60's Telecaster...

Pearl Jam and toast

with the bigsby... beautiful looking tele.. $880 in my ProGear magazine..

Any postive/negatives about this guitar that you guys know of?

It's really tempting me...

By Christmas I'll be buying a Telecaster and this one is my top choice right now..

seanw1010

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

with the bigsby... beautiful looking tele.. $880 in my ProGear magazine..

Any postive/negatives about this guitar that you guys know of?

It's really tempting me...

By Christmas I'll be buying a Telecaster and this one is my top choice right now..

got a small review for you:
my guitar teacher whom i have been going to for 4 yrs has brought that guitar in about 1/3 of the times ive been there. that may nos ound like a lot, but considering he has 16 other guitars to choose from, its a lotof use.

anyway, the reason he brings it in (i know this cause i actually asked him on saturday) is because 1. it sounds ok2. its versitle3.(the downer) its a guitar you really wouldnt mind if it got banged up, as in, he would never actually bring it to a show.

he says its great, but not really show quality. the bigsby gets in the way quite a lot, and the neck sucks. also, with the ashtray bridge, your pick hits it a lot.

if i was you , for that same price range, i would just go for a highway 1 tele and put texas specials in it. but thats MO

Pearl Jam and toast

seanw1010 wrote:

got a small review for you:
my guitar teacher whom i have been going to for 4 yrs has brought that guitar in about 1/3 of the times ive been there. that may nos ound like a lot, but considering he has 16 other guitars to choose from, its a lotof use.

anyway, the reason he brings it in (i know this cause i actually asked him on saturday) is because 1. it sounds ok2. its versitle3.(the downer) its a guitar you really wouldnt mind if it got banged up, as in, he would never actually bring it to a show.

he says its great, but not really show quality. the bigsby gets in the way quite a lot, and the neck sucks. also, with the ashtray bridge, your pick hits it a lot.

if i was you , for that same price range, i would just go for a highway 1 tele and put texas specials in it. but thats MO

thank you!

This is exactly the info i wanted!

I was looking at the highway 1 also but got distracted by the bigsby...

thanks

seanw1010

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

thank you!

This is exactly the info i wanted!

I was looking at the highway 1 also but got distracted by the bigsby...

thanks

np, just dont want anyone to buy a guitar they will regret.

BTW, i got a deluxe ash tele about 6 months ago, love it! and my guitar teacher loved it som uch as well, he bought the same one as me on friday. even tho thats a little bit out of what you said for your $ range, it is one of the nicest guitars ive ever played(THE NECK )

seanw1010

in case you wanted to know, the del. ash tele retails for about 1300$ but i lucked out and got it for a little over a grand

Pearl Jam and toast

ahh I'd love to have that kind of income. 6.50 an hour ina state where minimum wage is 5.15 (and i'm 17) is fucking great, but still not enough

Now tell me sweet things about this highway 1 (i don't know a lot about teles..)

seanw1010

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

ahh I'd love to have that kind of income. 6.50 an hour ina state where minimum wage is 5.15 (and i'm 17) is fucking great, but still not enough

Now tell me sweet things about this highway 1 (i don't know a lot about teles..)

actually, if youhavnt known this yet, fender just relased the new highy ones, with better bridges and pickups(tho i would still change them). you can read about the changes here:
http://www.fender.com/highwayone/

who's_pearljam?

I never played that one specifically, but I love bigsby's on telecasters. If it's a good tele, and has that twang, or the sound you want, it'll still have most of it when you put a Bigsby on.
My brother has an SG with a Bigs on it and that's a great guitar, too

I guess it depends on your strumming style, but the Bigsby does stick up a bit because of the flat body, but it never bothered me.
I have all the parts to put a Tele with a B-5 Bigsby together, and I have a B bender sitting here, too. I was trying to figure a way to put a B bender AND a bigsby on. That would confuse everyone, especially me! :cool:

Pearl Jam and toast

So now tell me why I should shell out 160$ to stick strat pickups in my new tele

who's_pearljam?

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

So now tell me why I should shell out 160$ to stick strat pickups in my new tele

Hmm,,, for the same reason that you put wings on a pig?

I can't really think of a reason.

