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I have really been thinking about buying a Tele with a neck pickup, but I've also been looking into G&l guitar ASAT bluesboy classic due to what they have to offer hand crafted in USA: Seth Lover humbucker in the neck, 6 brass sadles, spezal tuners, very nice attention to detail, and the list goes on...
I have never played one does anyone have any experience with these guitars?
I don't really see too many teles like this for the price maybe the 72 Deluxe MIM...
Are all telecasters neck heavy? I have a strat that sit just perfect when I'm standing...
I know that for most purist out there they would say you want a tele get a tele...
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03-29-2009 06:22 PM
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I really like Bluesboys, and G&L in general. All these sorts of guitars are basically modular, so there are good ones and not so good ones. I played a John Suhr and Don Grosh version of this also, and both were outstanding, though a bit more $.
The configuration of semihollow (thinline in Fender terms) with a bucker in the neck is going to mellow it out a bit more than a solidbody, and give it a bit more depth & midrange to my ears. Our own Mr. Beaumont plays jazz with a solid and thinline tele. He usually shows up for tele threads, maybe he can add more to the conversation. Matt Warnock also plays a tele for jazz.
I have a Bill Nash tele (solid) with a Jason Lollar bucker in the neck. I get a good jazz tone from it, and if I put flats on it, would be just fine for that sort of thing.
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i rather like the bluesboys, and considered one seriously when i purchased a tele with a neck humbucker a few years ago. I ended up going with the fender '72 custom because i liked the neck better. the bluesboy's from the tribute line are very affordable and sound and look great, IMHO, and are a viable option if the USA made G&L's are a little too pricey.
The '72 Deluxe tele is a rock and roll machine, IMHO, and while it may have some decent jazz tones in there, the skinny neck (big headstock strat neck--yuck!)and big frets just scream for lighter strings and some good 'ol bashing. they're not for me.
as much as I like my '72 custom, my main tele now is my old american standard refitted with the neck from a '69 thinline. It's a solid ash body and has single coil pickups, but thru my polytone, it's jazz heaven. My lusting for Johnny Smith has been quelled.
the custom still gets top billing when I feel like playing thru a tube amp.
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Just another idea for you - My Tele is a Godin Artisan TC, from the mid 1990's, not long after Godin started making their own guitars rather that manufacturing only for other brands. It's a superb guitar in a Tele style with some top contouring, and with Godin brand Bill Laurence humbuckers with coil switching it gets very nice sounds. If you can audition one (or it's current equivalent) you may be happily surprised.
Brian
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Mr. Beaumont-- What single coils are you using in your tele? I love your sound. Just got one and would like to update the pickups. Thank you.
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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there's several different teles on the recordings, but they're all stock pickups. Originally Posted by msr13
stella by starlight and the things we did last summer are the '72 custom with the neck humbucker. the amps vary from a silverface princeton (sadly, not mine, but a friend's--that's "here's that rainy day") to a roland cube 60, a blues jr., and a polytone mini brute III. the two recordings with the drums and bass on my homepage are the polytone. gotta admit, i can only kind of remember which other tracks were done with which amp, but the guitars i remember pretty well...
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I have a cheap Tele copy with single coils that I have been playing lately I dig the tone always thought tele's were brite, but I found out that the neck pickup is thicker warmer sweeter than my strat go figure...What I'm having a problem with is ,I like my neck up and even with a 4" strap it still tends to go down when I'm standing...The body is very light and the neck is heavier are lets say Fender Tele MIA soildbody like this ? I don't like 60 cycle hum does anyone have any experience with noiseless pickups?
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In my experience, most teles are not neck heavy...what kind is yours? i wonder what the body is made of?
some tele folks like a very light body. me, i like the whole guitar in the 7-8 lb. range. balances well for me around there.
thicker, warmer and sweeter than a strat? welcome to the club of folks who know "leo got it right the first time!"
