Fender Telecasters

The Festival Express ~ Canada 1970 ~ Jerry playing a Telecaster

For those of you who haven't watched Festival Express, it's a who's who's of musicians (Janis, The Band, The Grateful Dead, Buddy Guy, etc.) crammed onto a train rolling across Canada from show to show in 1970. Buddy Guy provided the standout performance of the film IMO, he just kills it, but I digress... 

Like the Strat, SG, and Les Paul, the Telecaster is another of those iconic guitars that will be with us forever. There is no way to really improve upon something so simple and utilitarian. Fender has made many attempts, including recently adding a belly contour to the back of the body, but essentially it's the same as it has been since 1951. 

My first Telecaster was this natural ash American Standard. I remember going to Musicians Friend for strings and coming home with this guitar, joking that I had in fact got strings, but they happened to be attached to this guitar. For whatever reason I changed the white guard to this tortoise one... taste's change I suppose. I would much prefer it with the original white guard now if I still had the guitar.

Much like my love affair for making Strats from spare parts, I have often enjoyed building Teles as well, though not quite as much. It wasn't until a few years ago that I built one that I'd consider to be a "keeper", though it underwent a significant metamorphosis before I settled on something I really liked. 

This was the original project... a Fender Highway 1 Tele body paired with an MJT finished Allparts neck. At the time I thought I wanted a Bigsby, and so that was part of plan. In retrospect, the Bigsby looks really cool but does't do an awful lot but add extra weight to what was already a heavier than average body. 

At the heart of this project however is the electronics. I used something called the ToneShaper system available from Acme Guitar Works. Without going into great detail, it takes advantage of a 5-way switch and lets you tinker with capacitor values, pot values, and volume mods. It's a slick little setup if you like to tinker. There's a little PCB board with mini sliders and you can adjust  these elements with relative ease. For pickups, I opted for a Fralin Unbucker in the neck, and a Fralin Stock bridge Tele pickup. I kind of wish I'd opted for the hotter bridge pickup now but it's fine as it is. It's pretty easy to coax everything from rock to jazz to chicken pickin' Tele tones from the guitar. I also opted for a reverse control layout... the Bigsby arm however was always in the way of something and that's another reason I bagged it.

And so, I decided to just unload the body and Bigsby as one and put it up for sale on ebay. Once sold, I ordered a Lake Placid Blue body from MJT. In the picture it looks very true to LPB but in person it has a slight tint of Ocean Turquoise thanks to the slightly yellowed clear coat I had them spray. While MJT is known primarily for their aged and relic'd bodies and necks, I ordered this one "closet clean" with no checking or wear. Nitro is interesting stuff... it takes a while to truly set and harden and this guitar was showing signs of aging in no time. The finish was still a little fragile when it arrived and it has sustained a little buckle rash on the back, as well as a fair amount of finish cracking. It's all good, it wasn't meant to be a museum piece but be aware that even a non relic'd body from MJT will age quickly without an extreme amount of caution and delicate handling.

The bridge on this guitar is a little unique as well. If you look carefully the sides of the bridge are notched which is a nice touch. I found it on ebay and the guy selling them has a few variations of these notched bridges. 

The neck has a beautiful dark rosewood board and only minor aging done by MJT. It was another neck that I just waited for... they have a lot of necks come up for auction so I have never felt the need to special order one. This one is the SRO-C which feels a little small in my hands (especially compared to some of my other "Fenders"). Ideally, I wish I'd used the SRO-FAT neck but this one is easy enough to live with.

Up next is another MJT "Fender" Telecaster. The body and neck were both MJT ebay auction scores. The color is one you'll either love or hate. It's heavily aged Ice Blue Metallic which has taken on a very greenish hue. It is also reminiscent of aged Inca Silver but if you look carefully, you can see a little IBM where your forearm would rest. I guess this one could be the cousin to my IBM Strat though the color of both is slightly different. The plan here was to go vintage with the exception of the fat neck (Allparts SRO-FAT which has a 9.5" radius and vintage tall frets). Like the SRO-FAT Strat neck I have, the thickness is a solid inch from nut to heel so it's not for small hands. For pickups I installed a neck pickup from one of the new American Fender Vintage Series '64 Telecasters. It has a period correct grey fiber bottom and sounds fantastic. The bridge pickup is from a Fender American Vintage '62 Tele Custom. Everything else is pretty cut and dry with the exception of the brass and aluminum string ferrules I ordered from Glendale. 

The body,neck, and hardware on this guitar are so convincingly aged that my luthier's jaw dropped when I opened the case. I was having him install the nut on the neck and he couldn't believe that it wasn't a real 60's Tele. 

Of my two Teles this one is my favorite. I love the neck pickup... there's just something about a Tele neck pickup that can't be duplicated by splitting a neck humbucker. The bridge pickup on this guitar is great sounding too, it's got all the classic Tele tone you could hope for. 

I know a lot of Tele purists love maple necks but I really prefer rosewood. It slightly tames the bridge pickup and adds just a hit of warmth to the whole instrument which I feel this model of guitar benefits from.