The Fender Limited Edition American Professional Telecaster Roasted Daphne Blue combines the classic Tele style and sound with a number of interesting features. While the body is classically made of alder, the bolted neck is made of Roasted Maple, which not only vibrates very well due to its thermal treatment, but is also insensitive to climatic and temperature changes. The "Modern Deep C" neck profile together with the contemporary 9.5" fingerboard radius ensures comfortable playing characteristics. With a Fender Shawbucker 1T on the neck and a Fender V-Mod Telecaster Single-Coil on the bridge, the Fender Limited Edition American Professional Telecaster Roasted delivers versatile guitar sounds for pop, blues and rock with a crunchy attack that will assert itself even in the densest mix. Last but not least the electric guitar is equipped with the classic Fender 3-Saddle Strings-Through-Body Hardtail and precise Fender tuners.
This is my first Telecaster and although I was planning to get a regular configuration, I couldn't resist the aesthetics of this limited edition as well as the phenomenal sound of the Shawbucker. I've been a Les Paul player for the last few years and I was a bit worried the Shawbucker would make the Tele sound too similar to it, but instead it's a very unique tone that sounds very much like a Telecaster but with more warmth. For clean Jazz tones with the tone control rolled down, it sounds exceptionally rich but it also distorts well.
The two pick-ups are very well balanced. There is no shift in volume from one to the other (unfortunately an issue I've had with regular Teles) and they blend nicely together in the middle position. The tonal qualities of both shine without drowning each other out.
I've never played a roasted maple neck before and I'm amazed by how smooth and fast this one is considering it has barely any finish. The tone is still pretty much identical to a regular maple neck.
Otherwise, I love the colour. Daphne blue is obviously quite a gentle shade but with the darker neck the guitar overall looks quite strong. The hard case that comes with the guitar is a nice extra.
Overall, I'm extremely happy with the guitar and feel very fortunate I managed to get one of the 130 pieces!