Battle of the Squiers - Strat Vs Tele

Atmarama

I was contemplating buying a Squier Standard Tele (Tele GAS) today, as I found one selling here second hand for a good price. Before the seller came to my place with the Tele, I was playing my Affinity Strat plugged directly into a 30w Fender frontman amp, so that I could compare the sound of the strat with the tele when it arrived.

The seller arrived with the Vintage Blonde Tele, and I plugged it straight in, same settings and volume as the strat. First off the tone seemed a lot more muddy and indistinct than the strat, and the volume (at the same level) seemed to me to be a lot softer...

Is this normal?

The other thing that put me off was the colour - I was expecting something like this: http://www.elderly.com/fmic/items/SQT-BLND.htm
But it somehow in real life it looks more yellowish,kind of like this: http://www.squier-talk.com/forum/squier-telecasters/4984-ngd-vintage-blonde-squier-standard-tele.html

Any opinions or thoughts on the matter?

chris77

I swopped out the stock neck pups on both my Fender std teles. The stock pup on my ash tele nearly killed my love for what has since become my favourite player. Can only presume the ones on the squiers are just as bad, if not worse. The guitars sounded like a mouth full of cotton. Fitted some toneriders, and Wow! Major improvement.
But the bridge pups are great. I just Love their tone! (although I swopped the bridge of one with a stacked bucker, just to have something else as well.)