I got this from my mother for my 16th birthday, 10 years ago.
2005 classic player 60s tele. Olympic white, tiny frets, low output single coils, green pickguard, 7.25" radius, saddles that never intonate, and of course: the all important klusons.
This was long before I properly understood how guitars made the sounds they did. I never understood why my expensive tele wouldn't sound like the rock machine springsteen and so on played. Where was all the grunt?
I wanted a strat (because billy corgan and mark knopfler both play them) but we couldn't afford that - I didn't like how the double cut special sat (idiot), so the tele it was. It came with 9s, which I shunned almost immediately in favour of 12s and half step tuning - Where I still play every day, unless it's someone else's guitar.
Obviously the neck didn't like the 12's and warped pretty quick. I had it reset for 11s when I'd managed to save for the strings and the setup, where it's stayed for most of its life.
It's gone through a thousand different guises since:
Adrian our lord and saviour gave it a refret in 2012 with big chunky fuckoff frets. I love the radius on this thing (I don't know why); the original tiny frets were pretty drilled by all the play time I was giving it.
At the same time, he also put in DiMarzios and a new nut - Mini humbucker at the neck, and an area hot T at the bridge. I left it as it was for a while, but the pickups didn't contrast very well. Neck was too boomy, and bridge was shrill. I replaced them with duncan vintage stacks so all the clash stuff and other angry but melodic music I was playing worked.
A couple months after that, I decided it was too dark, and I wanted more brightness and a bit more go out of it - Enter tonerider hot classics. Recommended to anyone, ever, who just wants a bit more from a tele.
Somewhere in between then and the next bit, I refinished it. Dupli color "caribbean blue" because it was the closest to lake placid blue, walnut stain on the back and sides, and a new black pickguard.
Meh, something else happened, and back in went the factory single coils. I added an emg pa2 onboard boost too. I don't remember why. Something about unity volume probably.
Earlier this year, I started having weird issues. Turns out I'd had the neck off enough times to fuck the threads the neck bolts sat in.
Sorted that out with composite ... These things. Not dowels. But yeah. These, and the foulest smelling glue I could find.
So, that was solid and sorted afterwards.
Anywhore. The factory pickups would've been in there about 3 years, until today, when a long awaited package turned up.
Hello there. What's this?
Tele bits!
... A whole bunch of wires n' shit.
Instructions? Meh.
Heyyyyy ...
Let the surgery begin!
Man, look at all the guff that's caked itself on there.
... And this ol' rats nest.
Everything came with the new stuff, harness and all. 3 way stereo jack thing because active onboard thing.
Had to battle with the neck pickup to get the screws. Arm locked up a couple times trying to turn the screwdriver. Got there eventually. Bridge was shitloads easier.
May have given the frets a quick polish too. They'll need proper attention shortly.
Eventually I got all the old wiring out.
Parts tray lookin' snazzy and useful.
Had a bit of a meltdown when the screws wouldn't thread into the new neck pickup. Turns out they send them out expecting to be body mounted rather than pickguard mounted.
Nah, fuck that. I'll sort it out.
It didn't work, because angles. Round two.
Oh boy you are not making my life easy.
Time for plywood.
Wew. Well that worked. Classy lookin'.
Aaaaand bridge in. Once more, heaps less dicking around.
Not sure why, but they gave me 4 screws for the ... Wiring harness plate thing.
Plonked the new jack in.
Don't know what this is for. Didn't work it out.
WHERE THE FUCK IS THE LEMON OIL I HAD IN MY HAND 20 SECONDS AGO
It's ok, I found it.
Got all the wiring together piece of piss - This is all GFS stuff, with their proprietary solderless method. Everything just ... Plugs in with headphone jacks. Piece of piss really. Of course it all comes with bare end leads too, in case you don't already have the solderless shit (and it all behaves like normal bits). Only gripe so far is the volume and tone are in the stock positions. I always had mine reversed. Ahh well.
Looking gooooooood
Woo, time to restring.
Aaaaand one fucking broke.
When one breaks a string during the act of restringing, a pang not unlike a high school breakup, or breaking a hairtie is felt.
Along with much pissed off ness. The dude at the shop gave me another one, he's cool.
Not long after I sorted that out, I couldn't help myself.
(Cmon, you couldn't either.)
I really like the look of the rails. The duncan ones either have writing or black rails and look dumb, and the dimarzio ones have both. Bleh.
Dropped the action a bit - Forgot I set it up for 10s so I was fighting with it quite a bit. Now I'm only fighting with it a little, and it's ... pretty damn close to where I want it.
Here's a whore shot for no reason.
After a good two or three hours just hammering it, pissing around with the ge7, and ... Just about everything that could be pissed around with, there are a couple of things that bother me. Teething issues, if you will:
- Volume rolloff nukes treble and seems to add bass - Think I cure that with 50s wiring.
Tone rolloff isn't really anything, and it behaves like an on/off switch right where the dark end should be
Pickup heights were a pain in the wang to set properly - Bridge pickup is very bright; wasn't expecting it to be so hot but here we are.
Suspect the tone pot will need replacing if the above two don't work - It is a push pull, but fortunately I can do one wire at a time.
All in all I'm calling it a success.
I've always had a love hate with the tele - The feel, everything, everything but the sound has always been great. Now it doesn't sound like it's supposed to, I like it lots more.
Good job, guitar. Here's to many more refrets and not too many more disembowelments.