A Telecaster Fanatic Looks at the PRS NF-53 - Ask Zac 189 

Zac great to meet you the other day at Joe Glaser Guitars. I had a PRS Brent Mason model that I wanted Joe to put and B/G Bender on, he didn't want to do that and suggested I get a really nice tele for him to install the bender on. I called PRS and ask them if they were ever going to build a "T" style guitar, and they said they had nothing on the drawing board. So I hired Dan Bloom of "EB Rooster" guitars to build me a 3 pickup Nashville Tele. The Day I meet you I had Joe and his great staff plek my guitar and install the B/G bender. I am very happy with my custom EB Rooster Tele, but I do love Paul and his passion for his people and his instruments. We are Blessed to have people like you, Joe Glaser, his entire staff, and Paul Reed Smith and all of his great people to support us with great information and products to support our "Sickness."

I've been trying to find a video where it's compared to a tele but everyone else's videos just play like hard rock and really "non tele"sounding riffs, I just wanted it a/b'ed with a tele and you're the perfect person for that

I just want to commend your reviewing abilities, how you discuss the pros and cons! I feel more informed than "told what to think".

Such a fair review, you’re the man, Zac. We all learn so much from you!

Got a chance to play one of these recently as our local music store got one. My impression was very much the same as yours. Thanks for a great video!

Great video, I appreciate you taking the time to do a deep dive. I have been playing a McCarty 594 for about three years and I’m having a great time, no turning back. They’re addicting for sure.

Beautiful review. You brought out the twang other reviewers did not do for this guitar. Thank you for years of music related information !

When people make videos in front of their bookshelves I always like to see what they're reading. Well, I'd been wanting to find a book about the history of Fender amps, so when I scanned your bookshelf I found you did my work for me. I figured if you had it on your shelf it's probably a good read, so I paused the video and ordered it up from my local library. I also ordered the Strat one too for good measure! Thanks Zac, for finding me books to read as well as all your great videos. Cheers!

You share some great insights and observations, Zac. Thanks.

Sir, that was a great review…kudos for the honest take from a tele guru. 👍🏻

Zac, You do such a great job! A very nice review, with so much positive to say about a product that might have confused a lot of people. Thanks for bringing clarity from a tele-master perspective and keeping it positive! Your comments regarding Paul's continued innovation is spot on. It is nice to see him pushing every day. I hired his band to play our Homecoming in 1979. My cousin owned Mil-Com and now Mann-Made USA. Wishing you continued success! Thanks for your work!

Great Review! Love how you was able to show it from a telecaster player perspective, it makes a lot of sense for me!

I am both a PRS and Tele fan, so this scratches a lot of itches for me. Excellent overview

Thanks for the deep dive. The detail about the nut is very informative. No other reviews mention this. This guitar is being aimed at Gibson or PRS players used to their necks. Helpful description. I own a Reverend & Suhr classic T. The Reverend has a slightly wider nut which I prefer but the Suhr is more chunky & I like that too. I’m going to have to track one of these down to feel the neck. I love the tones you got. If I get that without hum, that’s great. I will say I wish they put locking tuners on this like the Myles Kennedy.

I had that bridge on a Vela. Brilliant design. Works great for string changes!

Very informative. Thank you.

Played one just like that at Righteous guitar in Atlanta - played like butter. I'm a bassist who doesn't much care for teles but I fell in love after 10 min.

Totally enjoyed the way you assessed this guitar. Thank you sir! 👍

Always a gentleman - Thank you, Zac. I’m one of those Es335 players who couldn’t get along with a tele neck or bridge intonation. After seeing your review, I actually want to try one of these. ( I bought a thinline tele and played it a lot, but never bonded with that traditional neck- sent it to a new home.)

Keith from 5 watt world sent me your way because of his short histories and my love of the Tele and thought I would check out some of your videos and enjoyed them and your playing and knowledge so Subscribed and look forward to more videos and checking out your past ones. Keep rocking 🤘🏻🎸🤘🏻

Great review and playing, Zac! You know, that PRS reminds me of my '88 G&L ASAT, only updated by thirty-some years.

Thanks for an honest comparison!

Lots of nice features on that guitar, and since I have big hands, the wider nut width is a big plus, as are the noiseless pickups, and comfort carves. Thanks

Great review. I think I will look for one in my local music store to give it a try.

