Fender Jason Isbell Custom Telecaster - Chocolate Burst Reviews

excellent guitar, especially the neck, made at the level of Custom shop made in USA!

Love this guitar light plays like a charm thanks sweet water for a great se up .

Love this guitar!!! Plays amazing and looks even better. Nothing negative to say about it at all. Was perfectly set up and sounds amazing. Also can't say more about sweetwater. Worked with Zack and he made the purchase a breeze. Received the guitar in no time and everything was great.
Highly Recommend!!!

This is a great guitar and sweetwater has the best service I love the feel and finish, it sounds great!

Love the guitar itself. I was not aware that it was manufactured to look like a used guitar. If I had known that prior I might not purchased it. I'm glad I didn't know. Than I would not have had a Really nice instrument...thank you Jay for all your help....

Didn't think anything could get in the way of my strat, but I haven't put this one down. The moment I heard jason isbell was releasing a signature I knew I was getting it. (My favorite modern musician). Couldn't find one in stock last year but this year I snatched one up as soon as I could.
Sounds great, plays amazing, in fact my only complaint is how terrible the fret ends were. Near unplayable until I fixed it. Not one to normally say anything about fret sprout but the price on this one means it should of been perfect out the box to me. Fix it fender. Thanks sweetwater!

You always read this review on Squier and MIM Fender guitars:" I've owned a lot of expensive Fender guitars and this Squier/Player/MIM is as good if not better". Well I'm not going to write that review. OR maybe I am, OK I own a lot of more expensive Fenders but this Jason Isbell is now my favorite Tele. Seriously, it's too expensive for a MIM, I can't stand "relic'ed" guitars, it's got a cut-down bridge, a big goofy looking high white hat switch knob and a black pickguard and I still love it. I really wanted not to like this guitar but as soon as I picked it up and played a couple of chords I changed my mind. This guitar rings out like no other guitar I ever played. OK I haven't compared it to a really good custom shop Fender but out of the guitars I own this Jason Isbell makes my other guitars sound like they are stuffed with cotton. Maybe I just got lucky and got a good one. The pickups are strong, beefy and twangy but I wish it had a treble bleed circuit. When you roll back the volume you loose the nice bright high end. This might be a plus for some players but I like to have the full fidelity though the volume range and use the tone control. I really didn't even know who Jason Isbell was but I wanted a Tele Custom with the binding and when I saw this one I had to try it. I would suggest you try one and see if it's got the same magic that mine has. The only way to tell if it's right for you is to get it in your hands and cranked through your amp and setup. Sweetwater has a great return policy and makes it easy to return if you don't like it. And I know because I've returned a few guitars, but not this one.

This guitar is truly a wonderful instrument. From the sounds, looks, mojo, and everything in between, it exceeded my already high excitement level. Worried about the 7.25' radius? Don't like road worn or relics? Yeah, well those were my thoughts as well. But there is no need to worry about any of these things. I barely notice the difference with the radius. The action is low and I can bend all day with no fretting out. As for the relic job on this guitar, it is beautifully and tastefully done. And the sound is all 100% Telecaster.If you are here looking at this guitar, you are obviously interested. So what are you waiting for? And a huge shout out to Alberto for all your time and going the extra mile. Thank you, my friend.

I bought one of these recently and have really been loving it. I think Jason and Fender have put together a very nice guitar here, which sounds great and has the essential things a Tele should have while also being in the reach price-wise of most people.

The best thing about the guitar is the neck. It just feels fantastic, and unlike sone Road Worn guitars or some of the higher end relics I've seen, the back of the neck feels absolutely great. It is not like a neck where the finish has just been stripped off, but it feels like a neck which is finished but the finish has been played in and played away over a lot of years. It's just a perfect feel. Fender also went to the additional trouble and expense here of gently rolling the fingerboard edges which furthers the played-in feel.

The relic on the body and headstock and parts is gentle but noticeable. Nothing too crazy. It does have the chips you can see in the photos on it. The places where the finish is worn are simulated but over time as I the guitar is played in more I think they will look great.

The electronics behave and sound like a Tele should. The bridge pickup is somewhat hot but it still has a lot of top end, which is very helpful. The neck pickup is a lot like a strat neck pickup and sounds very nice, the in-between position has a really nice subtle humbucker-like ring as you would expect from a Tele middle position.

Not much else to say here in my opinion… the amazing neck and the upgraded pickups make this a worthy value over the other Road Worn telecasters, and for me it's better than the Performer or Pro II telecasters if you like vintage Tele sounds. I will be holding onto this one for sure.

In only a few words; this is one of the best Telecasters I've ever played.

