Fender Custom Telecaster FMT HH AM IL

I'm trying to find something which doesn't exceed expectations with this guitar, after all it is "crafted in Indonesia" so that must be bad, right? Dead wrong! This is a Telecaster on a different level. Let's start with the looks, there are three beautiful colour choices, I chose the transparent amber because the way it reacts with the flamed maple top is unbelievable. The photographs really don't do it anywhere near enough credit. The matching lacquer is used on the neck and head-stock, so you do get a gloss finish on the back of the neck, which will not be to everyone's taste. The body and neck is bound mahogany with a sensuously carved maple top and back. The fret-board is Laurel, which is a new finish for me but feels great. In addition to this the neck has been glued-in (yes a Fender with a glued-in neck joint) and it has been done beautifully. There are stunning mother of pearl dot inlays. All of the metal hardware has a darkened chrome (a sort of stone grey) finish which also looks great.
The tuners are of a very similar quality to my American Strat plus and it is a hard-tail strung-through bridge with 6 saddles to allow fine tuning of intonation and action. There is a graphite nut which is really premium feature and the factory setup is pretty good and completely playable out of the box.

So obviously the tone must be a let-down. Well, all I will say is that it doesn't really sound like a stock telecaster. But, it has dual coil-tapped Seymour Duncan humbuckers which absolutely sing. There is so much tonal colour, cleans and driven tones are both fabulous on both pickups. I'm playing through my Bugera Infinium v55 for the cleans and using a tube screamer in front to give me a good crunch and driven tones and I can't wipe the smile off my face!

In summary it looks, feels and sounds every bit a Fender custom-shop quality guitar and is such a novel twist on the Telecaster, that every guitar lover should have a look at one, because it really isn't like anything else. Coupled with it's super-model looks, it is truly versatile and is already my number one axe of choice!

Bought one of this beautiful 2020 stock at Thomann’s, after reading all the positive reviews here, Sweetwater and Youtube.

Out of the box remark:

Double packed in a big box filled with paper by my Thomann Freunde as usual prevented any harm coming to the guitar. Strapped with head and toe security Fender tape assured me that the guitar was not been unpacked until now. And why should it, please read on!

No damage or flaws were visible on front, neck or headstock, besides noticing that the three-part mahogany body was a bit too different in wood grain and colour, in full light that is on the backside, something which will never be visible during playing however. Looks al little like I got a piece of Swamp Mahogany. But like Swam Ash, it seems to have a certain extra panache......

Out of the box playability:

I have several “ugly ducks”, e.g. a well bounced around the world ‘52 hot rod telecaster, with a similar Seymour Duncan SH-1 Vintage humbucker in the neck position, to which I wanted to compare this here 2020 FMT Tele.

I felt the neck up and down, perfect radius for my hand, frets flawlessly finished and shining like diamond, no dead spots anywhere, even the graphite nut was perfectly adjusted both in height and angle towards the tuning pegs!
I checked the action height on the beautiful grained freatboard: perfect!
I measured the pickups distance to the strings and placement: perfect!
Tuning pegs were already in tune half step down, very smooth and sturdy: near perfect!
Plugged it in on my Fender Bassbreaker: ....Silence of the Lambs....no humming whatsoever!
Turned up the gain nearly haf way, strummed the 6 month old Fender Super 250L NPs strings and....woweej what a groovy grungy fat sturdy new kinda guitar sound hit our planet!

Wow! Unbelievable! What a beauty both in appearance ( the front and neck that is!) as in sound quality.I am convinced the added swamp mahogany gives the guitar the extra unexpected “finesse” that not even my ‘52 Custom Shop Tele has.

The 52 Tele has moved away 1 step further from my practice stand.
This FMT has taken it’s place. I think forever!

I can only give you one advice: spend your money wisely and get one!
As soon as they come in at Thomann.

Thanks Thomann and Fender for putting this big smile on my face!

The good sides first: This thing is wonderful, I can get all the sounds I could want from it from thick and heavy heavy riffs to thin and ringing Tele sounds. It's easy and fun to play and it's light enough not to be a burden on the shoulders, even from a longer set. And on top of this all, it's a really, really beautiful guitar.

The bad sides: the finishing quality of this thing was not good to be honest. On the outside it looked just as it was supposed to but certain details were not in place. Instead of returning it, I wanted to keep it and I took it to a shop.
1) the neck was not even, it was noticeably thicker in the middle than near the saddle or the body.

2) the fine tuning was out of place and with a little inspection, the saddle was just too high to keep the whole neck in tune.

Both 1 and 2 were able to be fixed but this of course made the guitar more expensive and with a 900€ guitar, it's not really something you expect to see.

So yes, I do recommend it but if you get one, check out the details and ask for another one if they are out of place. I found online that people had gotten great quality individuals as well as these what I got so it seems to be dependent on who finished it at the factory.