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Pleased to read how much you are enjoying this guitar, Despot. The repro sounds like it could be a good candidate for Despot's next Tele Custom too (good match for the neck WRHB)..

Last night I had a chance to try out my Tele next to a completely straight '67 ... which is actually a thing of beauty in candy apple red.

The first thing that was pointed out to me by this guy was that mine is Olympic White rather than Blonde. To me this was a 'yeah, I know' thing ... but he thought that Blonde (i.e. with transparency and grain through the finish) was the standard colour, and that Olympic White would have been a custom colour. I disagreed (and still do) - as every one I've seen online looks like mine - i.e. flat white rather than with with wood grain showing through, which suggests that Olympic White for Telecasters was the standard colour (like sunburst for everything else). I think the fact that the American Vintages come in flat white rather than white blonde with the wood grain showing supports this.

Anyway - the good. The neck pickups were identical ... or as close to being identical as you could get. The only difference was the cover (his has the earlier squared edge cover, mine the later round edge cover). Otherwise they sounded as close as you could get ... and great.

The bridge pickups were another thing entirely though ... no matter how I adjusted mine (in terms of height) it sounded just a little bit thin compared to the original '67 pickup (which had twang for days). They were in the same ball park in some ways (and mine appeared to have more bass), but after comparing the two I found it to be a little lacklustre.

Last night I did a random search on ebay and found another supposedly straight/unmessed with grey bobbin Telecaster pickup for a pretty decent price. I threw an offer at the seller not expecting him to go for a price reduction, but he did. So now I have another option on the way to try out...

Worst case scenario I can sell the pickups on to recoup my money ... but after last night's comparision I knew I had to keep the search going for a bridge pickup that sounds right. I know the sound I'm chasing now from trying my friend's '67 ... I'm going to try one more old pickup and if this doesn't do it for me I'll go the custom pickup route (I'd probably just try an Antiquity II bridge pickup - I loved their Jazzmaster pickups after all...).

So ... a few steps back, and in a few days I'll have another to try out.

make-work projects.. get a real hobby, bud.

terminalvertigo wrote:make-work projects.. get a real hobby, bud.

Thanks Andrew. Couldn't find one in LPB ... maybe this needs to be a refin project

So, I'm done.

This guitar has gone through a couple of bridge pickups now, and the last one (a grey bobbin mid-60s pickup that, other than a repaired earth lead, is untouched) has hit the ball out of the park.

The first one (the Virgil Arlo pickup) was a fine sounding pickup, but probably more like a Broadcaster pickup than a bright '60s pickup. The second, while it was in the ball park of a '60s pickup, sounded anaemic next to an all original pickup in a '67 owned by a guy I know. The '67 just had more twang and character, leaving the rewound '60s pickup sounding generic.

But this third one is sweet. I pitched it against the '67 and they're not identical, but they've got a similar character. I actually prefer mine, as there's a bit more thump to the bass strings, while still with that cutting treble. The bobbin on mine has warped slightly (it's raised at the bass side), so I wonder whether this accounts for the increased bass thump (probably).

So I probably could have played this guitar as it was when I bought it and never had an issue - but I ended up being my usual annoying self when it comes to putting things back to how they should be as close as possible. Thankfully, on this occasion it paid off. The bridge plate change was something that wasn't really necessary, but the pickup change really makes a big difference to this guitar.

Things have been a bit manic lately in Despot Towers. There's been a mix of unexpected work travel and personal/family drama involving a death in the family. All of this happened while I was waiting for this pickup to arrive (it was posted from France and took an absolute age to get to me - none of which was the seller's fault). So now that the turbulence of the last few weeks has thankfully settled down I'm looking forward to spending the May bank holiday playing this through a cranked Princeton!

Great to hear that there's a happy ending!

Thanks Yannis. Very much so from my perspective. Though I am now left with two unused bridge pickups to add to the ever growing mountain of unused/unloved pickups! I'll have to do something with that Virgil Arlo - I could see myself building a parts Tele (I'd love to make a Bigsby Tele) and using that pickup in it, with a Charlie Christian in the neck (I've a spare one of those too... ).

Despot wrote:Thanks Yannis. Very much so from my perspective. Though I am now left with two unused bridge pickups to add to the ever growing mountain of unused/unloved pickups! I'll have to do something with that Virgil Arlo - I could see myself building a parts Tele (I'd love to make a Bigsby Tele) and using that pickup in it, with a Charlie Christian in the neck (I've a spare one of those too... ).

heheh...I guess you could always eBay them "L@@K VINT@GE" etc



All kidding aside...

You went through quite a journey with this one, good to hear that well...she is good to hear

So here are some more recent photos showing the proper bridge plate/saddles and the replaced pickup.

Oh yeah ... and no more gunk on the pickguard!

Awesome!

Despot wrote:So here are some more recent photos showing the proper bridge plate/saddles and the replaced pickup.

Oh yeah ... and no more gunk on the pickguard!

Very cool!!

Really beautiful guitar. Looks like it's in good hands. Glad you got it all sorted out to your liking as well! Now, enjoy it.

What an amazing guitar

Ho-ly shit!

I didn't see this thread Kevin; what a nice tele!
I knew where it was heading to when you first said the bridge pickup was sounding very good, but was a repro.
Also good you persisted after the first vintage bridge PU wasn't to your liking.
This guitar must be a joy to play; enjoy it!