I had never heard of Jason Isbell before I found this guitar - and I'm not really a fan after some brief listening (not bad, just not my vibe) but I was In the market for a Telecaster and not interested in spending my life savings while still needing something studio-worthy (I work as a Recording Engineer and producer, but also some session work - been playing Guitar for about 20 years).

This Tele is 'Chocolate Burst' - looks a lot like Tobacco Burst (My favorite finish), but the edges are a nice chocolate brown color fading in - I think it's my new favorite burst color! Just enough color to add some flavor without spoiling the natural wood grain beneath. It's also finished in Nitro - and while we could debate all day about Nitro vs Poly finishes and what they do to the tone - I for one tend to find that Nitro guitars let the body resonate more naturally - or rather, aren't dampened by the poly finish.
Double white bounding, Rosewood Fret-board (I prefer Rosewood to Maple personally), vintage correct saddles and tuners.
Mine has already begun to 'check' - See Photos. The finish as it expands and contracts with humidity and temperature will create fractures. They add character and personality in my opinion, and I love how they are unique to 'my' guitar.

Pickups -

The pickups are HOT - lots of touch sensitivity. Plugged into my 57' Tweed Bandmaster, the pickups push the amp into a natural overdrive the more you dig in - it's incredibly pleasing.

The pickups are a Tim Shaw custom design - and WOW!!! The bridge is your classic Tele sound; bright and twangy, perfect for chickn'-pick'n but sounds amazing with some overdrive or distortion.
Mid position sounds almost like a Stratocaster - It's got SpAnk! Perfect for rhythm strumming, fits great in a mix with plenty of top end clarity.
Last is the Neck Pickup - the pickup I figured I wouldn't use much (most Telecasters Necks I've played leave a lot to be desired, usually pretty dark, almost muddy). I wasn't expecting too much, but boy was I wrong!!!
The Neck Pickup is absolutely, astonishingly, mind-bogglingly! FANTASTIC!!
There is so much clarity, the top end sizzles while the mids and lows rumble. The Neck Position alone sells the guitar for me, I honestly can't believe how good it is - something I would expect to see from a Custom Shop guitar at five times the price tag.

The Tone knob acts as a high-frequency roll off.
Where a lot of people like a tone roll-down that retains the high end, to my understanding; Jason Isbell and Tim Shaw wanted to deliver a lot of high end up front that could be rolled off with the tone knob. Essentially thought better to have too-much high end and roll some off than to not have enough to start with.
I'm not sure I like one style vs another, but I've had no issue dialing a warm (or less sharp) tone with the knob as it.

Fretwork -
Frets themselves came out of the box pretty well polished and smooth. Ends are smoothed along the board with no modifications really required. I did end up giving all the frets a polish at my first string change, as well as cleaning/rolling up a few of the ends, mostly to my own taste.
The fretboard itself has a slight rolling on the edge which gives the guitar a slightly "played-in" feel. Though the board itself is likely sanded down slightly to give this effect, it's pretty easy to tell this was designed this way and not actually "played in over the years". It's still a nice touch that makes a neck play a little better vs stock.

Hardware -
As for the remainder of the guitar's hardware; the pots and knobs are smooth, selector switch is smooth and feels solid, pickup ashtray, string tree, saddles, screws, pickguard, and strap knobs are all solid, well made and secured well.

Cons (sorta) -

Made In Mexico -
I have a couple MIM Guitars from the 90's that are on par with just about any of the American made Fenders, but I can't say the same for the modern MIM line. They're far less expensive than the American made line, but the attention to small details is definitely present in the American made line vs the MIM.
MIM Can still sound and play great, but they'll probably cost you some time in modifications and set-up.
If you have no experience working on guitars, I would recommend having Sweetwater do a set-up (at the very least) for you, this guitar included.


Finish -
Personally I'm not a fan of the "relic" dings and sanding done to the finish to make the guitar look older and already played in. It's just not my thing, I'd much rather ding and work the finish off of my guitar myself - a badge of time spent with the instrument. Though it's not a deal-breaker for me, the sound and feel of the instrument is far more important than how it looks in my humble opinion. However, I can see where this could be an issue for some musicians.

Hardware -
The brass saddles are NOT compensated and have a bit more trouble intonating properly - out of the box, mine doesn't intonate as well as some of my more modern designed guitars - but I also expect that with this being a more "vintage" design. I may end up replacing the saddles with a compensated variant as the guitar ages.
Second is the Tuning Pegs - another more vintage styled piece of hardware. For me they work just fine, but I have definitely been spoiled with locking tuners over the years. I tend to have to tune between songs - especially with lead heavy playing. I may end up putting locking tuners on in time, but it's something to take note of.
Neither of these things are huge issues for me.

