Fender American Professional II Telecaster - Dark Night with Rosewood Fingerboard Reviews

I actually purchased this guitar two years ago from Sweetwater and just now put it down long enough to write a review. I've played so many different guitar makes and models but this particular one just does it. There no beating the quality of the neck , there is no replacement for this thing. This is my go to guitar in all my projects and I've had others ask to record on it.

I've been waiting a number of years to try the AP II Tele, well I finally pulled the proverbial trigger and purchased one from Sweetwater. I was very happy with the timeliness and attention to detail given to my order. The guitar was setup perfectly and it plays like a dream. Very happy with both the product and with the service from Sweetwater.

As a fan of classic rock, I had been wanting a tele for a while, and this guitar has exceeded my expectations. Beyond the beautiful finish and the cosmetics, I am able to get that fantastic sound I could not quite reach with my other guitars. It teases me each time I look at it, and playing it is a delight, right down to the fret height and string spacing. I could not be more delighted with this Telecaster. My sales Engineer, Mir, partnered with me and gave me some excellent advice. There are an incredible variety of Telecasters, which I was struggling with. She took the time to listen to what I was looking for in my next guitar and gave me some suggestions - and I am so glad I did! Kudos to Mir and Sweetwater for some awesome customer service.

I've been a hobbyist for over 40 years and have been fortunate enough to have owned a lot of guitars. I was never a fan of the Telecaster; I preferred a strat or a Les Paul. However, the color on this one caught my eye and I thought maybe it was time to add a Tele to the collection. I'm really glad I did. It feels great, looks super cool and is fun to play. It might be because it's my latest addition to the collection but, I almost always pick it up first.

The first thing that stands out is the overall quality of the guitar. I opted for a demo guitar but I can hardly tell!

The neck is just perfect. I like the "satin" type finish on it; this has a better feel than a "glossy" finish. The rolled edges on the fretboard does a lot for the feel, surprisingly so for such a small thing.

The tone from the pickups is great. It's got a Tele sound but one that's a little different; it definitely sounds different than my Tele Custom Baja.

I'm not sure yet about the "push-push" control. I don't know if I'll use the up position (the "swampier" tone) on it very much. It does no harm in being available.

Kudos to my Sales Engineer, he was helpful as always and did me a good deal.

Definitely a nice gift to myself! ;-)

Great guitar! First Tele I've owned and I love everything about it. Most comfortable neck I've played, lightweight body, and superb tones from the V-Mod 2 pups. Paid for a professional setup and purchased a set of Dunlop strap locks for extra security.

So far this thing has been outstanding. This is the second guitar I've purchased from Sweetwater and I had no issues whatsoever with either. Big thanks to my sales rep Chris Shura for the phenomenal customer service as well!

I am pretty new to the guitar and when I asked my teacher which electric guitar I should buy he immediately recommended the Telecaster. I must say that I love this thing. Just feels so comfortable, the neck is so smooth, the weight is just right. It looks cool too ... which is because it is cool.

I can't even feel my fingers anymore. I can't put it down. This thing sounds AMAZING!!

love this guitar. My wife jumped out of her chair when I started playing it. "Wow! That sounds nice.Sounds like Wayland Jennings guitar." I always wanted a poor man's high-end affordable guitar and this one was well worth the sacrifice. Face it 1600 price range is sacrifice for us boys living on 400 extra bucks a month after expenses are paid.Mike helped me with my sweetwater application and picked out a levy guitar strap for me and I was pleased with great service and an awesome playing guitar. Love it can't stop playing it.

I have many guitar's from sweetwater this one is a gem.the quality the sound the finish are excellent the neck I wish I had on All of my guitar's I really like it. Sweetwater is an outstanding place to buy a music instrument I have quite a few SW guitar's and no regrets.thanks Josh you always come through

My beautiful wife conspired with Ty Heimann to surprise with this Tele for Christmas. This is the second time these two collaborated to surprise me with a new guitar. My wife not being musical at all depends on Ty Heimann's knowledge and he will get just the perfect Instrument for me.

