NFD "plus"

[AndyR]

(New Frets Day - plus accidental lucky find...)

So I went down to Croydon to pick up young Alice who'd been staying with Jonathan at Feline for a while, getting herself pampered and tarted up.

Alice is my Baja tele with Blackguard 50s. She needed a fret dress and set-up, but I was wearing the frets down already, so I decided to go for a complete refret. (Tele purists put your hands over your ears/eyes) I decided to go for the fattest f-off frets I could get - Dunlop 6000 (is that right Jonathan?) - mainly after trying them on the Emerald Lion. I was a little worried this might be too much, but I needn't have been, it's gorgeous now.

The board needed re-laquering after pulling the old frets, but that was ok and half expected - Bajas have quite gloopy poly on them, and it was all over the original frets. Now its slick as anything. If you see on the Feline site how they're proud of their fretwork - you can believe it, they have good reason to be. Very nice job, she's come back every bit as good as I was hoping for - MANY THANKS  :P.

Anyway, on the way there, I went past this little second-hand shop. And there was, um, a guitar worth looking at for once  :?.

I'm afraid I bought it Jonathan :lol:. When I took the Baja in there to A/B them both, this one sings accoustically at least as much as the Baja, possibly more so... and it's got 9s on at the moment as opposed to my 11s.

It's CIJ Fender re-issue, we thought a 52 at first, but it might be 55, looking at the current info I can find. It's got chrome saddles and, sigh, a really nice chunky V neck :D. The V's a little sharper than the Baja. Not sure what the pickups are, but they're competing with the Blackguards enough to make my wallet feel at ease for at least a couple of months. It was originally bought in Rockers, Denmark St, 3 years ago and has seem some action - it has a few dings on the body and needs some cleaning - but hey, some folks are paying good money for such relic work :lol:

I "wondered" whether they had a bag or case, so he threw in a battered old tweed case for free (which he was sure is not a genuine one), but it looks the business... He'd offered me a price for cash, and then ended up beating it for credit card.

I am a very happy bunny...

Sorry about my cr@ppy camera work as usual (one of my better efforts :?). Alice on the right, new one on the left. They both look better in the flesh. Separately, I'm very fond of the look of the new one, it's a gorgeous honey colour. Side by side, I think Alice is prettier.

[AndyR]

I am a dickhead... picture fixed above I hope :oops:

EDIT: Hurrah, at last... does anyone else work in IT but have serious problems with technology?! :lol:

[Will]

Lame, I was thinking you're accidental find was a Feline!
You bought it for some different BKPs then? :lol:

[roland_rat]

Nice one Andy sounds like you found yourself a unexpected gem and as usual great work form Feline guitars.

Enjoy them both mate.

[FernandoDuarte]

:lol: Great buy!

[TheDev01dOne]

Both nice guitars. Seems weird even thinking about a Tele with massive frets but I think it could possibly be cool. Did you keep the S1, 4-way switching in the baja with the Blackguards or is it standard 3way wiring?

The new Tele looks great, pretty clean. Nice grain on the body too. You got a nice pair there.

[Twinfan]

Bloody hell they're big frets!!!!!

Nice score on the newbie  :)

[dave_mc]

excellent :)

[FELINEGUITARS]

Well done on the new purchase.
I kind of knew you'd weaken on the way home

Glad you are having fun with Alice (who the F**k is Alice we've been singing here)

The Dunlop 6000 are indeed big frets - a bit taller and wider than Dunlop 6100 , but when carefully installed and the ends all nicely seated and rounded as we like to do them don't feel obtrusive.
And for hard blues playing and rock they are fab - bending strings is like they are butter

Was a great playing guitar and sounds great both unplugged and plugged in .
Sounded wickedly nice through the little Cornell (very Blackface/tweed fender and also really nice through the rack via the Martamp power amp)

Hope it inspires some great playing....

