New Callaham Bits and Pieces DayI've been planning on doing this for a while but I finally pulled the trigger and bought the domed, heavy knurl, Tele knobs and the Deluxe bridge upgrade kit for my "Highway One"
*.
1. The knobs. First off, they were
very expensive but, having searched high and low, if you want a really heavy knurl they seem to be the only show in town. I'm trying to use more Gatton/Buchanan style volume swells but because I'm a sweaty so and so I found that the knobs that came with my Tele slipped in my hands too easily. Well that won't be an issue any more; in fact I reckon you could do yourself quite an injury with these ones ;). In all seriousness they do what I needed and for that I'll pay the premium but, unless you need that, they aren't worth the money.
2. The bridge kit. This consisted of replacing everything except the plate that everything screws to. It was really easy to install: took about 30 minutes all in using a Leatherman. If you had real tools it would probably be even quicker. The quality of the materials and construction is very evident, it's seriously well make kit. Now it's all done and I've sorted the intonation out my impressions are that there is a subtle improvement in tone. This actually doesn't surprise me. The big headstock Highway Ones have a steel block anyway so you're not swapping out a lump of zinc as you sometimes are with cheaper Strats. There is a greater overall clarity to the tone and bit more oomph to it. The big difference I noticed, and is what made it a worth while upgrade for me, is that the response of the arm is much better because the Callaham arm fits completely snuggly in the block there's no play, if you move the arm, you change the pitch. The other thing is that it stays in tune
much better than it did before. It's not Floyd Rose stable but you can give it some SRV style abuse and it'll return to pitch. That definitely didn't happen before. So everall, the tone is a bit better but the usability is greatly improved.
All in all, expensive, but that's OK because I'm worth it. ;)
*The reason why I'm quotation marking "Highway One" is that now, following the bridge surgery, the only original parts left are the body, scratchplate and the jack socket. It's my perpetual Workinprogressocaster:
