Post by 4real on Nov 13, 2010 0:07:26 GMT -5
I just realized I never put this guitar into the Nutz gallery...so here she is...the "blueteleful1"...completed in 2008 and been my main guitar ever since...
a more complete 'build thread' is here...projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=37370&hl=blueteleful
This is based on a 25th aniversary squier, ash body with maple board...custom pained blue...
It features a flat mount Kahler trem, locking shaller fender branded tuners and LSR roller nut...
Very 'sanitary' (lol) clean look with no string trees, staggered locking tuners...this thing stays in tune for weeks!
Pickups are a rare mint condition vintage "wide range" in the bridge...plenty of "clang"...a unique sound. The neck is a new SCn tele with a great warm but clear sound.
I spent a lot of time trying to work out a solution to mount this oversized HB...tie in the bridge into the look and the more traditional scratch plate for the tele look. The solution came in the form of this aluminium plate, brushed and with 'racing stripes' in tortoiseshell....
Controls...
Forward volume control, tone at the back...gibson style selector, push pull volume to phase the neck pickup for a funky sound...the small toggle turns on the sustainer and power (lighting the blue LED) selecting the bridge pickup and bypassing the selector...the centre control is a push pull "drive control" and pulling it goes to harmonic mode...
For the sake of it, I put in a hidden "kill switch"...a momentary tiny button next to the LED...
As you guys are into wiring...this is a pic of the guts...
A bit of a squeeze. but was able to fit it all in an unmodified tele cavity in the end...even the battery that sits below the tone control...things were tidied up a bit after this pic was taken mid rewire...
The DIY sustainer circuit is tiny and sits in below the HB...
This pic shows how this driver surface mounts next to the SCN neck pickup and exactly whats in it...3mm coil, 4 ceramic craft mags and an ordinary steel core. You can see the sustainer playing the strings in the pic
. The circuit tends to be biased to the G strings, you can see it has the greatest response but that the high e and b strings are also 'going off'...damping with a sustainer is crucial!
Ok ....SOUNDS
This was recorded roughly really late at night, the sustainers battery half dead after all that testing, but decent enough...
www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=869409
and a run down of the 'sounds' in the track...the sound is direct with minimal processing into a BR-600...no noise reduction or compression....just a little echo...no overdubs or setting changes, one take...there may be two parts as it went 'overtime'
The track is entirely one guitar improvised against the beat...the bass was added after wards...
...
So...that's my "super tele"...but a good illustration of my "hot rod" philosophy...
Clean, classic, functional, unique...
You don't need to buy a really expensive guitar to get top of the line performance. The pickups, tuners and bridge are the best there is really...you may have to invest well with the parts that matter.
These things can take quite a while to develop, you need to look a little beyond wiring of course but just apply the same kind of approach to set up and performance as you would there...
And these days, there are plenty of darn good guitars like this about that make a fine basis for such a project. You do need to ensure that you have something that is at least decent, not just any pawn shop prize...and spend a lot of time living with the thing and getting together a look and function that will work.
Any advice would be to get a really cheap guitar and work the wiring AND the action and performance aspects to build up a few skills and get an idea of what is useful...then apply it to something decent like this and walk away with a fantastic unique high performance monster for a lot less than you might expect...pete
Future mods being considered....I have a fender noiseless strat pickup...considering a mid pickup using the tone control as a fader to fade it in regardless of selector...any thoughts?
a more complete 'build thread' is here...projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=37370&hl=blueteleful
This is based on a 25th aniversary squier, ash body with maple board...custom pained blue...
It features a flat mount Kahler trem, locking shaller fender branded tuners and LSR roller nut...
Very 'sanitary' (lol) clean look with no string trees, staggered locking tuners...this thing stays in tune for weeks!
Pickups are a rare mint condition vintage "wide range" in the bridge...plenty of "clang"...a unique sound. The neck is a new SCn tele with a great warm but clear sound.
