Last year Fender introduced their new Aerodyne Telecaster – a re-design of their classic workhorse, which was meant to push the Tele in a whole new direction. While it looks fairly standard at first glance, the Aerodyne Tele actually sports a new, streamlined design, and some notable changes in hardware to boot.
I’m not really sure how popular this guitar will prove to be in the long run… I’m of the impression that many people love the Telecaster precisely because of its no-nonsense style and durability – I know I do – but I could be wrong.
The Aerodyne Telecaster does have some really nice new features, including cream-colored body binding (a nice touch, ) a vintage-styled single-coil soapbar pickup at the neck, and a sexy new carved–radius top. From what I’ve read the Vintage Style pickups are fairly noisy, but then that just comes with the pedigree…
The Fender Aerodyne Telecaster Features–
- Basswood Body
- Maple Neck (C-Shaped)
- Rosewood Fretboard With 22 Frets
- Single-Coil Soapbar Pickup At The Neck
- Single-Coil Tele Pickup At The Bridge
- Master Volume& Tone Controls
- 3-Way Pickup Switching
- Rear-Mounted Controls
- Matching Headstock With Silver Logo
- Cream Body Binding
- Knurled Chrome Control Knobs
Let me know if you’ve played one of these – I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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June 13th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
I absolutely LOVE my Aerodyne Tele! A great vintage style neck reminds me of my old ’52 Tele more than the current ’52 reissue model does. The archtop and binding is very classy as is the deep ebony finish. The bridge pickup is pure Telecaster, the P-90 neck pickup is smooth and gutsy and has a little Les Paul vibe to it. The combination of the two blends nicely and is a great clean rhythm tone.
Very nicely made, excellent construction and finish. I really lucked out when I found this guitar and after 35 years of performing this guitar resonates with me more than any other I currently or used to own. A great update to a classic design. I find it no noisier than any other single coil guitar either.
June 13th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Hey, thanks for sharing your experience with the Aerodyne, Jeffrye :D
I’m a long-time Tele man myself, having played a blonde Thinline for many years. There’s something so simple and to-the-point about a Telecaster — that, and the fact that they are just such solid performers.
Mine carried me through years of hard playing on stage without any real repair work needed… just the occasional tune-up.
The chambered body of the thinline makes for a very warm tone, but from your comment I’m thinking it might be fun to experiment with a P-90 too…
June 16th, 2006 at 4:35 am
I’ve had my Aerodyne Tele for 3 weeks and I don’t play anything else now! Apart from absolutely looking the business it plays and sounds wonderfull. I agree with Jeffrye – the soapbar pick up is warm and glowing -I love it – it really does have a Les Paul quality to it – I use it with Blues and Rock (but it will probably sound great for Jazz too) and it goes down a storm. The bridge p/u up is twang heaven and mine is not noisy at all. It’s a great (lightweight!) guitar with huge verstility and a real ‘ooooooooo’ factor when you get it out of the case in front of people for the first time!
June 16th, 2006 at 6:16 am
Forgot to say. The Soapbar p/u sounds like a Les Paul but much more refined! :-)
August 15th, 2006 at 12:10 am
When I saw the Aerodyne for the first time, I fell immediately in love with it. It looks sleek and well crafted with its glossy arched top. The cream binding gives it what will make this a collectors item someday. The neck radius makes it very easy to play and the jumbo frets suit my large hands very well.
I tried the Les Paul with the P90 pickup first and I didn’t like it. It was noisy enough to distract me from the warm sound. I put it down and picked up the Aerodyne and the amp went comfortably quiet. Playing the p90 was like the difference between tasting margarine and butter. The guitar just begs to be played. Pictures do not do this guitar justice either. About the only thing I would change on this instrument are the rotary knobs and I am going to match mine to the trim. I regret that I didn’t pick it up when it was in my hands at the store but the model I played had a defective p/u selector.
