bowyn
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Post by bowyn on Oct 1, 2012 16:13:35 GMT -5
I just bought a Telecaster body.. sort of an impulse buy. It was a good price, so I snagged it. I will be using a Maple/Maple neck/fretboard with Tele-style headstock. I'm a bit at a loss as to what I want to do with it, though. I've got a slightly annoying habit of wanting to do something *different* and I would love for this to be somewhat unique (well, considering almost everything has been tried, I doubt I'll accomplish that, but *uncommon* would suffice). Just a little background: Pickup-wise: - You can't see it well in the picture, but it has cream binding around the top. - I've got 2 guitars with Soapbar P-90s and 2 with HB-sized P-90s, so, while I'm not ruing out a P-90 Tele, it's not my first choice. - I've got Strat types out the wazoo, so as far as Strat-ish SCs go, I'm more than covered. - Humbuckers... I've got guitars with Dimarzio DActivator Xs, 1 with GFS Retrotron Nashvilles, 1 with SC sized Dimarzio HBs, 1 with Dragonfire Screamers, 1 with an SD Invader and Washburn HB, 1 with GFS Crunchy Pats, and a Tele with a TeleBridge sized rail humbucker in it... so I'm sick of Humbuckers - I have a Telecatser and an Esquire already: I have an Esquire with an Active Humbucker and I have a Tele with a traditional bridge with SC sized rail-HB and normal covered neck pup. - I would like to stay with a *somewhat* traditional Tele Bridge, though I'm fine with a modded one, at least if it's a Mod I can do with my limited work space, etc. - I can't accomplish any NEAT wood working at this time due to my workspace and tool limitations. While I can Dremel-Route areas that will be covered by a pickguards or pickup rings, etc. anything requiring a nice clean/neat route is beyond my abilities right now. I already nearly destroyed one of mine trying to convert it from HBs to P-90s... *shudder* - I don't have anything with Mini Humbuckers yet... I have considered getting a Tele Humbucker bridge and maybe grinding off some of the inner sides so that a it so that Firebird-style chrome surround would fit inside it, but due to my less-than-masterful ability with grinding steel in my bedroom (that's what she said) and the fact that the stuff is chrome plated, I imagine it's going to look pretty ghetto. MiniHB in the neck is no prob, due to either using a pickguard, or just carefully enlarging the neck pickup route and using a Firebird style miniHB surround. - I won't be buying any Lollars, Fralins, etc. They're too expensive for me. I could afford them if it was something that really blew my mind, but I'm a cheap bastard at heart. I'd rather go with GFS or someone else at that cost and quality level, then upgrade if I liked what I heard, but wanted more, you know? - I've considered going with something like GFS Dream 180s since they are supposed to be significantly different from *standard* humbuckers. Something about that thought is not really floating my boat, though. - I've also considered going very traditional with single coil bridge and neck, but I've never been able to make a Twangy Tele sound as good as other folks do. That is certainly to do with my skill, but it would at least be unlike the two I already have. Accessory-wise: - As I said, I would prefer to go with a somewhat traditional Tele bridge, whether SC or HB sized. I would prefer something like a Wilkinson 3 compensated brass saddle bridge. - GFS makes a really neat X-trem system, kind of like a Bigsby. They've got them especially for Teles, but they're about 5 times more expensive than a standard Tele bridge, and I'd have to give up my String Through. Still, it's quite gnarly looking... - I'm not sure how I feel about a White pickguard with the cream binding. On the other hand, I did a mock up with a cream pickguard and the overall effect is more of a piss-colored patina look :/ I'm definitely leaning towards an Aged White Pearloid PG and Chrome hardware. I still don't quite feel the love between the PG color and the cream binding, but my only other real options seem to be Black (not really feeling that one either) or Tortoise (which I have an unnatural hatred for.. except on white). - That said, I could certainly go with no pickguard, or I could go Cabronita-style. - I'm probably going to go with a standard tele control plate in chrome since it's already routed that way. Vol, Tone, 3-way. Anyway, does anyone have any crazy ideas they want to throw out? All's fair, I won't berate ANY ideas. P.S. If I were to put a big fat SC pickup in the bridge and a MiniHB in the neck, would it be feasible to try and wire a 4-way blade switch so that one of the settings would use the Bridge plus the appropriate single coil of the MiniHB to get some noise-cancelling? Thanks for any and all input!
