Non Fender Telecasters

@E_Normus_Johnson have you ever heard of this Mel McCullough guy in Indiana that builds guitars?

Mel McCullough Jefferson St. Telecaster Guitar - buy it now for $395 (or make offer)

With seymour duncan pickups, this custom guitar has a stylized sound you don’t want to pass up. Plays out very nicely!

These look pretty nice for a $300 guitar new…

Welch Twang Slinger

Mmmm, nope…frayed knot.

Looks pretty decent for four bills but you’d have to play it to know. Two things, off the point…

  1. Hate that shade of blue, looks like an Imron auto paint.

  2. I do understand the reason for the tacky little string guides because they allow a linear neck and headstock much less prone to cracking than the traditional angled headstock. But after seven fucking decades, you’d think someone would figure out a more stylish way to do that. Seventy years, and it still looks like a cheap ass afterthought…which it probably was.

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I agree with you on both points, I could live with the ugly blue but I was thinking the first thing I’d do to that second one is replace those shitty string trees with some roller ones at least…

The Dave’s World of Fun Stuff guy says not to buy a guitar without checking to see if the truss rod works… he says yer really taking your chances if you don’t.

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I’d agree unless it’s something with a lifetime warranty…Taylor, Martin, etc. or if it’s an actual dealer and you know he’ll make it right.

Cause basically it’s easy to make a guitar that looks like it has a working rod but it’s tricky to actually make one that DOES.

Here’s a neck from a recent Collings (high end flattops, 3.5 - 4 K) The adjustable rod is at the bottom of the pic, under that maple block. They used to use ebony for the block but there is too much regulation now and it just ain’t cost effective.

https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13339705_10206112680271467_7196093366032440064_n.jpg?oh=390fddd696f8ef161fe5927e27d1a474&oe=594DCE53

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I’ve seen a few times in his vids where he’ll get a guitar to work on, sometimes a pretty new one and he’ll go to adjust the truss rod and they just spin loosely, gooched truss rod, non adjustable…

I doubt if I’ll ever be buying any 4k acoustics :-), l looked them up though they do look nice!

I did get my action a lot nicer on my telecaster the other day after it settled in a little… It’s very straight right now and I think I’m going to loosen it just a little for a little bit of relief.

So I was watching this one guy on the tube the other day, he seems to know a lot about these guitar companies… and he’s talking about how these Fender American mades and many others that claim to be USA are just partially assembled here… the Signature type series guitars are nothing like what the endorsees are playing which are all made mostly by a few total pro guitar guys here in the states… He was talking about how Peavey only made their necks here and then they claimed that was 52% of the guitar and therefore made in the USA, meanwhile the body and the pickups were coming from somewhere overseas… I saw a guy that claimed he used to work at Peavey on a forum saying the same sort of thing.

So really none of it’s made in the USA, with the US fenders you might get a little better hardware, better fret job, nicer this/that, setup etc, and better quality control but it’s basically the same shit… Some of these $300 foreign jobs like the Welch telecasters are looking pretty nice to me.

Yeah, that’s pretty much the case, as much of the product as possible being made offshore (or in Mexico, for some Fender parts and even whole instruments.) The exception is yer higher end acoustics that are factory built from scratch in the US. Collings, Taylor, most Martins and a bunch of independent boutique guys, one of whom (Whipple Creek) is just down the road from me.

I posted a clip on FB recently of one of my favorite young bluegrassers who is singing a ballad and playing a really over the top archtop guitar…I asked the Whipple Creek guy if he recognized it, and he did…that builder is in Idaho…Lawrence Smart, mostly builds mandolins but does other instruments also.

Wow really nice stuff, I could never pay that much for an instrument though unless I was shitting gold bricks.

I’m maybe getting an India made squier tele, vintage modified custom series I thinks it is… 2007, $175, Craigslist.

Do it. This one has a vibe I like.

