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NGD: Mah ferst Tele, schucks.....


Destructobot

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Posted this the other day as "Guitar Delivery Agony" The guy had to drive up to Portland today so he just dropped it off personally. I have to say, it was love at first sight (with the guitar, not the guy). The thing is way cool, and I haven't even plugged it in yet! It's an early 80's MIJ squier tele. Neck is sweet, body is ash with a nice semi-trans yellow finish, has some chips and dings here and there for character... Only thing I would change is to put a Wilkinson top-load three-saddle tele bridge on it, the stock bridge just looks cheap and cheesy. I was the only bidder and paid $225. It almost felt like stealing.

 

Here's some pics:

 

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I really like the tort bridge pickup, I'm sure a lot of people will go 'eww' but I think it's really nice.

 

 

I didn't think I would like it either, but now that I've seen it in person it's growing on me. I think it will look even better once I get a real tele bridge on there with the little side plates that come up, it'll make the pickup look a little less naked out in the breeze, give it a cozy little metal home to live in.

 

OH yeah, those chickenhead knobs have to go as well. Non-chrome nickel domes are the only way to go. I must have something laying around I can put the rooster head jobbers on....

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I didn't think I would like it either, but now that I've seen it in person it's growing on me. I think it will look even better once I get a real tele bridge on there with the little side plates that come up, it'll make the pickup look a little less naked out in the breeze, give it a cozy little metal home to live in.



yeah, that would be sweet...it would look nice with Brass saddles too.

and get those chicken heads off!!!!! :lol:

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Real purdy guitar. Nice steal. Definitely with you on the knobs and bridge. That'll sharpen it up (cosmetically of course) a little. I really like the shell on the yellow though. You digging the sound/feel of it?

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Real purdy guitar. Nice steal. Definitely with you on the knobs and bridge. That'll sharpen it up (cosmetically of course) a little. I really like the shell on the yellow though. You digging the sound/feel of it?

 

 

Haven't plugged it in yet, so I can't comment on that other than the acoustic sound. The feel is great though, really nice played-in quality to it. It's 20+ years old after all so that's no surprise. It's nice and light, feels like it has some good resonance to it. I think it might have 11's on it right now, I think I'll switch it to 10's to get a little more bendy. It's not as bright as you'd expect from a maple neck, probably due to the grime on it and lack of finish (the fingerboard is bare wood, finish was stripped off, hence the dirt), but I think the inherent brightness of the ash body and Tele design in general will balance everything out nicely. I'm at class right now but I'm going to crank it up a bit when I get home with a report to follow.

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that's looks badass, only problem is it also looks shorter....I see big screw holes behind the bridge.
:cry:


edit: or maybe not.....maybe it's just the pics?




I'm not sure, haven't looked at the specs yet. If I can't find a bridge that makes it a nice and easy replacement, I'll probably forget it or at least hold off on it for a while. Ideally, I'd put a string-through bridge on and drill the body, but I'd have to get that done by a pro and that means $$$.

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I just got home and plugged it in. :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: Nothing but loud buzz and hum, almost no output. The buzz goes away if I touch the metal part of the cable end plugged into the guitar. My guess is the pu's aren't grounded properly? I can't believe this guy would bring me a guitar that's screwed up like this, and there's no way it just magically happened in transit today. I emailed him suggesting I take it to a shop to be fixed and then email him a photo of the invoice to reimburse me.

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I just got home and plugged it in.
:mad:
:mad:
:mad:
:mad:
:mad:
Nothing but loud buzz and hum, almost no output. The buzz goes away if I touch the metal part of the cable end plugged into the guitar. My guess is the pu's aren't grounded properly? I can't believe this guy would bring me a guitar that's screwed up like this, and there's no way it just magically happened in transit today. I emailed him suggesting I take it to a shop to be fixed and then email him a photo of the invoice to reimburse me.



well, you were the only bidder and it was a steal ... hmmm, :poke:

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Yeah, but there's a difference between getting a deal and having a blatant misrepresentation or omission in the description. I chatted with the guy for a while when he dropped it off today, seems like a stand-up fellow, I think he must not have known. I just don't understand how he didn't know something was wrong with the guitar? :confused: I wish I would have quickly plugged it in while he was here.

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A standard Telecaster bridge with the metal sides will not fit. Those sideless modern-style bridges are way long and don't line up screw-wise. Sucks, really.

 

Guitar's not bad for the price, though. Shame about the electronics, but that can be fixed in an evening.

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He just emailed me back, super accomodating:

"...okay Logan...i've no doubt its something simple....i'm sorry to put you through this...the last thing i did before i packed the gutar last week was to plug it and make sure it was all as it should be....when i unpacked it this morning before hauling it up to Portland i did not check it out which i probably should have....i'm totally fine with reimbursing you but i also want to offer you the chance to bail on it....i'll return your payment if you like...and arrange to get it shipped back...just puttin that out there because in no way do i want someone to take possesion of something they don't want....i can't afford to pay to have the whole guitar rewired....but a simple repair is no problem....lemme know what you wanna do...take care, Patrick"

I told him I'd open it up and look for obvious problems and then get back to him. Anybody out there know what I should be looking for? I don't really know anything about how guitars are wired.

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Strange....I opened up the control plate today. Soldering was UGLY, but appeared to be no obvious shorts or bad connections. Plugged it in and it worked fine :freak: No idea what was wrong before, but now it sounds really, really good. It's kinda dark sounding, really dark actually, sounds rich and full without losing the single coil character. I clicked on my BASS CHORUS (I love saying that) and it just nailed the sound from "let it loose", and I mean exactly, the exact same tone. With some overdrive and volume, I bet this thing can really crank out some heavy sounds with those pickups. The guy actually offered me my money back, shipping and everything. I think he realized he sold it awfully cheap.

I wish it was a little brighter and snappier though, might have to try some stainless strings, to balance out the soft-ish unfinished fretboard and p-90 style pu's. Wouldn't hurt to get some of that crud off the fretboard either I suppose. Those harmonic design 90-series tele pu's really get the Keef vibe going though, it's almost like having humbuckers in it.

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1. The guitar looks great.

2. It truly sucks that the dude sold you a screwed up guitar.

3. The grounding problem should be an very easy fix, you might want to unscrew the control plate and see with there's a loose wire.

4. I've just sent an e-mail to Callaham Vintage parts to see if they make an ashtray bridge for these American Standard/Squire guitars. I'll let you know if they get back to me.

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