LPish Tele suggestions

In the new band I've just joined the other guitarist is using an SG or a strat, so in the interests of having a different sound to him I've had to dust off the Epi LP.

WHat I'd like to do is put together a partscaster tele in order to get a les paul-ish sound but still retain the tele shape & scale length, and use a classic 50's neck (my fave guitar neck of all time)... I'm thinking maple capped mahogany body, burstbuckers or SD alnico II humbuckers for pickups. I'm thinking a humbucker bridge plate similar to the John 5 tele.

Any thoughts on this build - esp. the bridge, would I get closer to a LP sound with a tune-a-matic bridge??

Cheers!!

Hey,
I used to have a custom tele style guitar, that was a mahogany body with a maple cap, a beautiful birdseye maple neck with what I think was a rosewood board. It had a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker in the bridge, and it was one of the raunchiest guitars I have ever played...

As far as output goes, you've got PAF's, then a bit further along normal modern Les Paul, and then even further along the scale was this thing. You could always go lower output pickup/s if you want less crunch and squeal, but I absolutely loved the crunch and squeal.

Mine had a tele single coil in the neck which was an utter waste of time. Would've been better off with another humbucker like a SD 59 in the neck.

I don't know how it would be with a maple 50's style neck, but being bolt on, you could always try both maple, rosewood or anything else for that matter and see what you prefer. I love maple boards too, but I think a mahogany guitar with humbuckers should have some sort of dark board like rosewood or ebony.

Mine had a Strat style hard tail 6 saddle bridge, which I'd not hesitate in using again. Recommend its worth looking at...

Hope this has helped...

This was my Mahogany Tele with a maple cap and bucker...might give you some ideas

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk305/Robbied_216/Charles%20Cilia%20Guitar/100_1106.jpg

Tune-o-matic might help give it that sound. If you wanted to use a traditional tele bridge check out the sound clips of Seymour Duncan L'il '59 on their website. They also make a pearly gates in a tele bridge size. I think that scale length has an effect on sound - it's one of the reason's why fender's are so "snappy" especially on the low strings. So for a more gibson sound you might want to see if you can get a neck built that's 24.75" conversion but still has the shape of a classic '50's.

Please forgive me as I'm not trying to self promote....but I have a suggestion.Maybe go with a Top loaded Half-bridge Pinebody Pinecaster.The toploading and half bridge for me gives it a great feel first and foremost plus the half bridge with the pup mounted directly to the body gives it some bigger balls....They make very good R&R guitars....clean up really good and are just plain cool.


http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/jsh1970/Picture417.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/jsh1970/Picture416.jpg

Hey,
I used to have a custom tele style guitar, that was a mahogany body with a maple cap, a beautiful birdseye maple neck with what I think was a rosewood board. It had a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker in the bridge, and it was one of the raunchiest guitars I have ever played...

As far as output goes, you've got PAF's, then a bit further along normal modern Les Paul, and then even further along the scale was this thing. You could always go lower output pickup/s if you want less crunch and squeal, but I absolutely loved the crunch and squeal.

Mine had a tele single coil in the neck which was an utter waste of time. Would've been better off with another humbucker like a SD 59 in the neck.

I don't know how it would be with a maple 50's style neck, but being bolt on, you could always try both maple, rosewood or anything else for that matter and see what you prefer. I love maple boards too, but I think a mahogany guitar with humbuckers should have some sort of dark board like rosewood or ebony.

Mine had a Strat style hard tail 6 saddle bridge, which I'd not hesitate in using again. Recommend its worth looking at...

Hope this has helped...

Cheers Robbied,

My Epi has the JB / 59 combo in it at the moment... that may be an option as well (I've got its original pups lying around somewhere that can go back in it!)... was also toying with the idea of using the Phat Cat/Screamin Demon combo the mahogany George Lynch vee LTD has (had one thru at work & it was awesome sounding - body shape not for me though:mad: ) Cheers for the photo - thats pretty much what I want to do (amber finish on the maple cap though, & std tele control plate - just my own pref!).... does that combo give that 'round' LP sound or is it still a bitey tele-ish type sound?? I might have to do a bit more research & see what rosewood necks are the same radius & profile as the Classic 50's.

Thanks for the advice peoples :grin:

Please forgive me as I'm not trying to self promote....but I have a suggestion.Maybe go with a Top loaded Half-bridge Pinebody Pinecaster.The toploading and half bridge for me gives it a great feel first and foremost plus the half bridge with the pup mounted directly to the body gives it some bigger balls....They make very good R&R guitars....clean up really good and are just plain cool.


http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/jsh1970/Picture417.jpg
http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i32/jsh1970/Picture416.jpg

That looks amazing. Can we hear a bit about it.Type of finish, hardware etc.

if you're not set on DIY, Fender's FMT, QMT & Spalted Teles (http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?section=guitars&cat=telecaster&subcat=specialedition) have Les Paul-ish specs....

That looks amazing. Can we hear a bit about it.Type of finish, hardware etc.

No highjacking on my end.....I'll link my thread on these builds.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/tele-home-depot/150917-southern-3-planksters-begins.html#post1789919

Although it's not maple-capped or a LP scale, it is a 1-piece Mahogany body w/ contours. The Strat Neck is mahogany/ebony by Musikraft w/ 6150's. Originally, I intended on putting a Hmbkr in the neck, but went w/ a Mini in the end. Bridge pup is a Seth Lover. Weight is 7 lbs even. With a Tru-Oil finish & the ebony fretboard, the neck plays super fast...Wired it w/ 300k pots & a .033 cap.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/Rnbguitars/MVC-404S.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/Rnbguitars/MVC-405S.jpg

I saw a youtube video, linked from TDPRI of Redd Volkaert playing the Allman Bros tune, Jessica on a blackguard Telecaster (no humbuckers, no TOM). His tone was darn close to Dicky Betts. I must be his fingers. (Ok, that and his pedal board.)

