Glimmer
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Hope I'm posting this in the right place...
I’ve got a ’64 Telecaster, which I’ve had since the early ’80s. A previous owner had modded it to include a humbucker in the neck position and a Strat pickup in the middle position, keeping the original Tele bridge pickup. He had also ditched the original pick guard, replacing it with a modded Strat guard that the middle pickup was attached to. I played it for about 15 years, then put it aside when I stopped gigging and later switched to acoustic. In 2008 I decided to have it converted back into its natural Tele state, as you can see in these pics.
Due to some overzealous routing for the humbucker and Strat pups, the tech who did the work for me needed to create a large central rout, put in a new block of wood, then rerout for the new Tele pups (you can see this in the above pics). He also put on a new pick guard, control plate assembly and bridge plate w/saddles, which he determined were necessary, but kept the original tuners as they still worked fine.
He also gave it a much needed refret. In its refurbished stated it played and sounded great and still does, though of late it has developed what sounds like a grounding problem. (When you strum a chord you get a "popping" sound as the pick hits each string, when you pick a melody on a single string, it sounds fine.) Since I'm going to need to open it up to look into it, I am asking myself if I might want to change a few of the parts that were added during the refurb and that look out of place on the guitar given its age and the state it’s in, namely the bright white pick guard, shiny control plate and knobs (which should be flat tops on a ’64, right?), and possibly the bridge plate.
None of this is necessary, of course, but that’s no reason to not consider it. :icon_jokercolor: For maybe $100–$150 I could have the above parts actually look like the rest of the guitar. Callaham offers “distressed” versions of the hardware and also has a parchment guard that would look right. Others may as well.
I’m also wondering if I should replace the strap lug on the butt end of the guitar, which is heavily rusted. The tech who did the refurb either couldn’t or didn’t wish to attempt to remove it (can’t recall which).
Here’s the way the upper bout lug looks:
So, as the title of the thread says: what would you do?
I’ve got a ’64 Telecaster, which I’ve had since the early ’80s. A previous owner had modded it to include a humbucker in the neck position and a Strat pickup in the middle position, keeping the original Tele bridge pickup. He had also ditched the original pick guard, replacing it with a modded Strat guard that the middle pickup was attached to. I played it for about 15 years, then put it aside when I stopped gigging and later switched to acoustic. In 2008 I decided to have it converted back into its natural Tele state, as you can see in these pics.
Due to some overzealous routing for the humbucker and Strat pups, the tech who did the work for me needed to create a large central rout, put in a new block of wood, then rerout for the new Tele pups (you can see this in the above pics). He also put on a new pick guard, control plate assembly and bridge plate w/saddles, which he determined were necessary, but kept the original tuners as they still worked fine.
He also gave it a much needed refret. In its refurbished stated it played and sounded great and still does, though of late it has developed what sounds like a grounding problem. (When you strum a chord you get a "popping" sound as the pick hits each string, when you pick a melody on a single string, it sounds fine.) Since I'm going to need to open it up to look into it, I am asking myself if I might want to change a few of the parts that were added during the refurb and that look out of place on the guitar given its age and the state it’s in, namely the bright white pick guard, shiny control plate and knobs (which should be flat tops on a ’64, right?), and possibly the bridge plate.
None of this is necessary, of course, but that’s no reason to not consider it. :icon_jokercolor: For maybe $100–$150 I could have the above parts actually look like the rest of the guitar. Callaham offers “distressed” versions of the hardware and also has a parchment guard that would look right. Others may as well.
I’m also wondering if I should replace the strap lug on the butt end of the guitar, which is heavily rusted. The tech who did the refurb either couldn’t or didn’t wish to attempt to remove it (can’t recall which).
Here’s the way the upper bout lug looks:
So, as the title of the thread says: what would you do?
