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Texas Special pickups supply the juice

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Fender's own take on Fender's new American Special line-up is that they are "value-conscious guitars for the times… designed specifically to bring the full Fender experience of a terrific-sounding, smooth-playing, rock-solid-built US-made guitar to the working man, without emptying his bank account." Well, if anyone can fulfil that promise, it's Fender.

The American Specials' colour range is very limited albeit tasteful, with the Tele available only in three-tone sunburst and Olympic white. Our Tele is sunburst and features the thin polyurethane finish that, unlike the matt look of the Highway One models, emanates a classy and upmarket vibe. In fact, at first, it's not easy to see where – and indeed if – any corners may have been cut.

"You'd have to spend an awful lot more money to find something significantly better than this."

Build-wise the American Special Tele is made from three-piece alder, perfectly coated in three-tone sunburst urethane and with an attractive light maple neck that's been treated with a slinky satin finish.
The 22 jumbo frets sit on a 9.5-inch radius 'board and tuners are Schallers, with a single string tree adorning the headstock.

Our Tele is certainly not an unwieldy beast. It's put together with an attention to detail that means it's impossible (discounting the three-piece body, which might bother some) to find a flaw in either construction or finish.

Not surprisingly, we find a traditional bridge with three brass saddles and the use of a twin-pickup layout. Texas Specials are the choice, the rear coil retaining the black 'open' bobbin look and the neck single-coil with a shiny chrome cover for a look that's marked out this model for an astonishing 60 years.

What's slightly different to many Teles is that our neck pickup has two adjustment screws that allow you to set its height with much less fuss than on Teles of yore; and Fender has also chosen a black laminated scratchplate that goes rather well against the body's three-tone glow.

The Special adopts the now standard 'post-1967' control configuration of single master volume and tone pots governed by a three-way lever switch. It also features Fender's Greasebucket tone circuit. Everything about the guitar smacks of function over form; indeed it could well adopt Rory Gallagher's mantra of 'let's go to work' as its own.

The Tele's fuss-free nature reveals itself when you pick it up to play; there's little fightback from the flat 'board and big frets. It's a 'buttery' playing experience whether you go for country bends (the Tele's perceived home territory) or bluesy slurs and rock-style finger vibrato. In fact, it's so easy that you simply get on with the job in hand and forget about everything else.