I think this guitar deserves to be in anyones arsenal who enjoys a rich bluesy sound or the classic telecaster sound. I have been dreaming about owning one since I first saw it.
August 21st, 2006 at 2:57 am
My p/u selector is defective too. I tried 3 when i bought mine and they all had the same problem. I’m taking mine to get repaired though as it is pretty annoying.
March 9th, 2007 at 8:33 am
I bought the Fender Aerodyne telecaster on its looks alone from an internet supplier- simply because Fender discontinued the model and stocks are running out (panic). The only problems I had were easily fixable, i.e. a dead A string and higher register fret buzz. So aside from a little Internet caveat emptor, the guitar is awesome. It is my Gibson Explorer’s sweet little sister. I have a question for any who can answer- is the soapbar pickup on this guitar the legendary Fender Black Dove? Or is it based on that design? People who call it a P-90 have obviously never played through one. This pickup is sooo sweet and milky, yet still kicks out that classic hollow-sounding fender tone- it begs to be overdriven. The bridge pickup is the classic tele howler. Nobody has mentioned the insane tone you get when you pair the two pickups together, I can’t even describe it. Sounds like nothing else. Oh, and did I mention that the guitar is freaking beautiful? AND a collector’s item now? Thanks.
March 30th, 2007 at 11:20 am
This guitar is simply beautiful–the design is near flawless, and I cannot say enough about the pickup. The bridge single-coil just snarls–think of the classic Muddy Waters sound–and the soapbar P-90 has a round, translucent, amazing mid-tone that I’ve not heard anywhere else. As has been mentioned, the combination of these two just kicks. On overdrive it’s wonderfully stable, amazingly loud, and feedback/distortion is like putty in your hands. I play mostly on the clean channels, especially with this axe–the tones are too good to be true.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:48 am
My Aerodyne is amazing. the sound when overdriven are awesome and when played through my Princeton 650 sound amazing. When played clean the sound is beautiful and resounds with the guitars glory. the craftsmanship on my guitar is better than a Les Paul custom which i played before i decided on the Aerodyne. the looks made it stand out in the shop and out of all the other Tele’s i had to have this one. i love it.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
My Aerodyne Tele is the best purchase I’ve made thus far. For this kind of money anyways. It has royalty looks with a beautiful sound and feel. I did have a problem with the pickup selector, it would crackle or even break up the sound as I played so I took the switch out of its socket and I found it was just covered on dust. After I blew the dust off the contacts I’ve never had a problem and she plays as God intended her to. Truly one of a kind……
July 10th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
Alright , im a lil hesitant of buying this. I’ve read alot of comments about it but him i have alot of intrest in a fender tele. What i have right now it a strat and im really comfortable playing it. Idk. Which one should i buy? The aerodyne or the tele. Email me a swingawaybball@yahoo.com
July 19th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
My Aeroduyne is simply beautiful!!!! i just purchased it on Internet 2 years ago and since then every single person that looks at it or plays something with this beauty agree that it’s got a great tone!!! I usually play it with a Roland JC-120 and the combination still it surprises me every time i plugg it in. Collectors piece or not, I’ll never let this baby go away…
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:21 am
I had my “good for a starter” guitar and I grew to a point of fustration with the action and no matter what I did, it did not produce the right sound I was looking for. I did alot of research to narrow my search. I went out and tried a few differant Fenders and Gibsons. I wanted to stay under $1000.00 though. I found this at a local guitar shop in Dublin CA. I fell in love with it right away. I bought it and have not regreted it at all. I chose this over the American made Fenders. It is quite versital. It handles cords well, string bends are a snap, and the rose wood fret board w/ medium large frets gives me just enough grab.
December 21st, 2007 at 6:33 pm
I picked up my Aerodyne Tele about 1.5 years ago and it is truly a lovely guitar to play and to hear – and if the folks on the Harmony Central user review board are a representative sample, it looks like the pickup selector switch on all of them are pure crap. Mine is dodgy at best, and I’ll be having it fixed sooner or later (since I don’t gig often, I don’t generally worry about it until it cuts out on me).
