Show Full Spec Comparison
| Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster | Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior | |
|---|---|---|
| General | ||
| Brand: | Fender | Gibson |
| Year: | 2021 | 2019 |
| Configuration: | SS | H |
| Strings: | 6 | 6 |
| Made in: | Mexico | United States |
| Series: | Artist | Artist Collection |
| Colors: | Blue | White |
| Left-Handed Version: | No | No |
| Body | ||
| Type: | Solid Body | Solid Body |
| Body Material: | Alder | Solid Mahogany |
| Bridge: | 6-Saddle Strings-Through-Body Tele with Stainless Steel Saddles | ABR-1 with convertible options |
| Neck | ||
| Neck Joint: | Bolt-On | Set |
| Tuners: | Deluxe Cast/Sealed Locking with Vintage Style Button | Vintage |
| Fretboard: | Rosewood | Indian Rosewood |
| Neck Material: | Maple | Solid Mahogany, Long Tenon, Hide Glue Fit |
| Decoration: | White Pearloid Dot | Custom Celluloid Trapezoid |
| Scale Size: | 25.5" | 24.75" |
| Shape: | Mid 60s C | Custom 1962 Slim Taper |
| Thickness: | 1st Fret: 0.825'' (21mm) - 12th Fret: 0.975'' (24.8mm) | 1st Fret: 0.83'' (21.1mm) - 12th Fret: 0.94'' (23.9mm) |
| Frets: | 21 Narrow Tall Nickel Silver | 22 Jumbo Nickel Silver |
| Fretboard Radius: | 7.25" | 12" |
| Nut: | Synthetic Bone | Nylon |
| Nut Width: | 42mm (1.654'') | 43mm (1.693'') |
| Electronics | ||
| Bridge Pickups: | Fender Vintage-Style 50s Single-Coil Tele (Single Coil / Passive) | Gibson Custom Dog-Ear P90 w/ Switchable Induction Coil Circuit (Humbucker / Passive) |
| Middle Pickup: | ||
| Neck Pickup: | Fender Vintage-Style 50s Single-Coil Tele (Single Coil / Passive) | |
| Switch: | 3 Way | 0 Way |
| Knobs: | Dome | Bell |
| Pickup Mods: | None | Multi-Voicing |
| Volume Controls: | 1 | 1 |
| Tone Controls: | 1 | 1 |
| Hardware | ||
| Strap Lock: | No | No |
| Hardware Color: | Chrome | Chrome |
Show Diagrams Comparison
Reasons to Get
Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster over Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior
Reasons to Get
Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior over Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster
Other Key Differences
Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster vs Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior
Shared Features
Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster vs Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior
Common Strengths
- High-Quality Nut
- Top Pickup Brand
- Expensive Wood
Common Weaknesses
- Weight Relief
- Stays in Tune (Evertune)
- High-Quality Frets
- Compound Radius Fretboard
- Luminescent Sidedots
- Strap Lock
- 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- Active/Passive Preamp
Price History Comparison
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Hand Size Comfortability
After taking into account the scale length, nut width, neck profile and fretboard radius, we can conclude that both are balanced for most hand sizes.
Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster:
Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior:
Beginner Friendliness
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster meets 92 out of our 8 criteria items for beginner friendliness, while the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior meets only 75. This takes into account the type of frets, scale length, nut width, bridge type, fretboard radius, and neck profile to determine the easiest combination for new players.
New Player Friendliness
Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster- Comfortable shape
- Easy-to-use bridge
- Locking tuners
- Tall frets
- Narrow nut
- Comfortable neck
- Comfortable fretboard
- Short scale
New Player Friendliness
Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior- Comfortable shape
- Easy-to-use bridge
- Tall frets
- Comfortable neck
- Comfortable fretboard
- Narrow nut
- Short scale
- Locking tuners
Sound Quality Comparison
The wood used in an electric guitar or bass is not as important to determine the final tone. However, some people prefer specific wood types, so we'll take a look at those first. Then, we'll take a look at the electronics to determine the versatility and sound quality of each instrument.
Woods Used in Both
Rosewood is an almost purple-looking wood that is used mainly for fretboards since it's heavy, rare, and expensive. It's sometimes used on acoustic guitar bodies to create stronger warm tones. Find out more about Rosewood.
Woods Used in the Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster
Maple is one of the most popular necks for good reasons. It is a strong wood that is relatively cheap to make and looks beautiful. The highest quality maple is the hardest that comes from North America. Find out more about Maple.
Alder is the most popular wood that Fender uses in most of their guitars nowadays. Even though they say it's because of its balanced tone with an emphasis in the upper midrange, it probably is because it isn't too expensive, and it's also pretty lightweight—more than Mahogany. Find out more about Alder.
Woods Used in the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior
Mahogany is a fairly rare wood nowadays. It's used mostly for bodies due to its relatively lightweight. Gibson popularized it with their Les Paul guitars during their golden years, so this wood has a lot of good reputation behind it. The most expensive type comes from South America and it's still used by Gibson even today. Find out more about Mahogany.
Winner: Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior.
