Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Guitars, Amps and Effects => Topic started by: MrBump on March 21, 2009, 03:45:40 PM
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Guess what I've been doing..?
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o82/markdemanbey/Telecaster/DSCF1911.jpg)
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o82/markdemanbey/Telecaster/DSCF1912.jpg)
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o82/markdemanbey/Telecaster/DSCF1923.jpg)
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o82/markdemanbey/Telecaster/DSCF1924.jpg)
(http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o82/markdemanbey/Telecaster/DSCF1925.jpg)
The neck and body are from Axes R Us, and are suprisingly good! Heavy ash body, 1950's style in butterscotch, all maple neck and fingerboard, nice satin finish to it - perfect, tight fit. The neck is a very chunky "vintage 'C'", and with medium jumbo frets this suits me very nicely... Cut and fitted the bone nut myself, which I'm very pleased with!
Bridge is Joe Barden - was looking at Callaham and Glendale, but they're really pricey, and I'm a real tightwad. The Joe Barden is great, compensated saddles, and the extra screws at the front of the unit.
Tuners are Gotoh vintage with their Height Adjustable Post mechanism - theses are great locking tuners! Still getting faint ghost harmonics on the high E string, and I'm toying with fitting a string retainer. Will live with it for a bit and see.
And the pickups are EMGs.
Only joking!!!
Blackguard Flat 50's, as recommended by Mr Mills. Wonderful tone - really gritty, loads of bite. I wired in a 4 was selector, and the 2 pups in series is awesome!!! In fact, all 4 positions are amazing. Really sharp in the bridge, bright, twangy and clangy, stratty in the parallel position, and a VERY stratty neck sound!
Got loads of help from this board, as usual, with a special shout out to AndyR, Fernando, PhillyQ and Wez.
Going to spend some time getting used to it, the will record some clips - promise not to play "Whole Lotta Love"...
:D
Mark.
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Nice work, Mark! :D
How long did it take you to put it together? I wish I could pull my finger out and speed up a bit, all my projects take me months!
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That's a good looking geetar there :D
You're allowed to play "Bring it on home" :lol:
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:D
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Did it in about 3 phases - first was a rough assembly when I got the neck, body and bits.
Then a few weeks later the bridge and tuners arrived, so I assembled that and got it playable.
Then picked up the PUPs this morning and finished it off!
:D
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Looks good Mark! :D I remember you telling us about this at the pub last week.
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looks nice!!
whats next? ;)
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Good stuff.... I love the classic Tele look.
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looks nice!!
whats next? ;)
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... I'm hankering after a COMPLETE self build...
Currently thinking about a neck through Tele-ish hybrid thingy, possibly with a Warpig and Pig 90... Possibly with a trem... You know, something subtle...
:wink:
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Very nice, my favourite colour scheme on a tele I think :)
In the 2nd pic it looks like your son is throwing up a load of polystyrene :lol:
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That looks like fun. Good work that man.
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I like it - we all await clips: Good Times, Bad Times is permitted tele Zepplin
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Very nice, my favourite colour scheme on a tele I think :)
In the 2nd pic it looks like your son is throwing up a load of polystyrene :lol:
Yeah, the body and neck came well packed... Took ages to clear that mess up...
Incidentally, the wiring diagram that I got with these was brilliant - the ones that I got with my Nailbombs and Mules were, quite frankly, rubbish (sorry Tim - not exactly rubbish, but very basic, particularly for an idiot like me...), but the one that came with these was brilliant. Tim actually sent me a second, one with the 4 way wiring.
Big improvement.
Mark.
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sweet! very nice work.
i need a tele... couple of questions, if you don't mind my asking...
- how difficult was it? what all did you have to do yourself, and what was already done?
- how much? (i'd probably never get round to it, but if it were cheap and/or easy enough, i might consider it...)
what kind of quality is it? MIM Fender? MIJ/CIJ? USA reissue?
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sweet! very nice work.
i need a tele... couple of questions, if you don't mind my asking...
- how difficult was it? what all did you have to do yourself, and what was already done?
- how much? (i'd probably never get round to it, but if it were cheap and/or easy enough, i might consider it...)
what kind of quality is it? MIM Fender? MIJ/CIJ? USA reissue?
Well, I've been after a more "Fender-ish" guitar for ages - I love my Yam SG with Mules and Charvel with Nailbombs - but I do miss the single coil sound.
So I went to Tin Pan Ally and tried some Telecasters that were in a reasonable price bracket, no more than £700 I think. And none of them impressed me, I think that the nicest one was a MIM 60s reissue.
I thought about Warmoth, but the exchange rate is really nasty at the moment. Then I looked around at necks and bodies that I could source in the UK, and bought the neck and body from Axes R Us. Got the pair for £200, which I think is pretty good value. It was a bit of a gamble, but I'd have no hesitation in getting a Strat neck and body from them.
Managed to get the bridge and tuners for about £100, PUPs were £125. Then all the little bits and bobs brought the whole thing in at just under £500, which I think is a bargain given the hardware that's gone into it.
None of it was difficult, just assembly. Making the nut was the only thing that I'd class as requiring a little skill, but it's fine if you take your time and go steady.
Do it. You know you want to!!!
Mark.
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Thanks for the very detailed answer, mark, i appreciate it :drink: still need to think about it, apparently tokai are re-releasing the breezysound, so i'll wait to hear how much that'll cost first. :)
just to check, when you said that none of the teles you tried impressed you, are you implying that the one you built from the axetec parts does impress you?
:)
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Yeah, it's pretty damn good - easily better than the Fender examples that I tried (I've taken care to set this up nicely, and we all know how factory setups can let a guitar down...)
Yeah, it's a nice one.
Mark.
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Now you need a tweed deluxe to go with it.........
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Now you need a tweed deluxe to go with it.........
... maybe a self build..? Although I suspect that my wife would divorce me first.
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Yeah, it's pretty damn good - easily better than the Fender examples that I tried (I've taken care to set this up nicely, and we all know how factory setups can let a guitar down...)
Yeah, it's a nice one.
Mark.
thanks :) yeah, i know about store setups :lol:
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How are you finding the neck, Mark? I'm considering picking one up for my CV Tele as the stock one is a bit thin. I fancy something a bit chunkier.
How fat is the Fat C?
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Well, it's way fatter than my Charvel and a little fatter than my Yam SG, if you tried them the other day. I'll measure the depth for you, if you like, but it's one of those necks that somehow just "fits" - it's perfect for my palm. I don't think that it's a fast neck, whatever that it, but the satin finish and the roundness of it makes it a superbly comfortable chord basher.
Mark.
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Cheers Mark - may be worth having a punt.....
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for the price, definitely. Seventy-nine quid I paid. That's not at all bad for a pretty decent neck.