Joel's Tele-blaster

       Local musician, guitar geek extraordinaire, and tube amp connoisseur Joel D. asked me to help hot rod his MIM telecaster. When we first met up to discuss the project the guitar was pretty heavily played and was ready for a strip down and re-do. Joel wanted a fatter, more versatile tone, and a few other neat appointments and repairs to put this axe back front and center in his gig arsenal. Joel plays a variety of cover music and original tunes and wanted this tele to be a one stop shop if he needed it to be... and he wanted a humbucker in the bridge position. Rad.

       First I stripped this guitar down to just the body and mapped out where the humbucker would fit at the bridge position. Then I routed the body, leaving as much wood as possible. We discussed screwing the pickup directly to the body and using a shorter bridge plate like the Fender G E Smith Tele. Compensated brass saddles seemed appropriate so the intonation would work and we would still have some vintage mojo. Mr. D is not a fan of the typical fender blade switch so I drilled in a gibson style toggle in the tele plate. This turned out even better than I had hoped and really works well. For that all-out rock tone I suggested a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker. Neck pickup stayed stock. The tone knob was re-wired as a coil roll-off knob so we can get humbucker and single coil tones (or anywhere in between) at the bridge position. Also filed and dressed the fret ends as they stuck out past the edge of the fretboard.String it up and set it up and I'm done.

I was really surprised at the range of tones you can get with this simple control setup. 2 knobs and a 3 way switch... its really quite cool. Joel was instantly smitten and has been using it live with his band, The Super Magic Robots. He was stoked. Check out his blog at http://weareastronauts.blogspot.com/ for some awesome guitarry stuff and if you are in St. Louis go see the Super Magic Robots... Joel kills it nightly...

After

Before

Routing the Pickup Cavity

Test Fit

Sprayed Black

Test Fit

Stripped threads at the top of the screw so adjustment would still be possible when screwed to the body.

   

70's (?) Les Paul Copy

       Next up is a cool (probably) 1970's Japanese copy of the famous Les Paul Custom. I've come across quite a few of these Japanese copies lately... They are all nearly identical guitars but were sold under different brand names... Electra, Ventura, Cortez, Conrad, etc... This particular example is sans-brand but it has some of the tell-tales of a far-east knockoff. The body is lots of pieces of solid wood laminated together with an arched plywood top. When you look in the pickup cavity there is actually a void space between the flat body and the arched top. I had an Electra come through last year with this exact same construction. The "arched" top is actually created by gluing a small piece of plywood to the flat body of the guitar at the center, directly under the bridge and tailpiece. The separate top plate is then pressed over this plywood and glued to the flat body at the perimeter. The small piece of plywood causes a bulge in the top plate, thus creating the arch. Another giveaway is the Maxon pickup in the neck position, which were in that same Electra and also in a Conrad doubleneck SG knockoff that I serviced a few months ago.

       The Overall condition of the guitar is dismal. This was another wall hanger that I picked up in the same lot as the Silvertone. The back cover plates, the tailpiece, the nut, the jack and jack plate are gone completely. I have not yet tested these electronics. The bridge pickup is not screwed down so it flopped out when I picked it up. I got a nice surprise though, a vintage Dimarzio PAF style humbucker has replaced the original. The body has lots of dings, cracks, dents scrapes, etc... Pretty much everything on this guitar is thrashed.
 
       I've got all the missing parts on order and will make a new nut out of black Corion. This one will also need new tuners as the originals are just worn out. The neck is bolted on and the screw heads are stripped. For some reason there is a roller bridge... weird. This one will get a complete disassemble, de-grease, clean down, re-wire, de-louse, and re-build. Everything is wrong with this so you can't mess it up!

This is my favorite type of project.
  

Silvertone Model 1413

       Lets kick it off with an oddball... An early 60's, single pickup Silvertone in less-than-desirable condition. Its coated in dust and grime and has been used as a wall decoration for the better part of the last 15 years.  The art-deco "cheese grater" graphics are still intact though. Plugged it in and got static. The volume control works and the buzz gets louder when I turn the tone control down. Tapped on the pickup and got nothing. I hope the electronics are salvageable, these have a real greasy slide tone. I haven't checked the pot resitance but the capacitor is rated at .1 mfd. which means this should really WOOF when the tone knob is backed down.

       Rosewood board with razor blade fret ends... they will need to be filed back and re-dressed. Not sure of the body and neck wood but the guitar is really light. 3 per side tuners, the G and D tuners are bent. The bridge cover hides a rosewood bridge with two flathead adjustment screws. These look like the old Tele saddle adjustment screws. The rosewood bridge reminds me of my Hagstrom I guitar from this same era. It also has a rosewood bridge but it has metal where the strings contact it. The 1413 bridge is just wood all the way. I'm sure this cuts some of the high end right away and adds to the greasy slide tone.

       The nut appears to be shimmed, the pickguard appears to be crudely cut, and the butt end strap button is flush with the body... I dunno. Three bolt neck and adjustable truss rod round out this description. More photos forthcoming when I get this on the bench.

       What am I gonna do? Clean everything, soak metal parts in naphtha, trim and dress frets, polish frets, un-bend the tuners, de-ox the pots, diagnose and repair electronic issues, maybe a new nut, string it, set it up and slam it through an old tube amp! Stay tuned...