Tele talk

[swarfrat]

Discovered the f-hole style pickguards, which opens up a whole slew of showcase bodies.

 

[Fat Pete]

I love both of those pickguard styles (just don't try to use the Thinline one on a regular front routed Tele).

 

[MikeW]

Love this body/pickguard combination. I'd go with a Roasted Maple/Rosewood neck though.

 

[swarfrat]

Dunno about rosewood, but ebony might work. Good thing this one isn't a vintage radius or I'd have some splainin' to do.

 

[swarfrat]

Found someone local doing ash (and nothing but ash) unfinished ebay bodies for cheap enough to slip in the monthly toy budget. Got a righty top routed ash tele body with a lefty bridge route coming. Once I get a finish on the body, I'll be crawling the showcase for a neck. I decided against the mini-humbucker neck pickup for now. Still not sure why, I guess some tele neck video clips I saw, plus the pickups I'd been looking at.

Going with Neovins and a lefty bridge. Neck will have a 7.25" radius, fingerboard depends on finish, but I'm currently planning to shoot the body black (first time with my HF  HVLP gun), and run with a tort pickguard, and ebony fingerboard. Or maybe I'll shoot it white. That could look good too.

 

[mayfly]

Hi Swarfrat,

would very much like to see a review of your body once you receive it!  Photos as well if you've got the time and inclination.

 

[swarfrat]

Decisions decisions...
Was leaning towards black but the white sure makes the tort pop. Of course the black subdues it a bit. And I think I'm in love with the f-pickguard even without f-holes.

 

[TBurst Std]

Of those 3, I’d
Opt black

 

[swarfrat]

Well, a quick trip to ebay and the south end of the guitar is pretty much taken care of:

Wilkinson Lefty three saddle bridge
GFS Neovin Vintage (I'm curious about hard vintage but I found a deal on these and I don't think think it's "settling")
Wired control plate and a tort pickguard

All around 1 bill.

 

[DangerousR6]

As Cagey said, I too thought the Tele to be off putting. But something happened and all of a sudden I had to have one, and ended up with two. An all cherry hollow, an a spalted maple/mahogany hollow, and I absolutely love them. But I didn't want the typical tele twang so I opted for some hot hums and Floyds, sort of rocked them up. So my advice is just build it how you want it, and see where it leads... :guitarplayer2:

 

[swarfrat]

IMO "Twang" sounds a lot different through an AC-30 or JCM800 than a Twin or Super.

 

[musicispeace]

There is something about a white tele to me, just gets me. But that is me. Mine is white with no pickguard, has a roasted maple neck and fretboard. I find myself suddenly swooning.....

 

[bagman67]

I didn't have a tele until I'd been playing for something like 27 years.  I don't know what I did without one all those years.  Such a simple machine, and so rewarding.  I'm not personally enamored of the vintage-correct vibe, preferring individually intonated saddles and so on - but the fundamental concept remains as valid and beautiful today as it was when Leo was touched by the gods and delivered the first one.

 

[swarfrat]

This one isnt so much about vintage correctness as just chasing out of fashion ghosts.  I'd prefer individual saddles, but that appears to be the price for a big chunk o brass saddle.  The lefty bridge will likely have the telecaster mafia at my door with pitch forks. (Possibly loaded pitch forks if you get my drift).  Same with entertaining notions of the f pickguard on a solid body. It's also northern heavy ash.

Cant wait to hear it through my Lead 12!

 

[bagman67]

The Gotoh GTC201 is a modern-style (six-saddle with no ashtray-edge) telecaster bridge with brass saddles:


https://g-gotoh.com/international/product/gtc201.html


Available at Mojotone for $48USD.  I forget whether you're in Europe  or on an island off the coast of France, but it's likely available over there as well.


http://www.mojotone.com/guitar-parts/bridges-tele-style/Gotoh-Modern-Tele-Bridge-w-Brass-Saddles-GTC201-Chrome


Also seen in the wild on Reverb, eBay, etc.

 

[swarfrat]

Ha. I list Svalbard as my home on FB, but I'm actually in NC.

I realized that when the last batch of my ebay order arrives, I'll actually have everything I need to string it up. I have three good inserts and one goobered up insert on my 24.75" scale Wenge/Ebony strat neck. But it does have an Earvana nut and tuners. I think to repair the fourth hole I need to get some scrap wenge, forstner the insert hole, glue a plug in it and redrill.  It's hidden inside the neck joint, I suppose I could use something else like oak or mahogany without injuring the tone worms.

If the intonation bugs me I'll see if I can get a left handed version of the Gotoh bridge.  At the rate I complete projects I'll probably be all summer sanding and finishing the body. Especially since I have a treehouse to finish first (so my boy can actually play in it this summer)

 

[swarfrat]

First piece arrived today - wired control plate (not the most excited part), but I went ahead and swapped the volume/tone cause it's going in backwards.  Lefty bridge, upside down control plate. Yeah, it's gonna be a weird tele.

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure reversed control plates are that unusual any more. A couple of mine are that way, and I've built them that way for several others as well. It just makes more sense.

 

[rgand]

I also reversed the control plate on my Tele. I like it better that way. Good choice, there. Like Kevin said, it just makes more sense. Remember to reverse the switch in it, too. :icon_thumright:

 

[swarfrat]

Bridge, pickguard, and ferrules arrived today. Pickguard will need trimming for my control plate. Not sure which is off - it's my first tele, hope it's not the control plate cause it's the pickguard that'll have to be trimmed. Pickguard wasw a nice brown tort, not the red or yellow ones. I think it'll look awesome either way.

I already thought about the compensated saddles. I figured I could just swap them around, or turn them around. But no. There's two different saddles, let's call em A and B.  A left handed bridge has two B saddles and one A saddle. A right handed bridge has two A saddles and one B saddle. If you turn either around, you get the exact same thing as you had before swapping.  Best price I've found is $10 for 3, which isn't a big deal, but the shipping window doesn't line up with holiday plans right now.  Body will be another 3-4 weeks still. Starting to wish I'd gone thinline since it's the heavy ash variant.