Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post

nospeaky · June 10th, 2006, 09:03 PM

hello everyone, I'm new here. been lurking for a while, waiting, you know how it is.

anyhow... I recently purchased my first tele a few weeks ago, and of course now I'm totally hooked. it's funny cause when I first started playing guitar I had absolutely no interest in teles, but I slowly got more and more intrigued by them, to the point that I just had to have one. so I figured I'd post some pictures and progress of my new tele and it's modifications up here.

what I finally settled on is this 2006 MIM Natural Ash Tele. I believe these are a Guitar Center exclusive.

I wanted to get a tele that I could set up as more of a classic style tele, and I love working on stuff so keeping anything I buy stock is not really an option. so I went with this one for a couple of good reasons... it will accept a vintage bridge, and it's ash with maple which I think is the coolest. and it's got 9.5" radius and medium jumbo frets, which I prefer. oh and it was pretty cheap (always a good selling point) and after playing practically all the teles in the store for a few weeks, this one felt pretty good to me. neck feels great and it sounds great.

can't stand that white pickguard though, uggh, that's the first thing to go. and unfortunately, as most people have noticed on recent MIMs, the maple neck is really light, almost white (doesn't look too bad in these pictures). I'm just hoping it will darken a little as it ages.

I talked the dude into throwing in a fender gig bag with it, since all the regular MIM Standards come with them. :)

after a few weeks with it, I'm just totally pleased, and am totally hooked on teles now. about the only issue I've found so far is the D string buzzes a bit so I had to raise that string a bit higher than the others. I'm pretty sure the problem is the nut slot for that string, if I push on the string behind the nut it goes away. I'm either going to fill the slot and fix it myself, or swap in a bone nut. not a huge deal though and after raising the string some I've almost forgotten about it.

so, now that I've gotten comfortable with it, I'm ready to start the modding. my plans at the moment go something along the lines of:
-black bakelite pickguard
-vintage 3 barrel brass saddle bridge
-4-way switch with series mod
-try out a baseplate on the bridge pickup and see what happens
-it does hum quite a bit, so I'd like to try shielding with copper tape.
-eventually get new pickups after I've tried everything else out. not sure what I want yet, I'll worry about them later.

I've already swapped out the pickguard and bridge, but the pics are at home, so I'll post about that later tonight.

June 10th, 2006, 09:03 PM	#1 (permalink)
nospeaky NEW MEMBER! Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Bay Area Posts: 8 7 Photos	My '06 MIM Natural Ash (Project) hello everyone, I'm new here. been lurking for a while, waiting, you know how it is. anyhow... I recently purchased my first tele a few weeks ago, and of course now I'm totally hooked. it's funny cause when I first started playing guitar I had absolutely no interest in teles, but I slowly got more and more intrigued by them, to the point that I just had to have one. so I figured I'd post some pictures and progress of my new tele and it's modifications up here. what I finally settled on is this 2006 MIM Natural Ash Tele. I believe these are a Guitar Center exclusive. I wanted to get a tele that I could set up as more of a classic style tele, and I love working on stuff so keeping anything I buy stock is not really an option. so I went with this one for a couple of good reasons... it will accept a vintage bridge, and it's ash with maple which I think is the coolest. and it's got 9.5" radius and medium jumbo frets, which I prefer. oh and it was pretty cheap (always a good selling point) and after playing practically all the teles in the store for a few weeks, this one felt pretty good to me. neck feels great and it sounds great. can't stand that white pickguard though, uggh, that's the first thing to go. and unfortunately, as most people have noticed on recent MIMs, the maple neck is really light, almost white (doesn't look too bad in these pictures). I'm just hoping it will darken a little as it ages. I talked the dude into throwing in a fender gig bag with it, since all the regular MIM Standards come with them. :) after a few weeks with it, I'm just totally pleased, and am totally hooked on teles now. about the only issue I've found so far is the D string buzzes a bit so I had to raise that string a bit higher than the others. I'm pretty sure the problem is the nut slot for that string, if I push on the string behind the nut it goes away. I'm either going to fill the slot and fix it myself, or swap in a bone nut. not a huge deal though and after raising the string some I've almost forgotten about it. so, now that I've gotten comfortable with it, I'm ready to start the modding. my plans at the moment go something along the lines of: -black bakelite pickguard -vintage 3 barrel brass saddle bridge -4-way switch with series mod -try out a baseplate on the bridge pickup and see what happens -it does hum quite a bit, so I'd like to try shielding with copper tape. -eventually get new pickups after I've tried everything else out. not sure what I want yet, I'll worry about them later. I've already swapped out the pickguard and bridge, but the pics are at home, so I'll post about that later tonight.