Totally unanticipated double NGD...

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

The first one walked in on me today at the shop by way of trade offer and it was too good of deal to pass up. It's feeling really great for maximum rawk and the 491T seems like it works out great in there for me:

2011 Gibson Melody Maker in Satin Blue

I had a chance to clean it up, change the strings, and do a little guitar styling. Intonation is pretty off w/ the tailpiece bridge so I'll probably snag the Faber adjustable wraparound I've had on an Epi LP SL for a while for this one as soon as I can find it It's a bit redundant for me, but it felt too good to pass up considering it's a really close match aesthetically for my Lee Ranaldo JM

The second new one spawned from a trip to take back a used Gretsch Synchromatic G100 I kind of impulsed last week (great sounding and playing archtop but every E on it would feed back at very low volume levels). I was intending to straight return it but them my sales guy there put this one in my hands and it wound up as an exchange:


2018 Fender Classic Series '72 Tele Custom FSR in purple flake

I still need to swap over to a set of .010s on it but it feels pretty great w/ the .009, if overly slinky. The neck seems like a particularly nice actually medium C and I like the vintage frets. This is the best I think I've heard a Fender RI WRHB sound so far and the bridge pickup seems pretty damn legit as well. I kinda failed on the pics of the finish, the flake is much nicer than they're letting on.

There's not really much I'd anticipate changing w/ this one assuming it will intonate well w/ some .010s on there. I'll probably grind down the radius screws for the Es and maybe try out the other WRHBs I've got sitting around for posterity if I get bored. I dunno if I'm feeling the white 3 ply guard or not but nothing's crystalized so far on what to replace it w/.

Thanks for taking a look!

[tele_pathic]

OMG that purple flake!!! Congratulations!

[BoringPostcards]

That Telecaster is GORGEOUS.
Love Tele Customs so much.

[Embenny]

That finish on the tele is wicked. Congrats!

[tylerforyou]

If that tele came rosewood with a black guard you couldn't stop me from buying one. They're tempting anyway. I've been consistently impressed with those melody makers.

[solfege]

Those FSR flake (in various colors) Tele Customs show up every once in awhile on Reverb for really reasonable money typically. One of these days I'm going to break down and buy one, I fear.

[valley_parade]

Oh gosh. The stock photos of that Tele looked awesome, but dang that's pretty.

[Jaguar018]

Put me on the list of another person memorized by those purple flakes!

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks alot everyone!

Going through my parts last night I found a Fender AV bridge plate (seems noticeably stiffer and more massive than the stock one) and a set of Joe Barden angle compensated steel saddles and slapped them on the tele today, tweaked the setup w/ a set of w/ NYXL .010-.046s and ground the radius screws to somewhere in the neighborhood of flush. I had to split the difference intonation wise on the B/E saddle, but all in all it's pretty good and aside from the neck finish it feels every bit as good to play as my Booncaster or AV '52 . Vintage style jack cups are a bit of a pet peeve so I threw an Electrosocket w/ a Switchcraft jack on there too. I think the white guard might be growing on me but I might still order or make one in either black acrylic or aged pearloid(?) for it, I dunno...

I grabbed some slightly better shots of the tele after I wrapped things up:





The Melody Maker is definitely a cool little guitar for the price. This one nails a certain kind a jangly rude crunch for me that I really like and actually has a nice twangy clean(er) sound as well. MMs also have a bit more of a primitive/direct feel to me (especially w/ the stop bar as a bridge on this blue one). They don't quite take the place of a thicker LP for me tonally, but I think they're really fun rockers. I rocked it out yesterday at Sunday afternoon jams and it feels great. I forgot that I went metric w/ the Faber wraparound and studs that are on the Epi LP SL so I'll need to figure out another option for a better intonating bridge on here.

[BoringPostcards]

I think a pearl guard would look great on that Telecaster.

[mulesing]

Wow those both looks awesome! Finish looks killer on that telecaster! Maybe a mint green guard just so it isn't as bright.

[Maggieo]

I think a pearl guard would look great on that Telecaster.

Absolutely!

[rumfoord]

Ooh! Congrats!!!

My vote is for the white guard, and (actually) white witch hats.

[fortytwo]

Oohh.. That purple flake.

But that white guard is drowning the purple out, that thing needs to go.

I'm kinda tempted to get one of those myself, but that three bolt neck, makes it kinda hard to find a replacement RW neck, I don't like maple that much, so to me a RW one would look better, and bring the purple out some more.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks again!

I think I'm gonna go ahead and get a white pearl guard ordered up over the weekend.

With the Barden steel saddles I'm thinking it may be just a bit too bright/bite-y ( ) so I may wind up dropping in one of the SD Alnico II Pros I've got in the parts bin over the holiday break from the day job I've got coming up and see what I think. Not sure If I feel the need to try swapping the WRHB at the same time, I've got the neck pickup from my Lee JM and could probably snag back the MojoTone one that's currently in the Pawn Shop '72.... The stock one does seem a little dark/woofy in the body so far but has a nice jangle/hair to it on the top end.