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Brad Paisley has made me want a Tele even more

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BucketBucket Frets: 7751
edited March 2017 in Guitar
Saw Brad for the second time last night and my whole family, even my mum who doesn't give much of a toss about such things, was floored by his incredible guitar sound. This wonderful deep, rich, twangy, growly Tele sound, which I believe was channelled through two Dr Zs and some kind of Marshall combo as well.

Afterwards I asked my dad if I could borrow one of his Teles, and he agreed to lend me his MIJ blue flower one from the mid-80s... but I know that I need to get a Tele of my own. It's something that is conspicuous in its absence from my collection - the closest thing I have, astonishingly, is my Flying V, which has quite a twangy, Fender-ish sound since Ash at Oil City put some mini-humbuckers in it, but I need the real thing.

So I've decided - I have a new guitar on the way, which will be revealed quite soon, I hope, but after that, my next thing HAS to be a Tele. However, my requirements are quite specific:

Ash body, for sure. The lighter the better
Maple neck and board, for sure
Two single-coils - no neck humbuckers or whatever
Big neck

So far, so blackguard 52 spec. But here's the thing - I want a colour finish, and after seeing Brad I think I kind of want something bright and sparkly. The coolest Tele I've ever seen was a Fender CS, single-bound with a natural back and sides, a sparkly metal-flake purple top and a white scratchplate. EDIT: Here it is, in fact:

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/oDsAAOSwZQxW40Sb/s-l1600.jpg

And you'll note that it's relic'd too - I definitely, definitely want a relic, nothing shiny and new. I want dings, patches of wear, lacquer cracks and a dirty, rough-feeling finish to the neck.

I'm pretty sure it won't be a CS Fender - the kind of guitar I want will cost me about four or five grand from them, and I'm not spending that. I do want something good though, so I'd probably be looking to spend up to about 2 or 2.5k (entirely speculative at the minute, this is a pipe dream which won't become reality for a long while yet). Effectively, I want something that looks exactly like an old Fender (bizarre finish notwithstanding), or a CS relic, but isn't (I'm not fussed about whether or not it says Fender on it either). I don't even think MJT would cut it - I'm not sure how flexible they'd be in terms of finishing (metal-flake, natural back etc) and I'm not sure their relic style is even quite what I want. There's something about them that definitely doesn't look like a proper vintage guitar, and I just cannot put my finger on what it is.

I'm inclined to go with Warmoth, because they can do a body and neck which are exactly what I want, and they do metal-flake finishes, but they use polyurethane lacquer so it won't age properly, and they don't do relic finishes.

Or maybe just get someone in the UK to make me exactly what I'm after?
- "I'm going to write a very stiff letter. A VERY stiff letter. On cardboard."
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