Telecaster Love Thread, No Archtops Allowed

[Stefan Eff]

[Flat]

Here's Bill Frisell playing a Gibson scale length neck on a Tele. BTW, I love the look and sound of this guitar -- and Frisell's playing is of course ... well, ethereal.

Anybody got the lowdown on that large, unusual neck pickup? What a gorgeous sound! Great bass response!

[Stefan Eff]

Anybody got the lowdown on that large, unusual neck pickup? What a gorgeous sound! Great bass response!

It's a TK Smith C.A.R.-Pickup (and that pickguard looks also like a Smith custom pickguard).
Those Pickups are late 40's sounding, inspired by the great Paul Bigsby Pickups.

TK Smith(R) Custom Guitars, Pickups, Pickguards, Necks, Guitar Accessories | TK Smith

[Stefan Eff]

This is an exceptionally attractive instrument. Where did you get the hardware (Bixby/Bridgeplate) for this?

Thanks and sorry for the late reply, I've overread your question.

The hardware on this guitar is a Bigsby B16 (meanwhile with a vintage narrow handle instead of the Chet Arm) and a custom made Truarc Serpentune bridge. dBridges custom alu bridge base. I've bought the B16 from BAX shop, the bridge and the base are ordered directly from Tim (Truarc) and dBridges. Here's a summary:



Tuners:

• Kluson Japan Single Line
• Callaham Stainless Steel string retainer

Nut:

• TusqXL Vintage

Neck:

• Warmoth Custom Raw Deal roasted AAAA Flamed Maple FAT neck, compound radius 10-16“, 1“ 1st fret/12th fret, Jescar medium Jumbos

Body:

• Handcrafted body, Swamp ash/maple top, chambered but with completely massive center block.
• Angled neck pocket (to avoid a shim)
• Faded Sonic Blue, Pure Nitrocellulose lacquer, finished by Uwe Schölch (Tonfuchs guitars).

Hardware:

• Raw Alu, Nickel aged

Pickups:

• Handwound by David Barfuss.
• Neck: Alnico 5, 42 AWG, 6.2 kO
• Bridge: Alnico 3, 42 AWG, 5.7 kO

Bridge:

• Custom Truarc Serpentune in raw alu on custom dBridge alubase

Electronics:

• Emerson Custom (250 kO Emerson PRO CTS Solid Shaft, Oak Grigsby 3-Way Switch, Switchcraft 1/4" Mono Input Jack, 0.047uf Emerson Paper in Oil Capacitor, Treblebleed)

Tailpiece:

• Bigsby B16, Vintage narrow handle.

Weight:

• 2.8 kg

[Stefan Eff]

Assume Esquires are cool in this thread?

Here’s my old 1952, a great one...

Attachment 64233

Attachment 64234

That is an outstanding beautiful guitar. It's a one piece swamp ash body, right? Can you tell us about her weight, any sound samples?

[alltunes]

Apparently Dan Strain has stopped making his Danocasters....glad I got mine (shown above) in early 2018. Plays like a dream and light to wear 6lb 4oz

[curbucci]

Going to be picking up a Squier Pro Tone Fat Tele tomorrow. These guitars were only made for a couple of years from 96' - 98'. Made in Korea and they seem to have a good reputation on some of the forums. $325 which seems to be in the ball park on what has sold on Reverb.
Neck humbucker on this one.
Natural finish ash body.
Looks like this...
Squier Wiki | Pro Tone Fat Tele

Anyone tried any of these before?

[greveost]

Assume Esquires are cool in this thread?

Here’s my old 1952, a great one...

Attachment 64233

Attachment 64234

A real 1952??

A reissue, right?

[Cunamara]

I've already posted my single-neck-humbucker-semi-hlloww jazz Tele; last weekend I picked up my other Tele, a Squier Affinity, which lived at the rehearsal place for my old band. It was my dipping-a-toe-in-the-water Tele. I swapped out the electronics for Dimarzio Area T pickups, CTS pots, 4 way switch, etc. Hadn't played it in a couple of years; doggone what a nice sounding Tele! The neck is very narrow, a shade under 1 5/8" at the nut, which I recall disliking but on getting the guitar back I really don't notice it- even though my other Tele has a 1 3/4 Warmoth neck! The surprising thing is how heavy it is, has to be near 8 lbs.

And oddly enough, with the Area T pickups and shielding my quietest and least hummy guitar is a Tele!

