Hi, guys. I haven't been around much lately. Busy summer: kids off from school, vacation, traveling a lot for work. What little time I had to spend on guitar gear, got used on non-pedal pursuits. I helped my son buy his first full-size bass back in June (Squier Classic Vibe '60s P-bass in Sonic Blue -
SWEET bass). Also, I spent some time finding him an old Peavey TNT 130 bass amp while I was out on one of my businees trips (great old amp that will probably run forever, AND it has a Black Widow 15").
Then it was ME time. The latest project was this:

It's a 2005 MIM Tele I picked up for a reasonable price on line. It needed a lot of work - I ended up having to remove the neck and clean the gloppy paint runs out of the neck pocket to get it aligned so the low E wasn't falling off the fingerboard. (Thank God for Dan Erlewine and his book
How To Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great - his description of this problem and how to fix it was
exactly what I found when I popped the neck off.)
Once I had it playing right, I proceeded to realize my "vision" a stripped-down Les-Paul-Juniorish Esquire, with a Duncan Tapped Quarter Pound pickup and two knobs - volume and variable tap. That rear pot lets me dial in any tone between the twangy tapped position and the full-on QP coil, which is more P90-ish that Tele-ish. I got the Esquire pickguard, blank control plate, and Wilkinson compensated 3-saddle bridge from Guitar Fetish.
I've always had a tendency to over-complicate things with too many knobs and switches and choices (the guitar before this was a Nashville Tele). This is the backlash - stupid simple. I named it "Dangerous Type" after the first song I played on it; I've been on a huge Cars kick lately, and I love Elliot Easton's solo in that song.
More photos here:
http://s785.photobucket.com/albums/yy134/Rich_S_GuitarGeek/Dangerous%20Type/Next up... those four MadBean PC boards waiting in the workshop.