Like I mentioned in the "show us your guitars" post, I have a new '50's Tele style guitar on the way. It should be here tomorrow. It's my first real Tele style guitar. I had a MIM Nashville Power Tele for a bit, but it just never seemed right. It sounded like the magnetic pickups were running through the acoustic pickup preamp or something.

Anyway, any Tele secrets/tips/tricks/words of wisdom from you Tele guys?

From my days of playing a thinline tele... put some strenght into that fretting hand

Its a bit more work to get things out of it but you can get a lot of a tele... I always found it to be a bit stiffer playing a tele at first... give it time.

I take the switch cap off and bend the switch arm towards the strings a little. 20 or 30 degrees at most. I use needlenose pliers and bend right where the cap would end if it were on. This mod keeps the switch away from the volume control and makes it easier to grab the switch while playing. I read about it in a Danny Gatton interview in a magazine a long time ago.

One of my Teles has 5-way switching that allows the normal Tele sounds but also gives you a fatter humbucker type sound and a sound with the pickups out of phase.

Don't be afraid to use your tone control.

quote:

Originally posted by Wagster:
Don't be afraid to use your tone control.

+1

I've also found that with the proper setup every Tele I've owned has played as easily as my Strats.

Tele's are possibly the greatest guitar on earth IMO. There's almost nothing you can't do with one

Thanks for the tips. Like Tom Petty said, "the waiting is the hardest part!"

I'm really looking forward to this guitar. Partially because a friend makes them and put some extra care in this one for me (Dan Strain, danocaster.com), and Don Mare custom made the pickups for it. Also, because I've always wanted a Tele. They are probably the first guitar that really caught my eye. It started with a love for Springsteen and Petty when I was in high school and college. I just never got around to getting one. Money was tight and I found a good deal on a Schecter Strat, then I needed a Les Paul type guitar for a band I was in, then a buddy had a sweet Les Paul Special for sale and I had some cash, and so on and so on.

It's just makes sense. I play a mixture of blues, R&B, funk, classic rock and strummy singer/songwriter stuff and the Tele is iconic in each of those genre's.

Wait, is that the FedEx truck? Ahhh, nope, just garbage day. Anyway, "the wa-a-aiting is the hardest part"

I'm waiting on a Tele myself. It is being sent out this week.

Been a long wait but worth it from the maker of the best Tele's in the world IMO

Let us know when you get yours. Pics pics pics!!

I have an American Vintage '52 hotrod Tele (the one with the Duncan mini-humbucker in the neck position), and it's a super-easy playing speed machine and all around great-sounding guitar. The only potential pitfall I can think of is weight: it's a big-ass slab of wood, and ash Teles can weigh a ton (I had a mid-70s Tele just after college that musta weighed 10 pounds). My current T is nice and light, though--maybe 7.5 or so.

I'm not sure the exact weight on this one, but Dan referred to it as super lightweight. So shouldn't be too bad.

So Laroosco, who is "the maker of the best Tele's in the world"?

Here's a couple of pictures Dan sent before he shipped it.

Well, they said it should be delivered by 8:30pm tonight. I'm off to get set up for the gig. Hopefully, I'll have a nice surprise when I get home!

No such luck. After talking to someone at FedEx, who confirmed that the guitar was on the truck and would be delivered sometime before 8pm on the 11th, it didn't show up.

I double checked the online tracking tonight after the gig and it hadn't even arrived in California when I spoke to them. It arrived in Bloomington, CA at 4:06pm and didn't leave there until 7:13pm. Since Bloomington is 1.5 t0 2.5 hours from here, there was no way it was ever going to arrive today. Glad I took the day off to stay here so I could sign for it. Now it should arrive on the 12th anytime between 8am and 8pm. No problem, I have nothing else to do

Blues Lyne, that is one gorgeous Tele -- as soon as it's in your hands, you'll forget all about the FedEx snafu. From the neck down, your guitar could almost be the twin of my Fender '63 CS Relic, which is by far my favorite guitar. I have brass compensated saddles too (Mann-Made), and they work great (and I've NEVER broken a string on this guitar).

Only differences are the 3-ply guard (since mine's based on a sixties Tele), and my neck has a Rosewood board, slim C-profile and vintage radius and frets.

I'll be real interested to hear how you like those Don Mare pickups -- what are the specs on them?

I've seen people turn the silver control plate around, so the Tone Knob is closer. This is so they could do the "Wah Wah" effects better.

quote:

Originally posted by Swain:
I've seen people turn the silver control plate around, so the Tone Knob is closer. This is so they could do the "Wah Wah" effects better.

Yeah, I've also seen people do that and switch the volume and tone knobs, so they can work the volume knob easier.

The delivery guy left a message and it should arrive between 12:30 and 2:30pm. At least they narrowed it down this time.

quote:

Originally posted by tremolounge:
Blues Lyne, that is one gorgeous Tele -- as soon as it's in your hands, you'll forget all about the FedEx snafu. From the neck down, your guitar could almost be the twin of my Fender '63 CS Relic, which is by far my favorite guitar. I have brass compensated saddles too (Mann-Made), and they work great (and I've NEVER broken a string on this guitar).