This is by far one of the top notch Telecasters on the market. I love everything about it. The V-Mod tele single-coils are fantastic. Somehow they even figured out to keep your tele in perfect intonation with the classic looking 3 saddle top load/string through bridge. The neck is a thin C shape and finally the frets are cleaned up. Though some are still a little sharp but that is expected with a Rosewood finger board. Dark-wood does shrink a little. The narrow Tall frets and a Bone nut make this an easy playing guitar in whatever style you like. I play Jazz-Funk and Jazz-Fusion.
In short the Am Pro II Telecaster can do it all, the push/push series is an added plus.
The previous reviews I can only agree with so I will not be redundant.

Beautiful guitar. Love the neck shape and finish. Compensated bullet saddles are great! Arrived quickly in perfect condition.

This guitar looks much better in person than it does in photos. The American Professional II line is a well appointed, nicely configured guitar. The sound of this is very smooth, very creamy.

Let's start by explaining why I think it's the best overall American Tele. I have a few MIM guitars, and also an Ultra Telecaster. If you have been tossing around in your sleep trying to decide between Am Pro II and Ultra, this review will help. Overall, the Am Pro II is better value than the Ultra. It's considerable less money, but just as much a guitar. The Am Pro II Telecaster sounds more like a "Tele" than the Ultra. I've played them both back to back tons of times and I prefer the sound of the V Mods over the Ultra Noiseless. There is more character to the tone and it's also sweeter and more lively. There is one area where the Ultra Noiseless excels at — Higher gain. The Ultra Noiseless sound much fuller and less raspy when you really crank up the gain well past "blues" levels. The Ultra will do hard rock better, even though it still falls short of humbuckers. Heck, you can even pull off metal with it (to an extent). They also possess a brilliant and juicy bell-like quality that the V Mods II don't have. I love it on single notes. However, as said earlier, overall the V Mods sound better, but of course, they hum.

The neck on the Am Pro II Tele is awesome. It's just a little thicker than on the Ultra. I feel very comfortable on both. Keep in mind the Am Pro II has narrow tall frets over the Ultras Medium Jumbos. What this means is that when sliding, you "feel" the frets more on the Am Pro II. This is something I'm fine with. That speed-bump effect. Others don't like this as much. I do feel complex chording is easier on the Am Pro II's narrow tall frets, but lead is a little more natural on the Ultra's medium jumbos.

I like the American Pro II Telecaster so much that I bought a second one. In fact, this review is on the page of my second one, Dark Knight. My original one is Butterscotch and is the first guitar I always pick up for practice. My Dark Knight has a rosewood fretboard as opposed to the Butterscotch's maple, and while it's a great neck too, it has a tiny bit of fret sprout on the bottom. You can't feel it on the top side of the neck. This is more typical with rosewood since it shrinks more than maple, but I think it could have probably been dressed a little better at the factory. Not a big deal though as dressing a rosewood board is easier and cleaner of a job than it is on maple.

Anyway, if you've been torn between Am Pro II and Ultra and don't have either… go Am Pro II. You will not regret it. I have both, but if I could only have one, it would be this one.

Oh, one last comment. I haven't fully set up my blue one yet, but my Butterscotch Am Pro II Tele is the only guitar I have that intonates PERFECTLY at the open fundamental, at the 12th fret fretted and at the 12 fret harmonic… ON EVERY STRING. It's unreal. I don't except I'll get as lucky with the blue one, but maybe. Either way, this is great because Teles are not known for perfect intonation due to the pairs of strings that have to share each of the 3 barrel saddles.

Big shoutout to Michael Duncan for the awesome service as always.

Great neck. Stays in tune. Sounds perfect!

I have to say the Pro II tele is a fantastic specimen from the smooth neck to the V-mod pickups to the push push knob, saddle and bridge upgrade and spectacular dark knight finish let alone the tones Fender left no stone unturned. Thank you to sales engineer Damon Spragia and Sweetwater for the awesome customer support and service.

Fender hit it out of the park with the Pro II Telecaster. The neck is smooth and fast, the push/push works great and hats off to Fender for the V-Mod II pickups these are not noiseless, but Fender must have really shielded them because I am not getting any single coil buzz. I had the Olympic White on order but changed to the Dark Knight and I am pleased I did, and my wife loves the color. As always thank you to sales engineer Damon Spragia and Sweetwater for the excellent customer service and support.

