View Poll Results: What telecaster to get?
- Voters
- 121. You may not vote on this poll
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American vintage 51 or 52 tele. Man up to the neck radius and frets. That is the real deal
25 20.66% -
Modern american standard or elite tele. Why not taking advantage of the modern improvements?
38 31.40% -
Warmoth custom build. Why do you care that it is a Fender?
25 20.66% -
Get a cheapo and mod it, after all it is a tele and there is no point in 'boutique planks'
33 27.27%
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
Last edited by Hammertone; 11-10-2016 at 02:20 AM.
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11-09-2016 06:17 PM
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Great. Now I have to defend the colour of my guitar!
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Originally Posted by BigDaddyLoveHandles
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... nothing wrong with an orange tele :-)
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Further reasoning .... if I buy and modify a cheapo Fender, it will also loose all the value and the money for the upgrades. In this respect one might as well go the Warmoth route and buy a body and neck from the "screaming" deals section and put quality hardware on it. That won't come out to more than buying a reasonable MIM or Squire tele and upgrading it.
.... I just can't make up my mind - but thanks again for all the suggestions and votes. That is a fun thread!
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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One other possibility is to go with a partscaster tele, but not one you build. As you note, resale would be tough on a partscaster. Yet partscaster builders do sell. So there are some interesting guitars floating around at reasonable prices.
I got the urge for a particular flavor of tele recently. Alder body, rosewood fingerboard with 9.5 or 10" radius, Don Mare "Joel Foy" pickups Glendale bridge/saddles. That kind of thing. Was researching parts and pricing when I saw a tele for sale on TGP. Essentially the guitar I was about to build. Had a really fine looking neck from USACG, brazilian rosewood board. 12" radius, so not exactly my specs. Had those DM pickups, excellent hardware. So I grabbed it. Probably saved myself 6 or 7 hundred bucks as opposed to building. Some of which I put right back into it, getting a refret with larger frets.
Every partscaster is a risk, a big unknown, whether you build it or someone else does. This one turned into a winner, and it was in my hands much quicker than if I had built it.
MD
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Pick the right tele, the only resale value you'll be worried about is that of your other guitars.
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Lovely comment Jeff! I had a good laugh.
You are right of course. I am a perpetual hoarder rather than a manic reseller of guitars. Not sure why I am even worrying about it.
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Originally Posted by mad dog
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I've observed that orange teles prompt a shrill sound with lots of unpleasant overtones.
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Originally Posted by aboutIt
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Originally Posted by FrankLearns
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, good one Hammertone!
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Originally Posted by FrankLearns
I would LOVE to see the pic of that "wood flooring" Strat like object in the background. I still have a big soft spot in my heart (and head, evidently) for those ridiculously over the top 80's shed axes with crazy graphics.
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A MIJ Deviser -Bacchus or -Momose.
I have a Bacchus T-Master with a soapbar P90 in the neck. The Black or Brown oiled Swamp Ash ones are very nice.
Momose is like its Custom Shop.
T-STANDARD - BACCHUS Guitars
T-HOLLOW - BACCHUS Guitars
T-MASTER - BACCHUS GuitarsLast edited by Jabberwocky; 11-10-2016 at 03:30 PM.
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Could be a great time to buy if you're after a USA Standard or Special as they're being sold off to make way for the USA Pro series. I've heard some talk of them having slightly beefier necks and a few other changes to saddles, pickups etc.
Might be worth waiting for Winter Namm.
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Interesting! I thought the standard might be discontinued because of the new elites? But those are replacing the "deluxe" models, isn't it? I think I will wait a bit before pulling the trigger. The elite looked really great to me and ticked the right boxes for what I would look for in a modern tele. For the time being, it was a bit pricy, but some time down the road it will be ok.
UPDATE: For the time being I had already decided against the historic reissues ((way) too expensive, compromises in specs) and, despite the attraction, did not want to shell out the money for the elite. Then it was a consideration between a modded cheapo, the Baja or a Warmoth. The Baja I would have refinished since I hated the thick poly finish.
Since none of these options has any resale value, I eventually changed my mind and figured that the Warmoth option will give me the best guitar. Yesterday night I found "screaming deals" for a nice boatneck Maple neck with Maple fretboard (should be similar in shape to the 52 historics according to Warmoth but has a compound radius and modern double expanding trussrod technology as well as a modern TUSQ nut) and an unfinished really light (3 pound), chambered swampash body that together with some elementary hardware will set me back just 400 US$. I know from experience that these components will be high quality wood and impeccable workmanship. It will have more of a vintage vibe with no body contours, but that is kind of what I wanted here. Just enough subtle, modern features to make it enjoyable and easy to play.
I will put a quality three brass saddle bridge (ABM), pickups (Fender Nocasters) and electronics as well as Schaller locking tuners on it and will have a high quality guitar for less than the price of the Baja but with no compromises. Things will take a few weeks to arrive and then I still need time to finish it (planning to go with a natural look and use oil of some kind) and put it together (which is a piece of cake).
I am still considering getting a real modern tele a bit later since one can never have enough teles (so I am told :-)). Thanks to everybody for their insights. This was/is a fun thread! Keep sharing your insights and opinions.
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Originally Posted by FrankLearnsOriginally Posted by FrankLearns
The neck you have chosen will be heavy due to the modern double expanding trussrod, and even heavier with Schaller locking tuners.
The body is very light as mentioned.
You may encounter minor balance issues.
If you want locking tuners, you might want to consider Gotoh vintage style locking tuners - considerably lighter than the Schallers and excellent quality - to help offset any balance issues.
For example:
Gotoh Locking Vintage Oval Knob 6-In-Line Tuners | stewmac.comLast edited by Hammertone; 11-14-2016 at 12:34 AM.
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Neither here nor there, but for what it worth, I'm putting it out there... I discovered top loading bridge and it was great! It didn't change the sound of the tele, but the feel became akin to a shorter scale archtop that I play regularly. Nice and loose, and perfect for heavy strings. I like to use 11s on a tele, and I could never get comfy on long scale guitars, the tension always gets to me. Top loader made it perfect, enjoying my tele so much more now!
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I know it is not what you are asking but I am inclined to give a +1 to what Alain Jazz suggests - take a look at the American Special Tele.
It is really jazz friendly (high output pick ups and the 'grease bucket' tone control) and much closer to vintage styling (3 saddle brass bridge) than the American Standard
Definitely worth a look
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Originally Posted by Hep To The Jive
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Originally Posted by Hammertone
Cheers,
Frank
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Originally Posted by EvansDrD
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Try and play at least a 52 and a USA Standard just to give yourself an idea of the neck profiles.
My experience was that the 52 felt absolutely great and sounded great in my hands. The only problem was that I kept pulling the high E string off the edge of the fingerboard. The high E is a bit too close to the edge and with the 7.25 radius board and perhaps some sloppy technique on my part it was an issue. Otherwise it could have been my perfect guitar.
The USA Standard and Deluxe's all played great and just got out of the way and allowed me to play but didn't quite have the same mojo as the 52 and left my slightly uninspired.
I found out there's a 52 hot rod which is the same as the 52 reissue but with a 9.5 radius fingerboard.
I'm sure we all know by now there's no substitute for trying a few different guitars. I've lost count of the amount of times I've gone out a tried a guitar only to have my preconceived ideas somewhat shattered.
A couple of tele's I'd never even considered before playing them that left a very good impression were the Road Worn and the Nashville. I know, I know. Not cool. But they played and sounded great to me.
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