Lefty Thinline Tele is outta my Price Range... what now?

[Footbutt]

i have the opportunity to pick up a MIJ Fender Telecaster Thinline '72 (with hums) for $925 total.

while i love my Jaguar, i feel the need to have a beefed up tone every once in a while. thus, the appeal of the thinline.

so yeah, is it worth the pricetag?

EDIT:
i passed on the buy, but i'd love to try to keep a $400 limit now (after examining my finances). considering either a Epiphone Standard Les Paul or a Sheraton II.
any advice?

[whaiyun]

A bit over the top IMO. $700 would be more reasonable.

[Footbutt]

yeah, i was hoping it was a "steal" but i really shouldn't be jumping for a non-deal. it's just a rare guitar that i've been after for a while, yet that price is giving me pause.

i'd really like a playable, good-sounding semi-hollow body guitar that's a LEFTY. ugh. being left handed stinks for gear searching.

[Footbutt]

i passed on the buy, but i'd love to try to keep a $400 limit now (after examining my finances). considering either a Epiphone Standard Les Paul or a Sheraton II.
any advice?

[NPP]

With the Epiphones you'll likely have to budget for new PUs and electronics which would put them out of your price range. I have a lefty Sheraton and like how it sounds, but only since I put a Duncan '59 in the bridge and a Duncan HB-sized P90 in the neck (that was in the mid-90s before the time of countless boutique PUs).

Good things are being said on here about the Ibanez semis but the lefty versions seem to have disappeared from the market recently (I may be wrong though). The Hagstrom Deuce also gets good reviews.

Overall, I'd recommend not buying anything at this stage; your budget isn't likely to get you anything very decent. Gibson now has an SG Standard with P90s which I am seriously interested in should the lefty version ever actually cross the pond.

Good luck with your search - as a fellow lefty, I feel your pain, but looking at it from a different angle, you'll save a lot of money if you cannot make any impulse purchases!

[Footbutt]

^good call. thanks for the advice!

[Footbutt]

well...
i'm back into thinking about the thinline... ugh.

i could sell an epiphone i picked with case for around $350 and i have a Neuman TLM-103 mic that i could sell for $650ish.

darn you temptation!

[Footbutt]

...and... i'm out again.

i now have my sights on a MIJ '62 Reissue Lefty Fender Telecaster. it looks gorgeous and for a fraction of the cost of the thinline!

[RGB]

Check out some of the partscaster thinlines that Rob over at Fret Tech has built! He usually prices them very reasonably.

http://frettech.com/

I don't see any lefties, but it couldn't hurt to ask! I have 2 Strats that he built and think they're great!

[whitehall]

I've had a ton of MIJ guitars including that tele. I didn't find it very impressive and sold it off for a profit. When we were trading at 130 yen I could get them right from Ishibashi for about $750 shipped. I've never found the MIJ copy guitars to appreciate much at all. They are trading about what they were 12 years ago when I started buying them. They move with the currency. Save your money. BTW the new Gibson SG w/P90s is a great guitar.

[Footbutt]

Originally Posted by whitehall

I've had a ton of MIJ guitars including that tele. I didn't find it very impressive and sold it off for a profit. When we were trading at 130 yen I could get them right from Ishibashi for about $750 shipped. I've never found the MIJ copy guitars to appreciate much at all. They are trading about what they were 12 years ago when I started buying them. They move with the currency. Save your money. BTW the new Gibson SG w/P90s is a great guitar.

so would ~$750 for that '62 RI Fender Tele be too much?
finding a quality lefty is VERY hard.

[vortexxxx]

Keep in mind that the current Fender humbuckers aren't so great.

[Footbutt]

well, i decided to go for a '62 RI MIJ Lefty Fender Telecaster! i got it earlier in the week and now it's at a local shop for a custom 4-way switch (w/ push-pull phase) and custom Bridge pickup, along with a much-needed setup.

should be ready by Saturday.

i'll get some pics up of the finished product soon!

[Boris Bubbanov]

I hope you like that '62.

I'm a righty, and I never "imprinted" on the MIJs (they seem odd to me, not better). But if I played lefty I'd be obliged to get used to them.

For the future, keep an eye on the G + L line of guitars, the USA ones. Unlike FMIC, when Leo Fender founded his last company with George Fullerton, they made the conscious decision to manufacture sufficient numbers and options/choices in left hand versions of their guitars. Search the forums for G + L threads and pages, and get a look at all the dazzling variants of lefty G + Ls you may find. An ASAT is available in Thinline and you might like the ASAT Special or the ASAT Bluesboy.

[Buick8]

I have a 52 reissue USA tele in butterscotch blonde. 2011 vintage. As new $1200. Call 9192701379