The FenderTelecaster Lover's Modification Site!

Butch Snyder

Lebanon, Ohio, USA

Butch Synder's TeleI finally got around to taking a couple of pics of my modded 50's Tele. Here's the lowdown on exactly what I did to it.

It's a 2001 model 50's Classic Telecaster in white blonde. I replaced the bridge with a Joe Barden vintage-style assembly with compensated brass saddles. The stock bridge pickup was exchanged for a Seymour Duncan APTL-3JD (Jerry Donahue model). The body was given a universal rout to accommodate a Gibson mini-humbucker for the neck position and a Fender Texas Special Strat neck pickup (black cover) for the middle position. I ordered a custom pickguard from Warmoth. It is 1/8" thick gloss black with 5 holes. The route for the pickguard was designed for the installation of the middle Strat pickup and the mini-humbucker for the neck. I disconnected the mini-humbucker's cream plastic ring in order to have a direct mount to the pickguard. I like the cleaner look of the mini-humbucker directly mounted to the pickguard without the ring. I got this idea from seeing fellow TeleModder, Ray Chung as well as Scotty Anderson's Tele.

I left the stock pots and 3-way pickup selector switch installed. Butch Synder's TeleI did drill a hole in the control plate directly in between the volume and tone pots for an on/off mini-toggle switch. The 3-way switch operates as a standard Tele switch. The mini-toggle switch activates/deactivates the middle pickup. The volume/tone controls operate as standard Tele master volume/tone. The middle pickup, when activated can only be used in tandem with the bridge or neck pickups. It cannot function individually.

The pickup switching is as follows:

  • Pos. 1/mini-switch down - Neck pickup
  • Pos. 2/mini-switch down - Neck/Bridge pickups (parallel)
  • Pos. 3/mini-switch down - Bridge pickup
  • Pos.1/mini-switch up - Neck/Middle pickups
  • Pos. 2/mini-switch up - Neck/Middle/Bridge pickups (I never use this one)
  • Pos.3/mini-switch up - Middle/Bridge pickups

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