My friend and bandmate Auri Frattura has created another homemade take on the classic Fender Telecaster. He owns a couple of old Fender guitars that are worth a lot of money, so instead of modifying his old Fenders and devaluing them, he simply builds his own variations with a mix of new and old parts.
That's the beauty of Fender-style guitars. They're like Erector Sets or Model Kits; you can build a perfectly good Fender copy with the right parts, a soldering iron, a screwdriver set and an hour or so out of a quiet afternoon when you have nothing else in particular to do and you feel like building something.
This time he used antique brass for all of the hardware, and installed it on a Swamp Ash Warmoth body that he finished in a lovely brown sunburst and complimented with a simple, plain black pickguard. The whole thing has a warm, no-frills kind of vibe, like a comfortable old jacket. For a recently made guitar, it looks nicely aged while avoiding that corny, fake "relic" reek.
I consider it a subtle but important difference between building one's own guitar with whatever bits one has and spending extra money at the guitar shop to buy an expensive, brand-new guitar that was faked up at the guitar factory to look like a beat-up old one. If I'm spending my hard-earned money at the guitar store, then by golly, I want that guitar to look new! I'll put all the scratches and scuffs on it myself, thank you!
A Crossfolf Camera Presentation.
That's the beauty of Fender-style guitars. They're like Erector Sets or Model Kits; you can build a perfectly good Fender copy with the right parts, a soldering iron, a screwdriver set and an hour or so out of a quiet afternoon when you have nothing else in particular to do and you feel like building something.
This time he used antique brass for all of the hardware, and installed it on a Swamp Ash Warmoth body that he finished in a lovely brown sunburst and complimented with a simple, plain black pickguard. The whole thing has a warm, no-frills kind of vibe, like a comfortable old jacket. For a recently made guitar, it looks nicely aged while avoiding that corny, fake "relic" reek.
I consider it a subtle but important difference between building one's own guitar with whatever bits one has and spending extra money at the guitar shop to buy an expensive, brand-new guitar that was faked up at the guitar factory to look like a beat-up old one. If I'm spending my hard-earned money at the guitar store, then by golly, I want that guitar to look new! I'll put all the scratches and scuffs on it myself, thank you!
A Crossfolf Camera Presentation.
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This is a terrific photo (even though there is no chrome). I love unique instruments and this one certainly qualifies. The antique brass reminds me of some of the models built by Postal Guitars
Sorry for the tardy reply, but those Postal Guitars are absolutely beautiful in the weirdest ways. I want one. Actually, I want several of them. Guitars From Mars...
That's another fun thing about them. They're musical instruments, and you can play with them like LEGO kits.
This reminds me of an old episode of The Waltons. One of the boys walks in on Ike Godsey smacking an old table with a chain, to make it look like an antique.
Yep: a common old technique. I've seen it done by one or two "restorers".
I agree; I love the look of brass. When it's all shined and polished it can look like gold, but I especially like the way brass ages with a more casual and gentle approach to keeping it clean.
Nice! My Tele is a Lite Ash model that's about 20 years old now and it came with brass saddles.
Sorry I'm just getting around to this thread now, but it's nice to hear from you as always!
If your Lite Ash Tele is 20 by now, then it must sound and feel even better than when it was new. What kind of finish does it have, if I may ask?
It's funny: some electric guitarists who prefer hollowbody guitars turn up our noses at solidbodies (including me, sometimes, I'll admit) because they aren't fancy like a hollowbody, where's all the pearl and binding? The nice arched top and the classy violin-like soundholes? It's. A. Plank.
I've since come to realise that I was very wrong on one important point.
That "plank" that a Fender's body is made from will age and improve with time. The laminated-wood construction of the typical hollowbody won't age nearly as much beyond superficial finish wear.
The level of filigree on a hollowbody is nicer, sure, but that doesn't really influence how the guitar actually sounds, does it? It's that nice, resonant piece of wood that provides the sound of a Fender, along with the combination of pickups and hardware.
It took my friend Auri to bring me around to Tele/Strat style guitars. I recently acquired a Strat copy, after all, and I love it!
Leo Fender was the Henry Ford of guitar makers. The Telecaster was his Model T, the Precision Bass was his Model A, and the Stratocaster was his V-8.
That was a pretty long to post just to say that I've come to appreciate Fenders more... ;)
If your Lite Ash Tele is 20 by now, then it must sound and feel even better than when it was new. What kind of finish does it have, if I may ask?
It's funny: some electric guitarists who prefer hollowbody guitars turn up our noses at solidbodies (including me, sometimes, I'll admit) because they aren't fancy like a hollowbody, where's all the pearl and binding? The nice arched top and the classy violin-like soundholes? It's. A. Plank.
I've since come to realise that I was very wrong on one important point.
