Baritone Telecaster Project.

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I'll be installing it tomorrow, more pics then...

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Got the pickup installed.  Vid clips later, Flipshare is acting up when uploading to Youtube, will post the link when it's done processing.

I just love the way this looks.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

http://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingSquirrelTony#p/u/12/9egBbbBv_7o

 

[Kostas]

How that red is called Tony? Is it Warmoth finished or you did it? I like how it looks in the videos.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

How that red is called Tony? Is it Warmoth finished or you did it? I like how it looks in the videos.

It's actually a GFS body, was a Christmas gift from Wifey.  They just had it listed as "Red" on the packing list.

You won't see any of it when it's all finished and covered in deerskin though.

 

[reluctant-builder]

Wow, a GFS body? I guess that goes pretty far to show how the pickups have significantly more effect on tone than the body wood, because that sounds really good. I was under the impression that GFS bodies are pretty low-quality. Might a Warmoth body have imparted an extra something to the tone of the guitar?

I forgot which kind of pickup you'd be putting in the neck slot and didn't want to backtrack ... will it just be a traditional Tele lipstick style single-coil?

Thanks for the video; the explanation is quite informative.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

GFS Neovin.  7k humcancelling Tele Neck Pickup.

Not my first, nor my last GFS pickup.  Very good quality/sounds despite their low price.

 

[Cagey]

GFS Neovin.  7k humcancelling Tele Neck Pickup.

Not my first, nor my last GFS pickup.  Very good quality/sounds despite their low price.

+1

Those are some surprising little rascals, aren't they? Very high quality sound and construction at a reasonable price.

DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, Kinman, Lollar, et al could stand to take some lessons from those guys. Mass-produced coils of wire wrapped around magnets with a plastic cover don't need to cost $80-$100, I don't care where they're made. Actually, for what's involved with manufacturing the things, the GFS parts are probably overpriced. But, I'm thankful they're just a third of everyone else.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

GFS does indeed make some surprisingly good pickups, the price is just an added benefit.

Just FYI, the JCA pickup that I just had made cost me $100.00.

Thats $100 for a custom hand wound pickup wound to customer specifications, with less than two weeks turnaround time once final specs have been agreed upon.  Still, well worth the price for the results received!

 

[Cagey]

I think you'd agree a custom hand-wound part is not quite the same animal as a mass-produced production part, and so would justify the additional cost.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I think you'd agree a custom hand-wound part is not quite the same animal as a mass-produced production part, and so would justify the additional cost.

Yup

 

[reluctant-builder]

Hey, Tony. Like I said, you've inspired a baritone jones and I think this might just be the moment at which I welcome, at long last, a Tele into my guitar harem.

What type of body wood do you think is best suited for a baritone? Would it make more sense to go with a traditionally bright body wood, due to the lower register of the guitar ... or is that counter-intuitive?

I worry that going with something "warmer,"  which translates to darker, in my mind, would make a deep voiced guitar muddy. Mahogany comes to mind, immediately; it's what my Swedes are made of, but they're 24.75" and 25.5" scale.

Thanks.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Hey, Tony. Like I said, you've inspired a baritone jones and I think this might just be the moment at which I welcome, at long last, a Tele into my guitar harem.

What type of body wood do you think is best suited for a baritone? Would it make more sense to go with a traditionally bright body wood, due to the lower register of the guitar ... or is that counter-intuitive?

I worry that going with something "warmer,"  which translates to darker, in my mind, would make a deep voiced guitar muddy. Mahogany comes to mind, immediately; it's what my Swedes are made of, but they're 24.75" and 25.5" scale.

Thanks.

Great question.  When I received my body and found out that it was a warmer sounding tone wood (Basswood/Paulownia)  I was, needless to say, concerned that it might be too warm sounding, considering the lower tuning.  To my surprise, it's very balanced.  I attribute much of this to the additional mass in the maple neck shaft given the added scale length.  Also, as a Standard/Thin neck, there is more bulk to it than the wizard type of necks that I've been playing for so many years.  I believe this adds to not only the tonal resonance of this project, but the tuning stability as well.  It's a known fact, a thicker neck is a stiffer neck, and a stiffer neck is more reliable.  The neck was a gift from Ken Warmoth when I worked there, hence the rosewood fingerboard.  I should really thank Ken because that's really what spurred this project on, even though it has hit financial delays here and there.

In retrospect though, I think if I were to start this from scratch and I wasn't so tight on money (I work for a non-profit agency) I'd do a couple of things slightly different.  I would either go with an Alder body or a Swamp Ash.  I think the Alder body would be more focused of the two.  Secondly, I'd consider a maple fingerboard, or an Ebony fingerboard.  I'd prefer a brighter sounding fingerboard as it would be more characteristic of the traditional tele sound.  While I'm not a fan of finishes on fingerboards, I'd likely opt for the ebony board.  I'd even consider Ebony over Canary & ixnay any neck finish whatsoever. Beyond that, I'd pretty much stick to spec on everything else I'm doing.

Come to think of it.  I think the Can/Eb combo over Alder would be ideal.