[AndyR]

Thanks folks :D

Yep I kept the S1 and four way on the Baja. S1 will go when it breaks, I don't use it. But the four way is staying.

The new one wasn't bought for new BKPs :lol: I gave in to temptation because it was a gorgeous CIJ going cheap, and who knows when I'll see one this nice again? (that was the reasoning anyway).

The big frets on the Baja are really great for what I play on it. What decided me was reading that Albert Collins used big ones (already knew about SRV & Rory), and then trying the Emerald Lion. It does look "different" if you concentrate on the neck, but it plays like a dream.

The new one has now been cleaned up, the worst dent steamed out (never tried this before, it works!! :D), and 11s put on and set up. It's gorgeous, but harder to play than the Baja now because the frets are so "weeny" :lol: There's hardly any fret wear though, so it's not getting doctored in the near future.

They weigh roughly the same and sound roughly the same accoustically. I've discovered the new one probably has Texas Specials (same waxed cloth hook-up wire as the strat versions), and I quite like the sound for the moment. Through the same amp settings, the new one has a slightly more "polite" tone, more compressed and smoothed, but still a barking tele. The Blackguarded Baja has "more" of everything and needs taming in comparison. The new one is good for tele chord strumming and country type bending, the Baja is good for dig-it-in blues and rocknroll stuff. I shall wait a while before BKPing the new one.

Well, I've had a nice morning fiddling about with them :D... now I've got to go to a bluddy wedding :(

[Philly Q]

 :D  Nice find Andy (why do I never get "lucky finds"?).   :?

And even in the pic you can tell how huge and mirror-like those new frets are!  I've never had a guitar re-fretted - I guess I just don't keep them long enough or play them hard enough.

[Twinfan]

I've just had my Epiphone SG done to help with its playability - made a MASSIVE difference......

[AndyR]

Yep they're HUGE :lol:

Leaving any thought of aesthetics and purism behind though, from the playing point of view they are brilliant for me. I do a lot of bending and vibrato (including multiple string bends, or at least I'm learning those...), and this one is real easy to do that now, with less finger pressure. I can still "slide" up and down the neck and not hear any increased "fret-bumping".

The difference in feel on this guitar is not that great, mainly because I hadn't worn the originals down that far. But it needed a fret-dress, and there were signs that I was wearing the existing frets enough to mean that another fret dress would be 18-24 months away... so it made sound economic sense (or at least that's how I justified it :roll:). Be warned though - refretting a maple neck, depending on how it was originally lacquered, is likely to dictate a relacquer of the board, so factor that in (as well as a new nut). I wasn't too worried about the extra in this case, the existing finish on the board was very "gloopy". Feline refret over the new lacquer, it's a stunning board now compared with what it had originally.

Twinfan, I played the CV guitars only once, a couple of months back - I seem to recall that the maple boards looked like the frets were done after the lacquer, ie no "build-up" or "waves" of lacquer around the frets. I remember being impressed by that. Is that what yours is like?

The new one's frets are the smallest I've ever seen, I do have some problems adjusting to it, but not massively. I seem to be like BB King: "don't matter what you put in there, I can bend em anyhow"...

On the "lucky find", don't worry Philly, it's the ONLY lucky find I've ever personally experienced - your time will come... :lol: (are you like me? I never "win" anything... only raffle I can remember winning was for Lavender bath cubes or somesuch that I had to give to some female relative... who probably didn't want them anyway...)

[Twinfan]

Twinfan, I played the CV guitars only once, a couple of months back - I seem to recall that the maple boards looked like the frets were done after the lacquer, ie no "build-up" or "waves" of lacquer around the frets. I remember being impressed by that. Is that what yours is like?

I think so!  I'd have to check...

[MrBump]

I am a dickhead... picture fixed above I hope :oops:

EDIT: Hurrah, at last... does anyone else work in IT but have serious problems with technology?! :lol:

 

It's a curse.  Or irony.  Or something.