 Well, my only Tele at the moment is my recently finished custom Seafoam Green Tele. It has a WD Alder body; Warmoth reverse strat
headstock on a hard rock maple neck with a Brazilian rosewood board star inlays; 4 bolt Fender USA plate; Wilkinson Vintage bridge; SD Vintage Tele neck pup; Rio Muy
Grande bridge pup(MOTS top); CTS 250k pots; .022 "orange drop" cap; standard Tele 3 way switch; Schaller locking pegs: WD White Pearloid(MOTS) 8 screw pickguard,
Q-Parts White Pearl dome Knobs. I already have some changes and some post-finishing touches on tap. The bridge pup is going over to a Duncan Quarter Pounder tapped
with a push-pull pot to control it. The body needs something to make it pop so I think some hot rod pinstriping is in order, most likely some white doll-up/Von Dutch
stripes on the front and a sweet ace o' spades on the back.I decided to make this guitar about a year ago since I am never fully happy with the ones I find on the
rack, at least the ones I can afford! I've owned a few nice Tele's or Tele style guitars in the past so I put some of the things I really liked
about them and some of the things I've always wanted to have on them together to make this one. Planning and saving took a little while but start to finish took about 3 months once I
decided what I wanted. It would have been quicker but the neck took a while to since I was very specific about the options I wanted and the body was initially backordered by WD.
I love the reverse headstock, it goes back to my 70's Joe Perry worship I am sure, but it seems to give guitars better bass response and a fuller more piano-tone kind of sound IMO, plus it
looks bitchin' and that's just as important in a custom axe;-) I love 50's colors and styles and sea foam just seemed to be right
for this guitar. I kind of figured Chris Issak could use it if it didn't come out how I wanted anyway.  The white pearloid theme (aka Mother of toilet seat) really fit the 50's flash/campy look I wanted and the MOTS topped Rio pickup was a
must at that point, though I have found that it is not my ideal sounding pickup by any means. I am going to try and save that MOTS top and put it on the QP when I get
around to it. I was able to get real good prices on the hardware between Warmoth, WD, and my friend's shop so it all came together pretty nicely for about $650 plus a little bit of
bartering for setup labor and a used hardshell SKB case. Easily worth the price! Next up is a natural ash or alder dual hum Tele. Gibson 3-way
switch on the upper bout, Bill Lawrence L-500's coil-tapped, Warmoth maple Tele neck with a rosewood board, black guard. Bridge? I haven't figured that yet but I'd like to get one of the
Traditional style bridges that has a humbucker opening. I kind of figure Tele's are like Model T's, VW bug's, '57 Chevy's or Miata's; they are just a perfect platform for personalization and
modification. I read here somewhere the description "basic and simple", absolutely in a serendipitous kind of way. Minimalistic,
purely functional, they respond so well to a wide variety of mods and they are a hell of a lot of fun to play!
|
