Telecaster Love Thread, No Archtops Allowed

[Michael Neverisky]

I usually string my Tele with T-I Swing 13s. I like the tension.

I've used TI strings in the past and they are top-notch. I like the feel of 11s on a Tele, but in
this particular case the light gauge strings just sounded better.

[citizenk74]

Very timely question.

I was charmed by a particular Tele at a music shop recently when I played it through a TM Deluxe Reverb, the same amp I have at home. The guitar was fresh from the factory with Fender 10-46 roundwound strings.

I brought the guitar home for a more in depth audition and in doing so replaced the factory strings with my usual set of 11 half rounds. To my surprise, the tone did not inspire. Huh.

Ok, let's try 11 round wounds. Nope.
Huh.

Being disappointed, I decided to return the guitar to its original setup and bring it back to the shop. When I put on a fresh set of 10 gauge strings the magic of those single coils returned. Huh!

My reissue Nocaster and a Yamaha Tele-style sound fat and fine with 11s, but not this guitar.

More is not always better.

May I suggest, if you like the tension of a heavier set but the sound of the lighter strings, that you try lowering the pickups a tad with the heavier set? A little distance might slightly reduce the string-dampening effect of the magnetic field. On my Strats and Teles I find I get the best tone (to my ears) with the pups set just about as low as they will go. On the Strats, that was virtually flush with, or a little above, the level of the pickguard. It's a thought.

[barrymclark]

Something I did this morning on my tele.

[unfunfionn]

I've used TI strings in the past and they are top-notch. I like the feel of 11s on a Tele, but in
this particular case the light gauge strings just sounded better.

I loved the TIs as well, but I was too stupid to wind them on vintage tuners. I struggled to prevent them from unwinding, almost like once I'd cut off that coloured bit at the end, even if I'd bent it first, it was game over. Never had that issue with Elixirs and hence I've stuck with them. Fantastic strings too of course!

For me 11s were the sweet spot gauge. What I love about the Tele is that it makes you earn whatever it gives you, and a string gauge that asks for a bit of effort is an appropriate pairing. But then I'm somebody who finds playing on lower gauges like playing on rubber bands, and things like my vibrato suffer especially.

[docsteve]

I use TI Flatwounds .011 - .047 mostly. I also like D'Addario NYXL, the last set I put on was .010 - .046. YMMV.

[coyote-1]

Wow. First ‘Tele’ I’ve ever seen that I would want.

i see I’m years late to this thread, but that’s beautiful. How much was it? And do you have audio of it?

I'm diggin' my tele thinline from RAM Guitars in Chicago -- yes, it's not a "classic" tele, but it's mighty nice!

Attachment 23047

[Stefan Eff]

Something I did this morning on my tele.

Great playing, great tone. Gimme yo‘ tabs

[marcwhy]

Wow. First ‘Tele’ I’ve ever seen that I would want.

i see I’m years late to this thread, but that’s beautiful. How much was it? And do you have audio of it?

Thanks! I bought it used, and I'm not sure what they sell for these days. It was about $2500 for a while. [No recordings, sorry!]

RAM Guitars.

[lammie200]

Dealing with the pandemic situation, I finished two project guitars this year to stay a bit sane. However, I have exhausted my space for guitars so this has to be it for a very long time.


I started out wanting a semi-hollow because I have never have had one. I figured the only thing that would work for my skill level was starting with the Tele thinline concept and I had a lot of spare parts to make it affordable.


My biggest hang up was the stock thinline F-hole shape. In general, I don't like how Fender used the conventional shape. I have seen other builders do it well, but I wanted something more contemporary looking.


My idea was to get a reasonably priced thinline body and reshape the F-hole. Hence, the mahogany top body that you see in the pics. However, working around the existing F-hole made the new shape larger than I could stomach. So I shelved it and moved on to Plan B. I found another body through Augustus Guitars. The owner, Kevin, was into helping me use more of Ric shape F-hole and he made me a new body with a flamed maple top for an extremely reasonable price. Not wanting to waste the first body I worked both of them to get what you see in the pics. Also shown is my Tele build from a few years back. All three play really well. I couldn't have gotten these anywhere, nor for anything close to what I have into them in terms of the costs for parts.


