Are Mexican Made Telecasters Any Good??? (From Quora) 

LET ME know YOUR experiences with Mexican Made Telecasters (OR ANY FENDER) BELOW!!

i have just had a 07 Mexican tele handed down to me from one of my dad's friends and it's the best guitar I've ever played, I don't know why guitar players are so snobby about where fenders are made, they are still excellent quality

I just ordered a Fender Player Plus from 2022. Modern 12" radius, rounded edges, modern Bridge, noiseless pickups, locking tuners, belly cut. Sounds and plays awesome. It´s the modern version of the Telecaster and i really like it.

I found a MIM Fender Baja Tele, that just hung on the wall for a couple years in a small town music store. Marked down from $799 to $399. Custom Shop design with premium parts. Great old-school Tele with S-1 switching !

I have a 1999 MIM Nashville Deluxe Tele. Absolutely fantastic guitar! Plays like a dream, and I do like the TexMex pickups. Great tonal diversity with that Strat pup in the middle.

I've got a '22 MIM Tele. Absolutely love it and it's been pretty much flawless. It's the guitar I can't put down.

I get a 2018 Telecaster as a present and I love it.

Andy Summers from the Police used to put his Tele through a Marshal Amp, but with lots of delay and Chorus - sweet combo!

I got a MiM tele about 9 months ago. Surf pearl finish is beautiful. Fret edges needed a little touch up. $20 fret tools and an hour of my time fixed that. Tone knob was right up against the plate. That was a 30 second fix with a screwdriver. Other than that it was great right out of the box. I'm not a professional musician and I enjoyed doing a little work, so I'm glad I didn't spend $1800 on an American made. They're wonderful, but even with the fret tools, the MiM was basically a third of the price

Oh man that Baja is awesome! ❤❤❤❤

Grabbed a 98 MIM Stratocaster Deluxe last year for $80.00. Haven't put it down since, the neck has that played in feeling and the stock noiseless pickups are buttery.

I brought a Mexican tele it was surf pearl and I got it at guitar center after saving up for 5 months to get it. I had no problems it sounded great.

Great Demo!!! Loved it! I have that same telecaster. I bought it because of the tone… Even over the new American Professional that had just come out at the time it is was released. They looked almost identical, except for the reversed volume/ tone control. I played the 2 side by side, and chose the FSR (Fender Special Release) MIM. Something about the pickups I preferred… just brighter, higher output. Ceramic magnets if I recall correctly. The only thing I don’t care for on the this guitar is the 9.5 radius of the neck; just a little too flat for my taste, and I wind up missing some notes. If it would have had the 7.25 radius it would have checked every box for me. That said, I will still never part with it. I just love the aggressive tone of those ceramic magnets. I am playing it through a Marshall JVM 410… and the tonal spectrum is amazing. As is the Les Paul Standard and the SG… Point is… it is a unique guitar… Glad I stumbled across it. I may add an American 60s Tele with mahogany body and Nitro finish (just for the smell,) and the 7.25 radius… but the FSR is staying put. 😉

The first guitar I bought myself was a circa-2002 MIM Tele... it's still my favorite guitar. I think I paid $400 at the time, and I never regretted the purchase... it has served me well over the past 20 years or so. For me, it's just so comfortable to play and it sounds great! I ended up upgrading the pickups and tuners, and that's really all I had to do to make it really sing. And the thing aboutTelecasters... so versatile! People think it's for country twang only, they are wrong! I can play anything with it.

I've got 4 telecasters. An American thinline, 2 Player single coils in black and blonde and 1 player HH. I love them all. The thinline is a special instrument and has been modded some. Except for locking tuners the others are all stock. The Mexican telecasters are durable, dependable and though there are some noticeable differences in feel and tone they do everything I need them to do. From clean to gritty, rock, jazz or blues, they do it all and they do it well. And of course that half the price thing is just gravy on my turkey.

