newbie advice

sodabap

Newbie
Messages
6
good evening and happy new year people. I've been thinking about building a 'custom' tele deluxe for a while and have managed to get most of the greenbacks in order. I love the look of the tele deluxes, and after seeing some of the gallery shots and read the reviews on here I'm going down the warmoth road. I justed needed to check a couple of things though. Is the CBS neck the one to go for - (the fat headstock) and what type - vintage, modern etc...I haven't a clue to be honest. My only guitar is an sg, so I thought double humbuckers was the way to go, but managed to have a strum on a custom the other day and really liked the mid setting - single coil and humbucker. If I get the deluxe body which already has the bridge routered for a humbucker, would it be easy enough to fit a single coil correctly? Any advice much appreciated.
 
"If I get the deluxe body which already has the bridge routered for a humbucker, would it be easy enough to fit a single coil correctly?"

Sure; assuming you're looking at some of the top-routed '72 Deluxe bodies in the Showcase, you could custom order a custom pickguard from Warmoth with the bridge pickup cut out for a single coil, but that would look a strange and kind of defeat the purpose?

If you like the Tele Custom, keep in mind that you can take any Tele body in the Showcase and have the neck PU route re-routed for a humbucker, so that would be another option.

If you want to use a Strat neck on a Tele body it will fit; but you need to order a Pro or Vintage modern neck with 22 frets so the fretboard overhang will cover the heel not being flush at the bottom of the pocket. See the note on this page:

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/necks.cfm?fuseaction=faq2

Were you trying to reprise the complete '72 Deluxe vibe you would want to go with the CBS headstock; but there aren't any rules, unless you want to re-create that exact look, you can use either Strat peghead style; I usually put std. Strat peghead necks on all my Teles.
 
What you want is this.
T902a.jpg


What you're wanting to use is this.
T904a.jpg


If its in the showcase, its more than likely drilled for a Strat hardtail bridge, and thats not gonna work with a Tele bridge.

There is no "pickguard" that will work for a Tele pickup - you can get an uncut pickguard and try and cut your own... as W only has templates for LARGE FENDER and standard Humbuckers in that pickguard (or so they told me).

Why not just have them make you the body you want?
 
I don't have a real technical answer for you, I only wanted to say that I hate the CBS headstock, EXCEPT on Tele Deluxe's.  I have a friend who has both an early seventies Strat and a Tele Deluxe, and that big old headstock does something goofy to the Strat, but somehow on the Deluxe it just plain old fits right in. 

PS, my next build is going to be either a deluxe or a 72 thinline, still working out some details!
 
Here's my experience of building a warmoth Tele Deluxe. First, I love the humbucker + single coil sound too, so I opted for a middle pickup rout single coil (W can't do it; had to figure that one out myself). Glad I did. Really amazing sounds, this guitar has serious life to it.

And just a thought: I too love the look of the Deluxe; I also decided to go with black korina for the body. And now I regret the Deluxe decision, because a whole bunch of perty wood is covered by pickguard. So if you're thinking of a "wood's natural beauty" style finish, just keep that in mind.
 
it's basically the custom body with a deluxe neck I'm after - but as the custom body doesn't take the 'strat' neck of the deluxe, I was going to get deluxe body and deluxe neck and hope that the coil in the bridge would fit 'snuggly' enough. I would then get the stanard tele flat mounted bridge and custom pickguard. I think it should work - my only concern is 'packing out' the humbucker hole to fit the single coil. I suppose contacting the warmoths for a customised deluxe body would be the handiest. Still finding my feet in the 'build your own' ! Thanks for the advice.
 
You can custom order any Tele style body to incorporate a Strat neck pocket, so you don't have to compromise. It doesn't cost any extra but Warmoth have a non-returnable policy with special builds. Just order a custom body with a strat pocket and you're in business (with any style strat neck you want)
 
"my only concern is 'packing out' the humbucker hole to fit the single coil."

If you mean "routing out", it's not necessary. Just ask Warmoth to re-rout it for a 'universal' rout (no extra charge). Empty space in the pickup mount is fine, but single coils don't fit directly into a humucker rout and so you'll need that 'universal' rout.  Sounds like you definitely need a custom order body, though. Another thought: have you considered unbalanced-coil humbuckers and a coil split? Then you could preserve the tele deluxe look and (mostly) sound, and with a coil split get that extra sound you want. Fralin, Rio Grande, and several others make these humbuckers. I've never used them but sure others have.
BTW, these guitars are really amazing and building your own is very fun. Painting is the only hard part.
 
good advice there people - I think the answer is the CBS strat neck and the custom body with the strat neck pocket - I hadn't realised it was as easy as that! I'm going to give it the oil treatment, maybe korina for a bucket load o'warm sustain! Thanks.
 
Back
Top