I got it! The Fender Squire Vintage Modified Telecaster Thinline I was after is now all mine. And wonderful it is too.

Just messing around with it playing through my Creative Audigy sound card effects was excellent fun it has to be one of the best guitars I’ve owned.
The action is great especially compared to my acoustic. I had an accident a few years back and cut through to the nerves in the palm of my left-hand. Added to that and the fact that I stopped playing as much my acoustic became more hard work than fun to play.

The action of a guitar is the distance between the fret board and the string. So the higher the action the greater the strength you need to press down the string. Sadly guitars (generally speaking) in the lower price ranges tend to have higher action. I often wonder how many people are put off playing guitar at their first attempts because of this. Another thing related to this is string gauge lighter strings are easier to push down but give a more “twangy” sound.

Obviously you need to develop strength in your fingers as well especially for bar (or is that barre?) chords where your first finger covers all six strings effectively shortening the neck of the guitar much like using a capo. The remaining fingers are then used to make the chord shape.

Well not yet, but soon.

I have played guitar (and some would say badly), for over 26 years. I’ve had all sorts of makes and types but always, always I’ve wanted a Fender Telecaster. Problem is they cost upwards of £500. Not really in my budget and as my guitar playing is amateur at its very best I can’t justify spending the money as much as I’d like to.

However the lovely people at the Fender guitar company produce a range called Squire which are budget versions of their “grown up” guitars, and they do these, introducing The Fender Squire Vintage Modified Telecaster Thinline which is probably not very impressive unless like me you tend to drool over pictures of guitars. It only remains for me to save some pennies, which should be interesting with the seasonal festivities approaching. Maybe I should go out busking? People might pay me to stop .