Stratocaster vs. Telecaster

ahhhh interesting. did not think about it like that. i did note that connection but that one could very well be a bad joint.

or it could also be that the case of the vol pot is not grounded, but that seems unlikely given the number of ways it could be grounded.

yeah, the fact that there is no weird hum suggests to me that everything is grounded. i did a test plugin before screwing it down and putting strings on and there was some serious hum--sure enough one of my grounds to the volume pot had come undone. getting everything secure and *then* having to stuff it back into the available routing space is a pain in the ass.

Can anyone tell me more about the Fender "noiseless" pickups you see on a lot of higher end recent telecasters?

I tried a Mexican Nashville Custom yesterday - it played beautifully, but I felt like somethin was a little off about the pickups. Not sure if I was imagining it, but maybe a bit thin sounding? First I tried it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Can't say it sounded bad, it was just REALLY clean, and like I said, maybe a bit thin, lacking some body. Then I tried through one of those 68 Custom Deluxe Reverbs (because I have the 68 Custom Princeton at home). It sounded like ASSSSSSS. Then I tried it through a little Supro, and that was probably the best sound I got, especially with the amp cranked.

For comparison I tried a regular Player telecaster, and although I didn't like the way it played (possibly partly because it has been languishing in a Sam Ash for too long), I though the pickups sounded more like your classic fender tele pickups. But not sure if that's just because I'm used to standard issue fender single coil pickups. So many rave reviews about the noiseless pickups so maybe I have unconscious bias against the newness of them.

(tbc, the Mexican Nashville Custom had noiseless pickups).

My Stratocasters have had the SCN pickups and I like them. But then I like cleans.

Anyone have any experience with either the Fender 75th anniversary tele or the vintera road worn 50s tele? Both of these seem like they might be in my sweet spot of having the more classic “twang” tele sound, no noiseless pickups, and not insanely priced (and the “wear” on the roadworn I’m looking at is pretty minimal, which I prefer if there’s going to be any at all).

I think with most Fenders you will get something that will work, they might need to be setup, but in general they don't have too many total clunkers. Hard saying now, but I think with any name brand guitar you are better off if you got options with stores going and finding a used one in many ways unless there is one you just have to have.

Any tele marked 50s style usually will have a bigger U shaped neck, which to me is a good thing. I don't like yer skinny modern C neck myself, I want a ballbat neck myself.