Charlie Christian Tele Project Coming Along Nicely...

[magillver]

This is one of the first builds that I've actually taken a lot of time on, working carefully, taking a lot of walk-away-and-take-a-breath breaks, went out and bought a decent drill press so I could drill the string ferrules and bridge threaded inserts nice and straight...

 

[magillver]

All (mostly) finished!

 

[jeremy]

looks sweet! plugged it in yet?

 

[magillver]

Gigged with it yesterday through a Quilter Aviator 8" (winery jazz), played beautifully, overall I'm very pleased!

 

[Mincer]

What's it sound like?

 

[Artie]

Love it. Especially the threaded inserts. I'd also love to hear your review of the Charlie Christian pup.

 

[magillver]

I'm working at NAMM all this week, so I won't be able to put together much of a review until I get back. I'm really curious okay it side-by-side with one of the vintage Peavey Super Ferrite single coils...

 

[magillver]

*curious to play it* side-by-side...

 

[Wattage]

Nice! John Lennon vibes!

 

[jeremy]

thats cool!

 

[magillver]

Okay, my personal dust has finally settled a bit. The Lollar Charlie Christian in a solid body mahogany tele, against Peavey Super Ferrites in a solid body strat of unknown wood (I think it was an old Johnson, so nothing stellar, but solid wood, not plywood), similar pickup designs, both guitars have tortoise pickguards. Only comparing the neck positions, since that's where the Lollar is installed. Playing the 2 side-by-side they have a very similar tonal palette, both very even across the strings, I would say that the Charlie Christian is richer, with a bit more depth than the Peavey, but the Peavey is a little glassier and maybe more 'open' sounding than the Lollar. I like them both, but my tastes lean more toward the Charlie Christian, feels more well-rounded to me.

 

[Chris Pile]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the Peavey units designed by Bill Lawrence?

 

[Chistopher]

How did you get the string ferrules counter sunk?

 

[magillver]

Not sure if the Peaveys were designed by Bill Lawrence, I hadn't heard that. Artie, do you know the answer to this one? For the string ferrules, I marked the string pass-through points on the face of the guitar (one of the first pics shows the layout on the face), drilled through from the front with a small diameter bit, to basically mark the positions on the back of the body. Once I had the positions, I used a brad-point drill bit the same diameter as the lip of the ferrule, using the locator holes as center, I drilled just the depth of the lip which still left me with the centering hole, then using a smaller bit the same diameter as the body of the ferrule I drilled to the full depth of the ferrule, then just tapped them in. Did that make sense?

 

[d1dsj]

Looks great, I should imagine that blade pick ups would sound more even string to string and especially when bending? Love the colour scheme of this guitar.

 

[Chistopher]

Not sure if the Peaveys were designed by Bill Lawrence, I hadn't heard that. Artie, do you know the answer to this one? For the string ferrules, I marked the string pass-through points on the face of the guitar (one of the first pics shows the layout on the face), drilled through from the front with a small diameter bit, to basically mark the positions on the back of the body. Once I had the positions, I used a brad-point drill bit the same diameter as the lip of the ferrule, using the locator holes as center, I drilled just the depth of the lip which still left me with the centering hole, then using a smaller bit the same diameter as the body of the ferrule I drilled to the full depth of the ferrule, then just tapped them in. Did that make sense?

Yeah that makes sense. That's the same technique I tried on a piece of scrap wood, but I ended up not countersinking them on the final body because I figure if I don't recess the neck plate too, then the guitar won't sit flat on its back