Troubled Treble's Tele (+ 3 Sound Clips)

[TroubledTreble]

Specs:

Neck: Vintage Modern, 59' Roundback, One Piece Birdseye Maple, Vintage Tint Gloss, 6150 frets, Gotoh Vintage Locking Tuners, Corian Nut.

Body: Alder,  Vintage White, standard route, standard heel, Wilkinson Compensated Saddle Bridge.

Electrics: Roadhouse Specials Pickups, Electrosocket Jack, standard controls.                http://www.roadhousepickups.com/RH_Special_Tele.html


SOUND CLIPS-

Thanks to Ed Sullivan of Ed Sullivan Music for the sound clip and original song.
Ode to Chet and Les by Ed Sullivan      http://roadhousepickups.com/Specials_Tele/Ode_To_Les_And_Chet.mp3

Of the same pickups in a different Tele  http://roadhousepickups.com/Specials_Tele/Customer_Dirty_1.mp3

One more clip, this one has three guitar parts all same guitar and pickups. http://roadhousepickups.com/Specials_Tele/customer_shadowlands.m4a

It was a joy to create and even more fun to play. I created this guitar mostly out of the need for a demo guitar for pickups but I always wanted a Tele again. The neck shape is really great! I have had some thick neck guitars in the past and really like them. I decided to try the 59' though I wanted a thicker neck. Since it will get a lot of playing from others I decided not to go too thick. My next one will be thicker for sure.

I wanted to finish it myself but had to give up that idea since I realized that I am just too busy to spare the time. I was looking for a color that was slightly buttery and the Vintage White was very close to what I had envisioned. I really like it now that I have it in hand. It is hard to get a grip on exactly what color it is on the Warmoth site.

The tone of this guitar is just phenomenal! It really rings unplugged and cranked up it is so buttery and slick... Wow! The neck finish is flawless and plays effortlessly. This is the only maple neck in my collection and it has brought me back to liking them. I did not know this was a birdseye until I ordered it. (missed that somehow  :tard It was not priced that way. The vintage tint really brings out the features.

It's nice to be back in the company of a Tele again!

 

[Mor Paul]

Birdseye? We need close-ups!  :icon_biggrin:

Looks great!

 

[TroubledTreble]

Granted Max it's not much and probably why it was not priced accordingly. It has a "smattering" of birdseyes up and down the neck. Just enough to make you say "Hey, alright!".

 

[tfarny]

Simple and gorgeous. I love it. Great photos too, we should make a guitar porn calendar, that is perfect for Miss October.  :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

 

[Nando Vallart]

sweet!

 

[jimh]

Simple and gorgeous. I love it. Great photos too, we should make a guitar porn calendar, that is perfect for Miss October.  :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:

massive +1 on all counts.
That's a great looking guitar, and I'm sure it sounds killer

I love the idea of a warmoth calendar. We could use Dmraco's guitar of the month thread as a starter.

 

[Tonar8352]

Very nice!!!!!!!!!  :icon_thumright:

Are you sure you have the correct pickups in it?  :laughing7:

 

[Return of Guitlouie]

Nice one TT!!!!

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Any color of White and a Tortoise PG always gets an A+ from moi.

 

[blue313]

Beautiful and classic all around!  :glasses9:

 

[TroubledTreble]

Thanks gents!

I lamented over which pickguard to put on. Tortoise has always been a fav. Now I have a couple of pickguards for sale. :laughing7:

As I play it more I am really into the neck shape. Though I kind of turned away from maple necks the feel of the finish and the tone it helps impart on this guitar are really great! I learned after ordering that 21 fret necks are available. I really like the 21s better. Especially when it comes to pickup swapping.

I needed to install a string tree to get rid of that *ping* sound on those two strings. I wanted to get away with not installing one but it really needed it. All that is left is to give it the final setup now that the neck has had some tension on it. I've used the time honored nickle spacing to set the pups. Works great!

 

[Alfang]

Very nice!!!!!!!!!  :icon_thumright:

Are you sure you have the correct pickups in it?  :laughing7:

Hey Tonar, I just played TT's Tele within the last couple hours, I can vouche for these pups.  On my clean amp channel the pups are clean clear crystal, bell like, When not picking or strumming there is NO sound, and yes the amp was turned up. We played it for 20-30 minutes as I was in awe of the great tone.

Then I kicked in the afterburner channel of my amp, and WOW! the growel and crunch that came out was surprising, without looking at the guitar you woulda sworn there was some powerfull metal humbucker in there, I played a few VanHalen, Docken, Scorpions, Metalica ( Yes Sandman) tunes and these pups sounded great, and again, when not picking the strings, dead silence, No Hum, and these aren't humbuckers.

