HB Telecaster

Roland

This morning a fret crowning file arrived in the post, along with a selection of wet and dry paper.  So the frets are polished at last, which makes bending a lot smoother.  I bend notes a lot of the time, and the frets are a little low for a good grip.  I'm not going to attempt a re-fret on something so new, so I'll either have to live with it, or drop down to 9s.

One little lesson from the polishing was how much metal dust/powder it leaves on the fret board.  Masking is obviously a much better idea than using a fretboard protector.

Lastly I couldn't resist adding a maker's mark on the headstock

Roland

Got home after a few days away to find that a Californian and FortyNiner have arrived from Oil City. Normally I wouldn't mess with my set up just before a gig, but temptation got the better of me. 

The Californian is a vast improvement on the MIM Tele neck pickup, much more like a Strat. I can even use the tone knob, instead of leaving it full on.  The magnets must be stronger because I've had to run the pickup further from the strings than the MIM.  It is strange though not to see a shiny chrome cover at the end of the neck.  The guitar looks less like the classic Tele image than it an hour ago.

The FortyNiner is a lower wind than the MIM pickup it replaced, there's more Fender twang.  Hopefully there will still be enough grunt so that I can use the guitar for most of tomorrow night's gig.  Ideally I would have done a before and after recording so that I could do a comparison, but I only had an hour in which to swap the pickups, file out a wider pickup slot in the scratch plate, chisel a larger cavity at the bridge, and wire it all up.

We're hoping to video tomorrow's gig so there should be pictorial evidence of me ticking off the "and play it at a gig" objective.

Andyjr1515

Roland said:

We're hoping to video tomorrow's gig so there should be pictorial evidence of me ticking off the "and play it at a gig" objective.

Look forward to seeing  / hearing it  

Roland

Well here's the guitar in action last night.  It worked well, and I ended up using it for all but four songs over a two hour set.  When I started this project I though it might just get a couple of token songs, and be used in the rougher pubs, but it is quickly becoming my main guitar.  Video will follow once we edit it down (we had three cameras running) and post on You Tube.

This is the first time that I've played a Telecaster for any length of time, and under gig conditions.  I was surprised that it wanted to hang horizontal.  Normally I have the guitar at an angle with its head about level with my face, so this forced me to rethink my hand positions.  Tuning was stable.  The controls are reversed: volume/tone/selector.  I was worried about being able to hit pickup changes cleanly because the selector is so close to the tone, but it's a very easy guitar to play.

The new pickups from @TheGuitarWeasel are very clear, and cut through the mix beautifully.  For many songs I had the tone backed off by a quarter to keep things warm.  I'm still thinking about upgrading the bridge to something with a bit more mid range grunt, or possibly a split coil and four way selector.  This is GAS at work, always wanting to push the sound that little further.

impmann

Good work.

Tbh, if you want some more grunt/mids, I'd heartily recommend the Hardman from Oil City or the diesel tap, if you want even more versatility.

Roland

I was even considering a Wapping Wharf instead of the Diesel, but that needs a consultation with Ash when he gets back to work. First off I want to see the videos from Friday night to hear what it sounded like out front. Then I'm going to try a 4-way selector so that I can get both pickups in series for a plummy jazz sound.

Roland

In the event impatience got the better of me, and I installed the 4-way before the gig. I had to lengthen the slot in the control plate with a needle file to allow the switch it's full throw.

So here's the bridge pickup: 

and here's the guitar with both pickups in series: 

In the gig video the guitar wasn't as bright sounding as I expected, and the volume pot taper wasn't giving the control I like.  So this afternoon I swapped the volume pot.  In theory I've swapped the cheap 250k log pot which came with the kit for an even cheaper one that was in my parts box.  The guitar is now brighter, so the resistance must have gone up.  

With every week there's less and less of the original guitar left: body, neck, scratch plate, control plate, jack socket, tone pot and capacitor.  In practice I'm unlikely to change anything more unless something fails.