I can't wait to get the neck pickup to play along with the bridge.  I have a 4 way switch on this so it'll be interesting.
I decided last night to swap out the volume pot for a push/pull to split the bridge, so I can get an even more traditional tele sound on occasions, especially when used with the neck pickup.  The switch options will be as follows, from neck to bridge:
1) Neck + Bridge in Series
2) Neck only
3) Neck + Bridge in Paralell (Traditional)
4) Bridge only (either fullly humbucking or split)

Hope that helps.

 

[reluctant-builder]

Absolutely, it helps. I ran through the Carved-Top Tele Body Builder last night, just for grins and chose Swamp Ash (because I've already got two Alder bodies and thought it would be a nice change while still being a sufficiently bright tonewood). I really liked the way it was coming together; I went with a transparent yellow finish, which I think would probably look great with an ebony board.

I chose to rout the neck for a stacked P90 and the bridge for a traditional humbucker, but that was a lark. I really am craving something with a P90 or two, but I'm not sure how the configuration I conceived would work with the baritone scale.

Also, I could not -- for the life of me -- figure out how to choose a bridge route that would allow me to choose a Gotoh Tele humbucker bridge. Could you help me out, there? I got stuck with Strat flat-mount options and a bunch of other Gotoh versions (like the 510), which I didn't want.

I went with concentric pots with those stacked chrome knobs, so I could split the P90 and humbucker, in one case, for the other pot I was considering being adventurous and trying some parallel vs. series wiring. But my pants are probably still too small for that task.

One thing that bugs me is that, while I'm happy to add a nice, contoured, carved top Tele body to my collection, I really don't care for the headstock ... yet it seems to be one of the few baritone options. I didn't look last night and I'm going to check right now but ... is there any easy way to suss out which headstocks are available in a baritone scale?

Thanks.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Absolutely, it helps. I ran through the Carved-Top Tele Body Builder last night, just for grins and chose Swamp Ash (because I've already got two Alder bodies and thought it would be a nice change while still being a sufficiently bright tonewood). I really liked the way it was coming together; I went with a transparent yellow finish, which I think would probably look great with an ebony board.

I chose to rout the neck for a stacked P90 and the bridge for a traditional humbucker, but that was a lark. I really am craving something with a P90 or two, but I'm not sure how the configuration I conceived would work with the baritone scale.

Also, I could not -- for the life of me -- figure out how to choose a bridge route that would allow me to choose a Gotoh Tele humbucker bridge. Could you help me out, there? I got stuck with Strat flat-mount options and a bunch of other Gotoh versions (like the 510), which I didn't want.

I went with concentric pots with those stacked chrome knobs, so I could split the P90 and humbucker, in one case, for the other pot I was considering being adventurous and trying some parallel vs. series wiring. But my pants are probably still too small for that task.

One thing that bugs me is that, while I'm happy to add a nice, contoured, carved top Tele body to my collection, I really don't care for the headstock ... yet it seems to be one of the few baritone options. I didn't look last night and I'm going to check right now but ... is there any easy way to suss out which headstocks are available in a baritone scale?

Thanks.

I think if the p90's are lower output and bright enough, it would likely complement the baritone scale, so that will be a judgement call I suppose.
As far as the tele hum bridge, I don't see why the one warmoth offers would not work, unless the tele bridge assembly in general is not compatible with their carved top.  That's a "Warmoth Sales" question as the carved top was introduced after my departure.

The electronic layout sounds interesting.  There are plenty of wiring diagrams out there to adventure with, sometimes the amount of options can be overwhelming, that's why I stuck with simplicity with mine, and the 4 way switch provides plenty of options in tone with splitting the bridge.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I went ahead and wired one of the pots to split the bridge, and am very pleased that I did so.
It has a very traditional single coil tone, very similar, but not a dead on tele sound.
Surprisingly, not that significant of a drop in output level when splitting it either. 
When I get the neck pickup in there, these combinations are gonna really shine.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I took some downloaded images of a Stew Mac-Tele Hybrid pickguard and a traditional Tele pickguard, and came up with a morphed design.  I don't intend to use an actual pickguard on this project, but I do plan to borrow the design and apply it to a beaded perimeter as seen here.  The beadwork will likely be a Peyote stich application or a partial concept thereof, beaded directly to the buckskin cover of the body.  The neck pickup hole will be for direct mount application, so the height adjustment holes will not go through the buckskin. The buckskin will be cutout at the edges of the body route.  Thoughts?

 

[Schlieren]

I think something a little bit more complete and graceful works better; the control plate melds more organically with my suggestion I feel.

Maybe curve the final edge more than I have so it starts to round out and come back down the edge of the body... yes.  Let me revise that if I get a chance, because as it is now, it looks like a rounded-edge square has been placed at an angle across the body which is kind of dumb.

 

[Schlieren]

I think that is a little bit better, if you get the idea

 

[swarfrat]

I think the lower tuning actually helps 'warm' not become 'mush'. If you think about it, 'warm' can mean a number of things, but often it means a low-mid bump, maybe a slight rolloff of high end. That bump does not move when you tune down. Instead, relatively speaking, it becomes more mid than low-mid, even if only a tiny bit. That's my thinking anyway.