Quick Look - Chrissie Hynde Telecaster

The Fender Chrissie Hynde Signature Telecaster - the one I played was quite a bit darker than this publicity photo from Fender

Much is being made of the new Chrissie Hynde signature telecaster. According to press agents, Ms. Hynde agreed to this guitar in the hope of getting more young people to pick up guitar. This is very admirable, but in a highly unscientific survey of young musicians, only one knew who Chrissie Hynde is and that’s because he looked her up. Quite a shame, as I still like the Pretenders first album and have it in my record collection.

I did get hand’s on for a brief time in my local guitar shop. It’s finish is this rather odd ice blue that I cannot recall seeing in the many occasions that I saw the Pretenders in their various incarnations. It’s not ugly but not overly exciting either. It’s topped with nitrocellulose lacquer and comes prechecked for your convenience. The body is made of alder and the sample I played weighed like it was made of concrete. Body resonance was similarly dense. It has a scratched up metal scratchplate if you like that sort of thing, and the only Hynde signature are block letters screened onto the neck plate. Otherwise, it’s a Player series, with quality equivalent to the other guitars coming out of Fender’s Mexico plant, so very good indeed. The pickups are supposed to be Chrissie Hynde signatures, which I take to mean having similar output to Hynde’s own Telecaster. I don’t know how that makes them really special to help justify the cost difference. I could not hear a difference at all plugged into a Fender Princeton Reverb at reasonable volume.

And that’s my problem with this instrument. It’s MAP price is $800 higher than a Player Telecaster, and $500 higher than a Fender Vintera 60’s Telecaster also made at the Mexican factory, also an excellent guitar. Except for a cracked lacquer finish and a screened CH on the neck mounting plate, I find no difference between it and either the Player or Vintera guitars from a playability perspective or a sound perspective. Unless one has extra disposable income or a potentially frantic attachment to the wonderful Ms. Hynde, you could get an equivalent Fender Telecaster and save money or spend the same amount and get a guitar and an amp, or guitar and a few pedals, or guitar and some lessons with a great teacher. Any of those alternatives will get you to playing Brass in Pocket more effectively.