We did a quick side by side comparison with my Fralin equiped guitar, and now my Fralins seem week and wimpy. TT's Pups are every bit as good or better than my Fralins,  I don't know of one humbucker that has the clean character of tone that TT's singles have, and I know of no singles out there that can be cranked up to metal madness that his do.

I've known TT for a few years now, and I have seen him pump out tons of pickups in his quest for excelence. I think he found it, but maybe not, maybe he's gonna make em better, but I find that hard to believe.

So anyone on this board wanna try his pups, get in touch with him, I'm sure youl be more than happy, If not, I'll buy them from you.  I wanna change out some pups anyway with a set of TT's

 

[TroubledTreble]

Hey thank you Alf,

I have to admit I was pretty amazed myself as I had not put the tele sets through a set up like that. It was pretty interesting to see you crank out Dokken on a Tele :headbang:

Of course if anyone gets a set and it's not their thing, you don't have to buy the set back as there is a guarantee. But thanks for the confidence. :icon_thumright:

Oh and thanks again for letting me use the strobe tuner for the final tweak Alf!

 

[Tonar8352]

I’m sorry if my joking around was misunderstood.  I thought everyone should be aware that the pickups were TT’s own design and was trying to get him to fess up to having made the pickups.

We have tried a set of them out in a guitar I finished for Daniel Castro with very favorable results.  Please do not view my previous post as a negative comment about the pickups.

More importantly TT is very serious about the pursuit of tone and is a great resource to us all here on the discussion board.  I have nothing but respect for him!

 

[TroubledTreble]

Thanks Tonar,

I did get it! But I was just being low key. I did check again to make sure... yep thems the right ones :tard:

BTW, I should point out that the ones in Daniels guitar were the Sweet-T set. This guitar has the new Specials that weren't released at that time.

 

[AprioriMark]

That is one BEAUTIFUL Tele, and I'd love to hear it in action.  I'm also looking forward to trying out your pickups.  I have a Strat and a Tele (aside from the mutt I'm slapping one in soon) that could use Roadhouse pickups if they feel as good as your clips sound.  Kudos again on a really stylish guitar.

-Mark

 

[tfarny]

I could seriously almost see myself copying that exact guitar, with a dark rosewood 21 fret board and a heel contour. Love  to try your pups at some point too.
How do you like the nut and the tuners?

 

[TroubledTreble]

Thanks guys!

I like the nut, it's very basic. I like the tuners and it's my first time with them so I will see over time. I really like lockers even on a hardtail. I think visually the vintage style is great so put that together  with locking and I'm sold. I think it was one of you post tfarny that made me look into them. They are a little stiff but not too much and I like the ratio which makes for some fine tuning.

I prefer a rosewood neck too, but I do like the maple for the Tele format. I'm impressed with the Warmoth finish.

 

[Justinginn]

Dude killer guitar. Really liking the white/tortise combo. I wish I needed a strat or tele so that I could get some of your pickups. Glad to see your killer reviews. Of course curiosity is still killing me over what exactly you did with the coils to make 'em sound good. Maybe you could put the forum in your will for the secret or something.  :dontknow:

 

[TroubledTreble]

Thanks!

I would love to tell you exactly how I make them. However I spent countless hours, months, even years developing my special recipe so it's not easy to get out of me.

I can tell you that one coil structure like the one in the Fatboy, Sweet-T... is based on the ability to manage the inductance. This gives the ability to closely set the inductance to resistance ratio which plays a large part in the overall tone a pickup has. It's not the only factor but a major one. It also makes better use of the available magnetic flux. This makes for a fairly sensitive pickup. The Sweet-T which is a Tele pickup gives more "bell-like' tones. This is similar in tone to the "Twisted Tele" that the big "F" company makes.

I am an electrician by trade, specializing in automated systems. I have worked with some really interesting circuits in my career. I have found inspiration in some of components I have worked on, taking them apart, understanding how they work in order to repair them. That led me to the latest coil design. It is not a replica of any thing I have come across except the understanding of how many different types of transformer and transformer like circuits behave.

The new coil like the one in the "Specials"  helps overcome the negatives of using long cords, adds harmonic dimension, reduces noise and maintains the sparkle and quack of traditional single coils.  I think it will become an all time favorite.

I have had a great deal of fun overcoming some of the issues I have come across. It's also been a highly addictive quest and I don't see it going away any time soon. :laughing7:
I have more ideas, all I need is time.