One for the Tele fans

[Shuie]

Look at what the UPS person was kind enough to leave at my house today. Words and written descriptions cannot do guitars like this any justice. They have to be played and heard. I stopped breathing when I opened the case and saw it in person for the first time. I've been playing it for the last hour, and while I've bought three great keeper guitars in the last week, I can't even think of picking anything else up right now.

[R Wilco]

So what is the story?

[Shuie]

It's just an amazing guitar. It has no story. I guess I could make something up. What kind of story do you want to hear?

[onlycafe]

belonged to a widow woman, only played it in church on sundays.

[WolfeMacleod]

Shuie, what year is that?

Freakin nice man! I'm a Tele guy at heart I think...hard to choose betweenthe LP and the Tele...

[Victor]

You really are worse than me. Well done. Is that gold, or is my monitor playing up?

There is still a spot reserved on my wall for when the right tele walks through my front door.

[nostatic]

looks like shoreline gold. what year?

[Shuie]

Its a GVCG replica of a '63 slab board in shoreline gold.

I've played a lot of the early Cunetto era Relics from the late '90s as well as the post Cunetto relics, and a few of the more recent Master Built guitars, and none of them looked the part of a vintage guitar. Some were okay, but still just didn't look authentic you set them next to a real '50s or '60s guitar.

This one has it all. It's the first modern guitar I've ever seen that looks and feels like an old guitar. Some of the parts actually are old, but its the wood and the finish that blow me away. Everything about this guitar just seems old. The wood, the clay dots, the hardware, etc.. The dirt under the pickguard looks like its 40-50 years old. The dirt and grime is worked into the finish on the back of the neck exactly like a 40-50 year old Fender. The rust looks old. It smells old. Its just ridiculous.

GVCG doesn't build guitars for the public anymore. Fender won't let him. Allegedly, he was given the option of coming to work for them in his C&D letter and never took them up on it. Fender is also allegedly buying at least some of these guitars from the public to take them out of circulation and to use them to teach their team of Master Builders team how to make more convincing relics and reissues.

[Shuie]

Originally posted by Victor
You really are worse than me.

Im pretty bad, but Im done after the one thats on the truck now gets here next week. Its the last guitar I need. I promise. No more after that one

[Victor]

.........of course. I go to sleep most nights reciting that very same chant.

How many is it now?

[Jim Richards]

At the other end of the spectrum from Sherman's relic, the UPS guy just delivered a Squier Affinity Series Tele today. My initial reaction is that it's a pretty fun entry level guitar for a total n0ob like me.

[targa911S]

Looks good! Practice practice practice......

[Sonic dB]

What kind of story do you want to hear?

How bout.... "It is Tele #0002 circa 1952 and was Leo Fender's
personal axe which he kept at home, and was stored in a
barn for the past 12 years only to be sold to you for the low
low price of $250. "

Other than that... you are correct in that the Tele has a special
sound all its own. I have a 92 Tele Deluxe Plus model
# N915078, which they do not make any longer, in a beautiful translucent blue wood grain finish.
It is pretty modded out with locking tuners
hipshot tremsetter tremelo and active EMGs that I put on there
to replace the awful Lace Sensors that it came with... and it
still sounds like a Tele.

It is the heaviest guitar I have ever played...literally weighs
about 10 pounds, which is far more than any normal Tele.
Second on the left in this photo



No matter what you do to a Tele, it
always sounds like a Tele. It has something to do with the
fretboard length which is longer and lengthens the string in
a way to add that familiar twang...funny I was just thinking
about this over the past weekend. Why a Tele sounds like a Tele.

That is a great Tele, how many guitars do you have now Shuie?

[Shuie]

Nice tele, Jim. Play it in Good health. Clapton used a Fiesta Red tele when he played with The Yarbirds

Originally posted by Sonic dB
No matter what you do to a Tele, it
always sounds like a Tele. It has something to do with the
fretboard length which is longer and lengthens the string in
a way to add that familiar twang...funny I was just thinking
about this over the past weekend. Why a Tele sounds like a Tele.

That is a great Tele, how many guitars do you have now Shuie?

Not many. I've actually sold a couple recently.

The scale length is actually the same on a tele and a strat. The wood is essentially the same as a strat also. Unlike a conventional strat, its a string-through body, but I've owned hardtail and tremelo equipped strats and I don't think this detail made them sound drastically different.

So, what makes a tele sound like a tele then?

Well, there are different tele sounds. Broadcasters, Black Guards, '50s White Guards, '59 top loaders, slab boards, and the mid-late '60s guitars all sound different due to different pickups and material specs that were used. They all have the twang and the tele spank, but they still sound different.

IMO, the wood is always the most crucial component to the way a guitar sounds, but the signature tele spank and twang is in the pickups and the bridge plate. A good tele neck pickup can almost sound like a good strat neck pickup, but a good tele bridge pickup is just fatter and nastier than any strat on the planet. You don't have the middle position like on a strat, but Im okay with that.

The bridge plate also makes a difference. The bridge pickups inductive qualities are different if the bridge is magnetic vs. non magnetic. People also claim that the older hot rolled magnetic bridge plates sound different than the later cold rolled versions, but I have no real opinion or experience with this theory.

Here's my latest, its a '50s Black Guard Esquire replica. One piece Ash body, all maple neck, thin nitro lacquer, boutique electronics, boutique '50s Esquire pickup, real bakelite pickguard, etc..

[Jim Richards]

sweet!