Let's talk Cabronita - Fender's little devil (the unique Cabronita Telecaster)

A Squier Cabronita - oddball with genuine Fender parts?

For some reason, I had always wanted a unique Cabronita Telecaster since I first saw one, back around 2012 or so. Previously, Fender had only made them available as a custom shop purchase and they were insanely expensive for what they were. And what’s that? Basically a bolt-on neck slab with two Gretsch-style identical humbuckers and minimal controls in a polyurethane black finish with a white single-ply small pick guard. Someone at Fender had come up with the crazy idea to ‘b*stardise’ a standard Telecaster (hence the name Cabronita) and see what it sounded like. It didn’t sound too much like a Tele but a combination of its gritty sound and its basic but radically different looks meant that the concept caught on. I would imagine that due to its simplicity, it would have made a nice profit per sale for Fender too, given what they were charging for one! It was a very different Tele at a very elevated price and it looked so cool that some buyers were prepared to pay exorbitant sums for their custom shop Cabronitas.

The Fender USA custom shop versions came with excellent TV Jones ‘Filtertron’ humbucker pick-ups (not cheap) that emulated that Gretsch sound expertly and prices were around the £3000 mark when they first came on the scene, if my memory serves. Of course, with the custom shop versions you could spec up your choice of woods, fretboard, and paint colour. Still, a lot of cash for a basic slab with only a volume control and a selector switch and no abalone inlays, no binding and no body sculpting for comfort. I had to think to myself, “why not buy a Gretsch instead for a lot less cash”? But then....

Anyway, Fender at some stage decided that the model had garnered enough interest that they would bring out a Mexican-built model and they had even designed and built their own humbucker pick-ups which they called “Fidelitron” based on the TV Jones ‘Filtertron’ pick-ups for the custom shop edition of the Cabronita. The Fidelitrons produced a similar gritty sound and the Mexican Fender model became popular with with Chicano Rock, Desert Rock, Rockabilly and Alt-indie guitarists. A standard Tele it was not and didn’t produce the same spank and twang you’d get from, say, a Fender Standard or Nashville Tele - quite a different beast. But it could really rock and respond well to added effects.

A couple of years later, Fender decided to make a budget version of their Cabronita via the Squier brand and this is where it becomes interesting. Squier used a basswood body, an all maple neck and fretboard and a budget poly finish with a budget single-ply scratch plate but with genuine Fender ‘Fidelitron’ pick-ups. Like the Mexican and USA Fenders, the strings come though the body but are fed to the tuners at the top of the neck by a plastic nut rather than the quality bone nut you'd find on more expensive guitars. It even has strings trees - normally a premier feature. Strange that Squier couldn't stretch to a bone nut rather than a plastic one. Easily remedied though.

It may have been that Fender may have overestimated the demand for the Mexican version and had Fidelitrons to spare, but for a modest sum, you could pick up a Squier with genuine Fender parts. And Squier also made variations like the Cabronita Thinline (with a single ‘f’-hole) version and a Cabronita Custom version - quite different from the original concept - which came with a single Fidelitron at the neck, a standard Tele alnico bridge pick-up, a tone pot which was absent from the other versions and a Bigsby tremolo.

Squier headstock on their Cabronita model

Comparing the grunt of the Cabronita's Fideltrons with the Tex-Mex single coils of my Mexican-built Fender De Luxe Nashville Telecaster and my Fender FMT Telecaster, they sit somewhere in the middle of those two - although strangely, the Fidelitron humbuckers seem to be edging closer to the sound of single coils of the Nashville than the Seymour Duncan humbuckers on the FMT. I'd call the Fidelitrons 'mild humbuckers'. I'd argue that hot single coil pick-ups like the P90 are gutsier than the Fideltrons. If we talk about the finish of the Squier Cabronita I acquired, I'd say the frets on the neck are a millimetre or so very slightly proud generally; they're not ragged and so don't snag and irritate my fret hand but they haven't been particularly well finished. Compare that with the cheaper Jet JT350 I added later to my cohort of guitars, the neck finishing on the Jet is much better. Also, while the height of the Fidelitrons is adjustable, on my model the screw holes haven't been drilled particularly straight, so the degree to which I can adjust the pick-up height is limited. The scratch plate is a basic singly-ply white and looks a bit cheap if you ask me, but then it's only a scratch plate which can be easily changed for a custom one of your preference. Of course you can just remove the scratch plate and improve the looks to reveal a totally black body, but you'd still be left with the plate's screw holes exposed. That might be a look you'd want. Or not. One positive I can mention is that the Fender basic six-string saddle and baseplate does its job of holding the strings in position really well and if you're used to muting notes or strumming hard then it doesn't cause you grief on the heel of your picking hand.

