The only Telecaster with painted headstock I've ever liked

This is the only one that gets the painted headstock look right.

Above is me playing a Fender Aerodyne Special Telecaster (video below). This guitar comes in multiple finishes; the color of the one I'm playing is called Dolphin Gray Metallic.

If you've never experienced this guitar, this one comes from Fender Japan, has a C shape neck profile and 12" fingerboard radius. It also has a premium grade Babicz FCH bridge (FCH means "Full Contact Hardware") and locking tuners. Pickups are "Aerodyne Special Single-Coil Telecaster", and I don't know what that means. But I do know they sound like Tele pickups should and have very nice response all around.

Ordinarily I can't stand painted headstocks on Telecasters because they just look dopey. However, the Aerodyne works, and it's for one reason. The logo. It's raised and shiny, which works with the paint instead of against it.

Every time I see a flat waterslide decal against a painted headstock on any Fender shape, be it Strat, Tele, Jaguar or Jazzmaster, I can't stand it because it looks cheap.

The raised/shiny logo on the Aerodyne however makes it look like the premium instrument it's supposed to be. That's the difference.

Does this guitar have an ultra-high premium price tag? Surprisingly, no it doesn't. It's not cheap but at the same time not ridiculously expensive.

The other really nice part about this guitar it that it's a restrained modernist build. Usually it's the case with modernist builds that things get too modern with a really skinny neck and pickups that just sound weird. Not here. The Aerodyne Tele, while modern, actually has a comfortable neck, a great sound to it and is a very easy player.

In other words, were you to mod a Telecaster yourself and built it to have all the good modern stuff, you'd most likely end up with an Aerodyne style build.

Anybody who buys one of these will be really happy with the instrument, that I'm sure of.

Published 2023 Apr 4