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bowyn
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That boy ain't right...
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Post by bowyn on Oct 1, 2012 16:45:36 GMT -5
FYI, I know one of the first questions is "Well, what kind of sound are you looking for?" The best answer I can give is "Something different than what I've already got." I like having a lot of guitars with different woods/pickups/etc. so that I've got this wide palette to choose from. I'm a singer/songwriter/guitarist, so unlike a "real" guitarist with a particular sound and style, I'm more the type where I write a song and then start picking out the guitar that "fits" for that particular song. I have extremely varied tastes and a nasty case of GAS/Guitar OCD Sometimes I like to play some Metallica, other times I want to play some Rush, sometimes the Beatles, sometimes System of a Down, sometimes Stevie Ray Vaughn, maybe some Jimi, other times I saturate myself with some David Gilmour, and I always enjoy playing some Zepplin. Of course there's a zillion others I could list as well. I *do* have a couple of "do it all" guitars as well have gigged/will gig with, my Black and Purple Tele, for example. They don't necessarily do it all, in reality, but you can't (well, *I* can't) take 10 guitars on the road, so it helps to have a co9uploe of very versatile guitars handy for that.
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bowyn
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That boy ain't right...
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Post by bowyn on Oct 1, 2012 16:51:42 GMT -5
Also, I've been interested in trying some AlNiCo II pickups. I've got a Seymour Duncan 52 in a Strat build, but I haven't actually finished putting the thing together. The demos I've heard (for what they are worth) sound stunning.
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Post by long813 on Oct 1, 2012 16:54:35 GMT -5
Good to see you at it again bowyn, There is a lot to consider about the sound (ie, I didn't read it all), but for looks - as they are just as important - how about a relic job? I've seen some interesting tutorials (I'll try to find) on how to relic the steel parts to give them an authentic vintage look which tends to flow nicely with cream binding. All I can offer now, will read again after I eat
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Post by 4real on Oct 1, 2012 22:10:29 GMT -5
One simple suggestion for now...reverse the tele control plate...puts the volume forward where you can reach it for swells and such, the selector to the back so you won't knock it so easily.
Mini HB's can sound good too, in the neck slot will sound really 'creamy' I've found...could get a kind of gretch like sound...if wanting to go to excess...add three. Check out artec pups for this kind of thing...
I have a brushed aluminium scratch plate here, but not sure what it would suit other than black.
I'll think some more, but this kind of body would seem to suit a lot of 'bling'...see my tele build for some other ideas that includes a tremolo...
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Post by asmith on Oct 2, 2012 6:21:20 GMT -5
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Post by newey on Oct 2, 2012 6:44:56 GMT -5
If you want two mini-humbuckers, you could get a Tele HB bridge and use a HB-to-Mini-HB adapter ring. I think TV Jones also makes a Tele bridge for a Filtertron, although probably a bit pricey. GFS also sells blank, undrilled Tele control plates, and even with limited metal-working abilities, you can drill holes as needed for custom control arrangement to give you that "something different" you seek. I also have a regular Tele-clone I built, and an Esquire-ish single-pickup one using a rail HB, so for my third, I'm going for a stereo setup with a neck HB and a bridge HB-sized P-90. But that's been a project "in the works" for some time now as real work demands have seriously intruded on my modding time over the last couple of years . . .
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bowyn
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Post by bowyn on Oct 2, 2012 15:17:07 GMT -5
Here are my current Teles: I'm thinking of going with minibuckers in the neck and bridge. Newey, I'd been considering using a HB to MiniHB conversion ring, but I was trying to figure out how to use that with a Tele HB bridge without making it look funky. I see three ways of doing this: 1. Possibly mount the HB conversion ring under the tele bridge. Not sure if this would work well or not. I think if I did this I could line underneath the rest of the bridge with some cut out mouse pad material so that it's all level. Not sure how much that 1/4" or so of extra height will affect things. I might need to shim the neck a tiny bit. 2. get a chrome conversion ring and mount it on top of the Tele bridge pickup surround. It would look less natural, but possibly would still look cool. Might be very difficult to find in chrome though. 3. Get a Mini bucker with the Firebird type of surround, grind away enough of the inside of the Tele bridge pickup surround to fit the MiniHB surround inside of it. I like the idea of MiniHumbuckers. I haven't used them, personally, but in reading up on them, it sounds like the right ones would sound somewhat P-90-ish with the added bonus of being humcancelling. I also like the idea of coil splitting to get something close to a traditional Tele sound. I need to research more on Pot values that work well with Mini Humbuckers. I'm thinking 500k would be fine, but I worry about it being *too* bright. Of course I could always add a 500k trim pot. I think together I might get an approximation of around 375k. I dunno.. it's going to take a little experimentation. Anyone have any suggestions on whether an AlNiCo V or Ceramic would sound better in those positions? I'd prefer an AlNICo II but those seem more difficult to find for a decent price. I'd definitely like some growl, but I'd also like some smooth sweetness to the clean tone.