[No_Jazz_Guitarist]

Here's my favourite guitar:

2017 LIMITED EDITION AMERICAN ELITE MAHOGANY TELE® THINLINE



I don't care much for the "Shawbucker" neck pickup. It's too thick sounding.
But, I rarely use it anyway.
The single coil is great!

I like the fingerboard radius: 9.5" to 14" Compound Radius (241 mm-355.6 mm)
and the Neck Shape: Compound Back Shape, Modern "C" to "D"

It's the only Tele I own and the only one I've ever played.

[curbucci]

Going to be picking up a Squier Pro Tone Fat Tele tomorrow. These guitars were only made for a couple of years from 96' - 98'. Made in Korea and they seem to have a good reputation on some of the forums. $325 which seems to be in the ball park on what has sold on Reverb.
Neck humbucker on this one.
Natural finish ash body.
Looks like this...
Squier Wiki | Pro Tone Fat Tele

Anyone tried any of these before?

Picked up the Pro Tone Fat Tele last week. Well constructed Squire. Only needed a slight truss rod & low E saddle adjustment. Wiring under the hood looks clean. Electronics & neck humbucker seem pretty decent for a Squier. According to some forums it came from the Cort factory and soon after the short 2 year run of these sounds like Cort started making the G&L Tribute series. So far not any issues adjusting to the neck. I got the pickup dialed in with with GHS boomers 10's. Might give the Brite Flats a whirl later. Will revisit this post after a couple of months of gigging with this.

[stark]

Mine, 24.75" scale. I have Bardens in it now.

[wzpgsr]

Started getting the Tele bug awhile back. I’ve had Telecaster-ish guitars in recent times, but this 2008 Baja is the first proper Tele I’ve bought since 2004. Arrived with a perfect setup, and not a ding or scratch in sight. I’m even digging the round wound 10s. If I had to nitpick I’d probably choose a thinner finish, although this finish is not nearly as thick-feeling as the G&L Asat Special I had for awhile last year.

[croth]

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

Now THAT'S an exciting looking variation on the T-style. I like it a lot. I have a Sadowsky T-style with splittable HBs. It's a cool guitar. This one...

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Ah! The Sadowsky I just posted has an ebony fretboard and a 1-3/4" nut as well! I guess we think alike. :-)

I suspect mine was cheaper

[croth]

I suspect mine was cheaper

I've learned not to judge things by money: more money spent does not always better make. But regardless, I love the design of yours and it's greatly possible that you're a better player, which would count for more! :-)

[stark]

Here’s another one, 24.0” scale, Korina.

[Tatayoyo]

This thread is absolutely excellent !
Being an acoustic archtop player I haven't touch any of my personal guitars since I borrow from a friend his '52 tele reissue "true vintage" and an old tweed champ. Perhaps the Julian Lage effect ??

[radiofm74]

This thread is absolutely excellent !
Being an acoustic archtop player I haven't touch any of my personal guitars since I borrow from a friend his '52 tele reissue "true vintage" and an old tweed champ. Perhaps the Julian Lage effect ??

I hear you Tatayoyo! A ’52 through a tweed champ is totally it!

[r_o_b_s_o_n]

Here's my '52 Tele Clone...

I built this from an MJT body w/ Musikraft Neck and Seymour Duncan Antiquities... I tried to make it as close as possible to '52 spec... anyway, she plays like a dream!!

[stark]

One more. 24.0" scale.

[Zephyr690]

SVL Supernatural, Simon Law's take on Robben Ford's 1960 Telecaster. Simon has looked after Robben's guitars on tour for a few years now. He built this for me 7 or 8 years ago, it's a wonderful sounding tele, very lightweight, ash with Brazilian rosewood board.



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[John Paiva]

I'm 76 years old and retired after 60 years of gigging. I also had about a zillion guitars. Only two really did the job. My number one axe was always a telecaster. Always a fender. No copies ever did it for me. The other was an Ibanez GB10 which I sold last year when I went through a terrible illness which I believed was going to finish me off. I survived and live to regret selling my axe. If you love it, DON,T sell it.

[Little Jay]

Alright, now that I’ve finished (as in: stained and spray-painted) it, I can finally show of my recent tele-built in this discussion as well.

So for those of you that haven’t already seen it in the dedicated topic, here’s my JazzTele 24.75” P90:

[Bach5G]

I had a gift card for the LMS. They had an inexpensive MIM FSR Tele - sort of your basic 52 Tele - that played as well as any guitar I’ve ever played. I didn’t need another guitar but it was really a superb guitar. So I cashed in the gift card and financed the balance. Beautiful jazz tones.