Pickup Configuration
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has an SS configuration while the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior has H pickups.
SS is the classic Telecaster configuration. It's used mainly for playing clean or with low-gain distortion, and it's very popular for the country genre because of their brightness. It doesn't give you as much versatility as a Strat SSS configuration, but you might like the cleaner look of a guitar body with fewer pickups.
On the other hand, A single H pickup gives you the advantage of having a little longer sustain (all other things being equal) because there will be less magnetic fields from other pickups affecting the strings' vibration. However, they also give you the least versatility because you won't have other pickups at different distances from the bridge to create different tones. A single humbucking pickup is used for noiseless high output, which is used mainly for Hard Rock genres.
Pickups Quality
Both come with very good pickups from at least one of the specialized brands in the market. With pickups like these, you probably won't need an upgrade anytime soon.
However, the Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has a slight sound quality advantage when taking into account other factors like the type of pickups, magnet, position, etc.
You can purchase similar pickups to the Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster's and use them on any guitar:
Both use Passive pickups. This is what's used for most music genres. They have a regular output and will serve you for both high-gain and clean tones. The alternative (Active pickups) offer a higher output that is mostly used for heavy music.
Winner: Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster.
Versatility Comparison
Some instruments offer you more ways to explore your creativity than others. Below you'll find how both compare when it comes to versatility.
Switch Options
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster gives you 3 switch options while the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior gives you 0. This means that the Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster gives you more options to find the right pickup combination for the type of sound you want to achieve
Only the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior comes with some kind of pickup modification: Multi-Voicing.
Multi-Voicing means the pickups come with multiple ''voices'', which means they can change the tone and gain by a simple switch or knob. Piezo, Fishman and similar are considered multi-voicing pickups.
When evaluating versatility, we also take into consideration bridge and neck joint type, number of frets, switch options, amount of pickups and more.
Winner: Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior.
Final Sound Quality Scores
Build Quality Comparison
When it comes to build quality, we like to take into account everything used to build the instrument. This includes materials, hardware and the quality control expected depending on the country where it was built. Let's see how the Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster compares to the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior.
Country of Origin
The manufacturing country can tell a lot about the build quality of an instrument. The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster is built in Mexico while the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior is made in United States.
Mexico has been for a long time where Fender has built their semi-premium series. If you don't want to overpay for a wellp-built instrument, a guitar built in this country by a good brand always offers good value for the money.
The United States is considered one of the best electric guitar manufacturers in the world. A guitar made in this country is supposed to have world-class quality control. Nowadays, guitars made in other countries can beat some of the ones made in the US, but most of the time, this country offers the best you can get. Of course, that comes at a price.
Winner: Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior
Nut Material
If you want your guitar to stay in tune and sound good, you need a well cut nut. Nut quality can be inconsistent even when comparing two copies of the same model. The best way to make sure you're nut will be well done is by getting a nut made by an expert company like TUSQ or Micarta.
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has a Synthetic Bone nut. Bone is the best natural material for guitar nuts. However, its tonal properties can be inconsistent. That's the problem that synthetic bone fixes. This is much better than using a plastic nut because the nut is more slippery—which helps with tuning stability—, and it gives your open strings rich harmonics.
On the other hand, the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior comes with a Nylon nut. It used to be one of the highest quality materials for nuts (and still is), but it's rare to find nowadays because it's hard to work with. It's a very resistant material with very low friction, so it will keep the guitar in tune and will last for a long time
Winner: Tie.
Fret Material
Most fret wire is made of nickel silver. This material eventually wears down after a lot of use and most instruments end up needing a complete fret replacement. However, some expensive models come with stainless steel frets. This is what you should aim for if you can afford it.
Unfortunately, none of them come with stainless steel frets.
Winner: Tie.
Bridge
The perfect bridge for you will depend on your playstyle because they all have advantages and disadvantages. However, some bridges are more expensive—like Floyd Roses and Evertunes—and thus add more value to a guitar.
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster's brige is a Fixed. It's a simple bridge that is very beginner-friendly since it doesn't require any set-up. You can swap strings easily. It might also give more sustain since it doesn't have complex moving parts that make the strings lose vibration. However, it doesn't have the same versatility as a tremolo bridge.
On the other hand, the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior's is a Tremolo. Tremolo bridges give you more versatility than fixed bridges. They let you perform the intense vibrato effects that would be impossible with a fixed bridge. However, since the bridge floats and there's less contact with the body, the strings lose sustain slightly faster. They can also be a bit harder to restring and set up correctly than fixed bridges.
Since we need to be objective, the most expensive type of bridge will be the winner of this section. In the end, this doesn't matter if you're not going to use the bridge for its original purpose, so choose the bridge that fits your playing style better.
Winner: Tie.
Tuners
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has the best tuners of the two because they are locking tuners. They'll help to keep your guitar in tune because they allow you to tune it without wrapping the strings around the posts. This avoids variations in the tuning due to the strings changing position at the post after a bend. They come at the disadvantage of being slightly heavier than regular tuners. Also, it makes it a lot easier to restring.
