agree on the bold part though - they suck at clean.

i own a squier tele california series. i love the sound, i love the tele twang. almost all the time i use the neck pickup. anyway do you have info / knowledge about the california series? i googled this before - it's like a lower cost limited / discontinued squier series.

well i never had problems with my tuning pegs. i like the bridge PU, but i don't really use it that much. but i have to get my hands on a better tele to compare the sounds. i really never had the chance to play a tele other than what i have right now

just wondering dude, when you said cheap tele twang, do you mean squier ones or other copies?

strangely i have tested teles MIA and squiers side by side and seem to be hard pressed to tell whats teh real difference. you can check there are a few videos online that point this inccident out. however not ALL squiers are such, and i do acknowledge that fenders can have a hit and miss with their guitar occationally.

that being said fender has a history of making very good guitars at very cheap prices, only thing you need to do is to search high and low for the good ones. MIJ (fugen series for one) on the downside they are also known to make very expensive guitars at with not too good results.

its not suprising to get such a situation, there are videos on this also. i tested on a 5 watt fender champ, single vol control, single EQ. but on your issue, all i did when i had that problem was roll down the tone on the guitar or increase the vol on the amp to clip some light OD to clip the sharp parts. normally i do both so i get a high end roll off, warm but not muddy tone.

also if you are thinking how can it be, low end MIAs are not something to shout about made worse when fender is not known for consistant QC. the really good MIA fenders are not your normal ones, they are the Delux series, vintage Series which cost about a Gibson LP to get one. now when you are in that range, yes there is a considerable difference.

then again its not to say those series dont have good copies, early 90s japanese copies of the same models come at a fraction of the price but can fight and even beat in terms of tone and Quality.