You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get your hands around an excellent electric guitar for playing The Blues.  Here’s the first electric I bought — The Deluxe Nashville Power Tele — eagerly acquired after a couple of decades away from my Martin acoustic.  I have the Honey Blonde version seen below on the left and I do love it so.


The Deluxe Nashville Tele is an affordable, but strange, beast coming in at under a thousand dollars.

I call this guitar “strange” because it is a beast with a sound that changes on a whim, the dial of a knob, and the flick of a switch.  The three Tex-Mex Single-Coil pickups growl like a Stratocaster while also providing some country Twang.

The Power Tele also needs a 9-volt battery to power six Piezo Transducer Pickups in each saddle.  Those Pickups, along with the Fender/Fishman Piezo Power Tele Bridge, give you an absolutely authentic acoustic guitar sound in an electric guitar.

You will not find a more versatile guitar anywhere.  You can play Hard Rock.  You can play Country Blues.  You can play Classical Acoustic Guitar.

The Deluxe Nashville Tele is made in Mexico — a Fender “MIM” guitar — and whole some guitar chauvinists gag at the notion of a non-American made Fender, the build quality is excellent and mine showed up smiling to sing without needing any special setup treatment except for the want of a new set of strings.

The Deluxe Nashville Tele is a fantastic great first — or only — electric guitar because it has such chameleon sound; but you will really be blown away by those Piezo Pickups, because you’ll keep looking around the room for that booming acoustic guitar while that sound is sitting right there in your hands as a solid body Telecaster.

9 Comments

  1. Kathakali Chatterjee – Hyderabad, India – Professionally, I have an interesting concoction of experience -- from entertainment industry to retailing to executive education -- the journey is still on. When I don't work, I love to travel, read, listen to music and watch movies.
    kathakali.chatterjee says:

    I just love the look of it and the versatility of the sound, seems to be a gem!

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    Gordon Davidescu says:

    It’s a beautiful looking guitar! 🙂

  3. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    It’s a wild guitar. You wouldn’t expect three Tex-Mex pickups in a Telecaster and the Piezo pickups are the icing on the surprise of it all.

  4. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    It looks great and the sound is always surprising, Gordon. Most people don’t ever hear the Piezo sound in the guitar because you have to turn off all the other pickups first to really get that special acoustic sound and you don’t need a Y-cable to hear it.

  5. ANNE – I live and teach on the upper West Coast of the United States. My interests are Philosophy, English, and Social Communication.
    anne90210 says:

    Hmmm this one is tempting me. Looks like a transition guitar to electric. So many things to buy to upgrade from acoustic though.

  6. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    You’re right it’s a great first guitar to make the move to electric. You will need electricity, a cord and an amp to get started, too.

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