Telecaster Love Thread, No Archtops Allowed

[lammie200]

Finally had time to finish another one. Got artsy with this one. Fully hollow cedar body. Light as a feather. What else can I say. I love my guitars.

[jim232777]

Beautiful work! What do you think of that Fralin pickup? (I have the bridge version of it, but wondering about the neck version.)

[lammie200]

I like it. It is the high output version. I would say more of a humbucking sound than a single coil which is what I wanted. The body came with the single coil route and I didn’t want mess with it. I first tried an Area T that I had laying around, but that seemed too single coil to me. The body came from Babik on Reverb, btw. He does a lot on cool bodies that aren’t outrageously priced. My only pet peeve is that I wish I could find a bridge like this in nickel.

[One_Note]

Love those Custom Telecasters!

I had a RW board '66 in the '80's, and then found a'60.

Here's a pic of both.

Attachment 131542

These are beautiful! I love those early 60s Custom Teles.

[marcwhy]

Finally had time to finish another one. Got artsy with this one. Fully hollow cedar body. Light as a feather. What else can I say. I love my guitars.

Nice! Where are the necks from? Very nice looking!

[lammie200]

Nice! Where are the necks from? Very nice looking!

Most of my necks are from either Allparts or Warmoth. This one is from Warmoth with a ‘59 profile. I have a couple like that. BTW, the pics don’t do this guitar justice. It is precise looking in real life and the finish is uniform.

Someone asked me what type of guitar would I say this is. I am going with Neo-Plasticaster.

[jim777]

Finally got the P90 in the neck of my Baja Tele, a nice happy little family

Edit: I can't get this straightened out, sorry!

[Mick-7]

Three Telecasters recovering from the terrible tragedy of Tilt trauma

[jim777]

Love those three L-R, 1996 MIJ 50th Anniversary, Baja with a Bootstrap P90 in the neck and the S-1 Switch, and partscaster with a Warmoth 1.75" Earvana nut and stainless frets. They all play and sound great, and are a ton of fun to play The green partscaster is getting a new Gotoh 6 saddle bridge and a pickup swap soon. The MIJ was a gift and I replaced the non-original pickups with a gold Fender set but kept the originals because they were just killer (I have no idea what they are). So those no cover pickups are going in greenie.

[mvp019aa]

Very nice trifecta there!

[Little Jay]

Posted before, but lost in the 2000 responses so again (just can’t help myself):

My Telepartscaster for jazz:



Sounds:

Does blues as well:

[Bob_Ross]

You don't wanna know how long this partscaster project has been in the works! But it's finally done:



In some ways I feel like it's more of a Strat than a Tele, what with the elbow bevel, tummy cut, and three pickups. But it's Tele-shaped, so I'm calling it a Telecaster!

Details:

- Warmoth rear-routed Telecaster body with elbow bevel, tummy cut, and routed for (3) pickups. Padouk, with a light (and sloppy) finish of Minwax Spar Urethane (matte).
- Warmoth "modern construction" Telecaster neck in Padouk, Standard Thin Profile, 10-16" compound radius, stainless steel 6105 frets, ebony fingerboard, GraphTech Black TUSQ XL standard nut, headstock is finished with a light (and sloppy) finish of Minwax Spar Urethane (matte), back of neck is burnished (unfinished).
- Schaller roller bridge
- Schaller locking tuning machines
- (3) Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails pickups
- 5-way selector switch, and Master Volume and Tone

[porter.fitch]

IMHO the Wilde/Bill and Becky Lawrence L280 noiseless pick ups are the best drop-in replacements for the sake of fat tone and clarity.

The Dimarzio Area T pickups are a close second. They might get you closer to the classic Ed Bickert pre-PAF tone, if that's what you're looking for, than the Wildes. Having used both extensively, I prefer the Wilde pickups.

Both of those have a bit of humbucker compression; if you really like the true single coil sound, the Wilde Microcoil pickups for the Telecaster are outstanding. While they are a true single coil, they pick up less noise due to the smaller coil not offering as much antenna. There are two versions, one with I presume a ceramic bar magnet and one with alnico polepiece magnets; I prefer the sound of the ceramics (the alnicos are a little too Stratty for my tastes).

