NGD: AV64 Tele

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sunburster
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NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sunburster » Thu Nov 23, 2017 3:20 pm

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I picked up this American Vintage 64 Reissue tele the other day. Love it! I think I've finally found the right tele for me. I really only like these in sunburst, and they only made the bursts for a couple years (2012-2014, I think), so it took me awhile to find one for a decent price. Not a whole lot of these on the used market.

The neck on this is so nice. Fits like a glove. Pretty chunky at the 12th fret, but it has a great taper leading up to that.

The pickups are good. Not quite great, to my ears, but I'll give them some time. Neck and bridge both sound a bit thin. I really like the middle position, though. And I will say that fingerpicking on this sounds better than any other guitar I own: incredible clarity and articulation.

The neck pocket date is Aug 15 2012. These weren't announced until Aug 20 of that year. So this look like an early one.

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It has several "#1"s stamped in there too, as you can see. Never seen that before. No neck date stamp, but it has "64 TCS" (Three Color Sunburst) on there, with "Villapando" stamped. He is a worker at the American factory.

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Despot
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by Despot » Fri Nov 24, 2017 7:51 am

Nice - happy NGD.

I've always had a soft spot for sunburst Telecasters - you don't see so many of them in vintage terms compared to the white/blonde standard colour.

Re: the bridge pickup - try raising/lowering it a bit ... you'd be surprised how much even minor changes in height of a Tele bridge pickup can make a lot of difference.

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sunburster
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sunburster » Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:47 am

Cheers. Thanks for the bridge pickup tip. I raised it up a bit, and yeah, now it has a nice bite to it.

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Larry Mal
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by Larry Mal » Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:57 am

Great guitars, I have the model immediately prior to that one, also in sunburst. I put a black noise cancelling pickguard on it, Mastery bridge... I went nuts. Great guitars.
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Telliot
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by Telliot » Fri Nov 24, 2017 11:20 am

Congrats on a fantastic guitar — easily my favorite kind. I’ll echo Despot’s advice on the pickups, Teles are especially sensitive in that regard, but once you find that sweet spot... :-* :-* :-*
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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sunburster
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sunburster » Fri Nov 24, 2017 3:24 pm

Telliot wrote:
Fri Nov 24, 2017 11:20 am
Congrats on a fantastic guitar — easily my favorite kind. I’ll echo Despot’s advice on the pickups, Teles are especially sensitive in that regard, but once you find that sweet spot... :-* :-* :-*
I need to fiddle with the neck pickup height as I'm not quite there yet.

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clef051
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by clef051 » Fri Nov 24, 2017 4:07 pm

Great looking guitar!! enjoy it. :? :w00t:

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sunburster
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sunburster » Sun Nov 26, 2017 12:19 am

Finally got the guitar sounding great. I fiddled with the pickup heights, of course, but the big fix was changing to brass saddles. Huge improvement there! With the stock saddles I couldn't get rid of this thin trebly tone no matter what I tried (except dropping the pickups really low which made it sound like airy rubbish). The brass smooths out the tone and now it sounds like buttery heaven. :? The stock saddles also rattled a bit when strummed hard.

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otis
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by otis » Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:14 pm

they're great guitars, aren't they?
I think I'll have to experiment with my pickup-height as well; sometimes I think there is something lacking.
I love playing mine, but my thinnest strings produce a sitar-sound when played open. I guess the bone nut was cut too deep at the factory.
Other than this it's a fantastic telecaster!
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sa1126
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sa1126 » Sun Nov 26, 2017 5:46 pm

sunburster wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 12:19 am
Finally got the guitar sounding great. I fiddled with the pickup heights, of course, but the big fix was changing to brass saddles. Huge improvement there! With the stock saddles I couldn't get rid of this thin trebly tone no matter what I tried (except dropping the pickups really low which made it sound like airy rubbish). The brass smooths out the tone and now it sounds like buttery heaven. :? The stock saddles also rattled a bit when strummed hard.
What brand of saddles did you go for? I find my AV64 to be a tad bright as well.
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sunburster
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sunburster » Mon Nov 27, 2017 12:06 am

otis wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:14 pm
I love playing mine, but my thinnest strings produce a sitar-sound when played open. I guess the bone nut was cut too deep at the factory.
Other than this it's a fantastic telecaster!
My high strings did the sitar thing too. I too thought it might be the nut, but I listened closely and noticed the saddle was rattling/buzzing! Since changing to the brass saddles, it's all gone.
sa1126 wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 5:46 pm

What brand of saddles did you go for? I find my AV64 to be a tad bright as well.
I use the Wilkinson compensated saddles, which intonate really well and don't cost an arm and a leg:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Wilkinson-C ... p_873.html

No complaints.

