Review: Fender Baja Telecaster

I readily admit to not being able to hold onto gear for very long before I get an itch to try something new. I’ve played guitar for over 10 years and a few years ago I began to play electric for the first time. Being an acoustic player, I was completely unaware of all of the gear available for guitar. Well, I quickly became taken by the electric guitar and all of the fun toys to go along with it. I’ve owned several different electrics in the past three years (Stratocaster, 335-style, Les Paul-style, Gretch Pro Jet). Last fall, I really got bitten by the Tele bug. I just had to have a Telecaster. I’m not even sure why, but I headed off to the guitar shop to check some out.

 

I briefly had a Xaviere XV-800 which is an import Telecaster available from guitarfetish.com. I really liked the guitar, but the neck just killed my hands. I admittedly have the hands of a 10-year old girl, but the shallow neck depth led to instant pain in my hands while playing barre chords. So, I was on the lookout for something that felt comfortable in my hands. My mother has pretty bad arthritis, so I’m definitely looking for something that isn’t going to limit my playing days.

 

Checking out the offerings from the inventing company of the Telecaster, I just couldn’t find one that really felt right. The closest I found was the Fender Telecaster ’72 Deluxe. I liked the feel of the guitar, but I wanted something with single coils and an ash body. This led me to pick up the made-in-Mexico Baja Telecaster. The Baja is designed by Fender Custom Shop Master Builder Chris Fleming as his dream ‘50’s style Tele. It’s Desert Sand-colored body is made of ash and it has a maple fingerboard. The Baja is loaded with Custom Shop pickups, a Twisted Tele in the neck and a Broadcaster in the bridge. It is also equipped with a 4-position switch and the S-1 option in a button on the volume control. It’s a great sounding guitar, but I fell in love with the neck. Oh my, that neck. It’s a soft-V shape, which definitely felt a little big in my hand at first. In fact, the first few days after having it at home, I was sure I would be taking it back. Since then, anything much shallower really fatigues my hand. It just feels perfect.

 

Honestly, even if the Baja sounded like crap, I probably would have kept it because of how natural it feels to play. The good news is that it not only plays great but sounds just as great. The Custom Shop pickups really shine on the Baja. The Broadcaster bridge pickup has a really full sound, but with plenty of that Tele bite. The Twisted Tele pickup just kills for those sweet single-coil neck sounds. Great for some nice blues tone. Now, this is where it gets interesting. The 4-position switch gives you the bridge and neck in parallel as usual. This position is well balanced between the two pickups. The 4^th position is the bridge and neck in series. I know almost nothing about wiring and the like, but putting the pickups in series results in a fatter, hotter output than position 2. It’s not a full-on humbucker tone, but close. If you set your amp for the single pickups to be on the verge of breaking up, then position 4 will definitely get you some serious drive. The S1 button opens up two more tones from the pickups. Positions 1 (bridge only) and 3 (neck only) are unaffected by the S1 (though you can hear the switch go on and off in those positions). The S1 switch puts the pickups out of phase. In position 4, this results in an almost AM radio tone. I haven’t found that I would ever use this tone as a regular tone, though it could definitely be used as an interesting intro tone to a song. It’s much more useable with distortion, though it’s still not all that enticing. In position 2 with the S1 button down, you get in to some near-Strat tone. This is great for some nice, clean funk tones. Really doesn’t do much with distortion, though.

 

After all of the guitar changes I’ve been making, I will (probably) never get rid of this Baja. The tone and feel is unlike anything else I’ve come across in a mass-produced guitar. Yes it is made in Mexico, and yes there are some definite variations from guitar to guitar. I highly recommend playing more than one of these. With the ash bodies, there can be some significant differences in body weight. I also had a bad solder joint in my switch that I had to get fixed at no cost due to the warranty. So, it does behoove you to check out more than one. I’ve definitely come to the conclusion that I would rather have a guitar that felt great playing than one that was really pretty to look at. The Baja isn’t ugly by any means, but it plays like a dream. Highly recommended.