ellengtrgrl
Guitar Old Timer
Sorry it took so long to post this, but I've been pretty busy lately.
I've never much cared for the Cabronita Teles (I felt that they would never measure up the FilterTron loaded Gretsches I've had over the past several years). That all changed two weeks ago (as of this Saturday). I was feeling kind of bored, so I paid my favorite local guitar shop (Cream City Music), a visit, since they usually have some cool stuff there. While I was there, I ran into another woman I know, who's also a longtime player. She was considering getting a nice, used MIJ Strat, since she had thinned out her guitar herd a bit, to provide her son with money for college. When she went to the wall to grab the Strat for some playing time, I spied three of the new MIM Fender Cabronita Telecaster Thinlines (each of them in one of the 3 colors Fender is offering; two tone sunburst; Shoreline Gold, and Transparent White). Like I said earlier, I've pretty much blown off the Cabronitas, ever since they came out back in 2011. But I decided to give one a try - see what all of the talk was about, regarding them. I ended up being surprised to say the least!
I grabbed a two-tone sunburst Cab Thinline off of the wall, plugged into a Blackstar amp, hit the first notes, and said to myself, "cool!" Lots of chime, but with a bit more bottom end, than either my Esquire or ASAT have when played clean. With the gain jacked on the amp to up the grind factor, it was like "yeah baby! Now you're talking." Snarl and grind, with some nice bottom end, but without sounding like a PAF loaded guitar, or my Gretsches for that matter. It also had great note clarity! IMO, the guitar crunched better than my FilterTron Gretsches ever did, leading me to think that the FideliTrons might be a bit hotter than your garden variety FilterTron is (I confirmed this a few days ago, when I checked the DC resistance of the pickups - while the neck specs out to being the same as a Gretsch Filter Tron, the bridge pickup is a bit hotter [has more windings]). The Cab even did decent sounding (but not generic, thank goodness!) metal tones. Where it really shined sound-wise, was for high gain alt-rock, and alt-country tones, due to its snarl, and chime (but with less twang IMO, than your standard single coil Tele).
What was supposed to be a short taste test of a Cab Thinline, turned into an hour plus affair, with me also trying out a Shoreline Gold, and the Transparent White Cabronita Thinlines. All 3 guitars sounded great, and had nice, chunky C-shape necks, that played great for me. I would have bought the two-tone sunburst Cab Thinline, but I didn't like the pricing I was offered. So, as I've done in the past on occasion, I bought mine online (from zZounds). The lack of a tone control is no big deal to me. It has a surprising amount of sonic low end. And it does distortion very well, while having tons of chime on tap.
I've never much cared for the Cabronita Teles (I felt that they would never measure up the FilterTron loaded Gretsches I've had over the past several years). That all changed two weeks ago (as of this Saturday). I was feeling kind of bored, so I paid my favorite local guitar shop (Cream City Music), a visit, since they usually have some cool stuff there. While I was there, I ran into another woman I know, who's also a longtime player. She was considering getting a nice, used MIJ Strat, since she had thinned out her guitar herd a bit, to provide her son with money for college. When she went to the wall to grab the Strat for some playing time, I spied three of the new MIM Fender Cabronita Telecaster Thinlines (each of them in one of the 3 colors Fender is offering; two tone sunburst; Shoreline Gold, and Transparent White). Like I said earlier, I've pretty much blown off the Cabronitas, ever since they came out back in 2011. But I decided to give one a try - see what all of the talk was about, regarding them. I ended up being surprised to say the least!
I grabbed a two-tone sunburst Cab Thinline off of the wall, plugged into a Blackstar amp, hit the first notes, and said to myself, "cool!" Lots of chime, but with a bit more bottom end, than either my Esquire or ASAT have when played clean. With the gain jacked on the amp to up the grind factor, it was like "yeah baby! Now you're talking." Snarl and grind, with some nice bottom end, but without sounding like a PAF loaded guitar, or my Gretsches for that matter. It also had great note clarity! IMO, the guitar crunched better than my FilterTron Gretsches ever did, leading me to think that the FideliTrons might be a bit hotter than your garden variety FilterTron is (I confirmed this a few days ago, when I checked the DC resistance of the pickups - while the neck specs out to being the same as a Gretsch Filter Tron, the bridge pickup is a bit hotter [has more windings]). The Cab even did decent sounding (but not generic, thank goodness!) metal tones. Where it really shined sound-wise, was for high gain alt-rock, and alt-country tones, due to its snarl, and chime (but with less twang IMO, than your standard single coil Tele).
What was supposed to be a short taste test of a Cab Thinline, turned into an hour plus affair, with me also trying out a Shoreline Gold, and the Transparent White Cabronita Thinlines. All 3 guitars sounded great, and had nice, chunky C-shape necks, that played great for me. I would have bought the two-tone sunburst Cab Thinline, but I didn't like the pricing I was offered. So, as I've done in the past on occasion, I bought mine online (from zZounds). The lack of a tone control is no big deal to me. It has a surprising amount of sonic low end. And it does distortion very well, while having tons of chime on tap.
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