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bowyn
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That boy ain't right...
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Post by bowyn on Oct 9, 2012 11:09:13 GMT -5
Good to see you at it again bowyn, Yeah, I've been lazy lately. I've actually got several projects going right now, but I got into neck refinishing and it's not as much fun as the rest of it :/ Let's see, right now I've got these in the works: 1. Gilmour Red Strat redo: I was trying to put a 9v battery route to one side of the tremolo cavity. Like an idiot, I routed the wrong side and ended up in the control cavity.. er through the control cavity, and while it's not the most horrible thing in the world, I'm building this one for sale so I'm currently procuring a new body for it. 2. Gilmour Black Strat: All finished except for the neck refinishing that I'm stalled on. 3. Jimi Hendrix tribute strat: All finished except for the neck refinishing that I'm stalled on. 4. 9 string Strat-type. All finished except for the neck refinishing that I'm stalled on and I need to order a set of 12 string strings for it. 5. Major work on an old Yamaha SC300T, full face pickguard, 2 surface mount GFS NYII pickups, covered Ric style bridge, possibly a X-Trem vibrato system on it. 6. I just bought an SX Calisto LP Jr. type neck and body. It's routed for a Dogear P-90, but since I went P-90 nuts a while back, I'm thinking of modifying a dogear cover and mounting a mini-humbucker in it. 7. Tele-Bass, still working out the configuration I want to go with. 8. The Telecaster-style guitar that initiated this thread
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Post by 4real on Oct 15, 2012 2:25:13 GMT -5
The kind of potential 'solution' I was thinging about is this kind of thing... www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-chrome-mini-guitar-bass-pickup-flat-chrome-surround-/200820746578?pt=AU_Instrument_Accessories&hash=item2ec1d96952These kind of artec derived pups are cheap but is where GFS gets them from, just without the hype and even more variety. In this case a mini HB firebird-style with a nice chrome ring and screws that I suspect could be mounted to a tele bridge with a bit of modding to cover the traditional pickup. Likely a need to alter the routing under too of course. I tried one in my acoustic and had a few and the quality is surprisingly good, noiseless and in the neck position a nice warm tone. Perhaps similar to things like gretsch or firebirds and the old LP deluxes and gyutars of that ilk. If thinking even more of a jangly guitar, one wonders if a tele bridge plate could be modded to install an HB pair of Lipstick pups could not be installed some how for an interesting tone and a lot of crome which might suit this kind of flamed body that I think could take a lot of bling. In fact, I'd be tempted to install three firebird pups to get some alternative straty tones with the inbetween positions and maximise the chrome. I ahve a project like that that I have plans for ultimate 'bling' but at the moment going in a different direction, so may never get built. Just a few ideas though...
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bowyn
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Post by bowyn on Oct 16, 2012 11:53:01 GMT -5
4real: After giving it some serious thought, I decided against the miniHBs for this guitar, but I've got another one which I'm going to put at least 2 of them in. Thanks for all of the input, folks. Not sure if I'm just a bit burned out on guitar building lately or what, but this is the first one in a long time that I couldn't find inspiration for. I realized I was GASing for one of the P-90 T-type Xavier guitars and thought, why don't I just do something like that? So, here's a rough mockup of what I will be going with, as far as I know at this point in time Details: Black Telecaster HB-sized bridge Black control plate Black Tele-style knobs 3 way switch with barrel tip Black pickguard Black Wilkinson tuners Black GFS Dream180 in the bridge Black Gibson Les Paul 60's Tribute P-90 in the neck Wiring for splitting the Dream180. I hear it's a bit jangly/twangy that way which should accommodate the Telecaster well (I hope!). I had the LP 60's P-90s in a guitar where I had shamefully borked the routing job and had to make a couple of OOPs rings, which weren't much better. What doubly sucks is that it's a gorgeous guitar, so rather than look at it with it's wonky pickup rings, I elected top just pull the pickups out and plan for something nicer looking for it. I might try the mini's with the metal ring, mounted on a slightly larger square of cream PG material.. dunno yet. The Bridge P-90 went to a LP Jr. type project and the Neck is going to the Tele build. An added bonus is that I was somewhat disappointed in the sound of the Gibson P-90s in the guitar I initially put them in, but the bridge P-90 in the LP Jr. project sounds GREAT, so I feel less deflated about buying them
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bowyn
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That boy ain't right...