The guitar’s unamplified tone is surprisingly bright and loud for a basswood body, and the rosewood fingerboard is also quite nice. Generally I have preferred maple and ebony fingerboards to rosewood, but this one seems to have made a convert of me. The pickups are a pleasure to work with, despite the single-coil noise issues. Very usable tones in all three positions, and for my taste, the soapbar in the neck position is much more friendly than the standard Tele neck pickup. This is my first Telecaster and frankly the neck pickup is what closed the deal for me – I’ve never had luck getting good sounds out of a standard Tele neck pickup, but this just worked from the word “go.”
Dunno whether this is the venerable Black Dove pickup – I suspect at the price point, it might not be, but your guess is as good as mine. Who cares what the brand name is anyway, as long as it sounds good?
April 19th, 2008 at 10:13 am
I picked up my Aerodyne Tele in a Boxing Week sale last December for a steal of a price ($500Cdn). I play an Aerodyne Jazz Bass, and on a lark decided to pick up the Telecaster and INSTANTLY fell in love with it. The physical appearance/beauty aside (which was a minor element in my choice), from the very first chord I played the experience was fantastic.
The neck on this thing feels amazing; super fast, it practically plays itself. As Ian said, unamplified, the guitar has great tone, and sustains forever. After I’d practically decided I had to have it, I plugged it into the amp in the store that most resembled mine and again fell in love with the tone. The soapbar neck p/u is deliciously rich and full, and quite articulate… the bridge sounds like your classic biting Telecaster; the combination of the two is an interesting blend of bite and smooth… I haven’t had any issues with my selector switch yet… but I guess I’ll be ready for it when I do :P
I’ve never been a huge Telecaster fan but this instrument has converted me. I can’t see ever selling it; it’s completely replaced my other guitars.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
I splurged on the new Telecaster Aerodyne. Before it, I used a classic Cort ZMP. The Aero has captured my heart and my ear. The bright, clear tones combined with the simple single coil gives ballads and folk songs an emotional overtone that the audience can identify with. The humbucker allows me to play rock and roll songs that the audience will clap and singalong with as their favorites come out. Maintenance is a breeze too! Just wipe it down after use and loosen the strings.
The problems I have found with it: The staying power of the chords is much less than with other body-styles and fretboard/necks that I have known. While it is the classic telecaster, it does not have the variety of uses that one could get with an upper end LesPaul. For me, I find that its more difficult to get a propper caryover with jazz/blues style music which needs darker tones.
So far though, this is my favorite guitar to use, but maybe thats because it is the newest one for me. I will give it a couple years before I can truly determine how much I like it.
October 24th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
I also own one of these gutiars, I bought it in Sweden actually on a Sale, got it for half the price.
I fell in love with it the first time I saw it, I just took it, tried a few chords/riffs and kissed it.
It really is a great Telecaster with a timeless design, that is sure to make it a collectors-item.
I can say that on and off had some trouble with the picup selector, but I’ve never had to repair it yet.
The sound is warm and again not to noisy and all my friends who have tried it also loves it.
They say its very easy to play, things they have trouble playing on their guitars are easy to play on mine.
November 4th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Exelente guitarra !!!!!!!!!
Su sonido es espectacular, el limpio es dulce y potente a la vez, una obra genial de fender, gracias !!!!!!!
November 5th, 2008 at 8:58 am
In the video clip at bottom right Sister Rosetta Tharpe is playing a dead stock 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Standard, not a “tricked out Les Paul Junior”.
December 21st, 2009 at 6:58 am
Got my Aerodyne about 2 years ago. I have four other electrics, but reach for the Tele first. It can go from svelte aristocratic royalty to beer joint bitch in about a nano second. Fast neck, great pick-ups, and one of a kind styling make it a keeper.
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Had my Aerodyne about 6 months and love it. Stunning looks, practicle layout, awesome tones. Ten out of ten.