Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: Philly Q on July 13, 2008, 05:53:41 PM
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Before I start, I should really direct you to this thread by someone who has actually built his own Tele from scratch, something I could never manage :oops::
http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13468.0 (http://bareknucklepickups.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=13468.0)
Anyway, I have finally put together the two "new" Teles I've been going on about for months. They may look like ordinary Fenders, but in fact they're both Frankensteins built from assorted (mainly Fender) parts. The sunburst has been partially salvaged from the corpse of my American Ash Tele, the black one started out as an intention to make a "vintage style" Tele... but went off on a tangent.
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/IMGP2227.jpg)
Both bodies are alder American Deluxe Tele bodies, with front binding, contoured neck heel and Strat-style gutaway. The sunburst's neck is from the American Ash, the black one's neck is from an American Deluxe Ash - they're both U-shaped, a bit deeper than the normal Fender C-shape, with biggish frets and 9.5" radius. The neck on the sunburst is attached with threaded steel inserts and machine screws, rather than the usual wood screws.
Both have Fender bridges, neck plates and control plates, Fender/Schaller locking tuners and Glendale jack cups. The parchment scratchplate is from a Highway One, the black one is from Allparts, modified for the mini-HB. Blackie has Q-Parts abalone-top knobs to match the fretboard inlays.
No BKPs (yet), I'm afraid. Sunburst has a Kinman AVn-48b and Fender/Lawrence SCN neck with the electronics from the American Ash. Blackie has an old Joe Barden and a Jason Lollar Firebird, with 250K CTS pots and a 0.047 Orange Drop cap.
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/IMGP2236.jpg)
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/IMGP2240.jpg)
And finally, just in case Roobubba is reading, because I know he loves a Tele, here's another shot also featuring my '90s Thinline:
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/IMGP2254.jpg)
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Now I love that thinline!
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Now playing: Quireboys - Hey You (http://www.foxytunes.com/artist/quireboys/track/hey+you)
via FoxyTunes (http://www.foxytunes.com/signatunes/)
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That black one looks so good! I love all black teles with maple necks :) Binding works really well, I think more teles should have it as standard. Looks like I've got tele gas again :roll:
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Props for actually *making* them, even if they are "just" frankenguitars - I certainly haven't the patience (or time, or most probably skill, but I guess the latter will never be tested...) to do that!
But, as you can probably gather, I still don't like them. They just look horrible. I mean, that big metal bit under the bridge pickup - ugh!!
And the straight line metal bit for the volume controls? Horrid!
And the body shape? Ughhhh!!!
And the headstock? Too small and bulbous!!
Also, you appear to have forgotten the bottom half of the pickguard :)
But, otherwise, well done :)
And to all you thinking they look nice... Dudes!! Really!!
:D
Roo
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word! telecaster, worst looking and sounding guitar ever... brootals metal axxez FTW!
anyway - that sunburst one is really cool, the style of it suggests i'd fit piledrivers to that in fact, if it was me. very nice looking guitar anyhow. cool player too, i imagine.
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I think its pretty much a unanimous (sp?) vote that Steinbergers are, infact, the worst looking guitars ever :P
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I think its pretty much a unanimous (sp?) vote that Steinbergers are, infact, the worst looking guitars ever :P
:lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KJBOqSjC0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KJBOqSjC0)
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I'm loving the sunburst one, it looks gorgeous :D I'm thinking about putting together another strat but don't know if I can be bothered with the hassle, so may just end up saving up for an already put together one :P
I must admit Steinbergers are pretty damn cool aswell 8)
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I think its pretty much a unanimous (sp?) vote that Steinbergers are, infact, the worst looking guitars ever :P
:lol:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KJBOqSjC0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KJBOqSjC0)
I don't think Steinbergers look good really, but I do admire the design - at least the original cricket bat ones, not the ones with regular "guitar-shaped" bodies.
I'm going to sell my Spirit by Steinberger copy, but I'd like to own a proper US Steinberger one day.
But, as you can probably gather, I still don't like them. They just look horrible. I mean, that big metal bit under the bridge pickup - ugh!!
And the straight line metal bit for the volume controls? Horrid!
And the body shape? Ughhhh!!!
And the headstock? Too small and bulbous!!
Also, you appear to have forgotten the bottom half of the pickguard :)
I knew you'd love 'em! :lol:
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I think they look great Philly.Tele's are honest tone machines.
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That black one looks excellent Philly, loving the mini humbucker!
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That mini-humbucker is a really great sounding pickup, I'm loving it already! :D
The Barden is another matter, I can never decide if I like them or hate them. It sounds great with distortion, but it can also be very piercing and harsh. I can't argue with Danny Gatton (RIP), but to my uneducated ears it sounds nothing like a "real" Tele pickup. :?
