Fender Tenor Tele and Meteora HH

stickyfiddle

This Meteora seems to make more sense than the Tele-hardware one.

And a Tenor Tele, which will no doubt confuse more than it pleases

https://www.musicradar.com/news/namm-2019-fender-leaves-parallel-universe-enters-alternate-reality-with-five-new-weirdos?fbclid=IwAR1fVWXZFlbqelIDiF-gkBEY-Axf1w1oiJh-a8dmylYcpgEbtA15yiLNLWs

PVO_Dave

Like that Metora, agree that setup seems a better bet

Bidley

All of them are beyond cool. The 12 string looks a bit weird, but what can you do.

The tenor tele is such an awesome Idea. I want one.

paganskins

stickyfiddle said:

And a Tenor Tele, which will no doubt confuse more than it pleases

Eastwood have been steadily putting out tenors so there must be a market, perhaps uke players crossing over as well.

PinstripePhil

Tenor tele. Tiny Grimes vibe. Awesome. 

HAL9000

Meteora looks nice. Only thing that slightly jars IMHO is the usual Fender headstock. To me it looks like it needs to somehow complement the body a bit better (like Gibson changed from the 'open book' for Explorers and Vees).

JerkMoans

Those Meteoras look so much better than last year's tele based model, imho.  And for about half the price...

ICBM

HAL9000 said:

Meteora looks nice. Only thing that slightly jars IMHO is the usual Fender headstock.

The thing that really jars for me is the tune-o-matic - I can live with Gibson-type humbuckers on a Fender guitar, but not Gibson hardware. A Strat-type bridge or a Jag/JM vibrato and bridge would be much better. I don't think the headstock looks bad at all, although I do think the Swinger one might look more appropriate.

The tenor Tele is ridiculously cute.

Flanging_Fred

I’m a little bit in love with that Meteora.

Funkfingers

I have now had a go on a Fender Tenor Tele. As a design, it is a mixed bag of excellent features and minor oversights.

• The neck profile and fretting is delightful but the string slots in the nut seem too far in from the edges. 
• One YouTube reviewer questions the break angle between the nut and tuners. I am inclined to agree with him. 
• The bridge saddles are cheap and slightly wider than they ought to be.
• DGBE tuning is an understandable choice to introduce new players and increase uptake but it does the instrument no favours.
• Mandocello, dulcimer or open guitar tunings are more useful.

If Fender ever produced a five string variant of this instrument, the Keef fans would lick it up. 

ICBM said:

The tenor Tele is ridiculously cute.

Indeed. The sort of instrument that you know you do not need but buy one anyway. 

I narrowly avoided doing that this morning. 

Tenebrous

ICBM said:

HAL9000 said:

Meteora looks nice. Only thing that slightly jars IMHO is the usual Fender headstock.

The thing that really jars for me is the tune-o-matic - I can live with Gibson-type humbuckers on a Fender guitar, but not Gibson hardware. A Strat-type bridge or a Jag/JM vibrato and bridge would be much better. I don't think the headstock looks bad at all, although I do think the Swinger one might look more appropriate.

The tenor Tele is ridiculously cute.

I have one on one of my teles & it looks pretty good I think. The Meteora looks gorgeous too.

Seziertisch

Funkfingers said:

I have now had a go on a Fender Tenor Tele. As a design, it is a mixed bag of excellent features and minor oversights.

• The neck profile and fretting is delightful but the string slots in the nut seem too far in from the edges. 
• One YouTube reviewer questions the break angle between the nut and tuners. I am inclined to agree with him. 
• The bridge saddles are cheap and slightly wider than they ought to be.
• DGBE tuning is an understandable choice to introduce new players and increase uptake but it does the instrument no favours.
• Mandocello, dulcimer or open guitar tunings are more useful.

If Fender ever produced a five string variant of this instrument, the Keef fans would lick it up. 

ICBM said:

The tenor Tele is ridiculously cute.

Indeed. The sort of instrument that you know you do not need but buy one anyway. 

I narrowly avoided doing that this morning. 