I think you should BUILD a Tele! I mean, they are the most basic guitar, and if anyone ever wanted to put together a Partocaster, the Tele would be the one.
That way you just buy the neck shape you like, the pickups and the electronics, get a nice body and screw and solder that sucker together. What better way to get the Tele you want, and to learn about guitars than to just put it together with the stuff that you want to put on anyway! :cool:

I have a friend who wants me to help him do one. Maybe I'll figure out a parts list and post it.

ianvomsaal

Tele's are cool, and they're really comfortable guitars.
I have an American Plus Deluxe Tele that's super comfortable. Mine actually came with 3 pickups - Fender made it this way. All the pickups are Fender Noiseless, but the middle pickup is actually a Strat pickup, and there also a mini-toggle next to the 5-way pickup switch that that allows me to turns the bridge pickup on/off (kind of a cool function because I can have all 3 pickups on at once, or just get that cool neck/bridge tele combo).
As I said, Tele's are cool . . .

I like them enough that I'm building one from scratch. Since I don't use any kits or prefab parts this one's taking me a bit to finish, but it'll be worth it when I'm done - I just have to finish the neck, and buff out the body. This is what I'm doing:
I've made a swamp ash tele shaped body with 1/4" flame/figured maple top, it's rear-routed, and has an F-hole (I've made it a hollow tele style body because I really dig the throaty sound and controlled feedback you can get). I'm putting in 2 mini-humbuckers with coil taps so I can get single coil sounds (the neck pickup's actually going to be a Strat minihumbucker, because they're a bit smoother sounding, and the bridge pickup will be a tele minihumbucker for more bite and tele twang). I've built a maple neck (22-frets), and I've used stainless steel frets (because they last longer), ebony fretboard with small abalone dots, and larger 10° angled 3+3 headstock (I'm making it with this type of headstock for a couple reasons):
1. The tele headstock is so small, it almost looks like it doesn't belong on the guitar (maybe it's just me).
2. I like a little more mass/weight - more mass/weight means more sustain (this is the reason they created the FAT-FINGER).
3. I don't have to use string retainers or varying height tuners (I'm using organic Gotoh Delta 21:1 ratio tuners - IMO these are the best tuners on the market).

Anyhow, there's my thoughts on Tele's - Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

keeponrockin

That sounds like a sick guitar ian, make sure you post pics!

who's_pearljam?

Nice Guitar Ian!

I used to build guitars with another guy. We made Les Paul style string through body maple topped from scratch. I miss doing that, and I don't even have one of my own guitars! I've still got enough mahogany and figured maple in my basement to make 8 or 9 pieces. I recycled the mahogany off an old boat in Lake Superior,,, and it has nice tone and hardness to it, so the wood has some stories to tell, too.
I want to do similar with what you're doing with a Les Paul style. A hollowed out f hole body on a Paul is great. I love the feedback you can get from that cavity. I bet my neighbors will be impressed, too! :roll:

Teles are the greatest style to build from scratch, too. If anybody here wants to try it, that's the one to start with. Strat, too, but there's more shaping and sanding and wiring involved. Still completely do-able, though!
If you don't want to cut with a bandsaw and plane and all,, you can find premade bodies and necks all around. It's a GREAT way to learn!

Ian! Maybe we should have a "Build a Tele Thread for anyone who wants to put one together."

Shop class!

ianvomsaal

I'm eager to get the tele done, so I'll definitely post some PICS of it when I'm finished making it.

I don't exactly know when though (even though I've got some down time with session work, I'm still busy with other things (we're closing on a house tomorrow - we were actually able to put a down payment on it from the $$$ I made from the last album I worked on - I'm going to have a lot of house things to do with this down time (I'd prefer to finish the guitar, cause I'd love to record with something I built).

On a side-note, man I got this huge 3ft-x-5.5ft-x-5inch blank of Brazilian Rosewood for my Birthday last year (this guy I know had it for over 20-years, and never did anything with it - it weights like 150-lbs). I'd love to make a few guitars with it, but I could probably sell it to a custom-shop for a small fortune.

Anyhow, I'll post PICS when I'm finally done.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

seanw1010

ianvomsaal wrote:

I'm eager to get the tele done, so I'll definitely post some PICS of it when I'm finished making it.