Great review. I had a PRS Hollowbody I got rid of for a banjo I wish I kept. It was the one guitar that had that Redd Volkaert sound on the neck pickup more than I could get out of my some of my teles.

Great review! Appreciate your no nonsense take and insight within this review.

What a great review. And totally lacking in prejudice which is so nice to see

Great intro tune. Love your playing style.

Excellent balanced review, thanks Zac

Nicely done. Insightful review.

Great review Zach! I spent most of my time playing a 335 style guitar (early 80s Epi Sheraton with a slim taper neck) and a tele of some flavor so I’m kind of used to both albeit my teles were never vintage beefy neck models (cause I couldn’t afford them!). I also now have two PRS’s with pattern regular necks which are different but very comfortable. I admit the NF53 appeals to me even though I have 3 other T style guitars… surely don’t really need one but your video has done little to dissuade me so thanks (maybe…!) for that! And I agree on Paul being an innovator - the “classic” PRS body shape is for at now in the Pantheon of shapes with T, S, SG, 335, LP etc… and that’s not something anyone else has really accomplished in, like, 50 years.

Thanks nice review. I've got a Buzz Feiten T-Pro... his take on a tele with some mods

The neck radius is the first thing I noticed.

Great review, wow, I want one

Thanks for another great video, Zac. I've got to check the nut width of my old PRS Standard. It's definitely smaller than a typical PRS Custom and just might be Tele sized.

This was great. Your review was nice because you were coming at it as someone not already playing PRS and not affiliated. This guitar looks and sounds great to me. I have a Fiore and got it mostly for the neck, which is wide and thin. I like the wide string spacing on it, but I feel it still has a pretty standard thinness like a Fender strat or tele. It sounds like the NF is fatter. Still really nice. thanks for putting this out there.

I like the way it sounds and I think the bridge design is cool, but I can't get over the way it looks. The headstock is fine (I have a DGT SE and I kind of ignore the headstock), but I really don't like the pickup having a gap between the body and pickup. That said, it sounds great and I hope the people who buy these love them!

At first glance, it appears that a Fender Tele had a one night stand with a Carvin Holdsworth model, and 9 months later, this was born!

Great honest review, Zac. Thank you for posting this video.

Thanks for the honest review

Very interesting video, Zac. I’m fascinated lately by “alt” style Teles, having recently obtained a CP Thornton TS-1, which I’ve decided is the best guitar I’ve ever played!

Doinky! My next technical term! Great video as usual...

Great episode, been a subscriber for a long time (bought a hat) and now its time to step up on Patreon. Thanks Zac

I wonder how many of our old heroes (who let's face it we know because of Zac 😂) would get on with one of these. Always have to remind myself that the vintage kit they used was not vintage but new and the "latest and best" they could get. Paul, and even Leo in his later days, never seemed to stop striving.

Great job!

As a pretty major Tele guy I would play one (in a solid colour). I respect what Paul is trying to do with this.

Damn Zac I don’t want to say it but you sound much better on that PRS. It sounds much cleaner and more dynamic? So being a guy who also sports a 57 Tele well damn.

Zach, on break angle, it makes sense to me that a greater angle puts more pressure on saddle, resonating into the guitar. But I have a Bigsby on a guitar with 24.7 scale length that I run the strings over the bar behind the saddle because of intonation issues. The result is amazing sustain and slinky feel. It doesn’t make sense, but I really like it. I love my Fender guitars, but PRS builds a great guitar with a different quality. Solution is to buy more guitars.

Sounds great! Very cool axe.

Great review! Personally, I have two Teles and two PRS CEs. The CEs both have the tremolo bridge which I really like. One is a semi-hollow and the other is a solid body. The PRS nut width does differ from the Fenders but I find that I play them better.

As someone who prefers my Silver Sky to my stratocaster, I'm excited to get my hands on one of these. I have two telecasters, but I'm willing to give this one a shot. Appreciate the comparison and review.

Love your show Zach always!! I think the pickups are called "Narrowfield".

Fascinating seeing Zac playing a PRS! 🙂

Want to bet that Paul reaches out once he sees this? He seems to be interested in what people think of his instruments, which is a great way to improve what you design and build, I think. He also just likes to play and jam with others. He builds guitars from a player’s perspective whether his own, or from some of his signature artists. Great video.😬😎

Very cool review

Great review of this guitar ⚡️

Honestly haven't seen a better demonstration of what this guitar can do. Of course Ask Zac is gonna kill it on a prs tele. Really sounded beautiful in your hands, Zac. Makes me want to get one lol

Glad to see a real Tele player run this through its paces. Very cool! Actually does the Tele thing pretty well. Other reviews don’t really demonstrate that all that well.