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Yeah I wanted it, guy emailed me today that he already sold it… I’m thinking I might slap one together… Get a ready to go body like one of these, slap a $40 chinese tele neck on it, some tuners and there ya go…

Cheap

Little more but nice…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Licensed-Telecaster-Loaded-Body-Dimarzio-Area-Pickups-Fender-Bigsby-CTS-/152482062161?hash=item2380a39f51:g:DTcAAOSwuLZY0tbw

$42 Chinese neck

I might try to snipe this one if it goes cheap enough… $51+$35 S&H, 3 days left.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322473782679

Got this Peavey Generation EXP tele for $130 at the pawnshop today, had to solder a black wire back on to one of the pots which I’m assuming was some sort of ground. I think it’s one of the newer models but nice, active pickups and a Fishman power bridge which has a piezo pickup in it.

Just looked the Fishman bridge up on ebay, just the bridge part alone new is $200… then at least another $100 in other parts.

No serial # or country it was made, but it doesn’t appear that anything was removed, I didn’t take the neck off to see if there was anything written inside.

It ain’t quite my Merican tele but I like it and I like the contoured body, gold sparkle paintjob, black binding and it does seem to have its own unique sound… they wouldn’t budge on the price but they did throw in the tax. Still need to adjust the action, probably adjust the truss rod some more and intonation. It’s also missing a knob and I’m going to get some roller string trees to put on it.

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Turned the truss rod a little earlier and just lowered the action on this, plays like a dream… still need to setup the intonation.

I saw another guy with one of these on the tube, turns out the middle knob is for the piezo pickup in the fishman bridge which is for more of an acoustic type sound… and it sounds good but there’s some type of short going on in it which gives a bunch of buzz at times. Seems to be related to the input (output but that’s what everyone calls it) jack.

I’m thinking I need a new output jack, which seemed sketchy and is different than the standard guitar output jack… , probably got screwed up because the jack was loose.

I finished setting the action and intonation up, plays awesome, more fun to play than my Fender. Sounds great, the pickups are a bit hot for my taste though, definitely much hotter than the fender, even the single coils. But rolling the volume off a little gets them under control.Definitely a nice telecaster style guitar though… looks nicer than the fender too… A lot of guitar for a buck 30, I’m gonna keep it around…

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Yeah, the pickup setup looks a little harsh on this one but it looks good otherwise. Way to go…!!

My favorite pickup layout on a tele style guitar (remember I don’t actually PLAY electrics) is 2 humbuckers with coil taps on at least the neck one, and a 5 position switch with only a tone and volume knob. You can get that SG “grease” and “quack” as well as all the Fender sounds, plus the humbuckers just sound a lot different in an ash or alder body than they do in a mahogany one.

I have no qualms about stealing that guitar from the pawnshop, they rob everyone. They probably gave some poor fucker $65 for it.

A coil splitter on that humbucker would be optimal…they sound good rolled off a little It is also a very quiet guitar as far as picking up noise and interference goes, a lot quieter than the fender and with more output…

The fishman pickup is pretty awesome, delivers the electric acoustic sound on an electric. I haven’t setup a good patch/sound for it yet but I’ve seen a couple other people with theirs on the tube… The output jack is a stereo jack, I guess you can run it into a splitter box and then just run the fishman through the PA ffor the electric acoustic piezo sound cause just running it through a guitar amp is going to sound more like a guitar amp…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfOkO3GGIkQ

Sounds good, but I’m in over my head with that much electronic stuff.

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Yeah that guy’s way in over my head, I could see a simple A/B type box though to switch to the piezo pickup through a PA.

Set this acoustic electric type sound up real quick… If I were ever going to play out again these days I’d run directly into the board with one of these Line 6 amp/effect simulators and a headphone monitor… fuck lugging an amp around ever again, need to sell that fucker while people still want them…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTc28rwLbCA&feature=youtu.be

It looks kind of pooptacular but I bet it’s a player…

Used Samick Ray Benson STR Custom Shop Solid Body Electric Guitar Honey Blonde - $250