Teletinker Project

[Mighty Tom]

Some of you may have already seen the dressing room image on the right. The original, on the left, should be arriving late this week. After taking some time to enjoy it as it is, I think Step 1 will be to replace the neck. I'm not really married to the idea of changing to a rosewood fretboard, but aside from that detail my first questions are as follows:

1. What kind of reasonable price should I expect to pay for a recently made Fender Tele Custom neck with a CBS headstock, assuming it's in mint to slightly used condition?
2. If I can't find or afford a Fender Tele Custom neck, Plan B would involve sanding off the existing decal from a Squier big headstock Strat neck and replacing it with a Fender Tele Custom decal. What's a reasonable price for a mint to slightly used Indonesian Squier neck?

However, my main reason for discriminating in favor of the Fender neck is that I'd prefer that the new neck come with smaller, vintage frets, none of that medium jumbo garbage. So...

3. Has Squier ever even made a neck with vintage sized fret wire, and if not...
4. ...can you recommend a place where I can find good, detailed instructions on how to do a refret job? The whole point of this project was to learn how to do some of this stuff with a guitar that's nearly disposable already, so it's not like I'm afraid to get my hands dirty.

[jamrine]

1. No idea.
2. A strat neck won't fit a Tele neck pocket, so your second option isn't valid, I think.
3. No idea
4. Refretting is something, I think, that you want to avoid until a guitar actually needs it.  Lots of fretboard damage can be done even when you are careful and good at it.  Only speaking from what I have heard/read.

It looks like a cool project, but I would be loate to give up the P90's for the HBs.  That second guitar definitely looks badass.

Sorry I am not more helpful, I just couldn't stand to see you out in the cold with no replies. 

[Surfoverb]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-72-RI-Fende ... m153.l1262


oops medium jumbo frets...

[Mighty Tom]

Thanks for your input, jamrine. I appreciate it.

Surfoverb, thanks. Holy Jesus... $280??? It already costs more than the whole guitar.

[Surfoverb]

Thanks for your input, jamrine. I appreciate it.

Surfoverb, thanks. Holy Jesus... $280??? It already costs more than the whole guitar.

Thats nothing I just tallied up some parts I'm gonna order from Angela for my esquire and I'm around $200 just for a control plate, switch tip, switch, volume/tone pots, 3 caps, 1 resistor, input jack, wire, steel plate for PUP mount, chrome vol/tone knobs, and various mounting screws.

I still have to get a neck, tuners, string tree, neck plate, strap holders, a bridge, pickguard, and a pickup.

It adds up quick!

[Mighty Tom]

Yeah, no kidding.

Well the Squier has arrived. My first reaction is that the frets seem smaller than I expected. It was a pleasant surprise, but I'm beginning to think that all this time I've been mistaking medium jumbo for "vintage" and jumbo for medium jumbo. And that makes me feel dumb.

The next thing I noticed was that the action is way too high, so my first project is going to learn how to set up this bridge properly. Right now, the saddles look like they've been raised about as high as they can go.

[eupat]

I own this Tele Custom II (in black), and I really like it
at first I wanted to modd it with guenine P90 to replace the Duncan Designed, and change the bridge for a Bigsby B5
and 2 years later, I've only relic-ed it
this thing sounds good!

[the older brother]

Be aware of that any CBS headstock neck got the strat shape at the heel (even the Tele deluxe) and won't fit without reshaping. You could order one from - for example - musikraft and spec it with a tele heel and Big Headstock I guess, but then it would cost some dough...

[Mighty Tom]

Yeah, I'm aware of the Strat's rounded heel, but that's why man invented routers, right? Or is the solution not that simple?

I took a crack at straightening the neck and adjusting the saddles last night. I didn't follow any step-by-step instructions or anything like that. Didn't use a ruler. I just messed with it until it worked the way it should. Probably not perfect, but it's better than it was.

[del]

Yeah, I'm aware of the Strat's rounded heel, but that's why man invented routers, right? Or is the solution not that simple?

The solution is even more simple: strat necks DO fit in telecaster neck pockets, but the rounded heel of the neck leaves little open spaces at the corners of the pocket... no playing/intonation problem at all, just a different look.  Alternately, tele necks DO NOT fit in strat neck pockets b/c they cannot sit flush with the rear of the rounded pocket; thus intonation is not possible (and the neck bolt holes won't match up either).

http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/necks/nec ... ction=faq2

I hope this helps.

Del

[Mighty Tom]

Interesting. I was actually thinking about trying to put a Tele neck on my Strat. Bummer.

I like the sound of the Tele Custom II's P-90s with the switch in the middle position, but they're damned noisy alone. I had a slim hope these might have been the stacked humbucking variety of Seymour Duncan P-90s, what they call P90-1s. Now I'm giving serious thought to switching them out for a pair of P90-1s.

[ugly casanova]

i just want to add that i'm also a happy owner of a squier tele custom (hb version).
i'm exited about this project. especially how the wood (agathis) looks under the thick layer of poly-finish

[del]

i'm exited about this project. especially how the wood (agathis) looks under the thick layer of poly-finish

no winky from me.  This project looks to be very cool. 

I'm a fan of agathis; and it's pine-like qualities can both sound good (some early Fender teles were made of pine and several aftermarket companies sell pine bodies for what are lovingly referred to on tele forums as "pine-casters") and have cool knotty graining.  And... it's cheap.  Admittedly, my playing is low caliber and my signal chain is noisy, but I'm never going to scoff at agathis (or cedar or basswood or hollow plastic a la the coveted early hagstroms and supros) when it comes to gtrs. 

Ultimately, I subscribe to this philosophy:http://www.halfjapanese.co.uk/how-to-play-guitar.php

[Mighty Tom]

Knotty, eh? I may strip the paint off this thing after all. I always loved the look of the first run Gretsch Roundups with the knotty pine tops.

[del]

Knotty, eh? I may strip the paint off this thing after all. I always loved the look of the first run Gretsch Roundups with the knotty pine tops.

It can be knotty, but that won't necessarily be the case - it could be simple straight grain on a multi-piece body that looks not-so-good with a natural/clear finish (this can be true with basswood, alder, or ash bodies just as easily as agathis).  Still, Stripping the paint can be the first step to either finding a cool figure in the body or a new uber-cool paint job.

Some examples of non-knotty pine bodies can be found here:
http://www.glendaleguitars.com/Bodies.htm
and more pine bodies here:
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-d ... -tele.html

plus search tdpri for more info on pine in general and agathis in particular.

del