Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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tade
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Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by tade » Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:12 pm

Do you think it could be a good idea?
The thing is that even if I quite like the guitar, it doesn't intonate very well and I don't like the sunburst colour it came with, so most likely I'll have to work on it. Besides, the pu's are not the best around. As far as I know only one of the pg screws will remain uncovered and the rest of the butchery would remain unseen.
Probably it would be easier to turn it into a Deluxe, but I already got one of those, so...
Anyone can think of a red light about this project that I'm unaware of?


Pd: I posted here as it's not offset related, however maybe this post should be moved somewhere else.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by F15hface » Sat Mar 21, 2015 7:59 am

Just turning it into a deluxe would need new pickups, new neck, new pick guard, new electronics, new bridge, and routing. At least. If you dislike the burst, there's also the posiblility of a refinish.
If you were to make it into a bariton you like wouln need a bridge reposition, refinish, and new pickups. Seems a lot easier.

Thats my thoughts.

Also, here or mods and projects are the best places for the project, if you do anything, probably.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by tade » Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:18 am

I'm afraid I didn't make myself clear there, I'm intending to keep the neck and since It seems that repositioning the bridge is a must in order to make it intonate properly, while I'm at it I would go and slap a new pickguard and pu's configuration to get the 72 aesthetics, kind of a custom 72 baritone.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by StevenO » Sun Mar 22, 2015 7:54 am

What exactly are you asking? Would the neck fit on a different body? If so, yes, probably. Would it intonate? No. Can you make the stock body look like a 72 Deluxe? Yes, but it won't exactly be pretty.

Best bet is to get a new body and a conversion neck.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by tade » Sun Mar 22, 2015 8:33 am

I basically want to make the body look like a custom 72.
Conversion necks are ussually 28.5", this one is 27", and this is the scale lenght I want to keep. That's why I want to stick to original body and neck. The problem is that the placing of the bridge on the blacktop baritone is a little off, which results in poor intonation. The fix for this is moving back the bridge. While I'm at it, I might as well change the pickguard and all that. The question is more about how would it look or what issues might I find routing the body and all that.
Another option would be getting a '72 body and installing the baritone neck there, but it would imply replacing the bridge also plus the neck is a 4 bolt and these bodies are 3 bolt designs, I don't know if these are compatible.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by fender-o-phile » Sun Mar 22, 2015 6:21 pm

I was lucky enough to get a black top baritone without the bridge issue. I love it. I think it sounds like a simple enough project. Honestly, routeing for pickups is relatively easy. The hardest part will be the bridge fix you already want to do. Also IMO the wrhb's might be really muddy for a baritone but that is personal taste and you might have better pickups.
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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by tade » Mon Mar 23, 2015 2:11 am

Did you stick to the stock string gauge or tried sonething diferent to make it work? I was thinking about trying something different but don't know if it will make things even worse.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72

Post by fender-o-phile » Mon Mar 23, 2015 7:01 pm

tade wrote:Did you stick to the stock string gauge or tried sonething diferent to make it work? I was thinking about trying something different but don't know if it will make things even worse.
I bought it second hand. I'm pretty sure they are an ernie ball baritone set. There are a few other forum members with the same guitar who had to do the fix but I don't remember who.
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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by tade » Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:59 am

I´m necrobumping this thread as finally got around finishing this project.

I ended up buying a Squire body, as they´re four bolts instead of three, installed a vintage WHRB pu I got a few years ago plus a P90 for Telecaster from the Creamery. The rest of the parts (pickguard, bridge, etc.) are pretty much standard.
Perfect intonation and no issues whatsoever, quite happy with the result.
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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by countertext » Mon Feb 10, 2020 11:24 pm

Uh, hell yeah.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by StevenO » Tue Feb 11, 2020 3:44 am

Looks great! I love baritones. :)

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by burpgun » Tue Feb 11, 2020 7:21 am

The guitar turned out nice! I used to own one of the Silver Blacktop Baritones. I still don't understand why Fender didn't put the bridge in the right place. I couldn't ever intonate accurately the lowest strings. Sold mine years ago when I got a Pawnshop Bass VI and found that it lived a bit better in that low guitar space.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by tade » Wed Feb 12, 2020 3:54 am

I think it might be more about the bridge choice rather than its position, as it's placed just at the same spot as it would be for a standard Tele.
I assume the bridge doesn't have enough travel to be able to intonate, depending on the string gauge.

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Re: Should I turn my Blacktop Baritone tele into a Custom 72?

Post by greens » Fri Feb 21, 2020 11:54 am

Came out great! Keef '78 vibes

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