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Post by bowyn on Oct 23, 2012 9:44:01 GMT -5
I have a sneaky suspicion that the wood this guitar body was made from was harvested from a cursed Indian burial ground.
Anyone know how to un-curse a guitar body? Anyone?
I swear this has been the most troublesome I've ever worked on :/
Issues so far:
- I bought a cup style jack for it, trying to be a bit "traditional" and when I went to install it I realized the route was too small. Dremel to the rescue. Now, this is the first time I've tried using the cup style jack. I figured, hell, it's a standard tele-style body. Nope. I never understood why a lot of telecasters seemed to have a flattened out spot on an otherwise rounded body... Now I know. Unfortunately, in my zeal to make this thing fit, I horked it good. Now the cup fits, but there's exposed wood at points (if you aren't able to picture the problem here, think of the fact that the side is rounded and the cup jack is flat across the top.. yeah). I was able to make it "okay" by cutting a ring out of the soft side of some black velcro (the cup jack is black) since they use some ridiculously strong adhesive. I shaved the fuzz down low, and now it just looks kind of like a felt pad under it. It actually looks decent.. BUT, I know it's a screw up and that bugs the crap out of me.
- I *carefully* traced the inside of the tele humbucker bridge surround (after getting the bridge on straight) and extended that out just a touch, using a china marker. I then added the side cut outs for the mounting "feet" of the humbucker. I routed this all out, put the bridge back on. Somehow i managed to route the mounting cut-outs to wide so that on one side it extends outside of the bridge coverage. AGHHH!! I semi-repaired it by gluing in a little piece of finish-topped wood I had just removed. It's not perfect, looks more like a small fracture in the finish than a piece grafted in, and it's not actually noticeable unless you look really close at the edge of the bridge, but still, it pisses me off.
- I fit the P-90 neck routed pickguard on and traced the route onto the body with the china marker. I took the pickguard back off and routed out the wood necessary to mount a P-90 in there. Not only is it a butt-ugly route, but after I put the PG back on, the route no longer quite matches up. Close, but no cigar. I had to go back in and route more out.
- The "supposed" standard pickguard and "supposed" standard control plate did not fit together. I had to enlarge the semi-circle cutout in the PG and, in the process, managed to take *just a touch* too much off the PG. Dammit. Again, it's not super noticeable, but it's not how it should be and I'm nearly ready to trash the whole thing.
- Just now noticed, after getting all my parts ordered and waiting a week and a half for them to arrive... I have no 500k log taper pots. All Linear. I would have just popped over to Guitar Center and bought a couple, but one of them is going to be a push/pull pot and they don't have those. *sigh*
- Somehow I forgot to order a 3 way switch. *double-sigh*
- The control plate, mentioned above did not come with screws... I HATE that.
- The strap-locks I ordered came with no felt rings.
- The string-through ferrules cracked the finish when I put them in. The is the first guitar I've built where I needed to install these. My other 2 teles are top mount. I'm not sure what I should have done differently putting them in. I pressed them in finger-tight, took a small wooden dowel that fit right inside the ferrule, and lightly tapped them in. Again, not very noticeable unless you look closely, but it's enough to make me really steamed.
- Refinishing the neck with Tru-Oil spray and one of my cats seems to have decided to makes friends with it. I now have a rare furry tele neck.
- I cracked the black P-90 pickup cover I was using. Since they are Gibson pickups, the non-Gibson spare cover I had lying around did not fit the screw spacing right. Of course the fact that's it's a Gibson pickup means that I have to pay triple what I'd have to pay otherwise for a stupid plastic part.
I've never had this much trouble with a build :/
Not a happy camper.
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Post by 4real on Oct 23, 2012 14:06:12 GMT -5
Welcome to the joys/frustrations of major guitar modding...all these things tend to be par for the course I'm afraid. And part of a learning process, though that does not make it any less frustrating.
