The thrill is gone . . .

[Artie]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

I think I'm doing it properly. I use the technique that someone posted here awhile back, I believe from Taylor Guitars, that showed putting the string through the hole, bringing it around 180 to the other side, folding it over the string where it went through the hole, and then turning the tuner til its "tuned". I usually have two or three "turns" of wire on the peg.

Its definitely a cheap, plastic nut. I was thinking about getting a nice bone one, and cutting it, just to try my hand at it. I'm not sure what a "pro" would charge to do it. I guess I could make some calls.

 

[Hoss]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

hey artie....just get out there and find you a place that carries some mim teles, or hwy 1's, or lite ash's and play around with them and find one with a great neck...you can ALWAYS route it out the way you want it...?!

just go for it!!!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Artie, I can't remember with 100% certainty, but I think the Jimmie Vaughn Strat is routed under the pickguard for a bridge humbucker. So if you found a Jimmie Vaughn you liked you could replace the pickguard and probably put your QP's and C5 in it.

You'd have a great guitar!

So you like the output/balance with the QP's and the C5? When you switch to the C5 it doesn't overpower the singles? How about when you switch from the playing lead on the C5 to playing rythym on the QP's: do you then reduce the volume a little for the QP's?

I had a JB in the bridge position of my white Strat and some special overwound Fralin Blues Special single coils in the neck and middle. When I'd switch from the JB to the singles I found that I left them almost full on and didn't need to lower the volume control on the guitar much if at all.

I found that kind of strange and didn't like it. I'm used to switching to my neck pickup and then turning down the volume control a little on the guitar when I switch from soloing to rythym.

Lew

 

[nuntius]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

I'd do some research to find out how Highway one tele's are routed, I think getting a s/h one of those would be a nice jump in quality

Depending on your budget though, I'd even look at s/h US tele's (the standard US not the h/1s). The ones I've played have all had nice necks.

Finding a nice neck is half the battle, you'll know when you've found "the" neck. You can always get the guitar routed out afterwards...

 

[Artie]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Lew; I acquired a HSS Strat pickguard awhile back, just for that purpose. I was going to shift the QP/C5 combo over to my Johnson Strat. I may still do that just to try it out. The Jimmy Vaughan sounds, (and looks), cool though. I'll keep my eye out.

As for the balance of the QP's with the C5, its cool how it turned out. Just as a reminder, I reversed the neck/middle connection on the 5-way so that I have neck & middle in the #2 notch position, and neck & bridge in the #4 position. (Plus, a push/pull to bring both QP's in, so I can have all 3 pups on.)

When I have the QP's tapped, they maintain that chimey, jangly, classic single-coil tone, and balance perfectly with the C5. The neck and bridge together is just a great tone.

When I switch the QP's to full-on, they lose some "jangle", and the output jumps up a notch. Now, the C5 acts more like a tone "filler", or enhancer, to the QP's. Its a completely different type of sound than the QP's tapped, but a valuable tone that I wouldn't want to be without. Its almost as if switching the Custom in and out, is adding the "air" back into the QP.

Its only my lack of experience with a wide range of guitars and pickups that stops me just short of declaring this the hot HSS configuration. :laugh2:

I might work up a short clip of the different positions when I get home. Times like this, I wish I had a wee bit more talent.

Edit: Sitting right beside the JV Strat, on Fenders website, is the Robert Cray. I think I like it even better, because its a hardtail. I never use a tremolo. I'll look into it also.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Hey Artie,

If you want a Tele-type guitar with an HSS config and don't want to speng a lot of money, one of the best values I have found is the Greg Bennett Seriees by Samick. I have owned one of his guitars and they are fantastic.

Greg Bennett Series Tele

 

[Artie]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Butch . . . that looks great! Grover tuners, Duncan Designed pups, (which might fetch a slight "rebate" in the Trading Post).

And best of all, a Samick dealer thats about 4 miles from my house. I'll have to make a little trip over there after work.

Thanks for that heads-up!

Artie

 

[bjb281]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Hey Artie,

it was great hanging out with you and Spina at the Orlando Guitar Show. Why don't you just build a Tele. Stewmac has some nice prefabbed necks and bodys at a reasonable cost. You already have the electronics. All you would need is to buy some hardware.

just a thought.

Brian

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Why don't you just build a Tele. Stewmac has some nice prefabbed necks and bodys at a reasonable cost. You already have the electronics. All you would need is to buy some hardware.

just a thought.

Brian

No problem Artie...

bjb281 is right as well. You could build one. That's waht I'm going to do....

 

[Artie]

Re: The thrill is gone . . .

Hey Brian; How's it going?

Thats an idea also. Really, its only the neck I have a problem with. I wonder if a replacement Tele neck would fit? Hmmm . . .