New Guitar Build - Telecaster

[The Dali]

Hi everyone... been a while since I've been online. I'm back and working on a new project. This on is a Tele project with a vintage vibe. Not 100% vintage, but kind of a "classic look" to it... Likely 2-color sunburst and vintage tint neck. I'd love to do a Albert Collins Tele as some point, but that is for another time.

Anyway... looking at options. I just bought a brand new vintage-tint Warmoth neck for the project, and I have an off-white pickguard... so I'm halfway there! (ok, maybe 30%).

Still in need of:

Body
Neck Plate
Pickups
Tuners
Control Plate & electronics

I have a nice G&G case that is sitting empty, so I already have that...

As for pickups, I've been looking at the Blackguard Custom Shop pickups. Anyone have any experience with them? I haven't been able to find too much about them. Seems like they are a beefed-up take on the original "Broadcaster/Nocaster" pups.

Pics to follow!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

I'm sure you can get that "beefed up" nocaster sound if you call the SD custom shop. Something like the broadcaster pup with a few extra turns maybe.
If not, then I can highly recommend getting Lindy Fralin to make you a 5%/2% tele set in the stagger you want to match your neck radius.
Bear in mind that the originals used A3 magnets, so if you really want the closest as possible to the early fifties tones then you also might want to have a look at Don Mare's pickups.
Having said all that, overwinding a pickup does not necessarily make it 5% "better" or even 5% gutsier. In many cases (especially with teles) when you gain some output, you lose some of the real character. This is why so many manufacturers (SD included) already have what they think is the perfect blend when they make their "vintage" or "broadcaster" or "nocaster" set. They have been wound to give a particular sound after a lot of trial and error. A lot of us guitarists in the peanut gallery immediately equate "vintage" as being "thin and weak" in our minds without really playing and listening. People like Seymour, MJ, Lindy Fralin, Don Mare etc have obsessed over finding killer tele sounds. Don't assume that extra output will make a guitar sound better or beefier going by the theory that "if the vintage is good, then more turns will make it better" theory.
Last thing about teles...whatever pups you get. If it is a real vintage sounding tele with nice bouncy swamp ash and a maple neck, and a 3 saddle bridge, it is a wildly responsive guitar to playing nuance and will bite you in the ass if you hit the strings without thought. Part of this is to do with the super open and rich (bright) high end inherent in the acoustic properties of the axe, which of course is a two edges sword. Whatever pickups you get, give yourself time to get the feel of what that kind of guitar can do and how to get the best out of it before going on a never ending quest for fatter, darker pickups which end up blanketing all the good stuff.

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

For high quality Tele parts, check out:
http://www.callahamguitars.com/ or http://www.glendaleguitars.com/

They seem to have divergent philosophies...Callaham makes their bridges thick and heavy, while Glendale makes them lighter. I have used Callaham parts on several builds (Strats & Teles), and have always been totally happy with them. Plus, they let you choose different saddle materials now too. If you're going vintage Tele, you gotta go 3-barrel bridge. I use those exclusively, and have zero intonation problems.

For tuners, I like the Gotoh vintage height-adjustable locking tuners. They look almost totally vintage Fender, and are lighter weight than modern locking tuners, and they fit into the vintage-size hole, but they are locking, which I think helps tuning stability. They might be slightly hard to find, but they are definitely out there.

Oh...and 100% go with a swamp ash body.

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Thanks!

I guess I spoke a little too soon regarding the "vintage" part... I prefer modern conveniences, but want the color-scheme to be vintage... tinted neck, 2-tone burst... and I'd like the output to be vintage-style... the rest of the guitar can be modern (the Warmoth neck is a modern build).

Pictures once I get some of the stuff!

(But I have used Callaham stuff, and it is really nice).

 

[Mincer]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

For a beefed-up Tele, I dig a Five Two along with a Jerry Donahue pickup. It will be a slightly warmer Tele with a little more power, but still have some twang there.

 

[VinceT]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Hi everyone... been a while since I've been online. I'm back and working on a new project. This on is a Tele project with a vintage vibe. Not 100% vintage, but kind of a "classic look" to it... Likely 2-color sunburst and vintage tint neck. I'd love to do a Albert Collins Tele as some point, but that is for another time.

Anyway... looking at options. I just bought a brand new vintage-tint Warmoth neck for the project, and I have an off-white pickguard... so I'm halfway there! (ok, maybe 30%).

Still in need of:

Body
Neck Plate
Pickups
Tuners
Control Plate & electronics

I have a nice G&G case that is sitting empty, so I already have that...

As for pickups, I've been looking at the Blackguard Custom Shop pickups. Anyone have any experience with them? I haven't been able to find too much about them. Seems like they are a beefed-up take on the original "Broadcaster/Nocaster" pups.

Pics to follow!

A few thoughts - my Tele is a modded American Deluxe, but it's giving me everything I want from this voicing. The mods I have done are (in no particular order of impact):

- TV Jones Starwood Tele pickups (amazing) replacing the stock N3 noiseless, which made me want/try to sell the guitar
- S1 switching (not a mod, the guitar came with it) - basically allows middle setting to be parallel or series
- No load Tone pot
- 50s wiring Volume-Tone

Bottom line for this setup is that in most normal use, I'm hearing the pickups direct through volume to amp, and losing nil/little highs when rolling the volume back. The tone pot gives me total flexibility from 0-10.

