Gunny47
New member
Went to the Music Zoo today, they had a crapload of guitars for this Fender Custom Shop road show event that's tomorrow. I got rehearsals and I'm pretty much in the city all day so I wouldn't be able to make it for that event. But anyway, they had all 21 of the guitars there today.
I've been jonesin for a tele really badly. Adam Rogers is one of my favorite guitar players of the day (if you haven't heard of him, check him out he's pretty hip) and he plays all this sick stuff on a tele. But of course there are over 9000 reasons to have a tele. Tele would pretty much round out the collection of electrics when it comes to the 4 big classic designs (IMO) - the 335, Lester, Strat and now the tele.
I sorta didn't want to get a relic and I sorta didn't want an NOS. Relics would look dumb if I were doing a cocktail gig and was wearing a suit you know. Plus I'm not into someone smudging up my guitar for 600 bucks more I'd rather do it myself over time and all that stuff. But the NOS have sticky necks usually and such. Music Zoo had this BEAUTIFUL NOS candy apple red '51 Nocaster with a satin finish neck that I fell in love with. The sound was really great too, but the way it played with the satin neck was to die for. So I decided to go with a NOS with a satin finish neck.
I started drawing up some specs a long time ago and was really out there for a while, but in the end, tradition won over. This is what I put in for a quote:
- '51 Nocaster NOS
- Satin Finish Neck
- Ocean Turquoise - gotta have my blueish color, blue is mah thang (aside from the goldtop hehehe)
- 9.5" Fingerboard Radius
- Medium Jumbo frets
- Duncan Antiquity Pickups (50s models)
- 4 way switch for series/parallel (think baja tele)
- S-1 phase switch (again think baja tele)
- They don't do this at the custom shop, but I'm going to install a Callaham bridge and saddles, I really like what their bridge did to my strat
- Modern Wiring (master volume and tone, not that vintage neck pickup blend job)
I thought about a million other things, but thought this would give me the best combination of vintage and modern specs. Thought about a white pickguard, quartersawn neck, middle pickup, Charlie Christian neck pickup, Bigsby, lefty bridgeplate so the bridge pickup is angled in the opposite direction and spertzel tuners. I felt all those ideas took away from the tele vibe that I am missing from my guitar collection.
So hopefully the quote doesn't come back to take my head off and I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering it. I saved my pennies - last big gear purchase for a long long long LONG time. With Berklee in Boston coming up, college is going to be the end of my extravagant gear purchases for a while hehe
I've been jonesin for a tele really badly. Adam Rogers is one of my favorite guitar players of the day (if you haven't heard of him, check him out he's pretty hip) and he plays all this sick stuff on a tele. But of course there are over 9000 reasons to have a tele. Tele would pretty much round out the collection of electrics when it comes to the 4 big classic designs (IMO) - the 335, Lester, Strat and now the tele.
I sorta didn't want to get a relic and I sorta didn't want an NOS. Relics would look dumb if I were doing a cocktail gig and was wearing a suit you know. Plus I'm not into someone smudging up my guitar for 600 bucks more I'd rather do it myself over time and all that stuff. But the NOS have sticky necks usually and such. Music Zoo had this BEAUTIFUL NOS candy apple red '51 Nocaster with a satin finish neck that I fell in love with. The sound was really great too, but the way it played with the satin neck was to die for. So I decided to go with a NOS with a satin finish neck.
I started drawing up some specs a long time ago and was really out there for a while, but in the end, tradition won over. This is what I put in for a quote:
- '51 Nocaster NOS
- Satin Finish Neck
- Ocean Turquoise - gotta have my blueish color, blue is mah thang (aside from the goldtop hehehe)
- 9.5" Fingerboard Radius
- Medium Jumbo frets
- Duncan Antiquity Pickups (50s models)
- 4 way switch for series/parallel (think baja tele)
- S-1 phase switch (again think baja tele)
- They don't do this at the custom shop, but I'm going to install a Callaham bridge and saddles, I really like what their bridge did to my strat
- Modern Wiring (master volume and tone, not that vintage neck pickup blend job)
I thought about a million other things, but thought this would give me the best combination of vintage and modern specs. Thought about a white pickguard, quartersawn neck, middle pickup, Charlie Christian neck pickup, Bigsby, lefty bridgeplate so the bridge pickup is angled in the opposite direction and spertzel tuners. I felt all those ideas took away from the tele vibe that I am missing from my guitar collection.
So hopefully the quote doesn't come back to take my head off and I'm pretty sure I'll be ordering it. I saved my pennies - last big gear purchase for a long long long LONG time. With Berklee in Boston coming up, college is going to be the end of my extravagant gear purchases for a while hehe
