Woohoo! First NGD in years!

[Rich_S]

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.

[maysink]

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. I've developed a jonze for a tele--it seems to be the solid-body that can do everything (the police to radiohead). I'm new to the world of guitar but I surmise the tele is the original solid body electric, no? I'm still an SG fan at heart but I see a tele in my future.

How are you coping with a ~single pickup guitar? Seems anathema to me but I guess you got the second knob for that (not being filthy)...

[Boom]

That looks really cool !

I like your Grolsch strap-lock idea too; I think Iīm going  to copy that if you donīt mind. I had the Schallers as well on my guitars, but kept taking them off because of the rattling.

How do you like using the pot for the coiltap ?

[Rich_S]

The variable coil tap pot is the best part of tis guitar.  There are so many great sounds in between.  The 1/4 pound does a pretty good Tele twang on the tap - not completely authentic, but good enough.  The full coil is really fat, sometimes to the point of being buried in the band mix.  Being able to back it off a little bit to brighten it up helps it cut.

To use an AC/DC reference: 3/4 on the tap pot is Riff Raff, full up is Sin City.

[madbean]

I love all things Tele, and this one is very slick! But, no neck pup??? I can't live without the two pickup combo. I even wire my Strats with this option 

[gtr2]

Nice

[Rich_S]

I love all things Tele, and this one is very slick! But, no neck pup??? I can't live without the two pickup combo. I even wire my Strats with this option 

My last Tele was a Nashville, but I got sick of fiddling around with too many switch positions, and finding it usually sounded best on the bridge pickup.. This guitar is the Anti-Nashville.  I've finally learned that simpler is better.

My goldtop Schecter PT mutt has a pair of Duncan 59s, with a pull-split switch on the bridge volume pot and a pull-phase on the neck volume pot.  That guitar has plenty of flexibility if I need it.  The new one is all about the basics.

'Sides, it has the typical MIM humbucker route at the neck, so if I find I can't live without a neck pickup, I can fit anything in there with a simple pickguard chance.  I'm hanging onto the original pickguard and TexMex neck pickup just in case.  It would probably be a pretty good match for the QP.