Ric-style F-hole thinline: Allparts Fat neck, Kluson locking tuners, Earvana shelf nut, Dimarzio Area T pickups, 4-way switching w/ intuitive positions. (Neck, Both Series, Both Parallel, Bridge - I don't know why more people don't utilize their 4-way switches to get these positions, but it is super simple to do.) Very light weight guitar.


Mahogany thinline: Ebay $70 fretless neck with Strat headstock reshaped to a Tele shape, Fender F locking tuners, GFS noiseless pickup. Also a very light weight guitar.


Ash solid body: Best Guitar Parts fat roasted maple/ebony neck, Hipshot locking tuners, Earvana shelf nut, Warmoth light weight (3.3 lbs.) 1-piece body, Fralin P-92 pickup, concentric volume and tone, 6-way Rothstein rotary varitone switch. Also a very light weight guitar.

Happy New Year!

[steve burchfield]

Nice Work! Would love to hear the humbucker appearance guitar. The rick f holes are a cool idea! I used to see their hollow bodies with cats eye a long time ago. Also I think Ric once made a light show body in the sixties. Mark King the bass player with Level 42 I think has lighted neck dots. Creativity is hard to come by in big companies sometime so its very nice to see what can be done. I like Charlie Christian pups in Teles sometimes. I play a Nash lite relic with 2 Lawler med. wind Humbuckers with rosewood fingerboard. Lately I have been using 12s flatwounds tuned down a half step for my version of Ted Green who I studied with and Ed Bickert tone zone.

[marcwhy]

Nice, @Lammie!!

[lammie200]

Nice Work! Would love to hear the humbucker appearance guitar...Lately I have been using 12s flatwounds tuned down a half step for my version of Ted Green who I studied with and Ed Bickert tone zone.

Thanks. Last year's new year resolution was to perfect recording. It has become this year's now. When I get to it I will post the sounds of the Fralin P-92. I like it. Clear and full.

Except for the fretless, I use 12 flatwound sets with a 13 and 17 on top. All of my guitars are tuned down either a half or full step. Besides the decreased tension I just like the scale spectrum better. That said, one of rationales for these builds was to use alternate tunings more and also a slide. So who knows where I will end up with these two.

Right now I am using GHS Rollerwounds on the fretless. Kind of a cost thing I suppose. It is also vey difficult to chord on that guitar, BTW. We will see if I ever get to perfecting that.

Cool about your studying with Ted Greene. One of the first books that I acquired about 40 years ago was Chord Chemistry. It is still beyond my abilities, but there is a wealth of info in it that spurred a lot of my movement.

[Hammertone]

I ended 2020 with some trading, some parts swapping, and a few minutes of re-assembly, resulting in ... the Wengecaster. I'm digging the ugly ducklings these days. And it is shaped like a tele.

MJT, Musikraft, TV Jones, Hipshot - these guys make it easy:

[Hammertone]

...Right now I am using GHS Rollerwounds on the fretless. Kind of a cost thing I suppose. It is also vey difficult to chord on that guitar, BTW. We will see if I ever get to perfecting that. ...

Speaking of fretless guitar, here's something pretty and seasonal with a fretless guitar. However, no chords were injured during the recording. Not even any doublestops.

[guavajelly]

Did anybody try one of these?

https://strandbergguitars.com/salen-deluxe-and-classic/
I don't feel a need for a headless telecaster but I'm curious about the "endur" neck shape and the modernistic look.

[lammie200]

Pretty cool looking. I tried a Steinberger headless for a while. Felt like I was missing something. Couldn't bond with it and realized that headless wasn't for me. Then again I don't even use a pick so I might just be finicky.

[lammie200]

Speaking of fretless guitar, here's something pretty and seasonal with a fretless guitar. However, no chords were injured during the recording. Not even any doublestops.

