I acquired this a couple, three months back. it came back into rotation this week and got a set up, then yesterday I took the neck off and taped it up. I polished the frets and restrung it. I took pictures under the pickguard and control plate.
Yep, that's an Esquire routing, no Secret Agent tele neck pickup applies here
The control panel had full size pots albeit made in korea by jin sung. The assembly had some heft to it. I don't know the values of the caps in there
neck ready for fret polishing (panorama pic, neck is actually nice and straight :))
The frets feel much better. The neck is still a little grainy feeling under the fingers, though. Probably needs a hundred hours or so to feel nicely broken in. I don't know if it's my imagination but I swear it sounds better. EB strings in the pink package .009-.042s. I thought the stock strings were a little tinny/ping-y sounding.
Very bright guitar, loud and aggressive when picked hard. Got to play with the tone and volume and switch some more. I need to compare the intonation to my CV50 Tele. These guitars are always a compromise but I really like how the Tele works so I want to try to duplicate it. I didn't take the bridge plate off the Esquire because I'd have to undo two of the saddles. I probably won't be getting a picture of the base plate of the pickup unless I decide to change the saddle barrels or install a different pickup.
Ready for action