Thanks!

I am a custom shop Tele player its hard to wrap my brain around this one but it looks and sounds great I certainly would like to give it a try if I see one show up at my local guitar center.

Awesome review...thank you Zac. I think it's my cup o' tea.

Might have to go on the list.😜 Thanks Zac!

My best Telecaster is my Richie Kotzen signature Fender MIJ. It’s an absolutely incredible guitar. Just my 2 cents on the telecaster topic. I’ve never played a PRS Tele

Zac’s videos are absolutely brilliant👌👌👌🫡

Is anybody reminded of the old Ovation electrics? Like the Viper, Preacher, and Breadwinner?

You can buy aftermarket pickups with a brass plate mounted on the bottom to raise the inductance like a telecaster however the pickup cavities on this guitar are so narrow that a lot of aftermarket pickups will not fit without routing the body. Thanks for the video! 🍺🇨🇦

Great guitar but this leans close to an apples vs oranges situation imo, would love to see the same comparison with a G&L ASAT which was Leo’s last iteration of the Tele which had pretty significant and innovative changes, primarily with the bridge and pickups. Interesting story about how he reluctantly came to design it but demand for a Tele design from him at that stage in the company’s history was apparently strong. Then there is of course the ASAT Classic which is basically a Tele, a comparison to your Esquire would be cool with it as well. Lots of Tele variants from various manufacturers but keeping it all Leo based might prove interesting and have that crucial historical link.

Thanks for this review Zac, and thanks to Jesse for making it happen. I like a slightly modern Tele (such as a flatter radius fingerboard and individual saddles), and I’m really enjoying my PRS CE 24 SE. But I’m just not seeing anything in the NF-53 that appeals to me. Not that it matters until they make an SE model that’s in my price range. 😀 When they do, I feel like I’ll have to evaluate it as its own thing rather than compare it to a Tele, though. Because when I think Tele, I think Tele pick-ups, and those NFs may be great, but they don’t seem like a substitute for Tele pickups to me.

While like you, it’s nearly impossible to pry my ‘52 Tele out of my hands. This seems to be a well thought out and brought to market offering from Paul. There were some nice tones you were getting and I do appreciate the additional girth in the tone.

I have the Myles Kennedy on the way from a mid-west music store after they install the Phase 3 tuners for me. That is my only gripe with PRS, and I own a lot of PRS guitars, is the Phase 3 tuners should at least be an option on any of their high end guitars. They look and perform fantastic. Great review of the NF-53. I have several NF3s withe the Narrowfield pups and it is my go to PRS. I play for a country artist and can nail everything I need for his shows. Thanks!!

Is the absence of the bridge plate really the culprit for some loss of twang? I was always told that more metal around the Tele bridge pickup caused a widening of the magnetic field of the pickup, making it more mellow. Same thing with pick up covers on PAF..

Thanks for the objective review. Interesting axe.

Man have I been waiting for this.

The bridge was actually developed eight years ago for the PRS Vela model.

Thank you for doing such a well balanced non-biased review. It’s refreshing to see an honest review these days that’s not tainted with the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” tactics. I think the guitar sounds good and the bridge system offers some improvements over the traditional Tele bridge. However, the neck width, angled headstock, and the birds are all a no for me. The bird inlays are just too distracting looking for such a simple minimalist guitar. And I’m not a PRS Bird detractor. It depends on the guitar and I think the simpler Moons would be a much better fit. All and all just like you said, Zac, these guitars would be awesome for a Gibson/PRS player who needs a Tele now and then.

i sees the Bose Wave Radio in that shot. Mine went belly up last year, i nearly cried.

Excellent review. Very thorough, interesting and sincere. I always love your cadence and delivery. My favorite thing about the guitar is that it is not a Tele copy. It is, as you said, Tele-esque. PRS designed a unique guitar inspired by the Telecaster and targeted at that customer but not one thing about that guitar is a copy. I would have liked the Silver Sky much more if it wasn't a Strat copy with a really ugly headstock (can't stand the shape of the PRS headstock).