That "plank" that a Fender's body is made from will age and improve with time. The laminated-wood construction of the typical hollowbody won't age nearly as much beyond superficial finish wear.
The level of filigree on a hollowbody is nicer, sure, but that doesn't really influence how the guitar actually sounds, does it? It's that nice, resonant piece of wood that provides the sound of a Fender, along with the combination of pickups and hardware.
It took my friend Auri to bring me around to Tele/Strat style guitars. I recently acquired a Strat copy, after all, and I love it!
Leo Fender was the Henry Ford of guitar makers. The Telecaster was his Model T, the Precision Bass was his Model A, and the Stratocaster was his V-8.
That was a pretty long to post just to say that I've come to appreciate Fenders more... ;)
My Tele is a natural finish with a black, scratched-up pickgaurd, you know, the way a Tele should be! I love hollowbodies, I have an Epi 335 that is one of the best guitars I've owned. I wish it was easier for me to upload photos, but I usually have issues when I do.
Oh, btw, I drove to a music store in a town not too far from where I live and I found one of my most coveted guitars there, a Gibson Firebird I. I'm trying hard to raise the money, since it's a good price and I do not want it to get away! It's a personal holy grail since I first played a Polaris White 1963 model when I was 15 at the legendary Mandolin Brothers when I was 15! Wish me luck!
Oh, btw, I drove to a music store in a town not too far from where I live and I found one of my most coveted guitars there, a Gibson Firebird I. I'm trying hard to raise the money, since it's a good price and I do not want it to get away! It's a personal holy grail since I first played a Polaris White 1963 model when I was 15 at the legendary Mandolin Brothers when I was 15! Wish me luck!
Absolutely wishing you luck with the Firebird I. I love the first-gen "reverse" Firebirds; I once had a beaten-up and heavily modified '64 Firebird III in the black/brown Firebird sunburst that I specifically set up for slide-style play. Best electric slide guitar ever. The neck-through construction sustains forever with a stop tailpiece, and the solid mahogany build gave it a lovely, warm tone along with those beautiful mini-humbuckers.
That one, the '67 Guild F-50, the blue Rickenbacker 4001, the '64 Gretsch Tennessean and especially the '63 Gretsch White Falcon...those are the ones that I wish the most I still had. Ah, well...we can't keep them all! ;)
That one, the '67 Guild F-50, the blue Rickenbacker 4001, the '64 Gretsch Tennessean and especially the '63 Gretsch White Falcon...those are the ones that I wish the most I still had. Ah, well...we can't keep them all! ;)
Yeah, it was, and I loved the stereo layout!
Gretsch did their stereo layout differently. Instead of sending each pickup to a different channel (ala Gibson or Rickenbacker), Gretsch split each pickup, sending the bass half to one channel and the treble half to the other.
I do a lot of Chet Atkins-style fingerpicking, and I used to love being able to give the bass range a different tone. In fact, I would often put a delay signal on the bass half and keep the treble half clean. That makes the thumbpicked bass line really pop, and I loved the neat "ping-pong" effect between the bass and treble sides that it created.
The thing was, that '63 WF didn't have a Bigsby, which I use a lot. It had that cool Cadillac tailpiece, and I couldn't bring myself to modify what was a very nice, original old guitar. It was also too nice and valuable to drag all over town and gig with, so I never used it as much as I would have liked.
I eventually traded it for a 1981 Cadillac and some cash.
Gretsch did their stereo layout differently. Instead of sending each pickup to a different channel (ala Gibson or Rickenbacker), Gretsch split each pickup, sending the bass half to one channel and the treble half to the other.
I do a lot of Chet Atkins-style fingerpicking, and I used to love being able to give the bass range a different tone. In fact, I would often put a delay signal on the bass half and keep the treble half clean. That makes the thumbpicked bass line really pop, and I loved the neat "ping-pong" effect between the bass and treble sides that it created.
The thing was, that '63 WF didn't have a Bigsby, which I use a lot. It had that cool Cadillac tailpiece, and I couldn't bring myself to modify what was a very nice, original old guitar. It was also too nice and valuable to drag all over town and gig with, so I never used it as much as I would have liked.
I eventually traded it for a 1981 Cadillac and some cash.
A Cadillac? In the words of the immortal Jake Blues, "Ok, I can see that." I would love to experiment with the Gretsch stereo layout. The only stereo guitar (other that Rickenbackers with the Rick-O-Sound) I've played was a 1967 Gibson ES-355 and that required a Y-cable the store didn't have. However, I did play it through a 1965 AC-15 with chrome trolley and it was an amazing tone! The store that had the Firebird I'm looking at also has a recent Duo-Jet, and those are my favorite Gretsches, since I tried an early Jet Firebird.
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