When I made the mods, I thought I'd have to EQ at the amp for the guitar being bright, but that's not the case, it's a really immediate, usable Tele tone - mainly down to the TV Jones pickups, I believe.

Basically, this setup took the Tele from "I'll sell it" to "I love it" and it gets more play now than it ever did before.

Best of luck!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Good to know - thanks for the input!

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Ok... so the neck came in!! A few unboxing photos:

 

[AlexR]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Nice looking finish. What radius and profile did you go for??

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Nice looking finish. What radius and profile did you go for??

Basic Warmoth radius and "Tele Modern Construction" with truss-rod side access.

 

[rgand]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

OK, then. Another good build coming up.

I second the suggestion for Callaham bridges and parts. I just put one of their 3-saddle American Standard Hardtail bridges on my Jazzmaster build. Good, quality parts. Not cheap but certainly worth it.

 

[jeremy]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

ive been very happy with the callaham bridges. i have a reverse slant tele bridge and hard tail strat bridge. very high quality stuff. ive heard nothing but good things about glendale as well

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Basic Warmoth radius and "Tele Modern Construction" with truss-rod side access.

Word of advice from someone who has been there....
If you have the modern, dual truss rod neck, the extra steel makes it heavier (great sounding necks tho).
Make sure you get a body with a bit of heft to it so the tele sits balanced on the strap and stay away from the lightweight ones.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

From what I have been able to glean from a very sketchy research into it, your Dual acting truss rod adds 3 oz. to the weight of the truss rod itself over the traditional trussrod . What some people are concerned about is the removal of the wood to cut the channel for the truss rod, making the neck sound brighter. That's why IMO it might make sense to order a beefy neck to offset that. All pure conjecture on my part.
Aside from that though, the Dual action modern trussrods all have a very thick fretboard cap, so that might also give you a different tone even with the hollowed out trussrod recess.IDK.

 

[AlexR]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

^ Yeah, its certainly hard to predict tonally what certain elements might give. I have had a neck or two that, on paper, should have been great - but both were dead (they killed the tone of whatever guitar they went onto).

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Interesting... I've built guitars for a while (assembled, I'm not a builder like some of you talented people) and it is amazing what you learn. So I was perusing the Callaham site and I was reading up on the neck-plates and the fact that they use a thicker neckplate to reduce neckplate BENDING which can dig into the body of the guitar (along with overtightening). So interesting! I have definitely had guitars that had body dents around the neckplate and was always curious if this was an issue.

I also looked at their bridges... and they are nice, but $130??? Good lord.

I think I'll end up with a Callaham neck plate at $30... I like the idea of a thicker piece of metal holding the neck and body together.

I'll probably go with the Gotoh modern bridge. I like having six saddles.

(yes, I'm aware that the "vintage" part of my thread title is no longer applicable).

I'm also planning on a set of Dimarzio Twang King pickups with 4-position wiring.

Still undecided about the body and tuners.

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

For high quality Tele parts, check out:
http://www.callahamguitars.com/ or http://www.glendaleguitars.com/

They seem to have divergent philosophies...Callaham makes their bridges thick and heavy, while Glendale makes them lighter. I have used Callaham parts on several builds (Strats & Teles), and have always been totally happy with them. Plus, they let you choose different saddle materials now too. If you're going vintage Tele, you gotta go 3-barrel bridge. I use those exclusively, and have zero intonation problems.

For tuners, I like the Gotoh vintage height-adjustable locking tuners. They look almost totally vintage Fender, and are lighter weight than modern locking tuners, and they fit into the vintage-size hole, but they are locking, which I think helps tuning stability. They might be slightly hard to find, but they are definitely out there.

Oh...and 100% go with a swamp ash body.

Thanks - I saw these Gotoh tuners today - they look totally vintage. I am leaning towards them. Made in Japan and lighter.

 

[The Dali]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

ive been very happy with the callaham bridges. i have a reverse slant tele bridge and hard tail strat bridge. very high quality stuff. ive heard nothing but good things about glendale as well

I had a Strat with Callaham bridge (trem). Very nice materials. It came on the guitar and I was very impressed.

 

[VinceT]

New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

I also looked at their bridges... and they are nice, but $130??? Good lord.

I have Callaham bridges on my Les Paul, ES 335, and Strat - I've not regretted investing in them at all, particularly on the Gibson axes, which really benefitted from the change. YMMV


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ErikH]

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

Re: New Guitar Build - Vintage Tele

When I slapped my Esquire together, I went with the Wilkinson compensated bridge from GuitarFetish (http://guitarfetish.com/Wilkinson-Compensated-Tele-Bridge-Brass-Saddles_p_873.html). Couldn't beat the price and it does what I need it to. Very nice bridge.

The tuners are everyday Fender MIM sealed tuners that I had from another project (same neck).

The body is a Mighty Mite Ash Tele in Butterscotch.

For the pickup, I started with a Duncan Broadcaster but after a while with it, it wasn't all I was looking for. Needed more output and not so bright. So, I sold that and got a Rumpelstiltskin Black Rope overwound to 10K. It's a mix of a Tele bridge pickup with a P90. Very cool sound.

IMO/IME, there's nothing wrong with the Warmoth dual-acting truss rod. I've got two necks with it, one being 23 years old, and have never had a problem with either of them. Their boatneck contour is one of my favorite neck profiles.