I remember exactly why I wanted this guitar. It fit four of my guitar "requirements" extremely well. If you've read any of the previous stories you know I love Telecasters (check!), I love the Fender custom color Sonic Blue (check!), I love Fenders made in Japan (check!), and it filled in that difference between a Strat and a Tele very nicely with the third pickup (check!).

I thought the Nashville Telecaster was going to be the answer to my prayers. In many ways it was...a nice blend of Tele meets Strat. The Nashville Teles features a nice contoured body much like a Strat, with the body contoured at the bottom and at the waist on the back. Much more comfortable than a standard Telecaster body. At the time that I bought this guitar, my previous guitars had almost exclusively been standard Teles. Up until about two years before I bought this one, I finally broke down my own self-imposed stereotypes and bought myself a Strat. And then another. And then after selling the first one I replaced it will another.

 The first one I had bought was Fiesta Red, which at the time just didn't completely do it for me. However, now I think I would really love a sweet Fiesta Red Strat. I'd have to outfit it with a mint green reissue pickguard and matching pickup covers and knobs. I think that's a really cool looking guitar. As I've also mentioned previously, I will admit to liking or disliking a guitar based on looks alone. A Fiesta Red Strat with stark white pickguard, etc. just doesn't work for me.

Okay, back to the Nashville Tele. At the time I owned this guitar, I also owned a couple of other nice electrics. I got obsessed with a Strat project (which I'll detail in my next post), and needed to sell something to make it happen financially. For whatever reason, even though this guitar seemed to meet a lot of my criteria for a perfect match, it was just never the guitar I picked up and strummed when I went for a guitar. Maybe you know what I mean. There was never any special mojo that drew me to it. So, when it came time to sell, away it went...vintage Italian pin-up girl water decal and all. In a perfect world, if I could have ALL my guitars back to keep, I'd definitely love to have this one back. I might consider swapping out the pickups or something...just something to give it a little more personality. But all in all, it was definitely a nice guitar.