It is certainly easier to just feel notes and sometimes slide into them. Sorta trombonish.

Hats off to Coryell's harmonics. I will have to start seeing if that can be accomplished on my end.

[coyote-1]

What I would love is a tele-shaped body, semi hollow, without the pickguard and big chrome hardware. All wood in front.

[lammie200]

I see coyote-1's point. It may be a little ironic my Tele partscasters all have pickguards and I am thumb/finger style player. I never use a pick. The pickguards on all my guitars stay pretty clean.

One of the things that I was looking for with my Tele partscasters was some measure of a (Parallel Universe!) Fender prototype. Sort of the standard Fender design with subtle tweaks that speak to specific functional or aesthetic aspects. The ash body was to address a neck pickup only humbucker Tele with as much variety in electronic tone control as reasonably possible using parts that a builder might find in their parts bin. The maple thinline was to address a semi-hollow weight and tone, but with a different approach to the aesthetics. It was as if someone were to say that a contemporary solid body guitar shape that could be converted to a hollow body would need an F-hole but not one with a traditional shape. Take a clue from Rickenbacker that produces guitars with, arguably, very contemporary body shapes. The fretless was just desperation.

[steve burchfield]

I thought I would point out that sometimes Jack Pearson and Reggie Wooten play Fender Squire brand Strats. But often in my experience it is hard for copies to be as good of quality as originals. What ever makes the player happy I think is the main criteria if an instrument is "good" or not.

[West LA Jazz]

Tash Neal's FrankenTele

[Lobomov]

Didn't find this new thread worthy, but Ibanez has after a good deal of years without high end japanese telecasters once again released a couple. They are part of their AZ line.

There is the flagship, which is the new Josh Smith signature (not stainless steel frets)


FLATV1 | FLATV | ELECTRIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars


And then there is the AZS2209 (Love their names) (Stainless steel frets)

AZS2209H | AZS | ELECTRIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars

And the AZS2200 which has a trem

AZS2200F | AZS | ELECTRIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars


Dunno price wise .. maybe 2-2,5k?

[Little Jay]

Didn't find this new thread worthy, but Ibanez has after a good deal of years without high end japanese telecasters once again released a couple. They are part of their AZ line.

There is the flagship, which is the new Josh Smith signature (not stainless steel frets)


FLATV1 | FLATV | ELECTRIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars


And then there is the AZS2209 (Love their names) (Stainless steel frets)

AZS2209H | AZS | ELECTRIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars

And the AZS2200 which has a trem

AZS2200F | AZS | ELECTRIC GUITARS | PRODUCTS | Ibanez guitars


Dunno price wise .. maybe 2-2,5k?

Interesting.... but I am too conditioned with the traditional telecaster looks to appreciate things like the bend control plate and the body shape that looks like an inaccurate imitation.... totally irrational, I know, but still.....

[Lobomov]

Interesting.... but I am too conditioned with the traditional telecaster looks to appreciate things like the bend control plate and the body shape that looks like an inaccurate imitation.... totally irrational, I know, but still.....

According to Josh Smith the design of the control plate entails a slight optical illusion. The two knobs are placed the at the same spot they are on a regular tele, but you get the comfort of a strat style slider as an added bonus

[West LA Jazz]

[funkmuff1n]

Do you know what model that Ibanez tele is that JC is playong in the Garana Jazz Festival video you shared? Can't seem to find any info on jt anywhere...

[citizenk74]

Do you know what model that Ibanez tele is that JC is playong in the Garana Jazz Festival video you shared? Can't seem to find any info on jt anywhere...

[callmejs]

...he gives us the details here:

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

...he gives us the details here:

Tim Lerch has a signature model, but from Mike Lull, not Fender.

Tim Lerch TLTX Chubby Signature Model — Mike Lull Custom Guitars

[daveyisgreat]

This is my Tele that I built from parts.

