Phil O'Keefe Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 "accordion DNA" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted April 20, 2015 Members Share Posted April 20, 2015 The only store bought Tele I have right now is an Squire Affinity I bought several years ago. I did do some modding. I refretted it because the original frets wore out pretty quickly. The necks on those are very slim and the super jumbo frets added a little girth to the neck profile making it just about right for my hand. I also changed the tuners to high ration 18:1 Grover minis which was a big improvement over the stock squire ones. I think I had one of the stock tubers crack off at its collar while tuning. Must have been put on too tight at the factory. Another item was a replacement bridge. It wasn't an improvement, just a replacement. I'm thinking about switching it for a compensated bridge and drilling holes through body and dumping the top load. The saddles on a top load don't have the same downward pressure a string through bridge has. This affects sustain and the saddles can vibrate to one side. I used a thin guitar pick cut up and glued to the sides of the saddles so the space between the saddles remains constant but its still a crap bridge. Its setup and intonated at this point but it's a poor design. I did put a 4 way switch in it which gives me the extra series pickup wiring position which I've found useful. I haven't changed out the pickups. They are the budget type with glued on ceramic magnets and have a slightly driven modern tone to them. I may replace them at some point to get some better vintage Tele spank, but I actually like the sound of the cheap pups, especially for playing slide. I can say for a cheap Tele it does play exceptionally well since I refretted it. The stock frets were poorly finished with some sharp edges. If you can handle rounding them off you can get a couple of years out of the frets. All in all A good buy for $185 and at least as good as the Fender Tele I bought back in the 70's. Pretty light weight too. Its not a guitar for someone with large hands would like. The thin neck would likely cause allot of people to get hand cramps playing allot of barre chords. I do have medium sized hands but I cut a tendon to my thumb as a kid which never healed right and though I can play any sized necks with my thumb on the back of the neck, I do find thinner necks more comfortable for allot of the stuff I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mister natural Posted April 22, 2015 Members Share Posted April 22, 2015 heavily modified Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Steve2112 Posted April 22, 2015 Members Share Posted April 22, 2015 ~Snipped for space and clarity~ I haven't changed out the pickups. They are the budget type with glued on ceramic magnets and have a slightly driven modern tone to them. I may replace them at some point to get some better vintage Tele spank, but I actually like the sound of the cheap pups, especially for playing slide. . I have a recent Mexi version of the glued ceramic pups. I find the lower chords acceptable- but when I go up the neck it seems to get "weak". I've check pup height n such. I am not sure if I should assume changing pups will correct that- but popular opinion is that even a moderate upgrade should be much better. Wish I just played open and lower chords cause it rocks pretty good there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 heavily modified Very nice! How do you like the JM in the neck position? How does it sound when combined with the bridge pickup? I use those same compensated saddles on a couple of my guitars, and they really make a huge difference in the intonation. I think I paid ten or twelve dollars a set for them - money very well spent IMO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted April 22, 2015 Members Share Posted April 22, 2015 I sold these and got me a 1972 Telecaster in mocha brown, nicely faded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 got me a 1972 Telecaster in mocha brown, nicely faded Are the sides slightly darker than the top and back are? I had a '73 that was very similar to yours - one of the best guitars I've ever owned, and one of the ones I most regret getting rid of. The sides were definitely darker on it - more of a chocolate brown shade, and noticeably darker than the top and back. I have seen a few pictures that hint at something similar, but I've never seen another one quite like it in person, even though I've seen several mocha Telecasters from the 70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted April 22, 2015 Members Share Posted April 22, 2015 This is a Warmoth build with Kinman pickups and a Gotoh bridge. I wanted to build a "Let It Be" tele out of rosewood but the wood was too expensive. This guitar has an ash body and a maple neck with a rosewood board. I stained the ash and dyed the maple to make it look like rosewood. I also went with a wider neck and flatter fingerboard to make it more like my Les Paul. I think Warmoth stuff is great and I will probably "build" more of my own guitars in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted April 22, 2015 Members Share Posted April 22, 2015 Are the sides slightly darker than the top and back are? I had a '73 that was very similar to yours - one of the best guitars I've ever owned, and one of the ones I most regret getting rid of. The sides were definitely darker on it - more of a chocolate brown shade, and noticeably lighter than the top and back. I have seen a few pictures that hint at something similar, but I've never seen another one quite like it in person, even though I've seen several mocha Telecasters from the 70s. yup, the sides are darker, under pickguard it is about the same as rest of the top, lighter Fender only did this color scheme for a couple of years and yup, a fine guitar, I was looking to pick up a 70s Tele and this one popped up locally, it has had a refret and a tone pot replacement but everything else is original I think this ends my Tele quest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 22, 2015 Author Share Posted April 22, 2015 If it's like my old one in terms of playability and sound, I could easily see that guitar satisfying all your Tele wishes. It's a beauty - congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted April 22, 2015 Members Share Posted April 22, 2015 Leo certainly got it right, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Midlife Rocker Posted April 23, 2015 Members Share Posted April 23, 2015 Here's my contribution to the day!