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Thread: The road warrior Tele project

  1. #1
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    The road warrior Tele project

    So, I am seriously considering a telecaster for my arsenal.

    Now, two things to consider.

    One, I am not thinking, for a second, of buying a new one giving the prices they’re charging.

    Two, I am aiming at a real Micawber like road worn Tele.

    Here’s my plan: I will buy the cheapest body and neck I can find, that matches a classic tele body’s specs. Then I’ll begin the pickup/bridge safari. Emerson Custom will provide the pot/cap harness.

    My first question: which Squier model is the cheapest that still respects the original Fender Tele dimensions? I know the Affinity series is too thin.

  2. #2
    Forum Member DanTheBluesMan's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    The CV50 series and the Players series (MIM) are your best bets. You might get lighter bodies with the MIM ones. The very early CV50s were nice and light but they're like hens' teeth now.
    "Live and learn and flip the burns"

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    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    To get a worn look like Micawber, you’ll need to find a nitro finished one. The poly finished guitars just don’t get the same wear.

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    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    Quote Originally Posted by Keefoman1 View Post
    To get a worn look like Micawber, you’ll need to find a nitro finished one. The poly finished guitars just don’t get the same wear.

    The plan is to strip it, refinish it in nitro and relic it.

    My US Fender Strat is all stock, I want my Tele to be as custom made as possible. The Squier body choice is because I want the “skeleton” of this project to be technically a real Fender design. It has to keep a minimum of Fender DNA.

  5. #5
    Forum Member Keefoman1's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    Quote Originally Posted by Sérgio View Post
    The plan is to strip it, refinish it in nitro and relic it.

    My US Fender Strat is all stock, I want my Tele to be as custom made as possible. The Squier body choice is because I want the “skeleton” of this project to be technically a real Fender design. It has to keep a minimum of Fender DNA.
    I see. Sounds like a cool project!

  6. #6
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    I am thinking a Gibson Classic 57 for the neck. It might give me enough PAF-like tone.

  7. #7
    Forum Member ch willie's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    I"ve got those in my Les Paul. Great pickups. The neck pickup is really strong and loud. I was just reading a few things around the web. Some were saying the Duncan Seth Lover neck pup might be close to the Micawber sound. I had a Seth Lover neck pickup in an Epiphone Les Paul (Korean made), and it really brought that guitar to life. Either pup will do. I was interested in what folks were saying. I saw a several forum posts elsewhere in which folks have used the Classic 57 for their Micawber projects.
    If we'd known we were going to be the Beatles, we'd have tried harder.--George Harrison

  8. #8
    Forum Member S. Cane's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    Indeed, I had them Classic 57s on the Gibson SG I owned for a couple of years.

    Very typical Gibson tone. I never bonded with SGs for one reason or another, but I’ve always liked the tone in those pickups.

    See, this is a proper COVID project. Those who know me are aware of the fact that I like good guitars, my main ones being one hell of a USA Strat and a Rickenbacker, both in original factory specs and shape. But it’s time to put something together myself and the prices today are definitely beyond reality.

    So I’m into building a great Telecaster out of the cheapest “Fender” body (so I can at least call it a Fender, I love the company) but with premium handwork and parts.

  9. #9
    Forum Member dirtdog's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    I've got a CV 60s Tele Custom - neck is nice, seems to me the dimensions are accurate. High E string has trouble staying in saddle. You probably don't want to use that one as a base for your project since it's got binding. You'd probably want the CV 50s tele.

    I owned two RoadWorn teles (at different points) - they were pretty nice guitars. But the neck - woah - serious baseball bat. Too much for my stubby fingers. Was a cool looking guitar.

    Here's pic of one of RW Teles in a family photo circa 2010.


  10. #10
    Forum Member Offshore Angler's Avatar
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    Re: The road warrior Tele project

    The beauty of Telecasters is that they don't know where they were built. Buy and old Mexican Tele, upgrade the pups and get with it. I prefer the original non-compensated brass barrel saddles, but for some reason the internet is overflowing with "players" telling me that if I don't have compensated saddles I'll never sound as good as the original Tele's that didn't have them. Proof, that we live in a quantum universe with random fluctuations and explains modern US society pretty much to a "T". Hey, I just saw what I did there with the "T" for Telecaster. Again, a random event!

    My old Tele started as a Mexican Nashville. It got turned into an Esquire back when they were all the rage. It got custom painted with the flip-flop paint flames. It got a Duncan Antiquity in the bridge. One day I needed more grunt and a Hot Rails I had laying around got put int the neck position making it a Tele again. It's got the fuel tubing selector switch knob that was installed mid-set one night years ago.

    The neck got stained orange with the old Kiwi Brown shoe polish trick. It's now a true rat rod and still probably the best all-around guitar I own. It's made a lot of money over the years.

    The absolutely greatest thing about a Tele, to me, is that they are so simple it's pretty near impossible to screw one up, and there isn't a part on one that can't be replaced with simple tools in less than an hour.

    Chuck
    Last edited by Offshore Angler; 09-05-2020 at 03:51 AM.
    "No harmonic knowledge, no sense of time, a ghastly tone, unskilled vibrato, and so on. Chuck is one of the worst guitar players I know" -Gravity Jim

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