Those pickups turned out to be out of phase with each other, which wasn't intentional but I quite like it. It's a useful thin, wiry tone compared with the powerful individual pickups.
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very nice, the mini-hb looks great in particular. i think it's the fact that it has the chrome cover, which you expect, but then you do a double take when you realise it's not just a stock tele.
i tried an MIJ thinline tele in a shop about a week ago, looked exactly like that one (might have had a different bridge though). was very nice, but i wasn't too fussed on the pickups. everything else about it was great though. :)
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Very nice - personal favourite would be the sunburst. Great job :)
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I like mini-hb's on tele's. I have a Silvertone, that Tim fixed. They are wound by Gibson, and were on the Chris Issack model, but the best thing is that they have a 3&3 screw set (like the Fender HB). Yours look very nice, not sure about blade pickups though. I have a Brown Sugar bridge with my mini-HB.
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I do like the finish on sunburst. Other than that, I'm with Roo all the way.
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I likes the look of the black one a bit Philly boy! It looks especially sleek for a Tele, almost like a jet (in the loosest of terms, of course)! The maple neck looks great on it. I can't get over the tele headstocks though, and the pickguard is a bit of a problem as Roo says. But i love the Abalone tops on the knobs with a black finish underneath.
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Nice one (or two)(or three) Philly :)
My favourite's the sunburst.
(Never been too fond of the look of the scratchplate, f-hole, etc on that thinline, but I certainly wouldn't kick it out of the house :D)
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I like how I'm now the official spokesperson against Telecasters.
:)
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I like how I'm now the official spokesperson against Telecasters.
:)
To quote Faith No More, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it. :wink:
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Philly I like the family.
I always thought bound Teles where the business, but a bound tele with a Mini HB is the real business.
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Philly I like the family.
I always thought bound Teles where the business, but a bound tele with a Mini HB is the real business.
You're so right, it IS the business.
It's just a shame that "the business" is a more salubrious one!!
:)
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Philly I like the family.
I always thought bound Teles where the business, but a bound tele with a Mini HB is the real business.
You're so right, it IS the business.
It's just a shame that "the business" is a more salubrious one!!
:)
Hmmm, I dont't really want to get into your non more pointy fetish, and that messrs Freud & Jung dropped me EMails to ask what your home address was ;)
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Philly I like the family.
I always thought bound Teles where the business, but a bound tele with a Mini HB is the real business.
Cheers Rob! :)
The bound body theme happened totally by accident really - I went looking for Tele bodies on eBay and both times the American Deluxe ones happened to be the ones I liked the look of. It was only once I actually had them that I realised all my Teles are bound. :roll:
The black one is my favourite so far - it's lighter and, I think, a bit more resonant. But they need to settle a bit them I'll set them up better - they've been lying around in bits for so long I don't think they realise they're guitars yet!
Sore fingers today - it's been a while since I played a 25.5" scale guitar!
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They're all so pretty, I can't even choose which one I want you to give me.
My tele GAS is rising again...
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Philly I like the family.
I always thought bound Teles where the business, but a bound tele with a Mini HB is the real business.
You're so right, it IS the business.
It's just a shame that "the business" is a more salubrious one!!
:)
Hmmm, I dont't really want to get into your non more pointy fetish, and that messrs Freud & Jung dropped me EMails to ask what your home address was ;)
I'm not into overly pointy guitars, by the way :) I just think tele should go with tubby and not with guitar...
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I'm not into overly pointy guitars, by the way :) I just think tele should go with tubby and not with guitar...
That's OK then, I'm reasonably tubby.
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If you decide to sell the black one at any point, let me know! :wink: :D:
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If you decide to sell the black one at any point, let me know! :wink: :D:
It's goin' nowhere, Sam! I'm sure there'll be some pickup swapping (and maybe even neck swapping) at some point in the future, but in my experience lightweight solidbody Teles are quite hard to find, so I'm keeping this one. :)
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If you decide to sell the black one at any point, let me know! :wink: :D:
It's goin' nowhere, Sam! I'm sure there'll be some pickup swapping (and maybe even neck swapping) at some point in the future, but in my experience lightweight solidbody Teles are quite hard to find, so I'm keeping this one. :)
:)
Not sure if you addressed this in the opening post or not, but where did you get the bodies from? Did you take them from 2 stock teles or buy them individually?
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If you decide to sell the black one at any point, let me know! :wink: :D:
It's goin' nowhere, Sam! I'm sure there'll be some pickup swapping (and maybe even neck swapping) at some point in the future, but in my experience lightweight solidbody Teles are quite hard to find, so I'm keeping this one. :)
At the mention of light teles
I made the mistake of going into town at lunchtime today, and one of the local stores has another Baja Tele in stock, and this time it's so light (about half the weight of the last one I tried), it's actually lighter than the lite ash one beside it.