So maybe a new nut, staggered tuners or a string tree and some new saddles and it is good to go?

Also, where has them in stock? They seem to be on order or sold out in most places.

Cheers.

Seziertisch

I have one of the Tenors on the way, probably going to change out the saddles. 

@Funkfingers or indeed anyone else what would people recommend?

Cheers

Funkfingers

Seziertisch said:

where has them in stock?

Main Street Music, Pembroke, Wales has one in the Butterscotch finish. (Ferry from Rosslare to Pembroke Dock. Bus or over-priced mini cab between the ferry terminal and the guitar shop.)

Seziertisch said:

I have one of the Tenors on the way, probably going to change out the saddles. 

@Funkfingers or indeed anyone else what would people recommend?

I recommend trying the instrument stock for a while before altering anything.

As mentioned on 5th February, the DGBE tuning is not for me. Octave Mandolin would make more sense. The change of string gauge will affect the intonation adjustment. It may be necessary to find shorter than standard length saddles to obtain the maximum range of adjustment.

Seziertisch

Funkfingers said:

Seziertisch said:

where has them in stock?

Main Street Music, Pembroke, Wales has one in the Butterscotch finish. (Ferry from Rosslare to Pembroke Dock. Bus or over-priced mini cab between the ferry terminal and the guitar shop.)

Seziertisch said:

I have one of the Tenors on the way, probably going to change out the saddles. 

@Funkfingers or indeed anyone else what would people recommend?

I recommend trying the instrument stock for a while before altering anything.

As mentioned on 5th February, the DGBE tuning is not for me. Octave Mandolin would make more sense. The change of string gauge will affect the intonation adjustment. It may be necessary to find shorter than standard length saddles to obtain the maximum range of adjustment.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, DGBE kind of defeats the purpose, though maybe with different string gauges it could be made into a proper electric uke with the D an octave higher.

I think I’m going to start with GDAE and learn some Warren Ellis riffs and take it from there.

Seziertisch

So the Tenor Tele arrived today. Fretwork and neck are immaculate. Pickups sound very good, but the whole thing is quite noisy so it is definitely going to shielded sooner rather than later.

The break angle over the headstock is not great, particularly on the 2 higher strings. Part of the problem is the tuners on it; they are the standard ones you find on most Mexican Fenders and they are quite tall with the string holes a bit further up on them compared to vintage style tuners. Even if they had used vintage style tuners, the slightly lower profile might have been enough to give a proper break angle.

I think staggered tuners would work well in this case as their lower string entry point combined with the fact that the tuning pegs for the 2 highest strings in relation to the nut are located where the D and G string pegs would be on a 6-string guitar (as opposed to the B and E string pegs) so they already have a bit more break angle than the B and E strings on a 6-string. I know that staggered tuning pegs don't necessarily provide enough of a break angle on the high strings on a regular 6-string as they are that bit further away from the nut.

I haven't really delved into tunings yet, but it definitely a good one for making you think outside the box a bit as a guitarist and get you out of your comfort zone.

Funkfingers

Another tuning that might work is Dulcimer … albeit with an extra drone string.

Funkfingers

Flanging_Fred said:

I’m a little bit in love with that Meteora.

IMHO, the Meteora is exceedingly comfortable worn on a strap. 

JerkMoans said:

Those Meteoras look so much better than last year's tele based model, imho. 

For me, the problems with the USA FSR version were the black block fingerboard inlays and my unwillingness to accept a Telecaster sound set from something not Telecaster shaped.

The humbucker-equiped variants make far more sense. P90s, gold foils or Filter’Trons would all be interesting.

A Meteora Bass could succeed where the Dimension Bass failed.

DarnWeight

I've got an Eastwood Warren Ellis tenor, and would thoroughly recommend GDAE for tuning instruments of this scale length (22.5-23.0").  I struggled for ages using it in CGDA (string gauges and playable tension were always a compromise), and GDAE is miles better.

ToneControl

I have a Fender Mandostrat, same sort of idea, 4 strings tuned in 5ths

Funkfingers

SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION: What capo works on a fingerboard of this width?