP is on the higher scale of the Epi LP line and it is a great guitar. But out of the box, first props to Squier/Fender is the use of regular Fender brand strings. Epi on the other hand uses the most awful and cheap strings made in all of Asia on all the Epi models. Also out of the box, the Squier's action and intonation was dead on ballz. again a good humored knock at Epiphone. My high end Epi JBLP action was way off. Intonation could only get kind of close with the stock bridge. I had to immediatley buy a Gotoh to get it dead on. Unlike Epi who allegedly sets up the higher end guitars before shipping them out to vendors, I didnt read anywhere that Squier sets up the guitars. At the price I wasnt expecting it to be. I do my own set ups anyway, so no big deal for me. But for some 14 year old kid getting his/her first guitar it could mean alot between a good playing guitar and a bad one. I dont know if this was a happy coincedence or not, but its was very unexpected.

Plugged into my Mustang III, I tuned up to E. Turn up the volume and instantly noticed some nasty noise. The MIII defaults to the Liquid Solo model when you turn it on. Its sort of high gain and sounds perfect with my LP as the way I have it set up. But wow the Squire didnt like it. Instant 60 cycle hum and lots of noise. Changing the model to the Fender champ and things got much better tone wise. Actaully all the cleaner Fender and Vox models sound realy nice with the Tele. My LP dosnt like those and only sounds good to me threw the gainy rock metalish models. More on the noise thing and a quick fix later.

So playing it and seems realy nice. The neck is thinner than what I like. Ive got big hands and 59 or baseball bat type necks feel better for me. But this neck is okay. Fret work is good, no sharp ends right know. Guitars bought online from far distances from home, take a few days to acclimate to their new home. Tempuratures, dew points and humidity levels can be quite diffrent from warehouse to home, so guitar necks especially can shift or shrink/swell after a couple days in their new home. So something I'll be watching for in next few days.

I was actually sort of hoping that I would hate the neck. I love thick necks and raw ones at that. I have already set aside enough to buy a Warmoth 59 raw indian RW, which was my intent to get right away. This has the thinnest neck of my collection. I have large hands and was concerned about playing comfort,,,and again another reason for me to justify the Warmoth neck. Its not the thinnest neck out there by any means, and it is comfotable and bends are very easy on it. But this neck might be a keeper for now. It grew on me quickly. If it acclimates and dosent do anything unexpected in the next month or so, Ill keep it. I already have a TUSQ nut coming for it.

As I was tinkering and looking under the control plate and pick guard, I found the source of most of the noise from the pups and guts. Biggest culprit was the pickguard. I had read about the static issues with Tele pickguards and this one falls right into that issue head first. After checking under the hood, I got the urge to play some and didnt put the pickguard back on. Huge difference, amazing tone difference and very little noise now. Some hum coming through, but I was sitting in front of my moniter and was comming from that. Even though there is the spray on sheilding paint in the cavities, IMHO that stuff just isnt enough. And it does nothing for under the bare pickguard, where you need sheilding the most. Thats another easy fix.

When I started this progect, I had priced out a Warmoth Tele body, finished in Butterscotch. I absolutely am teh suck at teh painting. I just cant do it and have accepted my limitations on that matter. Buying complete Squire = $300 delivered to my door. Only Warmoth body with butterscotch finish = $415 before delivery charges. IMHO at my age and trying to justify the whole "tone woods" thing(fact vs. fiction), I sincerely doubt that I could tell the difference between the 2 when assembled.

As I inspected the guitar under the plate and pickguard. I saw what i expected to see under the control cover. Small micro sized pots. 3 way looked typical. Wiring was okay. The soldering on the pots looked like they might have been cold and look like they could be easily broken off. Another pleasant surprise was the machining of the body cavities. Very clean work. No nasty chistle work like I find inside my Epi LP. This VM comes with the Jazzmaster pup in the neck. JM pups are very shallow compared to a normal Tele, Strat, P90 or HB'r and I was expecting to have to do some minor surgery to get those other pickups in. But i found that the JM is on top of a spacer of some sort....Im guessing just foam. The cavity is deep enough to accept everything except a regular humbucker.

The stock pups are good. Realy good concidering the price of the guitar. With proper shielding this would make a great knock around guitar, starter guitar etc. But for me they do lack Umph. I found myself realy having to dig in way harder on the strings than I normally do. I play my other guitars at 5ish on the volume and leave the rest for built in boost when I want it. 5 on the Tele is practically shutting off the pups. Even dimed I realy dont get out of it what I want to hear. Again, this is in no way a knock against this realy cool and inexpensive guitar. Totally expected on my part and replaceing the stock pups and guts was always part of my pan for this.

The bridge and saddles look like keeper. Again another pleasent surprise to find well mad hardware on such and inexpensive guitar. I was expecting cheap steel saddles, but happily surprised finding brass ones. They look just fine and dont shread the skin off my hand as I palm mute. Tuners look okay for now. They hold tune just fine and if that dosent change, they will stay.

The bulk of the above I was from a post i started on a Squier related forum. So far now that Ive had this guitar, all the above still stand true. Always my concern on mailorder guitars is what they do as they acclimate to the temp and humidity levels in their new home. So far so good. Now 4 days and nothing unusual fret sprouting or action issues. Its all good. Obvoiusly its not a CS type quality, but for the short money, its a very cool guitar. I realy was expecting much less.
8)
A couple non-glam tailgate shots when it arrived.

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Post subject: Re: 1st impressions:VM Tele Special
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 4:14 am
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Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2011 5:53 am
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Sweet looking Tele ! Thanks for the detailed review and HNGD !


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Post subject: Re: 1st impressions:VM Tele Special
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 8:02 am
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Thanks.

I realy thought that buying an inexpensive Squier Tele would satisfy my itch...but no Its only wetted my appetite for a MIM or MIA Fender Tele. :)


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