Just as I was going to order a set of Mules this afternoon, damn will I buy pickups or a tele.
Now I'm going to have to justify 375 quid and another guitar to the wife (atleast I can sneak the mules into the house)
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Just as I was going to order a set of Mules this afternoon, damn will I buy pickups or a tele.
Now I'm going to have to justify 375 quid and another guitar to the wife (atleast I can sneak the mules into the house)
Get the Baja while it's hot (and light)! You can always hide it in the shed or something.
I know a guy who's quite seriously into vintage guitars (not '59 Les Paul, '57 Strat kind of stuff, but still relatively pricey). He buys guitars and hides them in the garage, then sneaks them into the house after a few weeks.
I don't quite understand the logic, because it's still going to be the first time his wife has seen them. But I suppose he doesn't look so guilty when he says "no, it's not new, I bought that one ages ago", because it's sort of true.
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Just as I was going to order a set of Mules this afternoon, damn will I buy pickups or a tele.
Now I'm going to have to justify 375 quid and another guitar to the wife (atleast I can sneak the mules into the house)
Get the Baja while it's hot (and light)! You can always hide it in the shed or something.
I know a guy who's quite seriously into vintage guitars (not '59 Les Paul, '57 Strat kind of stuff, but still relatively pricey). He buys guitars and hides them in the garage, then sneaks them into the house after a few weeks.
I don't quite understand the logic, because it's still going to be the first time his wife has seen them. But I suppose he doesn't look so guilty when he says "no, it's not new, I bought that one ages ago", because it's sort of true.
Hmmm, makes note,
1: Buy shed
2: Put wife in it for a few weeks
I did get that right didn't I ?
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OK, what about this? Surely this will appeal to those amongst us with a Tele-averse disposition....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318)
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Hmmm, makes note,
1: Buy shed
2: Put wife in it for a few weeks
I did get that right didn't I ?
Close enough. Same result anyway.
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[I know a guy who's quite seriously into vintage guitars (not '59 Les Paul, '57 Strat kind of stuff, but still relatively pricey). He buys guitars and hides them in the garage, then sneaks them into the house after a few weeks.
I don't quite understand the logic, because it's still going to be the first time his wife has seen them. But I suppose he doesn't look so guilty when he says "no, it's not new, I bought that one ages ago", because it's sort of true.
:lol:
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OK, what about this? Surely this will appeal to those amongst us with a Tele-averse disposition....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318)
Tried one of those a while ago- quite nice actually, but I prefer a more standard tele.
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OK, what about this? Surely this will appeal to those amongst us with a Tele-averse disposition....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318)
MrBump is getting closer to the acceptable here:
Good things about that guitar:
Nice looking spalted maple. Yum :)
Bridge: better, no silly metal backplate which looks hideous on normal teles
Pickups: double humbucker - better!
Volume/tone controls: no silly metal backplate - Yes!
Bad things:
Top horn: lack thereof. That bulbous bit just looks cr@p, sorry.
Headstock: OMG that is ugly! I'm not a huge fan of the strat headstock, either, but the tele one just looks WRONG. Weedy, I think that's the word. Pathetic, maybe.
So, more good things than bad things, so that's a HUGE improvement over the normal tele.
BUT... it's still a tele, and the body shape alone is enough to make the player look like... you get the idea.
:)
Roo
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OK, what about this? Surely this will appeal to those amongst us with a Tele-averse disposition....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318 (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fender-Spalted-Maple-Telecaster-Tele-Limited-Edition_W0QQitemZ260259140471QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260259140471&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318)
Sorry guys, this is what a double humbucker Tele should look like:
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/telecaster_deluxe_004.jpg)
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^Yum yum yum yum yum!
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Now I'm going to have to justify 375 quid and another guitar to the wife (atleast I can sneak the mules into the house)
Do what my friend WillyK from Warmoth forum does:
Now that it is stashed with all the others I just tell her it's been here for years! A bit of dust on the case...works a treat.
:D
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Sorry guys, this is what a double humbucker Tele should look like:
(http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p216/phillyq/telecaster_deluxe_004.jpg)
Agreed. I love how those things look. I imagine it'd sound damn good with a pair of MQs in it as well.. yet more gas :lol: :cry:
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I think even Roo would agree that looks good.
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I think even Roo would agree that looks good.
I'd be very surprised... it still has the "bulbous bit"....
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Great looking Teles Phil :D
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I'm not into overly pointy guitars, by the way :) I just think tele should go with tubby and not with guitar...
:lol: :lol: :lol:
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I think even Roo would agree that looks good.
I'd be very surprised... it still has the "bulbous bit"....
Spot on, Philly :)
And the pickguard...
But between them, those two teles could be made to be *almost* acceptable (ie not like a tele lol)
:)
Roo