MusicRadar Verdict

There’s no doubt that Fender has achieved exactly what it set out to do with these guitars. One is the archetypal vintage workhorse, while the other – introduced as La Cabronita Especial by the Custom Shop in 2009 – aims to be a hot-rodded example that any custom builder might devise.

Pros

+
The '51 is a reasonably priced and good take on Fender’s original.
+
Nicely aged.
+
Fabulous classic Tele tones.
+
Cabronita is a fabulous-looking showstopper.
+
It is beautifully made with excellent-sounding TV Jones pickups.
+
Classy hardware (gorgeous tuners!)

Cons

-
Some might find the '51's neck a handful.
-
The Cabronita's skinny neck won't please everyone.
-
A shoulder-mounted selector switch and added tone control would increase its usability and versatility.

MusicRadar's got your back Our team of expert musicians and producers spends hours testing products to help you choose the best music-making gear for you. Find out more about how we test.

Jump To:

What is it?
Specs
Performance
Verdict
Hands-on videos

What is it?

Fender 75th Anniversary Cabronita Telecaster — (Image credit: Phil Barker / Future)

It seems almost inconceivable that an electric guitar we still view as cutting edge and modern first saw the light of day as far back as early 1951.

To put that in historical context, six years ago in early 2020 Covid-19 was preparing to ravage the planet, whereas that self-same period prior to 1951 we had not yet emerged from World War II.

That reveals just how advanced Leo Fender’s thinking was, especially given that the guitars he saw around him were mostly large, old-fashioned, hollowbody jazz-style boxes.

In its seven and a half decades, the original Tele has proved a brilliant workhorse that’s found a home in virtually every musical genre. Yet it’s also shown itself to be a superb platform on which to introduce special releases.

Think of the Thinline Tele, Pink Paisley and Blue Flower models, as well as all-rosewood, humbucking, bound-bodied and so many equally enticing variations. Several of these have either remained in circulation, or seen limited-edition reissue success.

The instruments before us today traverse all of the Telecaster’s glorious history: the 75th Anniversary Vintera Road Worn 1951 echoing the first ‘Blackguard’ instruments to roll off Fullerton’s humble, hand-assembly production line; and the 75th Anniversary American Professional Classic Cabronita Tele sporting TV Jones Gretsch-style humbucking pickups, a belly cut, simplified controls and six-saddle bridge assembly.

Plucking the Cabronita from its impressive moulded flight case, we behold a beautiful thing indeed. Dressed in metallic Candy Apple Red, offset by a cut‑down single-ply white version of the original Tele pickguard (with matching rear-mounted control cavity cover), those Filter’Tron-style pickups, and a set of attractive pearl-buttoned tuners on a tinted all-maple neck and fingerboard, it really is a thing to behold.

The guitar’s alder body and maple neck are classic Tele fare, even though the latter’s Modern C profile is pretty skinny and the fingerboard radius the more modern 241mm (9.5 inches). Its pickups, pearloid tuners, nickel/chrome brightware, and a finish of urethane – gloss for the body and satin on the neck – lend the instrument a definitely more ‘today’ vibe.

The switching is simple – possibly too simple as it involves just a single volume control but no tone. Hence you are always left with the pickups’ tones wide open, when you may like to tame the top-end on rockier numbers where a bit of SG-like grunt might be welcome. Siting the switch Les Paul-style on the top shoulder and giving us that missing tone control would surely have been better?

Fender 75th Anniversary Telecaster Road Worn '51 — (Image credit: Phil Barker / Future)

What you see is what you get with this one

butterscotch-tintedThe Road Worn, on the other hand, is the traditional, ‘plain Jane’ journeyman instrument adored by legends. Springsteen, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck, anyone?

So what you see is what you get with this one. The expected ash body, whether it’s two-piece or three, is almost impossible to tell, so perfectly matched and disguised it is beneath the butterscotch tinted and beautiful checked nitrocellulose lacquer.

This is complemented by a similarly nitro-finished all-maple neck and fingerboard, a chunky ‘U’ shape that’s nicely aged in the familiar Road Worn fashion. Frets are ‘tall narrow’ style and the ’board the original 184mm (7.25-inch) radius.

Tuners are six-a-side Kluson-alikes and truss adjustment is, as usual on vintage-style Fenders, via a cross-head bolt secreted at the body end of the neck. The pickguard is a plastic take on the original Bakelite/fibre one.

Pickups here are Fender Pure Vintage ’51 Nocaster neck and bridge, the latter let into the bridge plate and offering three saddles, each carrying a twin set of strings anchored through the body onto rear-mounted ferrules. It’s one of the simplest setups of any electric Fender, only the single-pickup Esquire trumping it in that regard.

Both instruments feature Fender’s usual 648mm (25.5-inch) scale length, of course, plus we get genuine bone nuts and the company’s exemplary zeal for fit and finish.