Winner: Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster.
Neck Joint
Contrary to popular belief, the difference in sustain and tone that some neck joints give to a guitar is simply unperceivable—if they're all well built. However, some of them do have advantages over the others.
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has a Bolt-On neck joint. This neck is joined to the body by 4 bolts that you can simply unscrew. This allows you to replace the neck or take it off for travel. It's the most common and cheapest way to build a guitar.
On the other hand, the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior comes with Set neck joint. This neck is tightly glued to the body. They give you the least versatility because you can't swap them for a neck that fits your hand better if you want to, unlike bolt-on necks. Some people think this gives more resonance and sustain, but there's no real difference if the bolt-on joint is well built.
Winner: Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster.
Here is the list of features that were considered when choosing the winner in the Features subcategory:
Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster
- Locking Tuners
- Expensive Wood
- Synthetic Bone Nut
- Top Brand Pickups
- Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
- Made in Mexico
- No Neck-Through Build
- No Push Knob or Extra Switch Option
- No Weight Relief
- No Luminescent Inlay
- No Tremolo
- No Compound Radius Fretboard
- No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- No Strap Lock
Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior
- Made in United States
- Expensive Wood
- Nylon Nut
- Top Brand Pickups
- Multi-Voicing Pickups
- Tremolo
- Cheap Fret Wire (NS)
- No Locking Tuners
- No Neck-Through Build
- No Weight Relief
- No Luminescent Inlay
- No Compound Radius Fretboard
- No 21:1 Tuner Ratio
- No Strap Lock
Final Build Quality Scores
Playability Comparison
Let's now compare their playability. Bear in mind that the instrument will feel different depending on your hand size and play style. That's why you should always test before buying. But if you can't or want a second opinion on it, we can still take a look at each of the important measurements of the instrument for you. This way, we can predict how easy a guitar might be to play, or how different it will feel compared to the other.
Remember that, even though the difference might seem small, every inch counts when it comes to feeling of the instrument in your hands. Any variation can completely change how comfortable a guitar feels in your hands.
Nut Width
The nut width will affect the separation between strings at the nut. In this comparison, the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior has the wider nut with 43mm (1.693'') vs 42mm (1.654''). This is a 1mm (0.039'') difference
This means that it will be more difficult to do bar chords on the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior, especially closer to the nut. However, it's also easier to play without muting strings accidently. This favors people with big hands.
Scale Length
The scale length is one of the things that influences playability the most. This is the distance between the nut and the bridge and will affect everything from low action allowance, difficulty to perform bends, fret separation, and even tone.
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has the longest scale: 25.5". The Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior is only 24.75" long. This is a 0.75'' (19.1mm) scale length difference.
This longer scale means that the strings need more tension to get in tune. This is good if you want to avoid fret buzz, which can happen when the strings are too loose and touch the frets while vibrating. This is especially important when playing in lower tunings. This will also let you reduce the gap between fretboard and strings (low action) to make them easier to press down. However, this higher tension will also make it harder to perform bends and vibratos as the strings will feel stiffer.
This also means that the frets have a longer separation between each other, so this will make it harder for people with smaller hands when playing some chord positions.
Another characteristic of a longer scale is that it makes the guitar sound 'snappier' or brighter. This is due to the extra separation between harmonics and overtones produced by the tension. This influences tone more than any other factor (except the pickups).
Lastly, remember that you can also affect the tension of the strings by changing your string gauge. You can use a thicker gauge for more tension and a lighter one for less tension.
Neck Profile
No single neck shape is better than others. However, most people tend to prefer a thinner necks because it doesn't get in their way when playing fast and most hand sizes can adapt to it pretty well. However, some people still prefer thicker necks for a better grip, especially if they have big hands.
In this case, both have different neck shapes:
The Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster has a C type of neck. This is what you'll find in most modern guitars. Most people feel like the thickness of a C neck is simply the less intrusive one for playing fast, while at the same time allowing you to grab the neck easily for resting if you want to.
The Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior, on the other hand, has a D neck. This is a thin and flat neck that is made for playing fast. If you prefer a neck that doesn't get in your way when soloing, this is the shape you should use. Guitarists that prefer to have a bit more grip won't like this type of neck.
Fretboard Radius
Most guitar fretboards are not flat; they usually have a curve or arc across their width. A curved fretboard will make it easier to perform chords without muting strings, while a flatter one will make it easier to play single notes, which is good for bending and soloing in general. The best fretboards have a compound radius that varies across the fingerboard, but they're not common since they take a lot more work to build.
In this case, the Fender Chrissie Hynde Telecaster's fingerboard radius is smaller, which means it's more curved than the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior's. This extra arc will make playing chords easier in this model. You won't be as likely to mute the strings, especially if you have big hands. However, playing single notes and bending will be easier on the Gibson Brian Ray 62 SG Junior.
Fret Size
Both have a Narrow Tall fret size. Their height is very similar to Jumbo frets, but they have a narrower crown. They won't let you feel the fretboard when playing, which will make it easier to get clean notes. However, if you press down too hard you might get the notes out of pitch.
