Newbie advice needed

[Newt]

I have a '64 DuoSonic I bought in a pawn shop in 1971 (Yes, 34 years ago). It was red with a huge bare spot in the back (the original owner must have had a huge Harley belt buckle), so I stripped it. I have played almost no electric for the past thirty years, only the occasional jam or playing with my son. 10-12 years ago, when my son started playing, I found that one pickup coil was open. I took it to a tech who replaced the pickups with some cheap Squier? ones, cleaned it up, dressed the frets, and replaced the saddles.

Now that I’ve been messing about building tube amps for about three years now, I’m getting back into playing electric. I also have a '68 Guild Starfire II (another pawn shop find). A year ago I bought an SX strat copy from Rondo. Although it's a decent guitar for the money, I find that I'm not a strat person; I don't like the feel, and I don't think I'll ever figure out what the five-position switch and the pots are doing. I’m used to the heft of the DuoSonic and the short scale. The guitar is identical this one (though not in such great condition!):

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7326769222&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1


Anyway, I’m getting a jones to make the DuoSonic as good as it can be. The only thing I’ve ever done to guitars is replacing/re-soldering jacks. I know nothing about pickup wiring, etc.

I’m thinking of replacing the bridge, pickups, pots, switch, etc., get a new pickguard, and have someone paint the body. The neck and fingerboard are really in good shape.

I've made some ebay purchases:

(1) Tom Anderson TD3+ (tele bridge-style) stacked humbucker:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7326408260&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

(2) Set of Am Std tele pups:

(3) Bridge:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7327138996&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

My plans are (depending on what sort of advice I get) are to use the Anderson pickup and the tele neck pickup. I know nothing about wiring, and am open to all wiring/switching suggestions. I realize I will have to do some routing (I hope not much) to use those pickups. After I get things like I want, I plan to have a new pickguard (tortoise-shell) made and have the body painted (either the brown? color of the one pictured in the ebay sale above, or some white/cream color).

Many thanks for all advice!

[damian]

Hmmm thats a big ? I think you should start by reading all the material you can on the original guitarnuts site as far as wiring. If you have soldered before and can figure out diagrams youll have no worries as far as wiring. The paint job can be done by yourself. I am a painter by trade and have my own spray equipment so I dont usually recomend spray can style stuff but, check out a site called reranch.com. Pretty cool for the do it yourselfer. If you need any pointers feel free to ask. As far as pickups Im not very familiar with the duosonic. If it fits stock single coils I would just go that route and try not to rout it. No pun intended if you must route it there is one sure fire way to route pickup cavities. Either create your own template from 1/4' masonite or buy one from stewmac.com double side tape it to your guitar and use a pattern bit on your router, also available from stewmac.com. If you need any pointers on this I can help I just finished building a strat using this same exact technique. Peace Damian.

[RJB]

I'm not familiar with thr DuoSonic's bridge, but changing it will have a major impact on the tonal qualities of the guitar. The one you purchased is a Tele toploader, combine that with the Am Std pups and you will be moving towards a Telecaster tone. How about a picture of the existing bridge?

My personal approach on this project would be to try the pickup combo you suggested with the existing bridge. The wiring I would recommend is the 'standard' Tele 4way switch. Series-Neck-Parallel-Bridge combinations from neck to bridge positions. Would also make sure the volume control is a 250K instead of the 500K that are common.

Note: Cheap way to convert 500K to 250K is to put a 470K resistor across the outer leads of the pot.

[Newt]

Thanks, Damian & RJB! I have some pictures at home I can get up tonight showing the bridge, body cavities, etc.

[Newt]

Here's a little history of the DuoSonic:

www.provide.net/~cfh/fender2.html#duoson

This is not entirely accurate; my neck is stamped and the SN id it as 1964. It was red with short scale, rosewood fingerboard, white one-piece plastic pickguard, and none of the Mustang changes.


Here are pictures of the DuoSonic (not mine, but basically identical):

www.18watt.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album119&id=DSGuts&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

www.18watt.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album119&id=DSCavity&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

www.18watt.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album119&id=DSTop&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

www.18watt.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album119&id=DSBridge&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php

If you notice, the DuoSonic has a straight bridge pickup and slanted neck pickup, the opposite of the tele. It would certainly reduce any additional routing (probably eliminate it for the neck pickup) if I kept it this way. Any thoughts?

The bridge I've purchased has a slightly larger footprint than the original, which will just mean a slight change in the pickguard cutout, I believe.

[RJB]

I had posted that you had bought a Tele bridge. Actually it's not. A Tele bridge extends towards the neck and has a metal ring with the bridge pickup mounting holes.
your's is for a hardtail Strat or such.

If your DuoSonic has the threaded rod, three piece bridge, THAT is very much a desired configuration amongst Tele players. Many feel te 3 piece bridge greatly yields to the desired tone of the Tele.
Tele pickups you bought should work great with this setup. I would definetly put the neck pup in just like the original. The dificulty is the 3 pooint mount for the bridge one. You will probably need to open up the bridge opening and drill 3 new holes for the mounts. OR an alternate would be to attach the 3 screws to the body under the pickguard. BTW that is how the neck one is usually mounted, spring loaded to push up to the screw limits.

I stick by my original thought. New pups with the originl bridge.

[Newt]

"If your DuoSonic has the threaded rod, three piece bridge, THAT is very much a desired configuration amongst Tele players."

Yes, that's what it has. I'll definitely try the new pups with that first. Thanks!