Only differences are the 3-ply guard (since mine's based on a sixties Tele), and my neck has a Rosewood board, slim C-profile and vintage radius and frets.

I'll be real interested to hear how you like those Don Mare pickups -- what are the specs on them?

I almost had him make a 60's type with Rosewood board and 3-ply guard. But, after years of using guitars with rosewood boards, I'm on a maple kick. Also, for some reason, I associate Tele's with maple boards. The 50's natural look, like Springsteen's Esquire, was in the running too.

I don't have the exact specks on the Mares. I might have sent them to Dan with the pickups. I think we figured out that they were Super Sports. I had a piece of gear that Don wanted and he traded me some Tele pups for it. He had me call and we discussed the music I play and what I was looking for. He played me a few pups over the phone and then made these as a result of our conversation. I'm assuming they are one of his standard sets, but I don't know for sure.

I found a post where someone had pasted the Super Sport description from Mare's website.

"Super Sport T-Set"
The big T-Sound - a blast from the past - this is our big, full, fat sound, highly complimented by our blues purist types!
--Bridge pickup is 7.4k alnico-5
--Flat pole pieces
--Neck pickup is S-Telly with an *upgraded* nickel-silver cover for more transparency.

Dan says they sound great in this guitar.

She showed up yesterday just before 1pm. What a beauty. Lots of wood grain showing through the blonde finish. The markings on the neck look almost 3D. The relicing is nice, and not overdone, like my Nash. He did a great job of getting that powdery looking dirt that builds up in the nooks and crannies of the guitar. The metal looks more natural than a lot of relics I've seen.

It's really light, 6lbs. 5oz. I thought my Nash Strat was pretty light before I got this guitar (7lbs. 9oz).

The neck is killer. It's a nice fat C shape, but not too fat. The supplier for his guitars had a batch that came in a little larger than spec and he got one of them for this guitar. Dan asked how I liked it, and I told him I'd have to get used to it, because it felt a lot different than the soft V on my Nash. However, after playing it for a bit, I really love it. The extra girth under where my fingers join my hand really feels nice. It took a little more to get used to the extra girth on the thumb side. Mostly just when I tried to do things that required fretting with my thumb. I have hands that are on the smaller side. I'm thinking my perfect neck might be one just like this, but with a little more of a V shape on the thumb side.

I haven't had a chance to play her through my main rig, but she sounded nice through my BFSR at home. Brighter and more scooped in the mids sounding than my Nash. The Nash is warmer and fuller, but the Danocaster has that nice snap. I'm sure part of this is the Nash's Alder vs. the Danocasters Swamp Ash. I probably shouldn't be comparing it to a strat style guitar, but I don't have any recent Tele experience to compare it too.

The tone control was only wired to the bridge pickup. For me, there was a big improvement when I rewired it to on both pups. It took longer to heat my soldering iron than to make the change. That change allowed me to match it better with the Nash.

My Nash has Lollar pickups, and my understanding is that it has a blonde in the bridge and tweeds in the neck and middle (or something close to that that Jason winds for Nash). Those pickups are low output, use A2 magnets and pretty smooth and sweet. I really like these pickup. I may eventually try a set of Lollar 52's in the Danocaster (low output, A2 Tele pups) to see which I like better, but not until I have time to really check the Mares out and get used to the sound of a Tele. Don't take this as a knock on the Mares', they sound fantastic. It's just my never ending curiosity, and love of the Lollar pups in the Nash. I don't want the guitars to sound identical, just don't want to have to reach for any knobs when switching. It may be nice to have one guitar with A2 sweetness and one with A5 punch and snap.

The neck pickup has a nice fat sound, not dull at all. The bridge gets that country twang, But isn't brittle. Real sweet with the tone rolled off a bit, but add some dirt and it rocks. The middle position had a nice funky sound, with a touch of that notched quack that a Strat gets, but different too. Great sustain and really responsive. One of those guitars that just feels good and you don't want to put it down.

Tomorrow I'll get a chance to check it out with my main rig. That should give me a much better idea of the tones, since I haven't played through my Super Reverb for quite a while.

Blues Lyne...congrats man, that guitar is absolutely gorgeous!

quote:

Originally posted by Blues Lyne:

The neck pickup has a nice fat sound, not dull at all. The bridge gets that country twang, But isn't brittle. Real sweet with the tone rolled off a bit, but add some dirt and it rocks. The middle position had a nice funky sound, with a touch of that notched quack that a Strat gets, but different too. Great sustain and really responsive. One of those guitars that just feels good and you don't want to put it down.

That sounds just about perfect to me -- I gotta check those Don Mare pickups out...

Enjoy your new Tele, but beware... a great Tele can be so addictive, you may not play your other guitars much any more...