I spent a lot of time trying to work out a solution to mount this oversized HB...tie in the bridge into the look and the more traditional scratch plate for the tele look. The solution came in the form of this aluminium plate, brushed and with 'racing stripes' in tortoiseshell....
Controls...
Forward volume control, tone at the back...gibson style selector, push pull volume to phase the neck pickup for a funky sound...the small toggle turns on the sustainer and power (lighting the blue LED) selecting the bridge pickup and bypassing the selector...the centre control is a push pull "drive control" and pulling it goes to harmonic mode...
For the sake of it, I put in a hidden "kill switch"...a momentary tiny button next to the LED...
As you guys are into wiring...this is a pic of the guts...
A bit of a squeeze. but was able to fit it all in an unmodified tele cavity in the end...even the battery that sits below the tone control...things were tidied up a bit after this pic was taken mid rewire...
The DIY sustainer circuit is tiny and sits in below the HB...
This pic shows how this driver surface mounts next to the SCN neck pickup and exactly whats in it...3mm coil, 4 ceramic craft mags and an ordinary steel core. You can see the sustainer playing the strings in the pic
. The circuit tends to be biased to the G strings, you can see it has the greatest response but that the high e and b strings are also 'going off'...damping with a sustainer is crucial!Ok ....SOUNDS
This was recorded roughly really late at night, the sustainers battery half dead after all that testing, but decent enough...
www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=869409
and a run down of the 'sounds' in the track...the sound is direct with minimal processing into a BR-600...no noise reduction or compression....just a little echo...no overdubs or setting changes, one take...there may be two parts as it went 'overtime'
After beat intro...
Bridge pickup...featuring the "kkkerrrraaanng" like sound of the the Fender "wide Range" pickup (much better through an amp of course)...all the sustainer sounds also use the neck pickup by default.
1:00 Neck and bridge solo
1:50 fundamental sustainer melody...kind of synthy
3:00 Funky N&B out of phase sound
4:00 harmonic sustainer melody...compare to previous sustainer sound
4:50 bluesy sound
5:20 switch to light drive harmonic sustainer (notes fade to harmonic)
6:20 harmonic slide (picked up plastic bic lighter) last note slides from driver to nut then trem to slack on b string
7:58 weird theremin like feedback effects
8:00 chords with harmonic feedback bass notes
10:00 jazzy neck pickup...
Bridge pickup...featuring the "kkkerrrraaanng" like sound of the the Fender "wide Range" pickup (much better through an amp of course)...all the sustainer sounds also use the neck pickup by default.
1:00 Neck and bridge solo
1:50 fundamental sustainer melody...kind of synthy
3:00 Funky N&B out of phase sound
4:00 harmonic sustainer melody...compare to previous sustainer sound
4:50 bluesy sound
5:20 switch to light drive harmonic sustainer (notes fade to harmonic)
6:20 harmonic slide (picked up plastic bic lighter) last note slides from driver to nut then trem to slack on b string
7:58 weird theremin like feedback effects
8:00 chords with harmonic feedback bass notes
10:00 jazzy neck pickup...
The track is entirely one guitar improvised against the beat...the bass was added after wards...
...
So...that's my "super tele"...but a good illustration of my "hot rod" philosophy...
Clean, classic, functional, unique...
You don't need to buy a really expensive guitar to get top of the line performance. The pickups, tuners and bridge are the best there is really...you may have to invest well with the parts that matter.
These things can take quite a while to develop, you need to look a little beyond wiring of course but just apply the same kind of approach to set up and performance as you would there...
And these days, there are plenty of darn good guitars like this about that make a fine basis for such a project. You do need to ensure that you have something that is at least decent, not just any pawn shop prize...and spend a lot of time living with the thing and getting together a look and function that will work.
Any advice would be to get a really cheap guitar and work the wiring AND the action and performance aspects to build up a few skills and get an idea of what is useful...then apply it to something decent like this and walk away with a fantastic unique high performance monster for a lot less than you might expect...pete
Future mods being considered....I have a fender noiseless strat pickup...considering a mid pickup using the tone control as a fader to fade it in regardless of selector...any thoughts?
