Telemaster project with Mother's Milks plus a TV Jones Powertron

[Andrew W]

Quite a while back I finished (with a lot of help from Jonathan at Feline Guitars) a Telemaster project. The whole story from concept illustrations to finished guitar is here if you want some back-story.

I finally got around to recording a little demo of it this afternoon. When I was at the planning stage I knew I wanted something that could do a reasonable Billy Gibbons tone at the bridge and as I'd long fancied something a bit Gretschy I went with a Powertron. For the neck I wanted something SRV-ish and for the middle I definitely wanted something a bit Robin Trower. Tim suggested that Mother's Milk would do the job in both slots so that's what I went for.

The video is recorded with a Shure SM57 and was mixed in Garage Band. I used my Cornell Romany Plus for everything along with a TS-808 with the level high and overdrive low. For the ZZ Top and Trower-ish sections I switched out the tone stack on the amp for more gain but turned it back on for the last bit. I also used my Deja-Vibe on the Trower-ish section for added psychedelia, man. :)

Hope it's useful to someone interested in these kinds of tones. Also, thanks to all the forumites, and especially Jonathan at Feline, for all the advice and assistance that made it possible. I really love this guitar.

Youtube Link

[Twinfan]

Loving the pinched harmonics mate - great Billy G vibe going on!

The guitar looks great too.  Nice work!

[Ian Price]

Nice stuff. I missed (or forgot) that it was an MJT body. How do you rate the quality of wood, build and finish?

[Andrew W]

Loving the pinched harmonics mate - great Billy G vibe going on!

The guitar looks great too.  Nice work!

Thanks! I like to think that the Rev. Willie G is the acceptable face (beard?) of piched harmonics unlike Mr "Chug-chug-SQUEEEEEEE-chug-chug-SQUEEEE"! ;)

Nice stuff. I missed (or forgot) that it was an MJT body. How do you rate the quality of wood, build and finish?

Thanks, Ian. I was pretty impressed with the body. It's alder and quite light weight, especially given how much timber there is the Jazzmaster shape. The finish is also very good: lovely nitro paintjob and I think their relic-ing looks good. My only issue with it was that the neck pocket was a tiny bit too small for the Warmoth neck so there was sanding to do to reconcile that. Otherwise I'm really happy.

[Ian Price]

Cheers Andrew - that's very helpful. I like the look of the tele bodies that they do. May well keep this in mind as an option for future purchases. Were you aware of what the weight of the body would be before you ordered?

[Andrew W]

Cheers Andrew - that's very helpful. I like the look of the tele bodies that they do. May well keep this in mind as an option for future purchases. Were you aware of what the weight of the body would be before you ordered?

I wasn't, but they seemed very helpful and I'm sure they'd tell you if you asked. As I remember I was too excited to find an Olympic White Telemaster body to think about that at the time. :)

[Twinfan]

At least if you've had to enlarge the pocket you get a really good neck fit.  I'd rather it that way than the other way around  ;)

[Andrew W]

At least if you've had to enlarge the pocket you get a really good neck fit.  I'd rather it that way than the other way around  ;)

Exactly. And it really was only a matter of half an hour of (reasonably) careful sanding so it was no trouble.

[Ian Price]

Cheers Andrew - that's very helpful. I like the look of the tele bodies that they do. May well keep this in mind as an option for future purchases. Were you aware of what the weight of the body would be before you ordered?

I wasn't, but they seemed very helpful and I'm sure they'd tell you if you asked. As I remember I was too excited to find an Olympic White Telemaster body to think about that at the time. :)

 :D They've got a pretty nice LPB tele body at the moment, the only problem for me is that it is double bound and I'd prefer a top bound body in LPD (Dave knows why!)