The Fender Telecaster "Tele" Plus
With the release of the new Fender Stratocaster Plus series in late 1987, which turned out to be quite popular, Fender went on to release the Strat Plus DX V1s in 1989, and then finally the Fender Strat Ultra in 1990. In June of 1990, Fender announced the release of a new Telecaster also based on the Plus Series. The new Telecaster was called (drum Roll please!): The Tele Plus! These are now referred to by collectors as the Version 1, or V1, Tele Plus. These V1s came in two models: The Tele Plus and The Deluxe Tele Plus.
You can look above and see a nice Firestorm Standard Tele Plus next to an Antique Burst Deluxe Tele Plus. Both the Standard and the DX models came with either rosewood or maple fretboards, and supposed to be "Ash laminate" top and back, with 2 Red Lace Sensors in the bridge and a Blue Lace Sensor in the neck position. The Lace Sensors always came with black covers. Why did I say "supposedly" came with Ash laminate top and back? Ok, even though Fender advertised these as coming with Ash laminate, the truth is, almost all of them were made from solid Ash. And if you have ever owned one, you know they are really heavy to boot!
 
 
Once again, the Tele Plus never showed up on Fender's price lists till June of 1990. So even if you have one with a E9 serial number, remeber that Fender must have had a ton of E9 serial number water slides, because E9 was used on a lot of guitar up into late 1990. Take a look at the colors that were available when first released: Natural (on solid Ash), Antique Burst, Ebony Frost, Crimson Frost, and Blue Frost. Note the "Frost" colors. Fender decided to carry forward the confusion seen on the Strat Plus'. Fender called these "burst" finished guitars "frost." Ummm... The frost, which really looks like a burst, is called a frost. Confused? Ya... easy to have happen! But the frosts have dark edge, often in black. And then had a nice transparent color that exposed the Ash grain, top and back. Later they would introduce "bursts"— like Blue Burst and Crimson Burst which has darker metallic edges that were the same color as the rest of the guitar. Later I will show the difference between the frosts and the bursts.
  
Before we dive into the V1 Tele Plus, let's talk (and show) a cool Lace Sensor driven Telecaster that was released shortly before any of Tele Plus'. Above is a Version 1 James Burton Signature Telecaster in Red Paisley. INHO, these were the coolest Burton Telecasters ever made! The red is reminiscent of the Firestorm finishes used on some Strats and Teles in 1990-91 as the red has a candy red metal-flake look. The interesting thing is, the James Burton Tele was listed in the 1990 sales price list, but it gave no specs and just said "To Be Announce"! In this same sales price list brochure there was no mention of the Tele Plus! Then in June of 1990, the James Burton Signature Telecaster, along with Danny Gatton and Albert Collins signature Teles we announced as available. The JB Tele came with a new Lace Sensor pickup combination, Blue Lace in the neck, Silver in the middle, and Red in the bridge—and at this same time Fender started their V2 Strat Plus DX sporting the same Blue, Silver, and Red Lace combo. If you have read my Strat Plus page, you know the first Strat Plus DX's (V1s) debuted in 1989 and came out with a Silver, Silver, Blue Lace Sensor combo. These were available for a short few months. Back to the James Burton Tele—it came in 4 colors: Black with Gold Paisley, Black with Red Paisley (see mine above), Pearl White, and Frost Red.
The Tele Plus was made popular by two artists: Michael Houser (left) of Wide Spread Panic and Jonny Greenwood (right) of Radiohead. There are other well known artists who played these as well. With Michael Houser, he favored the V1 Deluxe Telecaster Plus in the Firestorm finish, sporting a rosewood fretboard. He is also seen playing a Crimson Frost V1 DX at times—maybe he favored bright red to spread "wide spread panic"? LOL... But you will note if you look on Google, he is seen playing the V1 DX Tele Plus with the Wilkinson roller nut and a 2-point floating bridge, just like found on the Strat Plus DX. We will talk about the V1 DXs in a bit. These Teles also have the pop-in tremolo bar. Sorry to say, but Michael Houser passed away in August of 2002. RIP.
Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is another artist that uses a Standard Tele Plus. He has his famous Antique Burst Standard Tele Plus with a maple neck. Instead of the 3-way mini-switch, he installed a "kill" button. When you push it and held it down (it is spring loaded), it cut-off the guitar's output. He gets some cool sounds by doing that while playing. Of course he has stickers all over the guitar as well and it is quite a relic!
The V1 Standard Telecaster Plus
According to the sale price brochures, the Version 1's first showed up June 1990 and were discontinued in the first part of 1995. What I have noticed is, the number of these made in 1993-1995 must have been pretty limited as almost all of these you find were made in late 1990 to early 1993. Because of that the mid-1993 to 1995 the VI Teles were not near as common as the 1990-1993. Sales must have been dropping off maybe so production numbers were lowered? IDK! As I mentioned earlier, some people will say they have a 1989 V1 Tele Plus because they have a serial number like E9xxxxx! The Tele Plus did not come out till mid-1990. This same thing was seen on a lot of 1990 Strat Plus and Ultras, as well as many of the 1990-91 signature guitars. Crazy! Some people speculate that Fender had an over stock of E9 serial number water slides, so that is why they were used.
The Standard Tele Plus had a hard-tail bridge, much like the hard tail set-ups used on some Strats. They used a bridge plate that looks similar to the one bolted to a tremolo block on a Strat with a floating tremolo system. See picts above. But, unlike the tremolo systems, they have 3 screws that screw down into the wood. Fender also used the same type of brushed steel adjustable saddles as seen on American Standard and Plus Strats of that same era. Pretty simple design with the strings feeding through the metal ferrules on the back of the body, up through the bridge plate, and over the saddles. And the Standard Tele Plus came with chrome Fender Tuners, a string tree and a plastic nut.
  
Both the Standard and DX Plus' Teles are wired the same. The neck pickup is a Blue Lace Sensor with a black cover. The Blue Sensors have a fatter sound compared to a traditional Tele neck pickup. Lace Music Company likes to say that the Blue Lace Sensor has a slightly increased output with the warmer 50's humbucking sound in a single coil configuration. And it is true, this gives these Teles a bit more lower end and power, all with no 60 cycle hum due to the design of the Sensor pickups. The main switch is a 3-way like a traditional Tele. Both guitars had the volume and tone knobs, again like a standard Tele. The tone knob turns a TBX Tone control, just like what was used on the American Standard, The Strat Plus, and Ultras guitars. CLICK HERE and then scroll down and you can read about the whole history and concept of the TBX as explained by Paul Gagon, the gentleman who invented this cool tone control.
Let's talk about that cool looking Red Lace humbucker looking pickup found on the bridge of the V1 Tele Plus. This design was an idea that Jack Schwarz came up with. He was long time Fender employee and now is president/CEO of Fano Guitars. Back in the late 1980s Jack took 2 Lace Sensor pickups and strapped them side by side using a little clip and 3 mounting holes. This little "side by side" pickup arrangement was christened "The Dually"for obvious reasons! You can see Jack above playing his kinda proto-type Strat that he built before the Strat Ultra or the Tele Plus was even produced! I know the picture is small, but you will see a Dually Lace Sensor on Jack's guitar. A side note,—you will also see George Blanda's proto-type Mini-floyd Rose locking bridge on this guitar as well—before it was used in production on some of the Strat Plus DXs and Ultra guitars! But back to the Red Lace Dually. It was later used on all of Fender's Strat Ultras, Tele Plus', and a similar concept was used on Jeff Beck's signature Strat. Then Jack came up with an idea which he shared with Fender's R&D people. Together they came up with some trick wiring with the Dually by using an on/on/on "mini-switch." If you look at the V1 Tele Plus control plate you will see this mini-switch positioned between the volume and tone knobs. The Dually creates some interesting and useful voices. Here is how that mini-switch works: Up) activates the front bridge pickup which creates an out of phase hollow sound. A bit od a Strat quack. Middle) has the bridge pickups in series creating a hot humbucker sound. A single Eed Lace is hot enough, operating at 12k, but run two in series and you have a whopping 24k. Down) activates the back pickup on the bridge to give a single coil sound which mimics that bright biting tone of a Telecaster bridge pickup. The distance of the pickups from the bridge creates different tones. The Dually was mounted on the body using a small metal pickup ring.
The color selection for these, when they first debuted in mid-1990, was: Natural (721), Antique Burst (737), Ebony Frost (759), Crimson Frost (761) and Blue Frost (762) The first digit - #7 was really the case type but for some reason Fender often used 3 digits for the color code. If you look at my color chart you will see 2 digits used to identify the color. CLICK HERE! to see all the Strat Plus Color codes. A few months later, in 1991, Fender added Firestorm to the mix! These colors stayed pretty much the same till 1993, except with the Firestorm finish. Sometime in 1992 fender dropped the Firestorm finish. I asked around and it just seemed like they ran their course and demand slowed down.