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Despot
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by Despot » Mon Nov 27, 2017 6:43 am

Saddles make the biggest difference to my ear with Telecasters.

The originals had those steel saddles with the grooves in them - and I am not a fan of these saddles in general. Later '60s had either the same or else the later skinnier smooth barrels with single string grooves in them.

I'd agree in terms of the brass saddles changing the tone - but the thing about those '60s Teles (especially later '60s) is that they're super super bright - that's sort of what these reissues are going for too I guess. I have a '66 Telecaster that was brought back to vintage spec (the bridge pickup was a modern repro). There's a proper vintage '60s pickup in the bridge now and it is laser-beam cut bright! However it's not thin or shrill ... it's just a really bright pickup, whilst still having some body to it. I've learned that the way to approach it is to not fight the bright. Set the amp up to where your tone on full is basically head-cutting bright, then roll the tone back. It's easy then to add treble as/if you need it to cut. You can't add treble if it's not there to begin with ... which is why I like that it's got it when it's needed.

Don't be afraid of those tone controls folks ... with Telecasters they'll become your best friend. But I'll tell you what, if you want to cut through a bunch of other instruments you'll find fewer guitars better capable than those super bright late '60s Telecasters! Now that I know the specific sound I can recognise it on a lot of music.

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otis
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by otis » Mon Nov 27, 2017 12:14 pm

sunburster wrote:
Mon Nov 27, 2017 12:06 am
otis wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:14 pm
I love playing mine, but my thinnest strings produce a sitar-sound when played open. I guess the bone nut was cut too deep at the factory.
Other than this it's a fantastic telecaster!
My high strings did the sitar thing too. I too thought it might be the nut, but I listened closely and noticed the saddle was rattling/buzzing! Since changing to the brass saddles, it's all gone.
sa1126 wrote:
Sun Nov 26, 2017 5:46 pm

What brand of saddles did you go for? I find my AV64 to be a tad bright as well.
I use the Wilkinson compensated saddles, which intonate really well and don't cost an arm and a leg:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Wilkinson-C ... p_873.html

No complaints.
Sunburster, nice to read your suggestions and Despot's thoughts on the typical sound of sixties telecasters.
Some years ago I had a tele that had threaded saddles originally. The previous owner had brass saddles installed, but when I switched it back to its threaded steel originals, I liked a lot more how it sounded.
I also love the general tone of this telecaster, but the sitar sound is definately a problem, unless I play with a really soft touch.
Changing the stock saddles for round steel ones might stop the problem and preserve the current character.
Also, maybe just changing the saddle of the highest strings might be enough.
I hope it's indeed the saddle that buzzes, not the nut.

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sunburster
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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by sunburster » Mon Nov 27, 2017 1:55 pm

Some loctite in the saddle height screws might solve the problem. It sounded a lot like a rattly Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge to me.

With the stock steel saddles the bridge pickup had a really strong bite to it, which I really liked. But the neck pickup sounded too thin. With the brass, I get a full, warm neck tone and a strong bridge. Not quite as much treble, but it sounds great to me. Definitely the best bridge tone on any guitar I own, even better than my AVRI 62 Jazzmaster, which was my previous favorite bridge tone.

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Re: NGD: AV64 Tele

Post by Homeless Blueless » Mon Nov 27, 2017 5:15 pm

Loctite will fix the rattles, especially a little bit in the long springs on the intonation screws to stop them shaking.

If you wanted to go crazy, you could even go steel saddle on strings 1 & 2 and brass saddles on strings 3 to 6? Has there ever been an option for trying this sort of hybrid saddles materials setup on a Jazzmaster/Jaguar bridge?

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