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Thank you sir for your response the guitar is a Jay turser made in china I think model is Lt and it weigh 6 LB dripping wet not sure what they use for the body sitting, it's very nice, but standing I alway have to use my left hand to lift the neck ...I have been thinking that if I installed a peg somewhere like a les pauls that might solve this problem ...This is not going to be my main guitar I'm still in the market for a new one but not sure Fender or G&L ect and if they all have this unbalance... Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
In my experience, most teles are not neck heavy...what kind is yours? i wonder what the body is made of?
some tele folks like a very light body. me, i like the whole guitar in the 7-8 lb. range. balances well for me around there.
thicker, warmer and sweeter than a strat? welcome to the club of folks who know "leo got it right the first time!"
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hmmmm...where are you attaching the strap now?
i think you'll have better luck with a fender or G&L... like i said, even my thinline isn't neck heavy, and it's only around 5 and a half pounds!
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Hi Mr Beaumont, I'm with MSR13 - love the tone you've got on those recordings!
I'm about to get myself a tele. I don't have a huge budget, so at the minute I'm looking at the Mexican 72 Custom (humbucker in the neck) and also the Classic Player Baja tele. Also would maybe look at the Korean lite ash tele. Any thoughts on these guitars?
Also, do you find there's much of a difference between maple and rosewood fingerboards? And do you prefer having a humbucker or single coil in the neck?
Cheers,
Ewan
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3 good guitars, IMHO. if you can play them ahead of time, that will help, as they have very different necks.
of the three necks, i like the '72 custom--i like small frets and a bigger radius--i play a lot of chords and slide a lot of notes, and rarely bend. the neck on the baja is nice and big, a soft V profile that fits the hand really well, but i'm not a huge fan of the bigger frets...but that's really just a personal preference.
i'm not as familiar with the light ash, but i've heard people like them.
maple versus rosewood? in a blindfolded test i could never tell. i think a ot of jazz cats like the look of the rosewood because if they were playing a hollowbody before, chances are it had a dark wood fretboard, and it might be easier to orient onesself...just a guess though...
as far as pickups, here's what i find.
with the humbucker on the '72 custom, i pretty much plug and play, thru any amp, set the EQ flat, roll off a little tone on the guitar if i want. i'm set and ready to roll in seconds. overall, the tone is very good...but...
my main tele (which if you go back to that site, is on "quiet room," "for granted," and the solo recording of "darn that dream,"has single coils (and a maple neck!) when this guitar is "dialed in," it's my favorite sound, but it takes a little more tweaking to get things right...it seems more sensitive to little twists of EQ knobs and the tone and volume knobs on the guitar itself. so it takes some time to get things right. this guitar also sounds much better thru a darker voiced solid state amp, particularly my polytone MBIII. thru some amps, it's a little too bright for my tastes...so it's some give and take there...
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I tend to prefer the smaller vintage style frets too. And I mainly play through a Fender Twin Reverb amp which I find almost ear splittingly bright most of the time. Sometimes a Vox AC30, though that pretty much sounds good with anything plugged into it.
Sounds like the 72 Custom is the one for me, though difficult to tell without actually playing them all back to back like you say. There's one on eBay at the minute, in black with (unusually) a rosewood neck which I've got my eye on.
Shall let you know how I go! Thanks a lot for the info, very helpful to know other players' findings.
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I am a huge wrap for the G&L ASAT Bluesboy. I have had a Fender tele in the past but I find my G&L to be a little more versitile.
It is made in the U.S.A and has a real custom shop kind of feel to it. It has the humbucker in the neck, single coil in the bridge and is semi hollow body with no f hole. (I thought the f hole on the butterscotch blonde finish looked a bit odd)
I also got the gun oil tint on the neck which gives it a really cool aged look, but after playing it every day for two years it feels super smooth. It does cost an extra couple of hundred bucks for it though.
I run it through a Peavey Classic 50 2 x 12 and get great jazz, blues, rock and country tones out of it.
