New hardware!

[Frank]

I've had this tele from new, it's a 1987 Fender Japan '62 Reissue and over the years it's been through more pickup and hardware changes than I care to remember. Worst mistake of all was installing a Gotoh 6-way steel bridge. What a piece of junk, totally ruined the sound and wouldn't even adjust far enough to intonate the low E string properly. So this weekend I finally decided to revamp the whole guitar, new Wilkinson bridge, new switch to replace the 25 year old cracklefest and new CTS pots as the old ones were solid shaft (bought the wrong ones!) and no knobs seemed to fit them. As a result, I'd fallen out of love with the guitar and it was becoming neglected.

Just finished installing everything and frankly WOW! The Gotoh can gotohell. The Wilkinson intonates near perfectly and the brass saddles bring out so much snap and zing and upper mid response. It's been years since I loved this tele so much.

Tomorrow's job - replace a scratchy switch in one strat and replace the horrible die-cast cheapo bridge in another one with, you guessed it, a Wilkinson vintage trem.

The moral of the story is that not all upgrades are improvements. Ripping out hardware that seemed like a good idea at the time is the new upgrading.

[Frank]

Hot damn, my partscaster just sprung into life too. The old diecast piece of junk can go in the bin.

[BlankPlank]

I love makeover threads <3 I always feel like I owe it to myself to own a decent strat and tele.

[Telerocker]

Hardware makes sometimes the difference. I ordered a Tonepros vintage tunerset for my Saint Blues.
Btw, your tele looks quite like my Fender American Series 2000 3TSB, minus the binding en the bridge. I guess you have vintageradius instead of 9.5.

[Frank]

Yes, it's 7.25 inch radius and skinny frets. A real vintage reissue. It's in need of a refret too, I might see about having the radius flattened off a little and get some fatter frets on there but it's not a major issue for me. I like the action high up and 10-46 strings so I can really dig in and make it chime like a tele should.

I always liked the look of those Saint Blues guitars too, are they still making those things?

[Telerocker]

Yes, it's 7.25 inch radius and skinny frets. A real vintage reissue. It's in need of a refret too, I might see about having the radius flattened off a little and get some fatter frets on there but it's not a major issue for me. I like the action high up and 10-46 strings so I can really dig in and make it chime like a tele should.

I always liked the look of those Saint Blues guitars too, are they still making those things?

I play all my strats, tele's and Saint Blues Misssippi Bluesmaster with 10-46's. More and better tone then with thinner strings. I like the action certainly not very low. I have to work a bit harder on the neck, but if fits my playingstyle.

The Saint Blues-website is still on air, but they've ceased importing Korean-made guitars and are focussing on handmade USA-guitars with prices over 2000 dollar. Last year I bought a used Korean-made all mahogany bolt-on LP-tele hybrid for 375 euro and then the guitar was already fitted with a calibrated Mules-set. Couldn't be happier, the Mules sound great in it. It's a lightweight and therefore comfortable for a long gig. The Tonepros will it make even better. If you can lay your hand on one for a nice price, take your chance. They're really good value for money.