Artist Guitars TC59 Telecaster review

The Artist TC59, a telecaster-style guitar by Australian company Artist Guitars, combines vintage aesthetics with modern versatility at an affordable price.

I’m going to start this review and say that I think there are 2 types of people in this world – Telecaster players and Strat players. I have always fallen into the category of a strat player, the tone that I get from a strat, the playability and the look is what has always drawn me there. There is something about the Telecaster that reminds me of country music and I don’t dig that, but then Artist Guitars released their TC59 Telecaster and that has changed, somewhat.

Let’s go back to late 2018 – Artist were talking about the development of a Telecaster and asking for some suggestions and there was a lot of hype. Then things cooled off a bit until around May of 2019, when the Teles finally came in. I thought that I would give one a try, as I loved the look of the natural wood and the humbuckers and that fact that I have had good experiences with their other gear really gave me a positive view of the company.

I have been playing this Tele for the last couple of months now through both my Boss Katana and also through a Vox AC10 and it is an incredible but for a touch over $300. I say that for a lot of the Artist range, these guys have seriously worked out overseas manufacture and great quality control. For what you get from the Artist series, I would be saying that you wouldn’t get in the Squire range, but rather you would be looking at Fender Mexico for a quality point.

Artist TC59 Hardware

Satin neck , coil splitting and locking tuners all come as standard on the Artist Telecasters, but that isn’t where it shines. This Tele really shines in the day to day playing, it will take a beating and not fall out of tune, the neck is so quick and smooth that even extended play sessions won’t tire you, it is just a great workhorse.

Given that these guitars are such high quality from the factory, you could very well easily mod them with the pickups that you want and still be well under the price it would cost to pick up a Mexican equivalent (even a Squire Affinity equivalent)

The guitar comes in Natural Ash (Left and Right Hand), Tobacco Burst (RH only). In their range, there is also the TL69 which is a Thinline model of this guitar.

User Reviews

Both user reviews from Google and user reviews on the Artist Guitar website put the TC59 at around 5 stars with the theme being that people are highly impressed by a guitar at the price of this Artist Telecaster. Weight seems to be one of the primary issues that people have with the guitar as one of the only detractors.

What I love about the Artist Telecaster (TC59)

• Massive amount of grunt from the Bullbuckers;
• Coil splitting to allow SS configuration
• Great C-shape neck with a satin finish

What I don’t like about the Artist Telecaster

This is hard, as my role is to be critical of the product, but at $300 for this quality I really can’t complain at all. Could I say that it may benefit from other colour availability, yes I could say that, but does it matter, not really. The Bullbuckers do have a lot of output, but I’m guessing if you are choosing a HH configuration that this isn’t going to bother you too much, also the coil splitting minimises this anyway.

As with any Telecaster, the Artist TC59 is heavy, a bit over 4kg, of Maple (neck) and American Ash (body), so if you are gigging with it you are going to want to have a nice wide strap to support the weight. There is also a Thinline version of the TC59, should weight be a major issue for you.

Last Word

Again, Artist have knocked it out of the park with this one, awesome quality not just for the $319 price tag, but for what really should be a higher price for what you get. For the lefties out there, there is even a left handed model available of the TC59!

Awesome body from the Humbuckers and that satin neck is really a joy to play. I would highly recommend that if you are at all Tele-curious that you should check these out.

The Artist TC59 is available on their website.