(http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/136073-must-see-tv-redd-volkaert-plays-jessica-new-video-added-thread.html?highlight=Redd+Volkaert+Jessica)

Here's a Mahogony Core Maple Capper.
Phat Cat in the neck, but what really turns it into a LP-ish is the EMG active controls, which include a 25dB pre-amp and an SPC pot which increases mids while decreasing highs and lows, it really turns a SC tone into a HB tone, hope that helps. You can see the Mahogony in the lower horn. The mahogony really makes a big difference in tone, taking you into Gibson territory, but the active electronics make it possible to get classic country twang AND Gibby beef.
S-90 in the bridge btw. Actually, what I really like about this guitar is the sheer versatility, you're not locked into a Fender vs. Gibson tone, this guitar will do all of them, and well.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Draak/TRAIL%20BOSS%20TELE/TrailBoss.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Draak/TRAIL%20BOSS%20TELE/BULLPEN-1.jpg

I love that idea, another fellow great mind LOL!....check out my 69 RI Mod.

Drak, that thing is beautiful, I'm speechless wow!!!...love the tortoise pup top and the Longhorn rout!

Here's a Mahogony Core Maple Capper.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Draak/TRAIL%20BOSS%20TELE/BULLPEN-1.jpg

That's a money shot...great looking Drak! I don't know what I'd do w/ all those knobs though...lol?

Here's a Mahogony Core Maple Capper.
Phat Cat in the neck, but what really turns it into a LP-ish is the EMG active controls, which include a 25dB pre-amp and an SPC pot which increases mids while decreasing highs and lows, it really turns a SC tone into a HB tone, hope that helps. You can see the Mahogony in the lower horn. The mahogony really makes a big difference in tone, taking you into Gibson territory, but the active electronics make it possible to get classic country twang AND Gibby beef.
S-90 in the bridge btw. Actually, what I really like about this guitar is the sheer versatility, you're not locked into a Fender vs. Gibson tone, this guitar will do all of them, and well.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Draak/TRAIL%20BOSS%20TELE/TrailBoss.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y290/Draak/TRAIL%20BOSS%20TELE/BULLPEN-1.jpg

Wow - awesome looking guitar Drak!!

In my view, as someone who(ducking for cover) loves the LP tone, there are a few things that give it "that sound". Firstly, scale length. That growly, gutteral kind of low end chunk in large part is due to scale length, IMHO. Second, the LP is a chunky, thick hunk of wood. That weight, again IMHO, is a huge reason for the sound. Combine that with 2 humbuckers and a heavy stopbar tail piece, and you get "that sound". Again, this is personal opinion, but I think you could get pretty close with the first two(scale length and heavy body weight). In fact, I'm in the planning stages of a guitar that has the short scale and chunky body of an LP, but a modified s-style shape. It'll be next year at the earliest before I can get started on it, but I'd be willing to bet in the end I get the very best of both worlds. That is my personal quest. I got close with the guitar in my avatar. It's a heavy ash body(the whole guitar weighs as much as an LP) with 2 humbuckers. A/B'd alongside my LP (before I sold it) it was almost indistiguishable from the Les Paul. The only difference I could detect was a little more "snappy" tone. Just slightly less "roundness". IMO, the 25.5" scale makes the difference. If the scale length were 24.75" I doubt I could tell them apart. Good luck on your own quest. If I were you I'd go with a thick (2") mahogany tele body with a 24.75" scale length neck and a set of humbuckers with vol., tone and coil splitters. You'd have to have the neck and body built for you(or build them yourself), but I bet you'd get real close to what you're looking for, and still be able to split the coils and get single coil like tones when you wanted them.

And Drak, what everybody else said. Sweet!

How about: Mahogony tele body and neck (maybe hollow with maple top) ebony fretboard. 24 3/4 scale, stopbar tailpeice, with 2 seymour duncun P-rails. Tele control plate but with an extra switch for pickup modes.

How important is the neck joint for the LP tone, feel and sustain? (set vs bolt on)

Jef

There are some great ideas and great looking guitars in this thread but, and I'm sorry if I'm oversimplifying here, why not try an SD 'Lil '59? No routing required.:wink:

How important is the neck joint for the LP tone, feel and sustain? (set vs bolt on)

Jef

I think it does have some importance, but what I think is more important is neck angle, especially for feel.

I see several problems with this project.

A thin flat maple veneer is not the same thing as a carved maple top. If you don't want to go through the trouble of carving one I would rather go with pure a pure mahogany body, and it must be closer to 2" than 1-3/4". A thin veneer can easily be nothing else than a dampener. I would give it a LP-ish look with body binding.

You need to be careful about the APH pickups. They sound great, sure, but the bridge pickup is much brighter than a person who casually picks up Gibson Les Pauls in a shop expects. Better ask that person which LP specifically he liked. Your choice of pickup will be the most important factor in his/her judgement whether the guitar came out "correctly". The APH neck is comparable to a 490R and most LPs have the 490R, so that should be fine.

You might want to consider a high neck angle and a tune-o-matic with stop tailpiece. A string-through body will change things. For a flat bridge the Schaller flatmount is probably better. Looks better, too.

Whether a mahogany neck is required or not is a different matter, it's probably less important than the other factors.