Got 650 benjamin's?

[DangerousR6]

http://cgi.ebay.com/94-Fender-Aluminum-Strat-Body-Fender-Guitar-Body_W0QQitemZ190358722110QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar_Accessories?hash=item2c5243963e

 

[JaySwear]

only 4 1/2 lbs. thought it would be heavier! i think that thing would badass with some EMGs

 

[line6man]

Washingtons.

 

[DangerousR6]

only 4 1/2 lbs. thought it would be heavier! i think that thing would badass with some EMGs

It's hollow, basically 2 thin sheets of aluminum with some aluminum bracing inside and all welded together...Would be sweet with like a carbon fibre pg and some EMG's... :headbang1:

 

[Finch]

Washingtons.

+1

 

[stubhead]

Gee! Lookie what I just built!

I traded stuff worth about $400 for the body. The Tele bodies are super-rare - there were 409 legitimate Strat bodies that went to Fender, and only 100 Teles. There were an unknown number of Strat & Tele bodies that "fell off the truck", as it were... probably no more than 30 Strats and 20 Teles? One pops up on Ebay every few years. There are two different companies (Spruce Hill & Kellett) who both claim to be still making guitars out of some so-called remaining stock - the SAME stock -  but they have extreme "delivery issues", as they say. I got my Tele body from someone I used to play in bands with in high school 36 years ago who now owns a studio in Mpls, and it took me five YEARS to shame him out of it ("Oh, it's SO-OO too bad the poor thing will NEVER be played, sniff sniff boo hoo" etc) so it's priceless - to me.  :toothy12: Rings like a bell -
You do NOT have to worry about a lack of attack or treble response! :hello2:

I don't post about it promiscuously here, because I wanted a very specific neck shape and only USA Custom gets that exact.* It used to at least have a Warmoth pickguard (that shell one) but, I just cut a soundhole out of a new black pickguard and slapped it on - now I'm an acoustic guitarist!  :cool01: I know I've got the tab for "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" around here somewhere....
Kumbaya THIS, Baby. arty07: :guitarplayer2:

*(the neck is what USACG calls a "Super-soft V", tapering from .860" at the nut to .930" at the 12th - essentially a roundneck size but boatneck shape. If I build any more conventional six-strings, my next one will be the same shape but even just a hair larger - .880" to .950", say. But I'm kinda strung out on seven-strings, these days. I wanna fretless baritone - I wanna 'nother pedal steel guitar. I wanna Ferrari & a castle - with a moat.... :-\ - with alligators in it!) :headbang1:

 

[Finch]

thats a sexy tele

 

[jay4321]

He had that body for $400 before if I recall, I blinked and it was $650

 

[Unwound G]

stubhead, can you please explain a bit on how the parts are screwed onto the body ?  Are there reinforced inserts for the neck, bridge and pickguard ?

 

[DangerousR6]

He had that body for $400 before if I recall, I blinked and it was $650

Ya, it's been listed several times. I believe the first time I saw it he had it at $400...I shoulda bought it then... :sad1:

 

[DangerousR6]

stubhead, can you please explain a bit on how the parts are screwed onto the body ?  Are there reinforced inserts for the neck, bridge and pickguard ?

The body has a solid block where the neck goes and bracings inside the body for the other hardware to mount...

 

[stubhead]

Yeah, the neck is mounted to a solid aluminum block. There is a welded rectangular framework of 1/4" by 3/4" aluminum bars that are welded to the block, and extend under the bridge and to a cross piece that the ferrules go through. The top and back are sort of free-floating - the only thing that holds the back against the framework is the pull of the strings on the ferrules, and the top is only held down by the bridge. However, the pickguard is held onto the top with tapped machine screws,so that "solidifies" it quite a bit. There's two big holes under the pickguard, you could easily build it with two humbuckers or put in a middle "Nashville"-style pickup.