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 23, 2015 Author Share Posted April 23, 2015 Very nice. Can you please tell me more about the one on the left? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted April 23, 2015 Members Share Posted April 23, 2015 here is mine, old picture but still mine, and lately gets more playtime as in the past: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Radar-Love Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 So... show us your Telecasters! A while back, I was thinking about starting a "Super-Tele" thread. This would be a thread for Telecaster-like guitars that are departures from standard Telecasters. There are oodles of Super-Strat guitars out there for sure. But, there are Super-Teles, too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Midlife Rocker Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 Very nice. Can you please tell me more about the one on the left? Hey Phil... So this tele started life as a yellow squire. Took many of the parts from the black tele in the picture above, and put them on this one. Got a 3 pickup pickguard and routed the body. Wired it with a 5 position switch, too. Since it's now a Fender Tele that I "customized", I removed the old headstock graphics and I made a watermark for it. Last thing I did was paint the body black. Here's the before and after shots of the project. I left the serial number on the back of the headstock showing it was made in china. It's my practice/beater guitar and don't plan on selling it. It was a fun project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 I love that you're not trying to pass it off as something it isn't. You made it your own, and it stands out - very cool! The paint job looks good - and black is a hard color! What did you use for the paint? How do you have the five-way switch wired up - with Strat-type switching - or are you using a different configuration? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 :philthumb: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 here is mine, old picture but still mine, and lately gets more playtime as in the past: Quoted for awesomeness. That's such a cool guitar Tele! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 Quoted for awesomeness. That's such a cool guitar Tele! cool indeed, but i'm not 100% happy with it. after i did my research which neck my cij 68'reissue strat has, i did compare them, the tele neck is slighty thicker, with almost same nut width. not as thick as my les paul but thicker than the strat, which neck i love. the pickup selector switch was failing from time to time, but i guess i have fixed this now permanently often i think how a humbucker in the bridge would sound, as the neck one is a bit dark would i have known the difference between a '72 deluxe and custom at the time i bought it, i now would go the deluxe road, but i fear they are not available as lefty, at least i guess from fender japan and more than once i was at ebay almost hitting the buy it now button for a "no drilling" bigsby conversion kit for it, but the 400$ incl. shipping and customs fee have prevented me so far from doing so... what i really like about it, is its light weight with having still a full/fat sound, the accessibility of the upper frets which is more difficult on the les paul and almost not possible on the hendrixed strat.... so what you think? *g* a new neck, humbucker in the bridge and the bigsby on it? that would be almost the investment from a complete new guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Midlife Rocker Posted April 24, 2015 Members Share Posted April 24, 2015 I love that you're not trying to pass it off as something it isn't. You made it your own, and it stands out - very cool! The paint job looks good - and black is a hard color! What did you use for the paint? How do you have the five-way switch wired up - with Strat-type switching - or are you using a different configuration? Paint was tough. I'd never go through the process of painting another guitar. I used Krylon and gave it six coats. Wet sanded after each application. The pickups are wired like a strat...and I may try wiring it a little different sometime this summer. But as I mentioned, this is a practice guitar, so it'll get lots of use! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 cool indeed, but i'm not 100% happy with it. after i did my research which neck my cij 68'reissue strat has, i did compare them, the tele neck is slighty thicker, with almost same nut width. not as thick as my les paul but thicker than the strat, which neck i love. the pickup selector switch was failing from time to time, but i guess i have fixed this now permanently often i think how a humbucker in the bridge would sound, as the neck one is a bit dark would i have known the difference between a '72 deluxe and custom at the time i bought it, i now would go the deluxe road, but i fear they are not available as lefty, at least i guess from fender japan and more than once i was at ebay almost hitting the buy it now button for a "no drilling" bigsby conversion kit for it, but the 400$ incl. shipping and customs fee have prevented me so far from doing so... what i really like about it, is its light weight with having still a full/fat sound, the accessibility of the upper frets which is more difficult on the les paul and almost not possible on the hendrixed strat.... so what you think? *g* a new neck, humbucker in the bridge and the bigsby on it? that would be almost the investment from a complete new guitar If you're going to put that much work into it, you might want to hunt for a lefty Deluxe - if such a beast exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members t_e_l_e Posted April 25, 2015 Members Share Posted April 25, 2015 If you're going to put that much work into it, you might want to hunt for a lefty Deluxe - if such a beast exists. besides routing for a humbucker (where i don't have tools to do so ) its not much work, just a lot of money... and i did google for a lefty deluxe yesterday, all i found questions from other lefties if such a thing exists i guess for now i will change nothing, altough i ebay'ed the bigsby yesterday again, still 300$ + shipping and customs fee ~ 400$... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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