" Only the Best for Me " .. has been promised since the beginning of time , and Sweetwater is part of that " Best " I've been promised . All Sweetwater's products and Staff are not your normal sale representatives like " hurry up and buy anything " their representatives are people who play music themselves and are looking to help and inform you of what your interest is , they will always be My first choice of business . re Rise Music

My sound collection is complete (for now). In my opinion there are 5 guitars you should own those being a Les Paul, Strat, Hollow body (Ibanez Artcore), an acoustic and finally but not least a Telly. All, I can say is do your research on anything you get and if reading this to make a decision the answer is (look up) YES! The look and feel is wonderful, smooth movement on the fretboard. Ran it thru, 3 amps- modeling, solid state and tube the sound thru all 3 were great, best (for me) the tube amp...a good amp is important you don't want to leave any notes behind. The pricing is fair maybe even better than fair in comparison to other guitar companies. If you put my feet to the fire to say something negative, the smell when you 1st open the case ( oh the case is top notch) whew! someone else mentioned that in their review they were right, it goes after a couple days. Finally, When you buy your telly (when not if) go with Sweetwater I've see this guitar maybe 100 cheaper, but I rather spend the hundred, knowing I got tech support, a personal Sales Engineer (Hey Dom)and CANDY!!! but seriously you have people that if you have a problem will not try to make it right but will. Good Luck and good life to all and remember music keeps you young I've been playing since I was 8 and now I'm 60 and I still play like I'm 8 see keeps you young

very fun guitar to play. i love fenders and the value they provide at every price point. this is all the guitar i really need. reid and sweetwater are great! one thing if anyone is reading this feedback - please express to Fender that whatever they spray this case with stinks! very toxic-y and might actually be making me ill. i want that vanilla type scent!! :)

I love this telecaster!

Everything about it feels right. The neck is ESPECIALLY super comfortable to play, and the tinted neck gives it a vintage vibe without affecting modern playability. The pickups are versatile—neck, middle, and bridge all sound good. The series switch can help you fake a bridge humbucker sound where you've rolled the treble off.

I considered getting a custom shop tele, and while I'm sure it's marginally better, I'm fully satisfied with my American Pro II Telecaster in Dark Knight.

My wife took one look at this guitar and told me to buy it. Everyone loves the color.

Between the looks and tone, I promise that you'll have a hard time putting this guitar down.

Shoutout to my man, Nick Grawcock! This is the third guitar he's helped me purchase at Sweetwater, and I couldn't ask for a more awesome sales engineer.

I have always wanted a tele, and this year when the opportunity came up I couldn't resist. The Sweerwater staff were amazing and spent the time to help me choose exactly what I was looking for. The setup on the guitar is perfect, and the tone is that great Tele tone I was expecting. I love the Dark Night color. What more can I say, it's hard to go wrong with an American made Fender coupled with the Sweetwater team!

Love the dark night with rosewood fingerboard and brass saddles. there was a couple I liked but this is the one I chose.
This is a affordable Guitar and made in USA.

Always wanted one of these and this one didn't disappoint. Not only is it beautiful, it plays like a dream. Frets are perfect, nice and smooth edges. Holds tune awesome, even arrived still mostly in tune. The Fender case is nice and plush and provides great protection and if you're lucky enough to have several of them they're made to stack together. Unfortunately, I only have the one. I waited a while to get my first Telecaster and I'm glad that I went with American Professional II, well worth it, now my favorite guitar I own.

This Telecaster sucked me right in. I've been waiting for a long time for that perfect Telecaster to catch my eye. This one is definitely worth a second look. It feels natural in my hand. Like I've been playing it for years. Special thank you to Aric Brenner!

Definitely my new go to guitar

I'm not the best player in the world, but having decent gear is a plus. I have been wanting a Tele for many years and finally settled on this one----I think it's amazing for too many reasons to name. I will also say the customer service and attention to detail at Sweetwater is a very big deal. You can buy with confidence!