(and for good measure, the Blackguard Book, which is amazing and exquisite)

[D'Aquisto Fan]

This is my Tele that I built from parts.

(and for good measure, the Blackguard Book, which is amazing and exquisite)

Nice guitar. Glad you like the Blackguard Book. I edited it for my good friend Nacho. It is an exceptional book. A must have for any vintage Tele lover.

[daveyisgreat]

Nice guitar. Glad you like the Blackguard Book. I edited it for my good friend Nacho. It is an exceptional book. A must have for any vintage Tele lover.

That is amazing! I absolutely LOVE the Blackguard Book -- my favorite guitar book of all time. That's so incredible -- fantastic work!

[citizenk74]

This is my Tele that I built from parts.

(and for good measure, the Blackguard Book, which is amazing and exquisite)

Lovely guitar! Well done!

[palindrome]

Bought this fully loaded no-name mahogany body last week and attached to it my spare neck original to the Yamaha 1511MS you can see on the left, which I have happily been using with this Warmoth conversion neck for quite a couple of years now. All that was required was a little shimming (using a piece of cornflake-box-style cardboard, what do you call these?) and stringing (trying D'Addario Pure Nickel 10s for a change).

The mahogany body is actually nicer than I thought it would be, both visually and soundfeelwise, given the 160 euros I spent on it. It came loaded with a Wilkinson M series humbucker in the neck and a Duncan SD-4 (Jeff Beck) in the bridge position, including a push-pull tone pot for splitting.

Never had an SD-4 before; was skeptical at first, but in a sense it seems to be growing on me. The Wilkinson M in the neck, though ceramic, is a _very_ warm-sounding humbucker that seems to give me a fabulous sound from the high E to the D strings (I mean, really), but alas lets me nasally down on the A and E strings.

Anyway, both are not a good match IMO. I think eventually, based on a few days of research now, I should going for a Duncan Jazz, i.e. SD-2, in the neck unless somone here comes up with a convincing alternative suggestion.

Anyway, I'm glad that I immediately went for this body when I saw it on ebay.

[Little Jay]

Tip for your tele: pickups from AliExpress!

In my DIY tele I had a $10 Alnico standard tele bridge single coil. Best pickup I ever found at such a low price! But at 5.6K it was no match for the 8.0K Lolar P90 at the neck.

So I bought an $8 ceramic blade humbucker in single coil format, again on AliExpress. It measures 7.6K, is very wel made and sounds absolutely great for an $8 pickup! Heck, if it was a $100 pickup it would still sound great! Amazing......

[Bach5G]

I picked up my FSR MIM Tele from my tech this a.m.

A couple of years ago, I went to the guitar shop to buy a pedal. The pedal turned out to be an older version and not the current model that I’d ordered. So with the purchase money burning a hole in my pocket, I pulled this Tele down from the wall.

MIM Fender Special Run butterscotch blackguard Tele. The big deal was the control plate was reversed (not a selling point for me frankly). Maple. 9.5 radius I think. Frankly, pretty generic.

It was a good jazz Tele. The crappy ceramic pickups sounded great. I’ve never been a maple guy, but the neck felt pretty good. I had the store set it up for 0.010s.

This past week, I had my tech unreverse the control panel, and install an Earvana nut, and brass compensated saddles. My tech also leveled the frets.

It now looks, plays, and sounds like a dream. If I could only keep one guitar, this might be it.

[papaj77]

Hi everyone, here is my lockdown project. It's a cheap (£90) Gear4music ash tele DIY kit. I was really curious how good this can be for that price, but it was a pleasant surprise, fret work was pretty bad (to be expected for that money) so had to level and it needed a shim for the neck, aside from that it's great, pickups are cheap but sound fine, everything fitted together nicely, it's on the heavy side but I like that (no neck dive). It comes unfinished with big headstock so it can shaped however you want. I staid the body with yellow food colouring and boiled linseed oil and the neck just boiled linseed oil. Plays great with nice low action, well worth the money if you are handy with tools and setup, much better that many Squiers I had or tried.

