Guitar Story #9: 1993 Standard Telecaster
Details
- Guitar: 1993 Fender Standard Telecaster
- Year Purchased: 1993
- Price Paid: Trade
- Notes: Arctic White. Decent but not great
In fall of 1990 I put all my belongings – including the world’s worst Stratocaster and a late 70s Super Reverb – into boxes, loaded them onto an Amtrak train and headed for Seattle.
Once settled I began working on my songwriting and home recording chops. I found myself hating the Stratocaster more than ever. I took it down to American Music in Fremont to see if I could turn it into something better. I ended up swapping it for a new made in Mexico Fender Telecaster. It felt like a HUGE step up from that Strat.
I played it for about a month and though I liked the neck and the overall feel of the instrument a few things started to gnaw at me. For one, the bridge was pretty cheap. The height adjustment screws were a little sloppy and the vibrations from playing caused them to move around requiring repeated adjustments. I fixed this with white glue on the threads. Also, there was a little too much space in the neck pocket on the bass side. I hadn’t noticed this in my initial, pre-deal review. It wasn’t too bad and didn’t effect playability or stability but it bugged me and had me second guessing my decision to trade a USA made instrument for one made elsewhere with cheaper labor.
This was the early stages of Fender’s Mexican plant and my guess is it took awhile to get the kinks in Q.C. worked out. Today there are a number of MIM models I prefer over American models but back then it took a psychological toll on me and I started to be dissatisfied with my swap.
Less than a month after getting the MIM Tele I found myself back at American Music looking to trade that MIM Tele for a USA Telecaster. It turned out that they wouldn’t give me a satisfactory trade (they never do) so I sold the MIM outright to a friend who still owns and enjoys the guitar. It was a decent guitar for the money but I think in later years Fender got the MIM Standard series dialed in and they are even better.