Telecaster build idea, add your input please.

[Milerky2]

So I have been playing with an idea and wonder if my fellow rig-talkers would help me with some input.

I have a friend who is starting a Lutherie business, he is nothing short of an artist in ALL things he does, Photographer, handyman (he does incredible things with drywall) and now is building and repairing guitars.

He started with strats, and is building some amazing playing maple necks, of which the feel and intonation are better than MANY $2000 plus guitars.

Over the last few years I have tried strat style and other guitars, but I keep coming back to Teles because the tones I get are more suited to my style.

Here is what I have come up with.

I want to build a Tele in the vein of the Brent Mason special, but with a few twists. 1st on the list is I do not want to do a tele with a pickguard, I am hoping to get a 3A or higher top to go on it, with binding, and the body routing would happen before the top is applied. I am also thinking about chambering the guitar to both lighten it and increase the "air" in the tone.

The pickups would be built around the SD P-rails with the switching ring, a strat style center pickup and an overwound (but noiseless) tele bridge.

I would retain normal tele switching, with the center pickup having it's own volume knob to blend with the other 2 Pickups.

The possibilities here are pretty cool. One of my current guitars has a center pickup on a "phase" switch which swaps the hot and cold wires in order to switch this pickup out of phase with the other two, gives me a nice chimey sound, this can be applied using a push pull pot as well on the center volume.

What pickup combinations would you use? Would chambering cause me more problems than help? Where would I find usable chambering patterns? I am hoping to start getting parts for this build soon, and hoping that good woods are going to be easy to find. What type of body wood would you guys use? Mahogany? Alder? I'm set on a Maple one piece neck.

What about hardware? I know classic Tele's use 3 post bridges, but I am wanting to make this both a High-tech tele with a vintage feel, and I want to showcase the luthier's work.

Please feel free to tell me I'm dumb and put in your 2 cents. All input is welcome!

Please let me know! I'm excited to hear your thoughts!

 

[Death by Uberschall]

Here's my Tele build, might give you some ideas:

BLUE

Warmoth Body:
Chambered Tele
Dark Blue dye/clear back
No binding, clean line option/no burst over

1-piece mahogany body
Unique Choice quilt maple top
Contoured heel
Tummy cut
HxH pick-up routing

_____________________________________________________________
Warmoth Neck:
Warmoth Pro
Dark Blue dye/clear back
No binding/no burst over

3A flame maple neck
Jet black ebony board
Tele headstock shape
Quilt maple headstock veneer
Gotoh tuners
1-11/16 nut
Graphtech graphite nut
Wolfgang profile
22 fret
SS6100 frets
No inlays/face dots
White side dots
Clear back

_____________________________________________________________
Hardware:
All chrome

EMG 81/85
Gotoh Tele humbucker bridge
Graphtec saddles
Rear contol route
Single volume
Blade 3-way switch w/black knob - Strat position
Electrosocket

 

[RockStarNick]

If you're going with a traditional (albeit, noiseless) Tele Bridge pickup, and want the most traditional Tele tone you can get, 3-Saddle bridge all the way. They have a twang to them that is unmistakable.

The 6 saddle tele bridges are good too, but they have a more modern, focused, punchy sound. Less airy. A little more solid sounding. Not in a bad or good way, but a different way. The bridge on a Tele is a crucial element to the final tone. And the saddles are super, super important.

 

[Milerky2]

What about woods? I want a sparkling spank with solid overtones. I'm afraid Mahogany will be too deep. What kind of wood is used in some of your favorite teles?

 

[Zap]

For spank, maple and ash is a hard combo to beat. I wouldn't use any other formula if you're looking for class Tele tones.

 

[grooveHT]

I love the Dimarzio Hot Area T I have in my Tele-berger, basically a PAF EQ with the attack of a single coil, noiseless of course as well. I used a sort of unique switching scheme on my strat that you might like for different reasons on this tele. I used two three way LP style switches; one selects between neck, neck + middle, and middle, and the other is switch 1, switch 1+ bridge, bridge. This way, you could leave the first switch knocked into it's first spot, and get all your normal tele switching on switch two, or leaving you free to mess with the first switch and get all sorts of un-tele combinations. I like it better than a push-pull, much quicker than having to pull up on a knob. I think of swamp ash as giving you the bright tele sound you're talking about, alder might be a little thicker, but you know, depends on the plank too. I have P-Rails in one of my guitars, and the one caution I would give you is to not expect too much out of the single coil sound; OTOH, the P-90 and humbucker sounds, parallel and series, are great!