Zebra's Half-moth Tele

[zebra]

Zebra’s Half-moth Tele

Body
2-piece Alder body made by Olivewood Guitar Company.
Natural Nitro finish.

Neck
Model:  Modern Construction
Orientation:  Right
Scale:  25½”
Width:  1-11/16” 
Profile:  Standard Thin
Radius:  10-16” Compound
Neck:  Roasted Maple
Fretboard:  Roasted Maple
Frets:  22 frets, SS6150
Nut:  Black TUSQ
Inlay:  Black Face Dots, Black Side Dots

Hardware
Tuners:  Hipshot Grip-Lock Closed Chrome Staggered 
Bridge Plate:  Stainless Steel Tele Bridge, 3-Hole Mount, 6 Saddles (which version?)
Saddles:  Graphtech String Saver Classis Saddles (2 1/16”)
Output Jack:  ElectroSocket Jackplate with Switchcraft Jack
Knobs:  Stainless Steel “Vintage Dome Knobs” by Glendale
Strap Buttons:  Stainless Steel Strap Buttons (Callaham)
Control Plate:  Stainless Steel (Callaham)
Ferrules:  Stainless Steel .363 (Callaham)
Neck Plate:  Stainless Steel (Callaham)

Electronics
Pickups:  Bill Lawrence L-200 Noiseless Tele
Pots:  Emerson Pro CTS Pots, Solid Shaft, 500K-ohm, with treble-bleed circuit
Caps:  unknown
Switch:  Oak Grigsby 4-way 2-pole Lever Switch

Position 1:  Bridge
Positions 2 & 3:  Bridge and Neck, Series & Parallel
Position 4:  Neck

Notes
The concept for this was vintage-vibe with modern upgrades (Roasted Maple Warmoth modern construction neck, compound radius, locking tuners, TUSQ nut, SS frets, vintage-voiced noiseless single-coils) and as much stainless steel hardware as possible (for no good reason other than just because).  I was going for a good guitar for playing early-Smiths jangle, along the lines of “This Charming Man.” 

The pickguard was going to be a tiger-tortoise thing, then black, and ended up white (wbw).  I like the white – my first impression was that it worked better than I thought it would, and it’s grown on me even more over the last few days.

Assembly by UW’s own Cagey.


First Impressions
It sounds like a Tele is supposed to sound, and does what a Tele is supposed to do, the way a Tele does it:  Treble, presence, sustain, bite, and tuning-stability.

I’ve never used SS frets before, and they live up to the hype – they’re super smooth and slippery.  Bends and vibrato feel great.  Similarly, the burnished roasted Maple neck is great.  I was curious if it would be too slick to dig into bigger bends, but that’s not the case.  I’m not yet missing the extra grip from the friction of a gloss neck. 

The Bill Lawrence L-200s sound great.  I might end up fooling around with pot and cap values at some point, as the tone knob isn’t giving very useful tones.  Otherwise, I also may swap the bridge pickup for the L-298 and replace the tone cap with the Bill Lawrence Q-filter, and may look into adding a phase switch for funkier sounds. 

I love the 4-way Tele switching.  All four sounds are very different and very useful, although I’m not sure which middle position is which.  One of them has a huge bass response – it’s what I’ll use for jazz tones.  The other is the perfect blend of neck pickup-body and bridge pickup-bite.  I’m guessing the former is the series and the latter is parallel.  (Please correct me if I’m wrong, because I’d like to know!)

The one Tele I had in the past was a super-heavy neck-through beast.  I don’t remember how much it weighed, but this one weighs in at 8.8 lbs.  My other electric, a Godin super-Strat routed for a trem and HSH with only a single Alumitone in the bridge weighs in at 6.7 lbs.  I’ve realized I prefer lighter-weight guitars, body contours, and the balance guitars have when they have a more prominent upper-horn (I like the neck to hang at an upward angle, rather than parallel to the ground, as it puts my wrist in a more natural position).  In the future I think I’d like to try either the Strat-Tele Hybrid or the Jazzcaster, for a Tele-style option that’s lighter and more comfy.

 

[Cagey]

I went through the whole picture set thinking "I guess Chris isn't the only one who appreciates understated elegance and practical design". Then, it dawned on me where I'd seen that guitar before.

If I had a brain, I'd be dangerous  :laughing7:

 

[Cagey]

I love the 4-way Tele switching.  All four sounds are very different and very useful, although I’m not sure which middle position is which.

The switch positions follow:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Bridge
[*]Bridge + Neck Parallel
[*]Bridge + Neck Series
[*]Neck[/list]
I was surprised at how quiet those Bill Lawrence Microcoils are, even though they're literally single coil pickups. The only time they make noise is if you get right on top of something radiating. Otherwise, you'd swear they're noiseless.

 

[zebra]

I love the 4-way Tele switching.  All four sounds are very different and very useful, although I’m not sure which middle position is which.

The switch positions follow:

[list type=decimal]
[*]Bridge
[*]Bridge + Neck Parallel
[*]Bridge + Neck Series
[*]Neck[/list]
I was surprised at how quiet those Bill Lawrence Microcoils are, even though they're literally single coil pickups. The only time they make noise is if you get right on top of something radiating. Otherwise, you'd swear they're noiseless.

Man, that bridge/neck in series is great. 

Actually, the pickups are L-200s, a noiseless model (different from the Microcoil).  However, I have heard that the MicroCoils are as quiet as a true single coil as you'll ever find. 

 

[vetteman]

Zebra - Don't give up on tele's just because of the weight.  I also like a lighter guitar and went with thinline (semi-hollow) bodies from Warmoth for my last two builds.  Since I don't care for the Fender style 'f' hole I opted for no hole on both, and they are both substantially lighter than standard but still balance well.  The alder build is heavier than my ash body, but not by a lot.  Still even a heavy tele is lighter than a standard Les Paul, my back hurts just looking at them