Classic vibe or MIM Telecaster?

DrJazzTap

I'm getting the wheels in motion to get this status quo telecaster sorted for effectively my brother in law. 
Based on the rossi one, my current train of thought is to scrap the idea of fitting a set of lace sensor lookalikes and farting around with the bridge assembly. I'm gonna ask my mate to respray it the same colour as the rossi guitar and lightly relic it. Just to make it a bit special. I'm eyeing up donor guitars, my main concern is the condition of the frets etc. So I was gonna see i could grab a late model or a new telecaster.

At the moment I'm looking at the fender player series and the classic vibe. Is it worth going for the player series? He's told me he likes a fairly wide neck (liked the DGT profile the best), the mim tele is pretty close.

Just thinking is the extra £100 or so worth it?

Tex Mexico

FYI the green finish on the original Rossi is I think Ronseal fence stain. I'm sure I saw him say that in a documentary.

A Nashville Tele will already be routed for SSS, so that might be worth a look. Dunno if they do those in a maple board though.

DrJazzTap

Tex Mexico said:

FYI the green finish on the original Rossi is I think Ronseal fence stain. I'm sure I saw him say that in a documentary.

A Nashville Tele will already be routed for SSS, so that might be worth a look. Dunno if they do those in a maple board though.

Cheers mate, I'm gonna go down the two single coil route. Want to get him something decent, but I'm aware the cost could spiral knowing me! 

mark123

Seems mad getting a new mim or classic vibe (  £350 plus)  guitar to strip and paint with green ronseal fence paint  , I'd look for a used squier standard tele for £150 .
I agree with scrapping the lace sensors but i'd buy a tele scratchplate with 2 single coil holes cut in and just have the bridge pick up with 2 single coil strat pickups with white covers.
Someone on here will have a singlecoil in their drawer for £25 that you or your tech could wire in .if your mate is charging you for the respray i would just do it yourself with the ronseal then cut it back with fine wet a dry then t.cut it ..its a relic so you dont have to worry about a mirror glass finish ..Maybe go on ebay and order a custom logo in fender style with husband and wifes names on and serial number the date of the wedding ??
p.s  dont forget the 32mm hole in the body.

mark123

Or an easier option see if you can source a tanglewood quomaster  on fleabay ..dont know the quality so do a bit research if you go down this route.

mark123

mark123 said:

Or an easier option see if you can source a tanglewood quomaster  on fleabay ..dont know the quality so do a bit research if you go down this route.

one sold on ebay last week for £130.

monquixote

I've had a Classic Vibe 50's Tele

A few things of note.

The neck is really skinny

The wiring, pots, jacks etc are crap and should be replaced

The bridge is fairly crap and the plating comes off.

The body is made of really soft pine and dents so the finish cracks off very easily

That being said they look and sound really good, stay in tune and have good pickups.

Personally I'd get a bashed up MIM Standard for a modding project.

kennedydream1980

Raygun Relic Rossi Tele here. Saves you a lot of work ;-)

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/303563641011170/

DrJazzTap

monquixote said:

I've had a Classic Vibe 50's Tele

A few things of note.

The neck is really skinny

The wiring, pots, jacks etc are crap and should be replaced

The bridge is fairly crap and the plating comes off.

The body is made of really soft pine and dents so the finish cracks off very easily

That being said they look and sound really good, stay in tune and have good pickups.

Personally I'd get a bashed up MIM Standard for a modding project.

Thanks mate, the skinny neck has thrown me off. I did a bit of hunting around and secondhand mim telecasters are going for around £400 atm. Guess it's just a waiting game. 

mark123 said:

Seems mad getting a new mim or classic vibe (  £350 plus)  guitar to strip and paint with green ronseal fence paint  , I'd look for a used squier standard tele for £150 .
I agree with scrapping the lace sensors but i'd buy a tele scratchplate with 2 single coil holes cut in and just have the bridge pick up with 2 single coil strat pickups with white covers.
.Maybe go on ebay and order a custom logo in fender style with husband and wifes names on and serial number the date of the wedding ??
p.s  dont forget the 32mm hole in the body.

Yeah my concern with buying used is getting a tele wirh frets that are pretty much worn away. Thats why I was thinking getting a new guitar. I really like the idea of getting the wedding date and wife's name involved.  I could possibly look at a custom logo or an engraved neck plate. 

kennedydream1980 said:

Raygun Relic Rossi Tele here. Saves you a lot of work ;-)

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/303563641011170/

That would do the trick, just trying to keep costs down atm. I might send him a message see if he can move on the price. 

thermionic

The Painted Player will sell you one for £2699. Or a Squier version for (sigh) £1099.

DrJazzTap

thermionic said:

The Painted Player will sell you one for £2699. Or a Squier version for (sigh) £1099.

I think for £2700 I could get francis rossi to paint a tele for me!

mikeyrob73

For £2700 you could Francis Rossi to play at the wedding 

Johnnyseven

If you're going to get it refinished why not just buy a blank body from Guitarbuild and save someone the hassle of stripping it?

Then buy a cheap neck to your spec and a few cheap parts and you're done.

Pabcrane

As far as buying one used, if it's not that old I can't imagine the frets would be worn down too much. 

From my own experience buying a 1980 Jazzmaster which showed other wear of being gigged & played, the frets weren't too worn (not enough to bugger the playing), if you're buying a player's instrument.

Same with a 96 Gretsch

I'm sure that other members can share greater advice but I wouldn't discount an instrument immediately on its age - you can possibly ask the seller for a photo of the cowboy frets?

Edit: I haven't had to replace frets on these or other guitars.

Schnozz

I would look for a Tanglewood Quomaster, to save yourself the trouble of refinishing etc.

TheMarlin

MIM. Get a Baja, great bang for your buck. 

DrJazzTap

Johnnyseven said:

If you're going to get it refinished why not just buy a blank body from Guitarbuild and save someone the hassle of stripping it?

Then buy a cheap neck to your spec and a few cheap parts and you're done.

Thing is I did that last time with the strat partsacaster, I ended up spending a fortune. Granted I wanted to try and get the best parts I could get etc. It just works out cheaper to buy an complete tele.

YellowLedBetterMan

If you're planning on doing more than refinishing - new pickups, parts etc, go Squier. 

If it's just a refin, the MIMs are a better guitar out of the box from my experience, especially considering they cost not too much more than a Squier when bought used.

mark123

I'ts turning into a right fk on.....

£200 debenhams gift voucher 

DrJazzTap

mark123 said:

I'ts turning into a right fk on.....

£200 debenhams gift voucher 

Mate it's fine honestly. Basically he's the guy that entered the prs raffle. I only won because he entered, if that makes sense. So I feel I have this weird obligation to get him something decent. 

YellowLedBetterMan said:

If you're planning on doing more than refinishing - new pickups, parts etc, go Squier. 

If it's just a refin, the MIMs are a better guitar out of the box from my experience, especially considering they cost not too much more than a Squier when bought used.

Yeah mim is the way to go, looked last night and I should be able to grab a semi decent one for £300. Its the neck width more than anything else. 

menamestom

DrJazzTap said:

Johnnyseven said:

If you're going to get it refinished why not just buy a blank body from Guitarbuild and save someone the hassle of stripping it?

Then buy a cheap neck to your spec and a few cheap parts and you're done.

Thing is I did that last time with the strat partsacaster, I ended up spending a fortune. 

This happened to me.  I tried to put together a Rossi Tele, you start thinking you can buy whatever you want, but my budget just went down, down, deeper and down.....