I don't exactly know when though (even though I've got some down time with session work, I'm still busy with other things (we're closing on a house tomorrow - we were actually able to put a down payment on it from the $$$ I made from the last album I worked on - I'm going to have a lot of house things to do with this down time (I'd prefer to finish the guitar, cause I'd love to record with something I built).

On a side-note, man I got this huge 3ft-x-5.5ft-x-5inch blank of Brazilian Rosewood for my Birthday last year (this guy I know had it for over 20-years, and never did anything with it - it weights like 150-lbs). I'd love to make a few guitars with it, but I could probably sell it to a custom-shop for a small fortune.

Anyhow, I'll post PICS when I'm finally done.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

holy shit man!! 3ft-x-5.5ft-x-5inch! you can BUY about 4 new teles and a les paul with that.

ive always thought it would be cool to make a rosewood bodied tele, tho, you know, like harrisons

keeponrockin

seanw1010 wrote:

holy shit man!! 3ft-x-5.5ft-x-5inch! you can BUY about 4 new teles and a les paul with that.

ive always thought it would be cool to make a rosewood bodied tele, tho, you know, like harrisins

Stole the words outta my mouth.

who's_pearljam?

ianvomsaal wrote:

I'm eager to get the tele done, so I'll definitely post some PICS of it when I'm finished making it.

I don't exactly know when though (even though I've got some down time with session work, I'm still busy with other things (we're closing on a house tomorrow - we were actually able to put a down payment on it from the $$$ I made from the last album I worked on - I'm going to have a lot of house things to do with this down time (I'd prefer to finish the guitar, cause I'd love to record with something I built).

On a side-note, man I got this huge 3ft-x-5.5ft-x-5inch blank of Brazilian Rosewood for my Birthday last year (this guy I know had it for over 20-years, and never did anything with it - it weights like 150-lbs). I'd love to make a few guitars with it, but I could probably sell it to a custom-shop for a small fortune.

Anyhow, I'll post PICS when I'm finally done.
Cheers . . .

- Ian C.T. vom Saal

Congratulations on the house, Ian! hah, I bought my first house with the paycheck from a tour! (Ok, downpayment) in the late 70's. I'm crappy at session work, but better at winging it on stage with people I don't know. (Well, people who didn't know that I didn't know what the hell I was doing!)


That's a nice piece of rosewood!

Make sure you use coasters when you rest your beers on it after you make a coffee table from it!

Cheers on your new house, man!

I have a tiny piece of rosewood but not enough to make an acoustic. I have some great curled and burled maple, too.
My favorite guitar will be from a big slab of mahogany that is I guess near 2 inches thick, 16 inches wide and 6 feet or so long.

I want to put two necks and sets of pickups on it in line so that it'll be a 6 foot long two guitars with two neckstraps in one so that my brother and I can both wear it and play! Haha,,, THAT thing will sustain! We were gonna call it "the board".

Pearl Jam and toast

Question: (not to take the focus off custom guitars which i'm enjoying ^_^ )

The normal American Telecaster is only 200$ more than the highway 1...

Is it worth the extra dough or am I just as good/better off with the cheaper of the two?

exhausted

i think it's worth the extra personally. this after A/Bing highway one and american series strats.

sure, the finish is nitro on the highway one but it feels kinda gross.

and i prefer the modern bridge on the american teles.

who's_pearljam?

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Question: (not to take the focus off custom guitars which i'm enjoying ^_^ )

The normal American Telecaster is only 200$ more than the highway 1...

Is it worth the extra dough or am I just as good/better off with the cheaper of the two?

Haha,,, sorry,,, no focus for me this week!

I don't know that answer, but I have played around with both in my local store.
The three piece bridge saddles bug me because they never tune right, but you can buy compensated saddles that are right in tune.
The other thing was that the Highway 1 pickups seemed a bit hotter and not as twangy as the American series. When I think Tele, I just like that traditional twang. The American one had it.
I would A/B them in a store.
If I was going to buy a Tele for the Tele sound, and not modify it, then I would do the American Series.


Which leads me to the reason for my lack of focus!! If you think you'll be changing pickups and hardware,,, I would "parts-o-caster" one together because you'll get what you want and I bet you can do it!