The Real Con -

Lastly is the nut...
I'm surprised the nut that shipped on the guitar made it past inspection.
The nut itself definitely needed slot filing for the strings, and while you'd expect to make some minor modifications to fit the string gauge you're playing (I believe the guitar ships with 10's - I prefer 9's personally), this nut was abysmal.
The nut was very low - great for low action, but the string slots were almost non-existent. The high-E string for example, had what resembled a small incision with an exact-o knife! The only string that was properly seated out of the box was the A string.
After some play testing, the B string (not properly seated) would 'pop' out of the nut slot whenever you'd bend the string beneath the 7th fret. NOT GOOD!


I originally hoped I could just get my nut files and set-up the nut to my gauge strings - this nut was just too low to file better slots for the strings. The nut would have to be replaced.


I ended up spending the time to file and shape a block of bone as a replacement (Shown in the picture). The original nut material was fine, but I think the bone added to the ring and resonance of the guitar by maybe 10%.
This modification, in my opinion, was absolutely necessary to get the guitar playable. I imagine not every guitar coming out of the factory is going to be like this, but if you're not experienced in replacing nuts on guitars, I'd highly recommend either having Sweetwater put a new one in for you (and having it set-up for your string gauge preference), or buying a pre-slotted TUSQ nut to drop in yourself (it's actually pretty easy to do).


Overall, you're getting a Nitro finished, double bound tele with a great neck and INCREDIBLE pickups.
For the money this guitar punches WAY above its price-point.
With some minor modifications and a proper set-up this guitar can easily compete with the American Made Ultras and maybe even the Custom Shops. I know I will be using it in the studio for years to come and can't wait to see how the paint-job ages.

Also a big shout out to my Sales Engineer Erik Bothwell, who alleviated my concerns about shipping the instrument. After receiving the instrument I am confident I can buy from Sweetwater again, that my instrument will be delivered undamaged and packed as snug as a bug in a rug! Thanks again Erik!

First of all lets get past the notion that the Mexican Fenders are in any way a step down from the American made ones. I have several of each and my two favorites are both Mexican. They are built with just as much care and attention yet are normally much less expensive. Having said all that I just received my Jason Isbell Signature model a few days ago and I must say I was very pleased with the fit and finish. The detail and the relicing on my guitar is very well done and looks quite authentic. The finish of the Nitro has a nice look and feel. The pickups sound fantastic. The guitar just looks stunning with the Chocolate burst and double binding. The only negative is that it ships in a gig bag. For $ I think Fender should have included a hard shell case. Other than that I have no regrets.

I own a few Tele's, from American Pro II up to Custom Shop. This guitar is a good value when you look at the big picture.. Lots of vintage specs, but the truss rod adjustment at the headstock which is a plus to me. Nitro finish, light tasteful relic job, 7.25 radius, and these pickups.... The pickups are fantastic and very much remind me of a Twisted Tele neck and nocaster bridge. They sound very open, responsive and articulate with plenty of low end. I actually prefer the sound of the JI Tele over my American Pro II by far.

The road worn finish on the neck does have a little bit of a break in period. It does not feel satin, nor does it feel gloss. You can absolutely tell its sanded, however after some play time it smooths out and feels great. The body has a a light relic and the finish is "worn" more like a satin nitro, it is not glossy. Mine specific example resonates extremely well.

In terms of overall feel, it's an MIM. It's not quite as good as the AV RI, or anything from the Custom Shop, but at this price point if that's what your looking for it's hard to beat. It's a fantastic sounding guitar, with the look of something that costs much more than the price tag. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best sounding Tele you can buy under $, period.

It's insane that this is now more expensive than an American Pro 2 Telecaster. I have one and love it - but wondered if I should have held out for the Jason Isbell. I finally got my hands on one at my local shop (not Sweetwater). It looked just as nice as the pictures, but the neck felt cheap. Maybe I just prefer a satin or gloss finish over a sanded neck, but I was surprised how much this neck felt like an old Squire Affinity with unfinished wood. I didn't get to do an A/B comparison with other guitars, but the pickups sounded really weak.
At this price point, just get an American Pro 2 they feel and sound wonderful.

I just received my Jason Isbell Telecaster, and was quite disappointed to discover it is made in Mexico. Its a nice guitar. Plays and sounds great looks very good. But I had checked over the specs and didnt see any identification anywhere this was a MIM Fender. I assumed at this price point it would have been an American made Fender. We'll see how it plays and wears over some time. Otherwise.....Reverb....