under jolly roger

[gwEm]

one piece warmoth swamp ash strat body
fender usa 2009 rosewood fingerboard neck
fender usa tuners
d'addario 11s
jim dunlop straplocks
allparts uncut b/w/b pickguard cut by wez
warmoth narrow strat hardtail with dimarzio brass saddles
fender usa tele ferrules
warmoth neck plate and jackplate
1970s fender jack
fender usa neck screws
jolly roger vinyl decal from ebay (missing the middle pickup and looked a bit strange, so i thought it needed a little something extra!)

the electronics:
bkp 'the boss' bridge with 1M volume
bkp 'irish tour' neck with 250k volume
master tone 500k pot with 0.022uF (capacitor needs tuning)
telecaster 4 way switch

[WezV]

looking good, but how does it sound!... does it do what you wanted

[Will]

Wow! Looks great. I think it would look better with a two knob arrangement though

[gwEm]

looking good, but how does it sound!... does it do what you wanted

have had this in a playable state for a while, but just got the sticker so decided to post now.

well, it sounds great, but its doesn't do quite what I wanted. the idea was to make a strat looking guitar with a telecaster bridge tone.

the boss is a little too fat sounding for the traditional tele tone, perhaps i should have gone for a blackguard or brown sugar. it actually sounds about 30% superstrat and 70% telecaster. the brass saddles were massive step in the right (telecaster) direction tone-wise.

nevertheless, theres no doubt this guitar rocks. drives my marshall 2204 into hard rock territory, and you can get NWOBHM tones, and decent george lynch/jimmy page impressions. flawless cleans too.

not quite happy with the tone control, so the capacitor value needs tweaking. the slightly bizzare pot choice does mean that the pickups work very well together, and the dual volumes give a wide range of tones in the series position.

i'd describe the boss as a sort of telecaster version of the holy diver.

thanks to yourself wez, and phil for the assistance on this one!

[Jonny]

It's not crazy enough, you need more knobs and switches :P

However it is a quirky idea, bridge and neck singles. Looks good, apart from the headstock.

[Philly Q]

Nice one, gwEm!  :D

Regarding the slight lack of Tele tone:  Maybe you could try the Jerry Donahue thing of having a thin steel plate surrounding the pickup, but hidden under the scratchplate?

[gwEm]

Nice one, gwEm!  :D

Regarding the slight lack of Tele tone:  Maybe you could try the Jerry Donahue thing of having a thin steel plate surrounding the pickup, but hidden under the scratchplate?

oo, does he do that?! should give it a go, if i can find some thin enough stuff!

[Elliot]

http://www.award-session.com/award-session_geartalk.html

Look at p.9 of the Geartalk PDF for Stuart Ward's view on this point.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, see what you can find about the Fender Jerry Donahue Strat.   They made it in the late '90s, but it wasn't available for very long.

In addition to the metal plate under the scratchplate, the bridge pickup was moved slightly to the Tele position, if I remember right.  Here's the manual:

http://www.fender.com/support/manuals/pdfs/instr_owners/Hellecasters_Jerry_Donohue_Stratocaster_1997.pdf

[Andrew W]

That's a really great guitar you've built there.  I think a lot of people would kill for a 70% Tele, 30% Strat split.  Nice job.

[TheIronBeast]

I really like the look of that. Looks very cool  8)

[HTH AMPS]

Nice one, gwEm!  :D

Regarding the slight lack of Tele tone:  Maybe you could try the Jerry Donahue thing of having a thin steel plate surrounding the pickup, but hidden under the scratchplate?

I was thinking the same thing reading through this thread - the steel bridge does have an influence on the Tele bridge pickup's tone.  Hope it works out for you.  Personally, I prefer the feel (and look) of Teles but miss the Strat neck pickup tone.

[gwEm]

interesting points in the award session link regarding pickup position - actually the body is H-S-H routed, and I've had to mount the pickups 2mm nearer the neck than on a usual strat. the bridge pickup is at the strat angle.

as i say, it sounds really good, even if it doesn't nail the telecaster tone.

don't think i'll play too much with the pickup positions, but i'll perhaps try to make up a little steel plate to go around the bridge pickup.

most surprising thing so far was the difference the brass saddles made.

thanks for all the nice comments :)

[blue]

great idea there, nice to see someone take various parts and make something unusual.  it reminds me of a simplified version of Steve Morse's frankenstein tele!  having blasted a tele through an old Marshall now, i can only smile in silent joy at the tone you're getting through your jcm 800 :)

[tomjackson]

I think the Tele bridge sound is at least 50% the bridge itself.

I even think it matters how it's mounted, springs are better than the tubing if you want some microphonics for the classic Tele sound.

But it's a really good idea and there is no right and wrong....