Yes. They're great. I had 4 of them in my life. Never felt the need to spend the extra on an American. Nor did I feel the need to try the Japanese. Fully satisfied 😊

My first guitar and favourite, nice

wowzers, great vid. is this a Telecaster Player series with stock pickups ? thanks

which exactly kind of pickups are you using on that telecaster? thank you

Great video! Just curious were you recording straight from the interface and into the DAW? If so what plugins were you using to make this clip? It sounded a little familiar… I use a UAD Apollo, and sometimes use the Fender Tweed plugin. This clip reminds me of the vibe. 👍

It’s good for the price, soundwise perfect but the fret edges are too sharp, you’ll need a luthier to sand them down a bit for smoother feel.

Just got my first tele, ever. Ive always been a Gibson SG guy. Sometimes ill get a Les Paul and on the rare occasion ill try a prs, height end prs I’ve owned was the CE 24. So, my question is, are the MiM tele’s known to have sharpish fret edges? Mine does.. ive owned one MiM strat, but it amazing rounded edges and I didn’t notice the frets

I have one that looks like that. But mine says fender in big letters and squire under it. No serial number or other markings. Just an F on the back cover. No holes for the strings in the back either.

I'm gonna go ahead and agree. I may take it even further though. The MIM Tele is the best guitar any brand makes overseas for the price. The PRS SE's are also good but more costly. Better than epiphone, squire, other MIC models. Also, BIG AGREE. The best combination is Gibson through a Fender and a Fender through a Marshall

Buy a fret file and a set of pickups and you can make your MIM play and sound as good as a MIA

I’m thinking of getting the player and doing three mods: get brass saddles, a tusq nut and string tree, and fender locking tuners.

Just bought a left handed 2015' mim telecaster in cherry red. It was an absolute steal. I'll end up spending more on the new Seymour Duncan pickups than I paid for the guitar.

Are the brass compensated saddles stock on the mexico version?

The made in Mexico tele may not be perfect, but it is good enough and not bad at all. The American tele may have just a tiny little bit of better quality. That tiny little difference is just not enough for the difference in price. Personally, I'd go with the Mexican tele over the American one. I don't see how it's worth it to pay a ton extra for a tiny little difference. The choice for me at the end of the day is the made in Mexico tele.

Bought one new, dead spots when low action set, tone control utterly useless. It's an on-off switch. Somebody blamed it on the pickups, but I don't know. So needs setting up, bit of fretwork doing, I think. Pretty decent sound, and I guess when sorted, it'll be fine, certainly for the price.

I used to work for Guitar Center. While working there a Fender rep once told me in an arguably racist fashion. “One is made by Juan and one is made by John” it’s all about the individual instrument and it’s QC.. Frankly as someone who has owned both USA and MIM Teles. I’ve always preferred the MIM instruments. I suppose it’s just taste.

My first 'real' Fender was a Mexican Tele, bought new in the early nineties. It was part of the very first run MIM's. It TOTALLY SUCKED!! I remember myself loosing strap buttons due to the soft poplar, having microphonic pickups and frets sticking out the sides of the neck. It was very, very bad. Saddles that did not hold their position and no string through. I had been saving for months to get that Tele so you can imagine how big my disappointment was....

I know a little I know a little

Yes. Very good actually. Next question. I think MIM Fender kinda owns the 'bang for the buck' sweet spot actually. The cheapest entry to a guitar a pro could use on stage or in a studio and no one even comments on it. They sound right, look right and play right for a gig in an expensive studio or on a stage with rock stars in front of 50k screaming fans. To me, a Mexi Fender is the cheapest buy-in to that caliber of gear. I am typing this on a Saturday. Tonight, all over the world, hundreds of thousands of Mexican Fenders will played in bars, at weddings, bar mitzvahs, bbqs and other gigs by pro musicians. Some of the players will even be famous. MIA is very nice. But I won't tolerate anyone talking smack about MIM. Ensenada has produced some killer guitars over the decades. Clearly, they know what they are doing there. You can argue, but all the evidence is on my side. Mexican Fenders are good. Period. They can even be great, and are the best mod platform among guitars on the planet. Good? I say 'badass'

Mim fenders are good - i would stay away from Squire though

The difference from a us model is 50 miles

I have had 2 Teles, one USa, One Mex. I just find the Tele very boring, dull. There both gone!

No Japan better 😊