NGD (overdue) - "Red ones are better"

stickyfiddle

I'm finally ready to sign off on a new build after about 12 months... 

The elephants among you may remember some AI-assisted day dreaming around this time last year.



This sparked a heavy feeling of "let's build it", so a polite request went in to @GoldenEraGuitars and Scot got to work. 

The next & body came together late last year, and I first got parts together just before Christmas iirc. Bridge, control plate and jackplate are all Rutters, Knobs are Callaham. Bridge pickup is Lollar Special T, aka the best Tele pickup on earth. 

I actually had a handful of configs to try out and I'm still not 100% settled, but I'm pretty close. 

It looks epic with the humbucker, but after a few weeks it was pretty clear that even with a fat bridge and a quiet neck PAF I just don't love SH layout Teles, so in came a Lollar Royal and a third pickguard my god am I happy with it.

I do need to get some proper shots with the proper camera but given this thread is well overdue I thought I'd grab some quick & dirty iPhone ones



Final spec is heavily influenced but the Jason Isbell signature Tele, just not sunburst and not Mexican  

You'll note the bridge is notched for a Bigsby if I want it. I'm not sure yet because it's so damn good as-is (and I already know who will say "do it" and who will say "bleurgh"...) 

Cowboyyeehaa1

That looks very nice indeed. Imagine it sounds equally great. 

Reckon the bigsby comes down to a simple question of will you use it, or will it just add some weight and look pretty.

skullfunkerry

That looks absolutely stunning!

bluecat

That looks really cool. I would personally prefer it without the Bigsby. 

guitars4you

hope that is not a recent photo and you forgot to put the tree back in storage

flying_pie

Nice work sticky 

I'd go with a mini-HB in the neck and black plate. You should however fit black screws for the scratch plate as it will look much better.. You can trust me on that. 

The Lollar does look good though

GoFish

Firebird? 

Nah, don't mind me, it looks mean and keen. Nice one!

ElectricXII

Lovely job. I don’t normally like red teles, but yours is an exception. 

stickyfiddle

Cheers chaps. I'm about 96% sure I'm set on pickups. Firebird would be great but I still have a Strat with 3x FBs in it, to which I owe some tweaks but almost certainly not removing the neck pickup. 

As for the Bigsby, I'm 100% sure I would use it, but perhaps nervous I might overuse it and having Bigsbies already on 4 others it's not feeling "necessary", if that makes sense. 

(and @guitars4you yes this was the pre-xmas initial build chaos!) 

stickyfiddle

And I must give massive thumbs up & man-hugs to @GoldenEraGuitars for a heroically good product. Top chap, top product, and some of my very favourite necks out there. Everyone who has played this is in love

earwighoney

Lovely looking guitar, and for my OCD issues, I'm happy to see the strings have lined over the pickup poles.  I occasionally see pictures of guitars here where it doesn't which makes me grind my teeth. 

dazzajl

It seems quite often now I’m saying “I don’t tend to like red guitars but that’s gorgeous”

I think you lot might have turned me. 

Offset

That looks absolutely splendid @stickyfiddle . 

stickyfiddle

dazzajl said:

It seems quite often now I’m saying “I don’t tend to like red guitars but that’s gorgeous”

I think you lot might have turned me. 

I do believe this one is extra special.

What's really funny is I can't find any evidence of Fender ever matching red with double bound and a black guard.  There are loads of red/double-bound, and plenty of red/black, and a handful of double-bound with black guard (but almost always black or sunburst)

But it's so damn good I find it hard to believe nobody's ever specced it before

dazzajl

stickyfiddle said:

dazzajl said:

It seems quite often now I’m saying “I don’t tend to like red guitars but that’s gorgeous”

I think you lot might have turned me. 

I do believe this one is extra special.

It’s red and it’s special. You know there might be a cool name in there somewhere??

Jonathangus

Excellent work all round.  And yes, red ones are better.

stickyfiddle

dazzajl said:

stickyfiddle said:

dazzajl said:

It seems quite often now I’m saying “I don’t tend to like red guitars but that’s gorgeous”

I think you lot might have turned me. 

I do believe this one is extra special.

It’s red and it’s special. You know there might be a cool name in there somewhere??

I have half an eye on building one of those too... 

english_bob

That's pretty.

I'm firmly in the "do it" camp.

NickBotfield

That looks absolutely fucking baller.  Well done!

stickyfiddle

NickBotfield said:

That looks absolutely fucking baller.  Well done!

Haha I can’t not wis that  

english_bob said:

That's pretty.

I'm firmly in the "do it" camp.

I think I have a spare vibramate in the cupboard, so I should at least try it at next string change 

strtdv

Looks really great. 

I always fear that if I spent decent money on putting together a partscaster I'd really enjoy the process but would end up with a guitar that wasn't quite the sum of it's rather expensive parts. 
I'd still like to try it sometime.