This Guitar completely surpassed my expectations. The neck feels broken in but in a good way, with not sharp frets with comfortable edges. Also the fretboard looks so clean with not a single tool marking that sometimes stand out on rosewood fretboards. The changes to the brass saddles where the edges have been smoothed out makes palm mutes painless since I've played some teles that have hurt a little. The pick ups sound more modern to me so if you want that classic vintage sound this might sound a little off but I really enjoy them and the clarity you get from them. My favorite part about this guitar is the finish, hands down the coolest finish. It changes in the light where the burst looks more black to blue. The maple headstock and brass saddles complement the finish very well.

Thanks to Sales Engineer, Scott Augustyniak! He is the reason why I continue to shop at Sweetwater. He always reassures me on my purchases and makes sure I am taken care of. Scott also made this a special Christmas this year and got me the guitar in time.

Really love this guitar! It looks great in person (dark night) with the brass saddles and chrome hardware really popping against the dark finish. The neck is very well made, with a comfortable shape and nicely rolled edges/fretwork. Very comfortable and flawlessly built.

The pickups sound great too- beautiful cleans and nice twang at lower gain. I also like to play higher gain styles and I can get a really killer tone out of it. The twang coupled with how articulate the pickups are sounds pretty amazing for metal. I especially like the versatility of the middle position with the push-push button activated, which sounds like a very articulate humbucker. I'm not a tone snob, so I think it sounds plenty "big" for more aggressive styles, and it does kill the hum at high gain. I like to play cleans all the way up through high gain metal and this guitar can do all of them - That is probably the biggest endorsement I can give.

After owning this guitar for a few months now, I can say without any doubt that I love this thing. My only complaint is that the paint scratches so easy that I am almost afraid to play it. To some this may be a cheap guitar to be used as a tool, and it is going to get scratched. To those of us that work physically demanding jobs that don't pay the best in the world $ in a lot of money, and we like to take care of those expensive things because we can't just go out and buy another one. I have a 15-year-old Squier that has a more durable finish on it and probably fewer scratches in it as well. I even wash my hands and put on a clean shirt before I play it, but it doesn't help.

This is my new favorite and I have a lot of guitars to choose from. This will do everything you would expect a telecaster to do. Rock, country, and blues come to mind when thinking telecasters but what amazed me the most was that it does metal. The pinch harmonics scream off this guitar. No other guitar in my collect does all of genera's as well as this one can. With this tele, I can downgrade how many guitars I need at practice and to the show. If you don't have a Tele, this one should be at the top of the list.

This is beautiful guitar. Build quality looks good. Sounds killer too. You will need a full set up to make it playable. Bridge, neck, nuts slots (super high action), all of it. To be expected I suppose.

This is a great looking guitar in Dark Night blue with rosewood. Love it. It came setup well and I'm on my way to learning chicken pickin'. Only 4 stars since it had a bad volume potentiometer, and I mean noticeably rough turning, not just horribly crackly. Anyway, Sweetwater support was great in sorting this out, and I took the guitar to a local Fender service center to have the pot replaced under warranty. Now, this thing is exactly what I was hoping for, and I'm spending serious time enjoying it.

Had this guitar about 8 months now and I like it a lot. It plays great and handles slide well. My only complaint is that its the noisiest guitar I own
I have a lot of Fender guitars and most are armed with Dimarzio pups. haven't made up my mind about this one yet. Don't like spending $ on top of the original cost. it really adds up.

I really love the feel of this guitar. It's obviously a high end telecaster and it feels just as good as any I've ever played. Frets are smooth neck is just the right shape and the fretboard plays like butter. I've been playing a Mexican made tele as my go to for about 15 years and finally decided to pick this up as my new high end tele to go to and playability wise it does not disappoint.

My only complaint is the pickups. The new V-Mod pickups rob this guitar of everything that makes a Tele a Tele. The guitar just sounded dead and overly neutral to me. None of that warm bluesy tone you can get from the neck PUP and none of that blistering twang that has basically defined the tele sound. I replaced all of the hardware with a '52 vintage setup (Fralin pups) after giving the new pups about 5 months of play time. I went from never wanting to pick it up to never wanting to put it down. Replacing the electronics has basically made this my perfect tele