Okay, body first. Underneath that glorious black paint, with its white body binding on the top edge, is a generous slab of ash.
Now, if we’ve taught you anything about Telecasters, it’s that ash is the Tele lover’s wood of choice. The other Fender wood of choice, alder, does a good job but most connoisseurs of all things Telecaster agree that ash is, without a doubt, the tonal business.
The neck is classic Fender. Fashioned from hardwearing maple and topped with a good-looking rosewood fingerboard it has a vintage feel thanks to its ’60s-style ‘C’ profile.
String bending is aided by some well-finished medium jumbo frets – 22 of the blighters. And just so you know where you are on the fingerboard, Fender has fitted large cream-coloured plastic position markers designed to simulate vintage clay dots.
The neck is joined to the body with four screws, with the usual chrome neck plate to protect the body. All pretty straightforward, but John 5 specified some cheeky little details on his Custom Shop signature guitars and we’re pleased to see them on our Mexican J5.
The most obvious deviation from the Fender Tele blueprint is that oversized headstock. Originally spotted on Fender’s rare XII 12-string Tele, it adds a touch of visual flair to this six-string axe. The simple silver Fender and Telecaster logos look pretty, too.
There’s actually a practical reason for Mr 5′s choice of headstock. There’s a lot of space between the guitar’s top nut and the machineheads, which allows John the freedom to nail some extreme behind the nut string bends.
This is a technique used by Tele players – most famously Jerry Donahue of The Hellecasters – to simulate a pedal steel guitar. Remember, John 5 is a country guitarist as well as a shredder.
Before we move onto the body, we were pleased to find a set of Fender/Schaller Deluxe staggered machineheads fitted to the headstock. The machinehead shafts (the part the strings wrap around) are varied in height.
The further away from the top nut they are, the lower they get. This gives the required string angle to stop the strings popping out of the top nut. Plus, it means that Fender haven’t had to fit string trees – or retainers – which can cause tuning problems.
While the body is the classic Telecaster shape, there are a few cosmetic details that make it a bit special. If you’re a true Tele nerd you’ll notice that the body doesn’t have the flattened body contour at the input plate, where your leads goes in.
. Mr 5 has chosen a Gibson-style three-way toggle switch instead of Fender’s usual three-way blade item. We think it looks pretty damn cool, but God only knows what the Tele purists will make of it.
But this guitar is not designed for the purists. The J5 is a modern rock guitar in a classic jacket. With all that cosmetic stuff covered, all that’s left are the bits that actually provide the noise.
Fender has loaded the J5 with an Enforcer humbucker at the bridge and a Custom Shop Twisted Tele singlecoil at the neck. Yummy! These are the pickups that Johnny 5 has nestling in his Custom Shop axes. Each of the pickups has an independent volume control. There’s no tone control, folks.
Sounds
This axe is heavy. We’re talking about a really solid bit of kit here. Telecasters can vary hugely in weight, but we have to say that this J5 is about the heftiest example we’ve ever entrusted our shoulders to, and we reckon it plays a huge part in the fantastic sustain of the J5.
The neck is an absolute peach to play. The ‘C’ profile will not disgruntle any guitar player, no matter what style of music you inflict on your audience. The J5 comes fitted with a set of Fender Super 250L, nickel plated steel strings (.009 to .042 gauge).
They feel just right for lead work. We would probably fit a set of .010s for a bit more ‘fight,’ but the J5 plays great straight out of the box so you might want to stick with the original setup.
The headstock design makes it really easy to do some crazy bends. It’ll take a bit of practice to do it like John 5, though. The pickups offer a cracking range of rock and country tones. The bridge-mounted Enforcer is a useful mix of brutishness and refinement.
Fender have really done the business and come up with a modern rock guitar that incorporates some classic ‘retro’ elements like that ’60s neck profile.
Country players will love the string bending potential at the top nut. Rockers, metal heads and the great unwashed should try it, too. It’s chunky, funky and comes complete with a built-in mirror. You even get a padded gig bag. What more could any guitarist want?
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Post time: Jun-11-2017