We’ve been playing Fender’s new gold-foil Telecaster

These histories are fairly vague, but most people seem to agree on some things about gold leaf. First, gold leaf appeared on the market around his mid-twentieth century and was incorporated into inexpensive guitars from Harmony and Teisco. Secondly, it comes with gold foil. This is purely superficial. According to the Lollar pickup gods, foil has no effect on the sound. Thirdly, they have become very popular in the last few years thanks to the fact that they have an interesting vibe.

That’s all.As string joy points out; “Most are single-coil, but some are double-coil, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg of differences. What really ties the various editions together is the metal cover and The base plate and, of course, the gold leaf.Aside from that, the type of magnet, the thickness and winding of the wire, the presence or absence of a pole piece, the mounting method, the size, etc. differ greatly from pickup to pickup, and have remained unchanged since the beginning of development. “

Lollar’s ’50s-style gold leaf uses a rubberized ferrite fridge magnet behind a fancy cover, just like Teisco’s ’50s pickups. Fender, on the other hand, employs a bright and powerful Alnico V magnet in its mini-humbucker configuration, so only an Art Deco aesthetic unites the two of him.

They look remarkable – and indeed, people comment. Telecaster shapes already have a long history, and these shimmering additions work well with the brass saddle to create a unique twist. increase. Some see it as Gucci Glam, others see it as Vegas shit, and the White Blonde and Candy Appleburst versions and the Cheeky Red Jazzmaster both look like the guitar you probably need. dress for .

Our review unit arrives in white blonde with a beefy mahogany body, ’60s C-shaped maple neck, skunk stripes on the back, and an ebony fingerboard on the front. It also has a matching white paint on the headstock. This looks like a top and is a touch commonly found on high-end production models like the American Ultra Luxe. The fretboard radius is a very modern 12″, so for the Teles it’s pretty flat and uses medium jumbo frets. Great setup for easy articulation and bending. Vintage-style slotted single-line tuners hang from the headstock. You might like this one better than the locker. They are super fast and easy to use.

Other than that, it’s a Telecaster. Black pickguard, 3-way pickup selector, and large knurled volume and tone knobs. The human body is almost unformed. It’s the traditional plank with no belly cut, rounded heel, or other ergonomic considerations.Televangelists like Josh Smith have made intonation the eternal compromise of his Like the three brass saddles, we seem to find this part of the charm. Since its debut as a broadcaster in 1950, it has been in high demand.

I can’t say I grew up eating a Telecaster for breakfast, but I’ve come to know what I like. Whether it’s the simplicity, the shape, or a pinch of Leo Fender’s fairy dust, the Teles seem to have some magical tones. I’ve been playing a lot of Strats lately and came back to the Tele and was reminded how much I love the simple layout, solid feel and deceptive flexibility of tone. How nice to not have to adjust the tremolo system!

However, the difference between this Made-in-Mexico Gold Foil job and my own single-coil American Pro Tele is huge.The mahogany body, ebony fingerboard, and gold foil mini humbuckers make this guitar unique. It’s a completely different thing. It carries the amp harder, naturally, somewhere between the level of a single-coil tele and a flat-out chog machine like the Washburn N2, for the purposes of shameless Nuno worship. Both sustains have beats and are long and clear.

The Gold Foil tone is thicker and more chesty overall than the standard Telecaster. But the high end is where the unique characteristics of this guitar are most apparent to me. Left wide open, the treble end can feel small, transparent, and delicate, or crackling, crisp, and airy, or wild and explosive, depending on how you play and what rig you use. It feels like it’s burnt. Rolling off the top a bit seems to be the built-in fuzz circuit the way some amps degrade the sound outward from the midrange on the edge of the breakup.

A flexible and highly dynamic beast that spans three pickup positions. All it takes is a finger to take you to some dirty lo-fi jazzy places. Its top-end bite has more presence in certain amp settings, making it a clear and enjoyable machine for playing skins on the wire. single coil.

However, dialing in a rocking crunch tone makes me feel like I’m really enjoying the slap. There’s a lot of snap that emerges as a funky gut punch from the neck pickup and an edgy grunt in the bridge, but you have to hit the strings with mustard to get to it. I had a lot of fun beating this cute one down to the point of cleaning it up quite nicely. Sorry Fender!

I was a little sad to find that the volume knob rolls off the high frequencies as well.I love how AmPro leaves volume and tone separate, but I think the treble bleed circuit is a personal thing. There’s no coil split feature to open up coil-style tones, but it doesn’t feel quite the same either way. For some reason, the Gold Foils seem to start giving feedback sooner than any other product in my rack, so I recommend testing them at whatever volume you play.

Tuning stability on this tester wasn’t great. The weather has changed quite a bit and I’ve run the air conditioner a bit here and there, but the Gold Foil was definitely a quarter tone sharper on the bottom two strings each time I picked it up after leaving.One hour alone that’s all. Maybe the nut can be made of graphite.

But those are the only criticisms I can come up with. This is no replacement for the old fashioned single-coil his Telecaster in my book. They’ve been stuck around 70 years for good reason. Gold Foil is something else entirely, it looks, feels and sounds completely different. I’ve heard it described as a bit crappy, garage, old school, and lo-fi, but it’s certainly true that the treble from these pickups is a nice bouncy Silverface reissue amp in the Fender demo video below. It is a way to hear through

But when running it on a Deluxe Reverb modeling rig, you can see the amp doing some sepia toning work. Even if the chime-like harmonics from the pickups are definitely pitched in. With a Blackstar HT Club 40 MkII amp and a more modern style modeling setup that I tend to lean towards, the Gold Foil Tele turned out to be far more versatile than it looked.

These may not be real fridge magnet reissue pickups, but Fender has produced a curious, dynamic and crisp sound here. Everyone I handed this guitar to found it attractive and intriguing. With stunning looks and unique tones, we think it’s worth experiencing for yourself when this quirky new range of Teles, Jazzmasters and Jazz Basses calls you from the walls of your music store. increase.

The White Blonde Gold Foil Telecaster we tested retails for US$1,199 in the US and AUD$2,199 in Australia.

Source: Fender