I am once again a Telecaster owner.. '50s Lacquer

[Despot]

That is a lovely guitar.

I've a soft spot for Telecasters ... but even when I've had a few really nice old ones they've always been offered up on the trade altar whenever an old ES came along...

I'm officially Out of the Game now - but if I were to look at a new guitar I think it would be a telecaster. As cliched as it may be ... it'd probably be an American Vintage 52 reissue,not because I think they're a step above the lacquer Telecasters - but because I think the AV 52 was the first non-custom shop reissue that got the tint/colour of the butterscotch just right - I don't think they've managed to get the butterscotch the same on the lacquer teles (at least from memory), though the finish on yours looks wonderful and if I were going for blonde/white I'd happily skip by the AVs to a lacquer - I'd probably do exactly the same things as you've done too in terms of upgrades.

May it give you many happy years of bright tele treble!

[Maggieo]

My Hahn is a top-loader and I like the slinkier feel of it, FWIW.

[nanamour]

My Tele is probably my favourite guitar I own and it has a lot of sentiment behind it. It had recently fallen out of favour, not because it wasn't good but because I had played it so much over the past 10 years that the wear and tear started to take it's toll on it. I started to find it too bright and buzzy and rattly sounding. I gave it a fret level, crown, and dress this weekend and it's back to #1.

Mine is nearing this point too; I really ought to shell out for some tools and read up a bit on doing this myself. I even have an extra Allparts neck with a broken truss rod to practice on

When you're ready, give me a shout and I'll walk you through what you need and some tips and tricks. It's not as difficult as you'd think. For instance, I did about 6 guitars this weekend, willingly! It's fun.

Hey, thanks; that’d be wonderful. Expect a PM in the near future

[i love sharin foo]

I finally received the last of my parts today, so I gutted it and rewired everything.

Glendale 250k CTS pots
Glendale Raw Deal control plate
Switchcraft jack
Aerovox 0.047uF cap
CRL 3 way switch
Duncan '55 Antiquities
cloth wire

It sounds so much better now. The stock neck pickup sounds alright. Kind of bland and dull. It was useable but nothing was particularly great about it. The '55 neck by contrast has a better high end presence but is not bright. It seems to have a good bit more midrange as well. Note definition is really good. The lows a strong but not overly so. It seems a lot more open sounding. Damn, it is really lame trying to describe with words how something sounds

The bridge '55 is a real monster! With the extra mids (versus the regular Antiquity), it really snarls. It seems a lot thicker all around. It is bright, make no mistake, but it is actually pretty well balanced also. The lowend is definitely there. The highs and mids are definitely the main attraction though. It really loves y Lovetone Big Cheese. Using that along with the brown Princeton (with volume on about , the amps natural overdrive, combined with the Big Cheese and the '55 bridge pickup..

I am really like this Telecaster. I might have mentioned it before, but I am really pleased with the neck pocket fit on it, too. It is super nice and snug. All the routing is excellent, in the pocket and all the cavities. They've really done a nice job with these guitars.

[shadowplay]

I'm really interested in these upgrades, I own an old MIJ OG style SB bound Fernandes 'The Revival' telecaster (with the proper Fender headstock you got in Europe). At the moment it's box stock aside from a set of David White Old Glory pickups (AMAZING pickups but sadly he's dead) I bought the week I got the guitar in the early 90's or just before but you've really got me thinking of getting a new bridge and other nicer do-dads.

Yours looks great, I don't really keep up with modern Fenders but that looks a real sweet spot, if I was looking I'd be tempted.

D

[i love sharin foo]

Yours looks great, I don't really keep up with modern Fenders but that looks a real sweet spot, if I was looking I'd be tempted.

D

Thanks!!