Next we move to 1993! This is where things get a little complicated with the frosts verses the bursts! Fender changed the name of a few colors and how the finish was applied to the guitar. Here is the rundown on colors for the Tele Plus in the January 1993 Sales Price catalog: (819) Mystic Black, (821) Natural, (828) Crimson Burst, (836) Blue Burst, and (837) Antique Burst. No more frosts! In fact, Ebony Frost was dropped altogether. It seems not to be one of the more popular colors. But note that the frosts were a transparent color over Ash with a black band around the edges. It always seemed to me that the frosts should have been called bursts from the beginning. On the Ultra guitars they never mixed it up like they did on the Strat and Tele Plus'. Now the burst took on a new look, like with Crimson Burst you had a darer red metallic around the edges that went to a transparent red over the Ash. You confused? Look at the picts and you will get a better idea.
Also from 1993 to 1995 production numbers, it seems to me, slowed down. When one looks at current availability, one finds a whole lot more 1990-1993 Tele Plus' than from 1993 to 1995. By 1994, Fender dropped the natural finish, retaining only Mystic Black, Crimson Burst, Blue Burst, and Antique burst. Fender only offered 4 colors in 1994. That says something... When one looks at current availability, one finds a whole lot more 1990-1993 Tele Plus' than from 1993 to 1995. In 1994, these were selling retail for $1019.99. Funny price! $1019.99!! LOL... In January of 1995 the V1 tele Plus was still being offered at the same price and the same colors, BUT in July of that same year (1995) they shook things up by releasing a July 1st Sales Price Addendum. They dropped the Verison 1 Tele Plus' and came out now with the new Version 2 Tele Plus which we will be speaking about later!
The V1 Deluxe Telecaster Plus
Above you will see a nice specimen of a 1991 Antique Burst Deluxe Tele Plus. The Deluxe Telecaster Plus was introduce a long side the Standard Tele Plus in June of 1990. The DX had all the same features as the standard Tele Plus, but came with three other features that put this guitar in a class of it own—a Wilkinson Roller nut, Schaller locking tuners, and a Strat-style tremolo system! This was a truly a remarkable guitar, taking Telecaster features a notch up with the "PLUS" enhancements, then added a bit of Stratocaster Plus to the mix with the tremolo, Tremsetter, and roller nut. By the end of 1992, they were discontinued. Let's take a closer look at some of these features.
The first this I wondered about when I pickup up my first DX Tele Plus was the Wilkinson nut. Now I had always assumed that Teles and Strats had different nut widths so I pondered the idea of either a special Wilkinson nut made for these, or Fender widened the neck to accompany the nut. Well, I was kind of wrong on several points. A standard Strat for well over 30 years has used a nut width is 43mm (1-11/16"). Some of the vintage Strats came with a 42mm nut width but Fender has pretty much stuck with 43 mm. Some vintage Teles measured at 41mm (1-5/8") and 2 mm is not much! But most modern American Teles are 43mm (1-11/16") just like a Strat. I guess I was fooled when I would play my 62 Telecaster, as the slim "pool cue" neck felt like the nut was way smaller. If any, a mere 2 mm. Above you can see a Wilkinson nut sitting on top a Standard Tele nut. Pretty interesting to see a Telecaster with a roller nut!
With a first glance you would think this was a hardtail Tele. I have the strings off so the bridge is not floating in the picture, but when you pull out the bridge you find the exact DX bridge used on the Strat Plus DX and Ultras (how be it the Ultra has chrome saddles). Speaking of chrome, the Tele Plus follows the Strat Plus using all brushed parts instead of chrome.
Since these come with a roller nut there is no string trees on the headstock and they have Schaller locking tuners. So nice to use these. Pull the string through, tighten the nut, and then cut off the excess string and tune! These also have the micro-tilt adjuster just like on all the American Standard and Plus models. These are access through a small hole in the neck plate and using a 1/8th hex wrench you turn a hex screw into the round steel grommet on the end of the truss rod on the neck. This helps adjust the neck's profile with the bridge. Before this it was common to use wood shims. Almost all these higher end production guitars, Ultra, Strat Plus DX, and Tele Plus' were made by some of the best builders at Fender at that time. Like the neck on this one was made by D. Chavez who went on to be a Custom Shop Master builder.
Then out of all the Version 1 DX Tele Plus', there was the Holy Grail—a Firestorm. (See above.) These are very hard to come by. While Fender did a number of V1 Tele Plus' in the Firestorm finish, there was not a lot of them made in the DX model. The Version1 Tele Plus series was a pretty bold leap for Fender. These are highly sought after today and if in really nice condition pull some premium prices. Time was on the march and things were going to soon change with yet another bold reclamation of the Tele Plus series—with the NEW Telecaster Plus Version 2.
