Fender American Performer Telecaster - Vintage White with Maple Fingerboard Reviews

Had one in the 70's I loved it. This one is pretty close...I love it more....set up perfect right out of the box. No kidding it got to me in one day Wow...thank you Brandon Younglau.

Ace Ventura once said to , "achieve total spiritual creaminess." Well I finally did that with this American Performer Tele, and it sounds that creamy through my Marshall Origin20 stack. Thank you Jason for getting them all in my hands so fast.

I've been a Gibson Les Paul guy my entire adult life. Never wanted anything to do with a Tele or Strat. I played an American Performer Telecaster and fell in love with the tone, fretwork, body contour. It was perfect. So, I ordered it from Sweetwater so I could get a brand new guitar. The service from Sweetwater was impressive. The color of this guitar is so beautiful. Opening the box was like Christmas to see that classic white with a maple neck. If you're a Gibson guy you should at least play this guitar.

I am a Berkler graduate and professional guitarist. I have a large collection of USA Fender, Gibson and PRS guitars. I bought the American Performer as I wanted at least one guitar with a maple neck. It's just incredible. The tone, feel and playability is unbelievable and it's become my go to gigging guitar. However, the rout for the bridge pickup extends past the border of the bridge plate. I researched photos of this guitar and can see it's a common thing. I wrote to Fender and their response was to send me a replacement bridge plate. That gesture didn't really address the issue. The pickup cavity is over routed. It's a manufacturing issue. It doesn't affect the greatness of this instrument but it is a QC disappointment for a made in USA product. It's completely shoddy and was dismissed in a very polite manner.

Really enjoy this guitar! Second one I've bought at sweet water and the staff is great!!! The guitar has been professionally set up and it shows when you play them!

The guitar was well setup straight out of the box and Sweetwater were quick to offer any help with the purchase, it plays really well and the Yosemite pickups sound great! Overall this is an excellent Telecaster by Fender!

I bought the single coil model American performer in vintage white and love it. The grease bucket circuit is a nice feature, but takes getting used to because sometimes you want the highs in the mix. But finding the sweet spot on the tone knob takes care of it well. As far as the build, well, it's a Tele which translates in the music world to 'a tank'! Mine was fairly light weight at 7lbs 6 ozs.
I have 7 guitars and this instantly became my #1.

I bought this and the American Proffesional at the same time. The Performer comes with the Yosemite pickups and the Proffesional with the Tim Shaw. NO COMPARISON. The Performer sounds so much better i soon sold my proffesional. There was no comparison. The preformer sounded so much better than the Proffesional it wasn't even close. I soon sold the ptoffesional as I found the Performer was just the hands down winner for sound and the Tim Shaw pickups in comparison sounded weak and it wasn't even close. The only difference was a better case with the proffesiuonal but you don't buy a guitar for the case, you buy it for the sound it gives you and this wasn't even close. The performer blows away the proffesional and it's not an even close com[arison. I've been playing over 30 years and the performer (in my opinion) is vastly superior in sound and I don't buy a guitar for the case. I buy it for the playability and sound. I have 7 guitars Right now and this is one of my favorites.Can't recomend it highly enough. Before you buy another Strat give the American performer a shot. Not only does it play like a dream and sound WAT better than the Amerivan pro. The American Performer just blows it away as far a sound is concerned. Give it a shot, you will NOT be dissapointed and acuat;y quite pleasently surptised and saving quite a bit of money on a IMO netter guitar.

I just received this guitar yesterday and couldn't be more pleased. Absolutely perfect fit and finish, plays and sounds amazing. Also I just want to commend Sweetwater on their service. Always quick and helpful.

This is a winner ! Neck is so comfortable - pickups are excellent - I bought to play just for home use with a new fender super champ X2 FSR - perfecto !

