So following Ratrod's lead from
this thread I ordered a Xaviere Telemaster and today it arrived. First impressions are that for a guitar that costs $229 it's not at all bad. It's not as good as a decent Squier but it's really quite impressive for the money. The only thing I'd say is superior to a Squier is the finish which is very thin: you can really make out the grain through it. There are minor niggles: one of the through body holes for the strings is a bit mis-aligned, the frets need a serious polish, it's a heavy instrument and things like that but otherwise nothing to complain about. The neck is pretty fat which isn't to my taste though others may like it and the tuners and bridge seem to be fine. The pickups are a bit thin and weedy which brings me to the "what I'm going to do to it" part of the post as I've heard that there's a lovely company in Devon who make some great Tele pickups...
This is the plan:
1) Get a maple boarded Strat neck with vintage style tuners.
2) Piledriver in the bridge for some serious wallop.
3) Black single piece scratchplate without the mini-humbucker hole - we're going Esquire here so...
4) Rewire the innards with CTS pots, orange drop caps and so forth with Esquire style wiring.
5) Switch the control plate round and connect it up so that the volume pot is closest to the neck, then tone and the pickup switch at the back.
6) Put some strap locks on.
7) Bask in its reflected glory.
Oh and I know, "pics or it didn't happen" so here's a quick snap from my phone cam. I'll take pics of the whole process as I go and keep you posted on the finished article. I think it's going to be a fun project.