Fender V2 Telecaster Plus!
Sales for the Tele Plus model was apparently tapering off in 1994-1995. The Version 1 Tele Plus was listed as available in the January 1995 Price lists, but then in July of 1995 Fender sent out to their dealers a July 1st, Price List Addendum, in which they announce a whole bunch of new guitars and face lifts for some old. There was the NEW—Buddy Guy Strat, Limited Edition American Standard Stratocaster, James Burton Telecaster, a "B" Bender Telecaster—well a bunch of NEW STUFF! And included in that addendum was the NEW V2 Telecaster Plus. These beasts were really something else (see picts above!) They came in new colors as well and sold in 1995 for $1199.99! Which was a lot of money back then. Vintage Blonde is the rarest of the rare when it comes to V2 Telecaster Plus'. I have owned every color of V2 Tele you can think of, but finding a transparent Vintage Blonde is nearly impossible! The color was listed in the July 1, 1995 Addendum, when the V2 Teles were released, and then again in the 1996 Fender catalog but Fender must not have produced very many. I had one in that color that was made in 1998, which was a replacement for the V2 Tele Plus, but came with Fender Noiseless pickups. You can see on at the end of this page. The Plus modles in that color are super rare! Mystic Black was an interesting color, as it was black that had a blue/green pearl in the clear coat. Very subtle and mystical!
These Teles were really quite amazing. A blend of esthetics and functionality. One thing I have never liked about a lot of my Teles is the lack of a tummy cut. These have one. Also a very cool Ivory binding on the top edge which really showcases the top and color. Seems to me there was a lot of care and hard work put into building these. Add to that cool design Ash veneer top on Alder to give the finish a stellar look.
The V2 Tele Plus comes with 3 pickups like a Strat. Often mistakenly called a Nashville Tele, but then, when Fender stopped producing these, they made nearly the same design using Fender's new Noiseless pickups (Tele Noiseless in neck and bridge) and then sandwiched a Noiseless Strat pickup in the center. So I guess making the name-calling-mistake is understandable. But back to the V2. They have 3 Gold Lace Sensor pickups. The neck is really a Tele neck pickup cover with a small Gold Lace Sensor under it. Then a standard Chrome Dome Strat Gold Lace in the middle and a Gold Lace Tele bridge pickup. The looks are quite nice, and the tone is amazing. Very vintage sounding, like a Tele should with a Strat in the mix. Part of that comes from the Strat style 5-way switching. But what does that mini-switch do? Is it like the mini-switch on the V1 Teles? Nope, no Dually in the bridge! So what does it do? The mini-switch turns on the bridge pickup when you have the 5-way Strat switch in the neck position. Or, on position #4, which is the neck + middle, you flip the switch and you have all 3 pickups on at the same time! You can get Telecaster tone, Stratocaster tones, and more. Very cool little trick. The necks on these teles are really great feeling. The headstock looks typical Tele... with Chrome Fender "F" Tuners and a single string tree.
It was always a bit confusing at first. I have owned several V2 Tele Plus' in Black. Some were Mystic Black and some were plain Black. When I started doing some digging around I found that in 1997 Fender changed there color line-up of these guitars. They dropped Mystic Black and changed it to just plain old Black! A side note: I nicknamed these Black Teles "Tuxedo Teles" because of their black with white ivory binding and white Pearl pickguard. I see that has caught on on the internet. Fitting title, I think! They also dropped the Vintage Blonde mid-1997, but reintroduced that color in 1998 with the New Nashville Teles. (See below). So the new color line-up was: (806) Black, (828) Crimson Burst, (836) Blue Burst, (837 Antique Burst, and a cool new (845) Teal Green Metallic. One other thing that fender did, maybe at the request of Lace Music, is they put funky stickers on top of the pickups that say Fender Gold Lace. Of course these rub off quickly and when I get a one it that has those, I take them off as they look tacky. Down below you will see one of the 1998 Fender Nashville Teles in that rare Vintage Blonde. I replaced the Fender Noiseless Strat pickup in the middle with a Chrome Dome to give it the Tele Plus look. It retains the Noiseless neck and bridge pickups. Wonderful seethrough finish on Ash with a Tortoiseshell binding and pickguard. Man, wish I would not have sold that! Very hard to find! A bit of a different beast but feels similar to a Tele Plus V2!
|