I am an amateur at guitar, but this guitar has helped me so much in my learning experience because it sounds good with most of the genres you play it. The grease bucket tone control is impecable, great from playing slow jazz to punk rock. It’s a need if you’re Building your guitar collection.

if you are like me a weekend warrior and getting that special sound and feel that makes playing guitar dream to play then you need this guitar .i have had a bunch of fender telecasters over the years from squiers to mim baja telecasters but i have always wanted a american tele but just was unable to get a new guitar that i could afford made in the USA well that day finally arrived .thanks to the great sales team at sweetwater made it happen for me.i now own a fantastic USA fender telecaster and i am loving it a real beauty and rock machine all in one package.when i opened the box and took it out i fell in love with it.the finish is awesome and the neck is the best feeling neck i have had in my hand fits like a glove .the pickups are very clean and responsive when a distort pedal is engaged it rips forever.i play classic rock and country mostly and it goes from one to the other perfectly. if people say its a low-end fender please tell them that they are missing out on a great guitar for a minimal amount of money or just put it in there hands and let them judge for them self.if you are looking for a great guitar at a great price you need to get this guitar.thank you fender and thank you sweetwater .

This tele feels , plays and sounds like a custom shop twice the price .Outstanding American build quality.
Fender did an outstanding job with these performer series telecasters . I`m keeping this telecaster for the rest of my life , she`s a keeper.

Bought this because I missed my 72 Tele that I sold long ago. I have amazing Strats but this is a different animal. Excellent craftsmanship and flawless quality. I wanted the traditional Tele pickup configuration and this does exactly what a Tele is famous for. The Yosimite pickups are designed by Tim Shaw and are so beautifully voiced. I often upgrade Pups but these are amazing and will not be touched. This guitar plugged into my Fender prosonic tube amp .....I hear all my rock idols in my head! I highly recommend without hesitation!,

I received my American Performer Tele three days ago. I'm 66 and have been playing for 52 years, own several vintage (and newer) Fender, PRS, Hamer and Gibson guitars. I have purchased approximately a half dozen new Telecasters over the years and interestingly, this "Plain Jane" Tele has the best neck of them all. It is absolutely flawless. The guitar arrived from Sweetwater three days after I purchased it and after letting it warm up overnight, I put it on the bench, and set it up to my personal preferences. I have owned Tele's in the past with the shared brass saddle type bridge (three adjustment screws for six strings) like this guitar has and could never get each string intonated. It was always the same thing - get the B (2nd) string intonated and the E (1st) string would still be sharp, same with the G & D strings. I always ended up putting six saddle bridges on the "keepers" so I could properly intonate the guitar because I do a lot of recording. I managed to get this Tele dialed in almost perfectly. The fit, finish and attention to detail are top shelf, especially the frets, which were dressed and polished perfectly. The Yosemite pickups (both are single coil on this particular Tele) sound good, however I am extremely fond of using a Lindy Fralin Blues Special in the bridge and a (Jason)Lollar Special T in the neck position for recording and will be installing those as soon as it's time for a string change. This guitar was set up pretty darned good at Sweetwater (Thanks Marty!) and could have gone from the box straight to a Gig if needed. I highly recommend this guitar and Sweetwater, who is second to none when it comes to excellent customer service.

I love this guitar. I have the Performer and the proffesional and I love them both. The pickups on the performer are just amazing !!! My only complaint is the cheap sloted tuners that I replaced with Sperzel Locking Tuners or this would get a % star rating instead of a 4. The neck feels fantastic and the sound is incredible, Very good guitar for the price but fender, really, sloted tuners are not what anyone wants they are a PIA and were replaced with sperzel locking tuners. A GREAT upgrade. Other than that a fantastic guitar and well worth the money. Great sounding and a dream to play.Fender PLEASE ditch those sloted tuners, they suck.

I bought this instrument because I was interested in version of my first good guitar purchased in the '70's but at reasonable cost versus a vintage tele of that era. I particularly wanted what is now known as vintage white color that many of us of a certain age so fondly remember most teles appeared in. As usual, Sweetwater staff are attentive and easy to deal with. Delivery only took a couple days standard shipping. Out of the box, cosmetic fit and finish of the guitar was what I expected of a US made tele. Played it through a Vox AC15 as well as Fender Deluxe Reverb and both sounded great. Now for the less favorable impression. Setup in my opinion was horrendous. The performer tele comes with a three saddle bridge which we know requires compromise when adjusting intonation. Again, in my opinion no amount of compromise could make playable sound acceptable. Within a week I swapped out the vintage style saddles with three compensating saddles. The look is the same (although I also installed a bridge ashtray cover to copy my original). This particular guitar is probably not one I would have picked in person because of the setup issues but that is a chance you take with mail order. In summary, the performer tele is a solid starting foundation but may require some finishing setup work and persistence to meet one's particular standards. In spite of my griping, I am now very happy with the guitar.