I am not normally one for most new(er) guitars either. I've always seen most new ones as a stop-gap of sorts until I could obtain "the real deal". I halfway went into this one thinking that. I would never be able to pay what any '50s Tele is worth these days though, but figured a late '70s one would actually be pretty cool. I think they are still a bit underappreciated at this point. But this one has definitely exceeded my expectations, big time! It definitely killed any desire I had to upgrade it to another one. Other than the electronics, I don't have a bad thing to say about it. And as far as the electronics go, the guy I bought it from had "upgraded" and "rewired" it So, I don't know how much was stock and how much he jacked up. It very well might have been okay when new. They do come with nice CTS 250k pots new. The jack was cheap though and the switch was awful. I am still surprised at how good the fretwork is.

The only bad thing is it now has me wanting a B-Bender I think eventually it will happen. I just don't know how I feel about destroying this body for one. I know HipShot makes the external ones, but I like the old school Parsons-White model. Maybe I'll piece one together someday

[Con-Tiki!]

Lovely.
I have one of those '55 antiquity pickups on my parts tele. Thankfully, you'very already used up all the adjectives, so I don't need to say anything but "it sounds great."
The same guitar has a glendale plate, and a set of raw steel saddles. "Screamin' 59's"iirc...
It's my favorite set-up.
I switched from the Billy Gibbons saddles, and much prefer the sound. Notes hang on forever.

[i love sharin foo]

I have a lot of hours of playing on this thing so far and am still over the moon with it. I just can’t get over how solid it feels and how great it sounds. The Duncan ‘55s have shown themselves to be exactly what I’d hoped for. The bridge sounds like pure electricity. I’ve also replaced the tuners and string tree with Road Worn pieces for no reason other than I don’t like the shiny chrome parts. I’ve held off on swapping out the bridge plate for now. I am on the fence about a B bender so I am saving for that, kind of, while I decide.

I still have it set up with 9.5-44 strings but I think I am going to try out some 9-42s. I’ve been putting a lot of time into my bending skills, and while the 9.5s are fine, I think I’ll pick up a little speed going slightly lighter and it’ll force me to work on my touch even more. All good things I think. I’ll probably eventually work up to 10s. The focus for me at this point is to become a better player. If a set of 9s can some how help that, then I’m all in.

[Despot]

Re: strings...

I've always used .11s on Fenders and Gibsons - it started out as wanting more tension on short scale guitars like Mustangs, and then morphed into just preferring more tension in general. I have a heavy hand when it comes to fretting notes and .11s help with that.

When I got the ES335 it had been set up for .9s. What's more ... it had clearly been played (no finish on the back of then nec) and yet the frets were in surprisingly good order (and original - nubs and all). Whoever had that guitar before me (and I'm advised that it was a working session player) had an extremely light touch.

I couldn't play the guitar with .9s on it - but I resisted putting the usual .11s on it and went to .10s as an interim step. The plan had been to move back to .11s, but having the slightly lighter strings on a Gibson scale has forced me to improve my fretting ... and I've really enjoyed it. I used to get cramps in my thumb when playing barre chords with .11s on Fender scale and never considered going down a gauge (and working on my approach to chording) - the .10s have mostly cured the cramping issue, so clearly the problem was in using heavier strings than needed.

Good luck with the the Telecaster - I always find that a new guitar forces me to reassess how I'm using it (anyway), so building in some wider changes to technique seems like a natural progression of learning the ropes with the Tele.

[i love sharin foo]

I've never really thought about light touch factoring into fret wear. I think you are onto something there. The light gauges really do force you to focus on the little details that you otherwise gloss right over. I never realized how ham fisted I formed some of the more intricate chord shapes and just fretting in general. I've been finding that overall playing dynamics seem a lot easier and greater, too. It's like the right and left hands are working much more evenly matched now. Before, I always had to make a really conscious decision and approach to control those dynamics. Even when playing very softly, the left hand was still working with a lot more force than the right just to fret notes. I at first felt guilt and remorse for trying such light strings. The years of being conditioned into heavier is better, was hard to shake. But I'm over that now!

[marqueemoon]

I don’t know what took me so long to realize this, but all the years I spent playing violin have led to me holding strings down like they owe me money.