Baja Tele mods thread.

Loobs

Gonna use this as a place to detail a few mods I've done to the Tele I recently bought.

I spoke to a likely lad in a Denmark Street shop who said that to have the guitar routed for a Humbucker would cost me £100. Not sure how they arrived at that price. 

I thought, sod that, I'll do it myself. So today I went down to Homebase and bought a router and went to town. It didn't end up a masterpiece but isn't too shoddy at all, and it fit in nicely. I'm happy enough, and feel satisfied to have done it myself. Unfortunately a bit of lacquer cracked off in the corner of one of the routes, but that's all hidden by the pickguard. I may go back and tidy it all up tomorrow morning. 

 I stuck the bakelite guard on it and also fitted the Electrosocket. You'll also have noticed (if observant) that one of the knobs is a heavy knurl - tomorrow I'll get another 250k pot, take out the S1 switching and 4 way and put it to normal Tele wiring. Can't wait to hear the guitar. 

The Bakelite guard looks lovely. I still have another Oil City pickup (Thames Delta) in it's box, but I'll probably save that and the Twisted Tele neck pickup I removed for something further down the line. 

Here's a few pictures: 

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2/benlubin929/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20141229_165211_zpshkuvqzox.jpg~original

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2/benlubin929/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20141229_164043_zpsdgtqe2fu.jpg~original

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2/benlubin929/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20141229_162147_zpswebmzuxd.jpg~original

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j2/benlubin929/Mobile Uploads/IMG_20141229_162302_zpskscyawe6.jpg~original

Loobs

I've been obsessing over the route and I don't think the pickup has quite enough room to manoeuver (doesn't really go quite low enough and I'm wary that the P90 might be a tad louder than the bridge pickup), so tomorrow I'll get at it again, deepen the route a bit and deepen the space for the legs, and also tidy it up a bit. 

markslade07

I've got a Baja, and have been thinking about removing the S1, but does it make the guitar sound that much better without it?

Loobs

It's not going to change the sound of the guitar at all, I just find it unnecessary and superfluous. Removing it will remove some versatility if anything.  What I like about the Tele is the simplicity. I also want to put different knobs on it than stock and you can't do that with the S1 volume pot. 

NPP

@Loobs, I think your route is extremely neat, at least compared to the routes in my Strat (see my sig, and in my defence that was done when I was a teenager many decades ago).

You won't be disappointed by the Oil City pickup. 

Loobs

Wow, what on earth did you use for that? A spoon?

Look forward to hearing the pickup - I also had a bridge one but the stock pickup sounds too good to rip out. 

ThePrettyDamned

Nice work, what router and bit did you use? And was it free hand? Looks very neat.

I should get a small router, it's too useful.

Loobs

£40 one from home base, it's called Extreme..hah. I used the bits supplied with it.

Free hand yeah, it needs some tidying up, believe me.

Megii

Looks like a fairly tidy job with the routing - I like your style refusing to accept the £100 quote. That Oil City pickup looks sharp too.

ThePrettyDamned

Cool, I'll look into one.  I fancy getting a strat body and swimming-pooling it and calling it my bitch. 

Loobs

Tidied the route up today, made sure the floor of it was uniform depth and deepened the holes for the wings, much nicer now.

Just waiting for a pot/switch and some caps from Axecaster then it's done.

GuyBoden

Neat Job. Well Done

Loobs

You can't really see the detail here but it's all a lot more uniform.

Loobs

GuyBoden;460199" said:

Neat Job. Well Done

Thanks Guy.

koneguitarist

Lots of different ways to wire with and without S1 https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/teles/2-pickup-teles

juansolo

Next job, get the finish off and oil it

http://juansolo.co.uk/stompage/bajage.html

FWIW I threw away the S1 too and just went back to standard 3 way switching (sold the S1 and original pups on ebay). I've got a BKP BGF50 in the bridge and an Oil City humbucker sized P90 in the neck. Though it's not a 'standard' one, it was one that was voiced for a Tele in some way. Might have different mags or something, can't remember. I really like it anyhow, goes well with the BKP.

Loobs

Loobs

Loobs

The Oil City Mighty 90 sounds incredible. Very versatile guitar now. Jazz to country and rock and roll, indie, blues, no problems.

Loobs

koneguitarist;460258" said:

Lots of different ways to wire with and without S1

https://sites.google.com/site/phostenixwiringdiagrams/teles/2-pickup-teles

S1 is gone.

Loobs

juansolo;460995" said:

Next job, get the finish off and oil it

http://juansolo.co.uk/stompage/bajage.html



FWIW I threw away the S1 too and just went back to standard 3 way switching (sold the S1 and original pups on ebay). I've got a BKP BGF50 in the bridge and an Oil City humbucker sized P90 in the neck. Though it's not a 'standard' one, it was one that was voiced for a Tele in some way. Might have different mags or something, can't remember. I really like it anyhow, goes well with the BKP.

Don't feel it too necessary, finish looks good and the guitar is 6.5lbs and resonant.

Forgot to mention it also had a Bakelite guard on it. Looks 1235677x better.