[Little Jay]

Hi everyone, here is my lockdown project. It's a cheap (£90) Gear4music ash tele DIY kit. I was really curious how good this can be for that price, but it was a pleasant surprise, fret work was pretty bad (to be expected for that money) so had to level and it needed a shim for the neck, aside from that it's great, pickups are cheap but sound fine, everything fitted together nicely, it's on the heavy side but I like that (no neck dive). It comes unfinished with big headstock so it can shaped however you want. I staid the body with yellow food colouring and boiled linseed oil and the neck just boiled linseed oil. Plays great with nice low action, well worth the money if you are handy with tools and setup, much better that many Squiers I had or tried.

Looks great! For such small money and a little labour, you get a lot of guitar so to see. Smart project, enjoy it!

[papaj77]

Looks great! For such small money and a little labour, you get a lot of guitar so to see. Smart project, enjoy it!

Thanks, it really is a nice guitar. It’s time to build me an amp now ?

[AmsterdamJazzist]

Chiming in after lurking for two years... for good reason



Finally got myself a Tele! Player series, 2020. AMAZING bang/buck ratio. And yes great jazz sounds to be found on the neck pickup. Happy to join the Tele-owner crew!

[citizenk74]

[apguitars]

Hi, look at my tele
Tele especially for jazz players, semi hollow construction compound radius and "JAZZBUCKER" pickup 2,9kg

[Half-trick pony]

Here's my contribution.

A 1995 Yamaha Pacifica 302S which I just sold. Amazing quality as always from Yamaha. Severely underrated instruments.

The other one is a MiM Telecaster Special from around 1993. Completely stock incl. the humbucker and the TBX tone control. Lovely axe. With the translucent finish it looks really classy. Only downsides are the weight and the flaky neck finish (which seems to be a trademark feature of 90s Fenders).

[jim232777]

I staid the body with yellow food colouring and boiled linseed oil and the neck just boiled linseed oil.

Very pretty. It may be sacrilegious, but I've never been a fan of most "blackguards" because of the milky, semi-transparent yellow finish. I could definitely go for this variation!

[citizenk74]

Here's my contribution.

A 1995 Yamaha Pacifica 302S which I just sold. Amazing quality as always from Yamaha. Severely underrated instruments.

The other one is a MiM Telecaster Special from around 1993. Completely stock incl. the humbucker and the TBX tone control. Lovely axe. With the translucent finish it looks really classy. Only downsides are the weight and the flaky neck finish (which seems to be a trademark feature of 90s Fenders).

[Roy Boy]

Not set up for jazz, but this is my second partscaster used for playing praise and worship at church. The neck is a Warmoth modern with ebony FB. Bootstrap Palo Duro pickups. Chambered body with maple cap and belly carve.

[papaj77]

Very pretty. It may be sacrilegious, but I've never been a fan of most "blackguards" because of the milky, semi-transparent yellow finish. I could definitely go for this variation!

Thanks, I really like to see and feel the wood, that’s why there are only two coats of oil on it and it feels great.

[rbbrnck]

Did anybody try one of these?

Salen Deluxe and Classic | .strandberg* Guitars
I don't feel a need for a headless telecaster but I'm curious about the "endur" neck shape and the modernistic look.

tried the “premium” (chambered) version. hard to resist, honestly - impossible’s more like it, though in the end i chose their “other” shape, and 7-string, for the active electronics. if i could have afforded, i would have next added a Salem, and put EMG T-Set pickups onto it.

neck feels like the most natural and obvious thing in the world, no need to “try” and “adjust to” for me, it just clicked like we’d been together ever since... my choice was made on tone and feel and playability, headless wasn’t a goal for me - and still isn’t, only a by-product i can live with.

[Alter]

Damn, haven't checked this thread for a while... serious gas attack!

How about this one?

[Paulie2]

Damn, haven't checked this thread for a while... serious gas attack!

How about this one?

Ok.... this is awesome. This is the kind of unique stuff I love seeing from their custom shop!!!