Specs

Fender 75th Anniversary Vintera Road Worn 1951 Telecaster

Fender 75th Anniversary Vintera Road Worn Telecaster 1951 — (Image credit: Fender)

PRICE: $1,899 | £1,599 | €1,795
ORIGIN: Mexico
TYPE: Single-cutaway solidbody electric
BODY: Ash
NECK: 1-piece tinted maple, 1951 ‘U’ shape with walnut skunk stripe
SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
NUT/WIDTH: Bone/42mm
FINGERBOARD: Integral maple with black marker dots
FRETS: 21, tall narrow
HARDWARE: Tele-style ‘ashtray’ bridge (cover in case) with brass barrel saddles, ‘75th Anniversary’ neckplate, chrome control plate, knurled dome-style chrome volume and tone pots, rear string ferrules, single-ply black plastic pickguard
STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 54mm
ELECTRICS: Pure Vintage ’51 single coil Tele (bridge), Pure Vintage ’51 single coil Tele (neck), master volume, master tone, three-way pickup selector switch
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.35/7.39
RANGE OPTIONS: In the standard Vintera II range there’s the ’50s Nocaster and ’60s Telecaster (both £979), plus the Limited Edition Road Worn ’60s Telecaster (£1,189)
LEFT-HANDERS: No
CASE: Tweed hard case
FINISH: Classic Butterscotch Blonde

Fender 75th Anniversary American Professional Classic Cabronita Telecaster

PRICE: $1,999 | £1,799 | €2,015
ORIGIN: USA
TYPE: Single-cutaway solidbody electric
BODY: Alder
NECK: 1-piece maple with walnut skunk stripe
SCALE LENGTH: 648mm (25.5”)
NUT/WIDTH: Bone /42.8mm
FINGERBOARD: Integral maple with black marker dots
FRETS: 22, medium jumbo
HARDWARE: Cut-down hardtail bridge with 6x solid steel saddles, chrome neckplate with ‘75th Anniversary’ model designation, knurled flat-top control knobs, rear string ferrules, single-ply white pickguard
STRING SPACING, BRIDGE: 52mm
ELECTRICS: TV Jones Filter’Tron Classic neck and bridge humbuckers, master volume, three-way pickup selector switch
WEIGHT (kg/lb): 3.45/7.6
RANGE OPTIONS: The American Professional Classic Telecaster costs £1,509; a Limited Edition version in Mystic Ice Blue Metallic is £1,539
LEFT-HANDERS: No
CASE: Hard case
FINISH: Candy Apple Red (as reviewed), Ice Blue Metallic
CONTACT: Fender

Playability and sounds

Grabbing the Road Worn first we find a chunky old baseball bat of a neck. While it does look scary when first gazing down at it on your lap, it’s surprisingly comfy and not at all tiring to play, especially with the ultra-thin, satin-feel lacquer that apes the worn away look and feel of actual vintage guitars.

Although you might presume it feels clunky and of its time, the small-radius fingerboard is definitely very comfortable and friendly to the rhythm hand than flatter ’boards

Although you might presume it feels clunky and of its time, the small-radius fingerboard is definitely very comfortable and friendly to the rhythm hand than flatter ’boards, especially when playing barre chords where the first finger wraps over really nicely.

Even big bends right at the top of the neck don’t choke off here, reflecting the good setup.

The Cabronita couldn’t be less rooted in the '50s. Its stated ‘Modern C’ neck feels very slender indeed, as far this way as the Road Worn is the other. Both necks are sure to put certain players off, so perhaps Fender would have been better to meet somewhere in the middle. That said, give it a few minutes and it’s certainly slick and quick.

You want twang? You’ve got it. Need sweet jazzy tones? No problem. Funky rhythm? Hell yeah! Dark, blues-rock leads? Just dial ’em in!

We didn’t yet mention the guitar’s ‘secret weapon’ 22nd fret located on a fingerboard overhang. While not something the average player will use every day, for that final full-tone bend to the octave E on the top string it’s a godsend. The bigger frets, too, lend a distinctly different feel to that of the more vintage-flavoured Road Worn. And we love the body’s belly cut, which, of course, Leo first used on his Stratocaster in 1954.

Sonically, they’re different beasts. The Blackguard model brims with all those tones that have made it the stalwart of so many fabulous players. You want twang? You’ve got it. Need sweet jazzy tones? No problem. Funky rhythm? Hell yeah! Dark, blues-rock leads? Just dial ’em in! You will need to be au fait with the guitar’s controls, though, as they respond magnificently whether flipping between pickups or combinations thereof, or feathering the tone pot for warm neck-pickup jazz, throaty bridge-pickup roar or out-and-out banshee wail.

Although the Cabronita offers twin humbuckers in the form of TV Jones’ remarkable Filter’Tron remakes, it’s not the broody beast you might imagine.

Instead, it’s full of bright, musical sounds that would feel comfortable in so many musical settings. It’s tricky to quantify these things, but while the sounds it emits are familiar and incredibly attractive, they’re not pure Tele.

Yet neither are they pure Gretsch. And definitely nothing like any Gibson we could mention. The big downside here is the lack of any tone modification.

So while every clean, crunchy or dirty sound from neck, bridge or both pickups together is classy, distinctive and also great to play to, it would have been so nice just to back things off here and there.

Verdict

Verdict: ★★★★½

Image 1 of 3

They both look and sound fantastic, and let’s remember these are limited editions for the 75th anniversary of this earth-shattering musical instrument.

Were these indeed production models then we’d definitely suggest Fender met the skinny neck of the Cabronita and chunky bat of the Road Worn somewhere in the middle

So it’s perhaps churlish to score points against them based on what we’d want in everyday ‘mainline’ instruments.

However, were these indeed production models then we’d definitely suggest Fender met the skinny neck of the Cabronita and chunky bat of the Road Worn somewhere in the middle.

We’d also advocate a tone control for the Cabronita, as this would make an already lovely guitar a great one. In fact, with a bigger neck, shoulder-mounted switch and tone control added, this reviewer’s order would most certainly be going in today.

MusicRadar verdict: There’s no doubt that Fender has achieved exactly what it set out to do with these guitars. One is the archetypal vintage workhorse, while the other – introduced as La Cabronita Especial by the Custom Shop in 2009 – aims to be a hot-rodded example that any custom builder might devise.