In my case, I have found that I like adding a resistor in parallel between the hot output of the bridge pickup and ground to sweeten/round off the highs just a little bit and make it less spiky. There are wiring diagrams on the Wilde website and also Lindy Fralin's website has a very nice page on this. Basically, this makes the bridge pickup think it is seeing a lower resistance pot, say 100K, while the neck pick up thinks it's seeing 250K. Folks who belong to the icepick school of Telecaster bridge pickups would probably hate it.

Are you using these with plain or wound 3rd strings with those pickups? I'm looking for a noiseless tele neck pickup, but I'm picky about string balance, and a wound 3rd is necessary for this particular instrument.

[Cunamara]

I used wound 3rds and have no complaints about string balance. The B is a smidge louder (that's more a difference in timbre than in volume; if you swap in a plain G, that string suddenly seems the loudest. It's just the transition from wound to plain strings and happens with acoustic instruments as well). I just adjust my technique to compensate for whichever string seems louder.

Wilde Pickups does not stagger their polepieces on these (maybe on any of their pickups).

[porter.fitch]

I used wound 3rds and have no complaints about string balance. The B is a smidge louder (that's more a difference in timbre than in volume; if you swap in a plain G, that string suddenly seems the loudest. It's just the transition from wound to plain strings and happens with acoustic instruments as well). I just adjust my technique to compensate for whichever string seems louder.

Wilde Pickups does not stagger their polepieces on these (maybe on any of their pickups).

Right on, thanks for the quick reply. Similar findings on the Area T?
I ask because this guitar used to have an Area 61 in the neck, and the G/B difference was very notable. But then, the Strat Area pickups are clearly staggered for a plain 3rd.

[Cunamara]

Right on, thanks for the quick reply. Similar findings on the Area T?
I ask because this guitar used to have an Area 61 in the neck, and the G/B difference was very notable. But then, the Strat Area pickups are clearly staggered for a plain 3rd.

It's been a long time since I used the Area Ts (I killed the neck pickup a few years back with a slip of the screwdriver adjusting the height, so the Wildes were the replacements for the Area Ts). I don't remember there being a noticeable string volume discrepancy with the neck pick up, however; but that the Area T had a cover whereas the Wilde Noiseless doesn't- I have the L280TN.

I also have the Micro Coil Tele set and really like those.

[ruger9]

I have the AreaT neck in a tele, and I think it's a very good tele neck pickup; it's one of the few noiseless ones I've tried that actually sounds like a single coil to me. I think it would make a very good neck pickup for jazz.

[Palomorado]

How have I missed this thread? I love Tele's...
Here is my current lineup:

This is a Baritone (A to A) that I built from an old cedar door from the fishing camp I grew up with...Neck is USA Custom guitars and the lipsticks were wound by MJ at the Duncan Custom Shop.
This guy is built from an old 50's body and Warmoth Fatback neck. Don Mare pickups and a hand controlled B-Bender. Strung with Pyramid flats...love it!
Rick Kelly made Esquire with Don Mare pickup. Neck is huge but this thing screams!
Fender Custom shop 12-string. A beast

[docsteve]

Nice! Where did you get the pickguards from?


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[alltunes]

Time to post mine again I’m still smitten….. Danocaster. My other Tele is an Eastman Les Paul Jr. copy

[Bob_Ross]

Rick Kelly made Esquire with Don Mare pickup. Neck is huge but this thing screams!

A number of years ago I played in a band with the husband of Rick Kelly's niece, so of course he had a couple of Rick's Bowery Pine Telecasters. Yeah, those necks were YOOGE! But they felt surprisingly good, and the guitars sounded fantastic!

[Palomorado]

Nice! Where did you get the pickguards from?


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Wife gifted me the floral guard. She got it made by an artist friend.
The butcher block I made in the wood shop behind my house!

[Palomorado]

A number of years ago I played in a band with the husband of Rick Kelly's niece, so of course he had a couple of Rick's Bowery Pine Telecasters. Yeah, those necks were YOOGE! But they felt surprisingly good, and the guitars sounded fantastic!

This is a Bowery Pine model...super lightweight and incredibly resonant.
I've never played a bigger neck but it's super comfortable. I really have loved the learning curve of playing the Esquire!