Like the aluminum Strats, it only takes the modern "American Standard" bridge hardware, but you can get those with HB holes, and if you want to go nuts I think Callaham and Glendale (maybe Barden too?) are making bridgeplates for that screw pattern. But there's so much metal and it's already such a radical departure from anything like a "real Tele" that buying parts which promise to be "even more vintagey than vintage" for that authentic sound seems bizarre to me. :icon_scratch: With some attention to pre-gain EQ, I can make it imitate a wood guitar somewhat, but that's really bizarre - I WANT it to sound different, I mean what's the point here?

The treble is easy enough  to deal with, because it's got a lot of bass & mids too - the instantaneous attack is what's so different. Your basic soft, squishy wood bodies act as a compressor & muffle the notes, and that's what we grew up hearing. This thing BITES. Not the bad bite, the good bite.... Again, there are ways to muffle it, but that would be dumb? So far I've actually found it best for two really schizophrenic styles - fingerpicking jazz with a dead-clean tone, just a bit of reverb - and howling, super-overdriven tones with a couple of sequential boost stages which are softening the initial attack. It really loves a Digitech "Hot Head" distortion pedal that I recently won*, which is in the Rat/Big Muff tonal territory. I just put on a different pickguard with a soundhole, I suspect I'll be able to get some delightful controlled feedback... if we ever get sunlight again in my lifetime, I'll try to get some pictures.

*(Enter contests, or you won't win. ) :blob7:

 

[DangerousR6]

Yeah, the neck is mounted to a solid aluminum block. There is a welded rectangular framework of 1/4" by 3/4" aluminum bars that are welded to the block, and extend under the bridge and to a cross piece that the ferrules go through. The top and back are sort of free-floating - the only thing that holds the back against the framework is the pull of the strings on the ferrules, and the top is only held down by the bridge. However, the pickguard is held onto the top with tapped machine screws,so that "solidifies" it quite a bit. There's two big holes under the pickguard, you could easily build it with two humbuckers or put in a middle "Nashville"-style pickup.

Like the aluminum Strats, it only takes the modern "American Standard" bridge hardware, but you can get those with HB holes, and if you want to go nuts I think Callaham and Glendale (maybe Barden too?) are making bridgeplates for that screw pattern. But there's so much metal and it's already such a radical departure from anything like a "real Tele" that buying parts which promise to be "even more vintagey than vintage" for that authentic sound seems bizarre to me. :icon_scratch: With some attention to pre-gain EQ, I can make it imitate a wood guitar somewhat, but that's really bizarre - I WANT it to sound different, I mean what's the point here?

The treble is easy enough  to deal with, because it's got a lot of bass & mids too - the instantaneous attack is what's so different. Your basic soft, squishy wood bodies act as a compressor & muffle the notes, and that's what we grew up hearing. This thing BITES. Not the bad bite, the good bite.... Again, there are ways to muffle it, but that would be dumb? So far I've actually found it best for two really schizophrenic styles - fingerpicking jazz with a dead-clean tone, just a bit of reverb - and howling, super-overdriven tones with a couple of sequential boost stages which are softening the initial attack. It really loves a Digitech "Hot Head" distortion pedal that I recently won*, which is in the Rat/Big Muff tonal territory. I just put on a different pickguard with a soundhole, I suspect I'll be able to get some delightful controlled feedback... if we ever get sunlight again in my lifetime, I'll try to get some pictures.

*(Enter contests, or you won't win. ) :blob7:

Not sure of the tele, as I haven't seen one in person. But the strat I have, and there are welds from the bracing to the top and back that were done before the sides were welded on. So for at least on the strat there more that binds than just some of the hardware... :dontknow:

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

If it were made of stainless, you shouldn't go above 88 mph.

 

[DangerousR6]

If it were made of stainless, you shouldn't go above 88 mph.

Ahhhh, but it's aluminum, less rotating mass when surpassing the 88mph mark when doing the shoulder spin...