The build quality is also great and I can go from 9 gauge strings if I want to do some country stuff to 11's for the Jazz and not have to adjust the truss rod at all.
Fender & G&L are both great guitars so I would go with what ever feels right for you, but if you can get your hands on a G&L to try out definatley give it a shot.
Can you tell I dig my guitar?
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You can tell! Yeah, I like the look of those G&L guitars but they're pretty pricey in the UK - easily double the price you can get a Mexican made tele for. I think perhaps a bit out of my budget, at least without selling off something else from my little collection.
You can get the G&L Tribute ones more easily over here, but I've not got round to playing one yet. Sounds like it's worth checking out though.
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There is good reason for that. Imo, they are twice the guitar of a MIM tele. I have a MIM J bass that is very nice for the $, but it is not on par with a MIA J. Originally Posted by ewanwallace
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yeah, an american made G&L is pricey, but actually a bargain for what you get, IMHO. on par or better than fender custom shop (again, IMHO)
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I like the look of their Bluesboy models a lot. Seems you can get them for around £800 in the US, but with shipping and potential import tax... they're double that in the UK, and much as I'd like one I'm on a much tighter budget and will have to make do with what I can afford. It's all pointing to the MIM Fenders at the minute.
Though if I'm convinced by the tele for playing jazz, I may offload my Yamaha AE1200...
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well i'm assuming, at that price, those are the (i believe?) indonesian made tribute series. nothing wrong with them, but they're a peer to the MIM fender line, not superior...
it's the american made G&L's that are really sweet.
but if it's the route you go, i think you'll dig the MIM classic series fender(the cheaper MIM standards are a little more hit or miss, in my book). the quality is pretty good all around(although the prices have recently gone up) and usually with a good setup, they're a great workingman's guitar. they also have nice big necks and small frets, which are unavailable on an american fender priced under 1,200 bucks now!
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I totaly agree. I have played quite a few of the made in indonesia (and before that Korean made) tributes and I used to own a MIM standard tele. Both really cool highly gigable guitars that would be on par with one and other Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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Well, after a bit of research I think I'm going with the Mexican 72 Tele custom. I tried the Lite Ash tele but didn't like the feel of the neck so much - I'm not keen on the satin finish and the large frets. And the Baja tele also has those modern jumbo style frets.
Though there's always the very random possibility that I'll do something crazy like spend the money on a reissue Jazzmaster or Jaguar... Good enough for Joe Pass, eh...?
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I would play a few first. The JM and Jag have a coolness factor about them, but I never played one that I liked the tone of, especially for jazz. Once Joe got a 175, he never went back to the solid body to my knowledge. Either way, good luck, and happy hunting. Originally Posted by ewanwallace
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I played a load today, and actually found the Mexican 50s reissue the most to my liking, which rather surprised me. I'd change the pickups straight away, but the neck felt great and the acoustic sound of the guitar was very solid. I think with some Kent Armstrongs or Seymour Duncans that'd be a great guitar.
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So, I ended up getting a 2005 Japanese made 72 Tele Custom. It's a beautiful guitar, the neck is amazing and it's very well put together. Overall I'm delighted with it.
However, I find the neck pickup a bit muddy sounding, it has a huge amount of midrange grunt and I can't seem to get that Fender sparkle out of it. Also the bridge pickup is a little thin when compared with the Kent Armstrong texas vintage I have at the bridge of my Strat (that's an amazing sounding pickup!).
Does anyone have any thoughts on good replacement pickups for Teles? I hear the Seth Lover pickup is great for the neck, and I've a classic 57 I could put in there. Or maybe I just need to get used to it and change the EQ on my amp (old Vox AC30).
Mr Beaumont, I'm betting you've some thoughts on tele pickups?
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Change the pots from 250k that Fender uses to 500k and there is the sound your looking for...Stock pickups are fine just Fender does not use the right pots.
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