page_title: Fender Cabronita Telecaster
section_title: Unique features
hierarchical_section_title: Fender Cabronita Telecaster / Unique features
caption_attribution_description: English: 2012 Fender Telecaster Cabronita, made in Mexico, with Fidelitron pickups, white blonde finish over ash body and maple neck. Closeup of body
context_page_description: The Fender Cabronita Telecaster is a class of guitars built by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation based on their Telecaster body shape. The name Cabronita is Spanish slang and roughly translates as little bastard or little devil. While retaining the shape and general feel of a Telecaster, they are a radical departure from the traditional electronics and sounds associated with the instrument. Like virtually all Telecaster submodels, they are labeled simply as a Fender Telecaster on the headstock logo, identifiable only by their features.
context_section_description: Most Telecasters use two single coil pickups, although over the years a large number of variations have existed that has utilized one pickup, three pickups, one or two humbucking pickups or a blend of these.  With most all of these models, the pickguard is sometimes modified as are the electronics, but many were more or less the same guitar with subtle differences.  The Cabronita arguably drifted farthest away from the original Telecaster, using only the body shape.
  The pickguard is quite small compared to most, and clearly is influenced by the first couple of prototypes built by Leo Fender back in 1949.  Unlike other models, it does not extend over the area of the neck pickup.  In most models, the pickguard has squared edges instead of beveled, is a single ply material in either black or white, and is designed very simplistically, as is the rest of the guitar.
  The majority of Telecaster have always had the controls mounted to a chrome plated, steel plate, going back to the prototype.  The first production model using this plate was in 1951 and it has not changed in specification since, making it an identifying Telecaster feature.  A few models instead had the electronics mounted to an extended pickguard, but the Cabronita has the electronics fed from the back of the guitar, and mounted through the wood of the guitar.  While common for many other guitar brands, this was a first for a Telecaster.
  Most Cabronitas have two pickups but do not have a tone control.  This is another first for the Telecaster.  A tone control can be added aftermarket by using a stacked potentiometer, but many argue that dropping the tone control gives the instrument a bit more sparkle and highs in the tone, as a tone control filters some of the higher frequencies even when set to the highest level.
  The most striking and obvious difference is the use of TV Jones or Fidelitron pickups, both of which are based on Gretsch designs.  Gretsch was the first to have a patent approved for a humbucking pickup although Gibson had filed two years earlier, but there are significant differences in their designs.  Gretsch pickups are said to have more of a jangle in their tone whereas Gibson humbuckers are more full bodied in tone and slightly larger. Over time, the Gibson design became the standard for humbucker pickups, although the Gretsch design has a smaller but significant following.  The TV Jones Classic pickups are a modified and arguably improved version of the Gretsch Filter'Tron.  Similarly, the Fender Fidelitron is based on the Filter'Tron design, although they have a tone more akin to a single coil pickup, the tone most associated with Fender.
  With the exception of the Squier model that uses a Bigsby vibrato, all the Fender branded Cabronitas use what is typically called a hardtail Stratocaster bridge, meaning it wasn't designed for a tremolo system.  This is used on other models of Telecaster that have a humbucking pickup in the bridge position, although humbuckers are rarely used as OEM equipment on Telecasters.  Regardless of country of origin, all Cabronita models feature a one piece maple neck and 22 medium jumbo frets as well as a 9.5 inch fingerboard radius, the common modern "C" shape, and either a 42.8mm wide nut (US built) or 42mm wide nut (Indonesia and Mexico built).
caption: Closeup view of a Thinline model.
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