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Sound:
Barely able to contain myself over its stunning good looks, I picked and strummed for half an hour unplugged when the guitar arrived. What a nice acoustic voice! Then it was time to plug it into my ’59 Fender Bassman Reissue. Oh no! To say the least, I was disappointed! The FSR '72 Thinline sounded strange. The tone did not even come close to my solid body Teles. Compared to a solid Tele, the humbucker pickups straight from the factory have tons of mid-range and bright overtones, without much low-end. Turning the volume down cleaned up the tone somewhat. The wide-range humbuckers are cool looking, but were set up too close to the strings and to make matters worse, the treble strings seemed louder than the bass strings. Lowering the pickups improved the tone somewhat, making it less "in your face" and helped to improve the tonal balance a little. Strangely enough, sustain was excellent. At this point major disappointment about the tone set in, although the looks still said "Custom Guitar".
Feature:
This stunning guitar comes in a simple gig bag. A nice instrument like this really deserves a case. The white-blonde (transparent white) finish lets the figured wood show through and the maple neck with matching white-blonde headstock makes the guitar look even more special. Two large Fender wide-range humbuckers and cream-colored chicken head control knobs complete the picture. As far as I know, the 2009 ’72 FSR Thinline is not a reissue of a vintage Fender, but a vintage-style design, loosely based on 1972 specs. Fender took vintage design elements giving this Thinline a definite nostalgic appeal. Upon close inspection, I found no finish flaws on this body and the C-shaped neck with thin (vintage?) frets looks and feels decent. The one-piece lightly tinted Maple C-neck feels nice. The light strings look like standard Fender 10s – too light for my playing style. The low E string on my guitar had a nasty buzz that needed attention, but I did not want to alter the nut just yet, since I planned to change the strings to my favorite gauge anyway. Checking the intonation revealed that the lowest two strings (E and A) were not intonated correctly at the factory. A few turns of the saddle screws fixed that small but important issue. However, the string height was dialed-in perfectly for my taste. I'm giving a 7-rating because the factory electronics are inadequate in my opinion.
Ease of Use:
With only a Volume and Tone control, plus the 3-way pickup selector, this guitar is easy to use. But you should eventually need to learn how to intonate the guitar, to make it play absolutely in tune every time.
Quality:
This stunning guitar comes in a simple gig bag. A nice instrument like this really deserves a case. The white-blonde (transparent white) finish lets the figured wood show through and the maple neck with matching white-blonde headstock makes the guitar look even more special. Two large Fender wide-range humbuckers and cream-colored chicken head control knobs complete the picture. As far as I know, the 2009 ’72 FSR Thinline is not a reissue of a vintage Fender, but a vintage-style design, loosely based on 1972 specs. Fender took vintage design elements giving this Thinline a definite nostalgic appeal. Upon close inspection, I found no finish flaws on this body and the C-shaped neck with thin (vintage?) frets looks and feels decent. The one-piece lightly tinted Maple C-neck feels nice. The light strings look like standard Fender 10s – too light for my playing style. The low E string on my guitar had a nasty buzz that needed attention, but I did not want to alter the nut just yet, since I planned to change the strings to my favorite gauge anyway. Checking the intonation revealed that the lowest two strings (E and A) were not intonated correctly at the factory. A few turns of the saddle screws fixed that small but important issue. However, the string height was dialed-in perfectly for my taste.
Value:
After only two days of playing, I had made up my mind to keep the guitar and perform heart surgery. I immediately changed the strings and replaced both factory installed 250k Volume and Tone pots with 500k ones. The entire electronics and wiring are similar to the single coil Fender Teles –this seems like an engineering oversight. In my humble opinion, the single coil wiring and pots are the only flaws on this guitar: Every guitar builder can tell you that humbuckers require at least 500k pots and a .047nF capacitor. It is common knowledge that no two guitars sound alike anyway, even identical models show differences in tone, but do not expect this Thinline to sound like your typical Tele even after these modifications. The bottom line is that this 60-year old player has found an attractive white-blonde companion that needed some serious correction in the tone department. Another life lesson applied to a guitar: Great looks cannot hide character flaws. Good looks alone cannot make up for lack of substance, quality and experience. For well under a grand you get this gorgeous Fender Mexican beauty performing well after a small controls modification.
Manufacturer Support:
I often go to Fender's website for specs, new models and diagrams, but never needed help from Customer Service. I believe that players should learn how to maintain their instruments.
The Wow Factor:
Ever since I've laid eyes on the 2009 Fender FSR '72 Thinline, I couldn't stop thinking about her. Since early January of this year, I didn't sleep well. I would go to bed thinking of her, then wake up in the middle of the night. The 2009 FSR '72 Thinline had enchanted me. Three months later I finally I ordered one online. The FSR '72 Thinline is the coolest guitar on my wall of six Teles and another keeper from the folks at Fender.
Overall:
On this new guitar, setup and playability were not spot-on right out of the box. For the first few hours of playing, the light strings constantly went flat out of tune. Pickup adjustment and intonation was needed. Regardless of these initial setup issues (which are common for any new guitar), the flawless finish, neat appointments and tight tolerances give this instrument an expensive custom shop look and feel. I don't care that it's made in Mexico, the fit and finish are first rate, but the tone wasn’t there.
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