Tele buying buying advice needed, all your Baja owners.

djspecialist

robgilmo said:

djspecialist said:

Ah excellent, another chance to whip out my naked Baja ...



Aside from having the finish stripped off, it's also had new pickups (Bareknuckle + Oil City), the S1 has been removed and the control plate removed.

Great guitar - as others have said, the neck is a pleasure to play.

Was the pickup cavity made bigger to do that?

It was done before I bought the guitar and I haven't had the scratch plate off, but I assume it had to be routed.

Mickeyji

I've had a bunch of Teles and my recently acquired Fender American Special hangs with the best of them. Nice medium fat satin neck with big frets and a great pickup combo make this a killer guitar for not very much money at all. I would have preferred a slightly tinted neck and a different decal on the headstock, but who cares, the guitar sounds and plays great. As for the Classic Vibes and other budget Fenders - don't know about you guys but I seem to eat up the frets on those guitars! Had a really nice Classic Vibe Simon Neil Signature Strat and the frets were already quite wasted after not even a year's worth of not very frequent playing. Same thing with a previously owned Korean Lite Ash Tele. 

Henrytwang

chris78 said:

I’ve had 3. The only thing to watch out for are the weight (they can be over 9lbs boat anchors) and the buzzing from the s1, which needs proper grounding or removing if you aren’t going to use it. Finish is thick and like @lovestrat74 I’ve removed the finish on one and had it finished in nitro. It’s not necessary, just a personal thing.
Otherwise, Chris Fleming designed them and what he doesn’t know about teles isn’t worth knowing.
The neck on the 50s is superb. The pickups are the best Fender make and what I choose on custom shop guitars at 8 times the price. It’s got a 4 way switch, which again I love as the additional position gets you in humbucker territory. 
Basically, I use the baja as the design for my cs guitars because I prefer the feel of a cs guitar. They’re that good 

Yes I had one but sold it on because it was really heavy, more like a Les Paul without weight relief. The pickups were okay particularly the twisted tele in the neck position, I could happily live without the fancy switching options. I might buy another one day but not online like the last one as I’d need to know that it’s not stupidly heavy.

poopot

Get a badger!!!!

heres mine, poly stripped off and redone in lovely nitro. Oil city liquidator in the bridge and a really nice 70’s pup in the neck... s1 switching still intact!...

lovely guitar...



Go buy one!... or... make an offer on this one if you like

robgilmo

Did you refin that yourself? Ive always had it in the back of my head to do mine a 50's Blonde.

chris78

poopot said:

Get a badger!!!!

heres mine, poly stripped off and redone in lovely nitro. Oil city liquidator in the bridge and a really nice 70’s pup in the neck... s1 switching still intact!...

lovely guitar...



Go buy one!... or... make an offer on this one if you like

Love that. Great work

ESBlonde

Not bonding with a guitar is a very personal thing, so we can suggest any and everything, but only you can hold and play them. Just go and try everything you can get your hands on, don't ignor the japanese copies either if they are in the budget range. Best to have cash in your pocket and leave it there until something speaks to you.

markj

poopot said:

Get a badger!!!!

heres mine, poly stripped off and redone in lovely nitro. Oil city liquidator in the bridge and a really nice 70’s pup in the neck... s1 switching still intact!...

lovely guitar...



Go buy one!... or... make an offer on this one if you like

Give me some more info, I might be interested.