I have a t style guitar i got cheap and it works for that tele type thing for me. I have to admit i have had a sip of the PRS kool aid. Love the detail, fit and finish on these instruments. Only reason I haven't gotten one of the PRS NF-53 is the price. Hope they come out with and SE soon. Thanks for your opinion compared to a real tele. I value your opinion over most people regarding guitars.

thanks Zac... great video....

That's a beauty, BUT the pointy headstock... I have a pointy guitar stigma issue.

The bridge pieces appear to be a variation on the Mastery saddles--three string saddles, two screws for intonation adjustment.

This is a great review

Very well done video review. It was bound to happen. Interesting spin. One characteristic of PRS guitars: they don't seem to lend well to customization or part swaps. I too prefer a 1-5/8" nut width. I think Zak's tele's just sound more organic.

Really like the 10" radius neck (although I prefer 12") , bridge, headstock with no string tree and body contours. Also like Sire's T7's roasted maple necks, locking tuners, and rolled fret edges. Lots of competition these days...regarding resale, of course everyone wants a Fender.

Had one since Oct '23. Great in every way, as Zac points out. I would say it's close to 90% the Tele sound. EXCELLENT construction and quality! (played Teles since August 1970!!).

Don't want to swing a core model but an SE would be great!

I liked those skinny tiny frets on those old fenders- know you know !

I feel your pain with neck width… I own several guitars ranging from a Rickenbacker to a Gretsch. Those two mentioned are completely opposite in neck widths and take a moment to get used to

Well done look at the PRS. Definitely not a PRS guy but I listened to you because were fair and objective. Thank you

Intro playing was tremendous

Very cool. The guitar sounded better than I expected. Pickups sound really good. Wish it was string through though. And a guitar of that price should definitely come with hard shell case. Just my opinion, especially considering that their lower price SE version guitars also come with gig bags. Good demo Zac.

Like a great musician learning the language of a particular style, PRS has internalised the Tele and produced his personal vision of it. Not as easy as copying. I relate to your love of the original Fenders Zak, but it's great that you gave credit/respect for what Paul achieved here!

The Bridge is the same bridge they use on the Vela Model. I have a Vela I like but I took the bridge off. Intonation with strings per saddle

Zac I’d love to see an episode where you talk about some of those cool books behind you!

What a fantastic video have a wonderful day zac also happy valentine's day to you and your family ❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊

I have to say, I hate the look of it, but it sounds really good with you playing it. I can tell it has a nice snap to it, it sounds like its feel good/fun to play. I play a 335, so probably I'd be real comfortable with it, but I'd still just want a tele. I feel like if I won this guitar I'd probably love it and want to keep it, but only ever use it to record cause I'd feel like a doink on stage. lol Back when I bought my sunburst Memphis factory 335 with all my life savings at 17 or 18 years old in 1990something, I was looking at PRS's with my Dad, and he really liked them. I often wonder if I'd be different now if I had bought one of those instead, or if I'd regret it etc. I tend to think that the fact that I can hear the memphis coming out of my Gibson and it sounds like its got a little bit of Scotty Moore living in it means I probably never would have gone any other way. But its funny, cause most of my musical tastes are closer to Nashville or texas so I really want a tele. I picked up an affordable G&L Asat tribute classic alnico, and it'll do for now. Think I might wanna put some of those LaBrea Paisley pickups in though. Sounded good when you demo'd those.

Great review. Guitar sounds great. For me, the pasty white neck and inlays are deal breaker. I know, I know, it's cosmetic. Perhaps they will make one with a rosewood fretboard.

Great review Zac. Love everything with the body and bridge design. Prefer the original Tele headstock.

Great to see a video on this now the hype has died down in YT. My feed was choked up with the standard sponsored “reviews” when they first got released.

It’s important to realise that PRS didn’t make this guitar for Telecaster fans. If you’re a hard-core Fender fan, you’re not going to buy the NF-53. PRS knows this. You’re not the target audience. The NF-53 isn’t intended to be a PRS for Tele players - it’s a Tele for PRS fans. There are a lot of people who love PRS and are very loyal to the brand. Until now, those people didn’t have a guitar to reach for when they needed a Tele. In the same way, the Silver Sky isn’t a PRS for Strat fans - it’s a Strat for PRS fans. What they are doing is creating a greater range of guitars for their loyal PRS fanbase, so those people have no reason to go buy a Fender, or a Gibson, etc….