When they came on the market at first, the 'no frills' Squier Cabronitas were priced slightly higher than the Squier Classic Vibe models, but so much less than the Fender USA custom shop models and about two-thirds the price of a Mexican-built Fender Cabronita. At last the Cabronita was affordable. And with that comes the well-worn phrase, “You get what you pay for”.

Not that the Squier Cabronitas are poorly made. Far from it. The build quality is about the same as Squier's ‘Classic Vibe’ models, so pretty good although I have some reservations as discussed above. I bought my Cabronita second-hand a couple of years ago. They’re no longer produced except to order from the Fender USA custom shop. I paid around £250 for mine although I now see Squier Cabronitas fetching £550+ on the second-hand market in the UK. I guess they're in demand, their cool look and practicality making them popular with indie bands. I find the guitar gigs well and it seems reliable. It has a distinctive sound, as you would imagine, from the ‘Fidelitrons’ and sounds great through a modelling processor. But I usually just plug in without the ‘shoegaze’, maybe just a reverb pedal for a bit of snapback. That said, I've found the Cabronita performs admirably with added 'shoegaze' kit.

On the neck and bridge pick-ups separately it has a good clean sound with some reverb on a clean channel on my Egnater Tweaker 40 tube amp, though as expected, not the spanky, twangy sound you’d associate with a standard Tele with single-coil Alnico pick-ups, but with good definition, considering there’s no tone control. There’s less to faff about with.

Mid position engages both pick-ups and to me this seems to lack character and seems to have a detectable drop in volume over a single pick-up selection.

On the amp's dirty channel it is a beast and really rocks out in any pick-up configuration. And it has good definition, although it's not quite as gutsy a sound that I can get from the Seymour Duncans on my Fender Custom FMT Telecaster (a beautiful instrument, these days Indonesian-made and a good bit more expensive to buy new than a Squier).

I think the Cabronita’s fairly versatile, within limits. It can’t give you everything but it can give you a good range of stuff, although I'd say it doesn't particularly excel at anything.

Its simplicity - slab, simple electronics - means repair costs should be low. However, I don’t see many Fidelitron pick-ups for sale on the second-hand market and I think this may be because Fender only made them for the Cabronita and when they stopped making the Mexican and Squier Cabronitas, they stopped making the Fidelitrons. If you find any, they’ll have come from a broken-up or modded Cabronita, not from the Squier Parts shop. That said, there are plenty of after-market options, from the actual TV Jones pick-ups (expensive) to compatible (inexpensive - you get what you pay for) pick-ups by Roswell and other companies which give a reasonably similar if not outstanding performance.

All in all, it’s a good Tele to have and can take a good bit of gig punishment. However, I have noticed that over the last year or so, some 15 year old Mexican-built Cabronitas are fetching second-hand prices that you’d almost pay for a new Fender USA Telecaster, so I guess demand is higher than supply, currently. Second-hand Fender USA custom shop Cabronitas are fetching insane prices. Buyer beware. Make sure your eyes aren't bigger than your wallet!

Squier did come out with some new versions which they called Paranormal Cabronitas, but they differed from the original Fender concept (like you can see in the photo below) and were 'thinline' (partially hollow-bodied with a single 'f'-hole) and had two P90-style pick-ups with both volume and tone controls. I don't know what they're like to play but I remember seeing plenty of them for sale second-hand on eBay and online advertising journals (unlike the original concept version), so I guess they might not have been as good as their original buyers had thought. Even though these 'Paranormals' are no longer produced, I've found them to be much cheaper on the second-hand market than the original concept Cabronitas.

Squier's Cabronita Telecaster- in black and white. Original and best.

So, there’s no doubt the original concept Cabronita is unique in the Fender world, but is it a basic workhorse with cool appeal, a genuine classic, a compromise, or a gimmick? Let me know in the comments.