Just about all my things if you look at the 'timeline' seem to take months, but often they have been hanging around for years. Lots of things have relied on past collections of unused parts and spares (such as a cheap bag of 100 fender like screws) and bits from other guitars and duplicates bought and such...the costs blow out too with all these little things, especially with the costs of freight and all that required to get this part from here, that part from there and everything.
Dremmels are fantastic in their way, but they are a 'dangerous' tool and not the right thing for a lot of stuff. Often the required tool is in fact a hand file and a lot of time.
The tolerance of pickup slots at the ears is astonishingly small, factor in that that is hard enough, but that some ley way might be reqired to line everything up to the strings and it is a tough job for nothing to show.
A lot of things seem to be just a cosmetic thing and the project a simple bolt parts to a guitar project, but in reality it will often bridge into the tricky fitting and construction thing. These are some of the trickiest things to do so you can see why there are people that sell 'bodies' and such rather than that extra tricky part of fitting out.
These 'cheap' finishes can often look good, but they are typically really brittle, My LP project is an example of this and so, rather than 'tap' in the ferrules, a tiny bit of superglue might have been more tactfule than hitting the things. Even then the pull of the strings might have 'cracked' things anyway perhaps.
Anyway, the thing that also takes skill is the 'covering up' of such things and all projects suffer these kinds of things. Many will not be noticable to others in pictures or any distance I'm sure, all my projects have a few things, nothing is absolutely 'perfect' even if it may appear so to 'lay' people. It's good of you to post these frustrations because often others will think this kind of project is 'easy' or even a cheaper way to build as if we are playing with 'lego' and it simply is not that way, especially when one is working with 'wood' and parts sourced from places all over the world!
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Post by newey on Oct 24, 2012 11:26:14 GMT -5
bowyn-
Sorry to hear of the frustrations. And I don't have any "better" answers for what you've done to correct most things.
But it does sound like using a jack plate instead of the Tele cup would cover up your error, and wouldn't really sacrifice "tradition", since that's why your Tele body has that flat spot in the first place- and why the cup didn't fit without modification.
The vintage "cup" was always a weak point in the Tele design, and many were replaced over the years with a jack plate-style mounting. Most import Teles now come with the flat spot and jackplate. You can use an LP jackplate but sometimes these require a bit of tweaking in a vise to flatten them a bit to match the flat surface. But it should cover your sins . . .
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bowyn
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That boy ain't right...
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Post by bowyn on Oct 24, 2012 12:51:09 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments, guys. It's nice to have a place to vent about this stuff. I just get blank stares when someone here asks me "What are you irritated about?" and I say something like "I ordered vintage style tuners and my tuner holes are 1/4" so now I have to buy ferrules/bushings and wait a week for them to get here!" I dream of having a decent work space with a router and a drill press *sigh* Until I have something closer to that I think I'm going to cut down on the projects requiring wood working.
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Post by gumbo on Oct 25, 2012 5:33:04 GMT -5
bowyn.. .all that 4Real & Newey have said.... ...plus, DON'T RUSH IT!!!! Like any skirmish with a piece of machinery (and that includes a Tele!), things rarely go to plan and projected timetable... Start by at least doubling your estimates of required time and effort, and you'll eliminate a lot of the frustration and finish up with a better job that you'll be proud of. .....and I would know this because....... Cheers from another part of Springtime Oz!! ...have we pi$$ed you off yet?
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Post by sumgai on Oct 25, 2012 11:49:43 GMT -5
From the Department of Second Thoughts Department: Maybe it's karma for making fun of the misshapen/mis-cut/miserable pine "Telecaster" body, or the guy who seems to have routed out his Tele with a golf wedge... or maybe the Ghosts of the 70s have come to mess with me for hating on Tortoise shell pickguards
Regarding all this building Nutzness - now you know why my hair is completely gray..... and I'm only 26!!
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bowyn
Meter Reader 1st Class
That boy ain't right...
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Post by bowyn on Oct 30, 2012 9:21:40 GMT -5
Yep. I just noticed my own silver hairs starting to come in :/
I'm almost done with this one, just refinishing the neck, which was in rough shape.
I now know for certain, I hate neck refinishing. I've got several more to do, and once those are done, I think I'll just spend the extra dough and get an already finished and logo-ed neck.
Picking cat hair out of tru-oil sucks.
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