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RollingBender
May 14th, 2011, 01:52 AM
Found this forum a couple weeks ago while researching re-fretting.
Quick bio... started playing in bars at the age of 17 in the early 80's playing a full range of country music. Did the rock-n-roll thing for a few years but soon came to the realization that, although I liked the music I was playing, it did not suit my skill set so I went back down the country music path. (I used to tell people that I was cursed with a "country voice".) Put myself through college playing and leading a 3 piece group. First 10 years of playing was always on a Strat or Strat style. When the commitment was made to country, I decided a Tele was in order but finances only allowed a "State-of-the-Art" copy. Put new/better tuners on it and it turned out to be a very playable instrument. Further down the road, I replaced the low E tuner with a Schaller copy of the Keith tuner and added a B-bender of my own design.
About 8 years ago, the arrival of children and serious employment sort of put the music stuf aside. 6 years ago, I broke both of my arms and now have a bit of arthritis in both wrists. Today, the children are getting older, the wrists have plateau'ed pain-wise, and the itch to play has taken over. I pulled out the old "State-of-the-Art" and decided to treat it to a re-build. I purchased new pickups to replace the weak originals, a new bridge to replace the rusted original, new tuners, new wiring harnes (pots, switch, and jack), a new graphite nut and new frets to replace the deeply grooved originals. I even attacked the original Strat shaped headstock with a bandsaw to make it more Tele-shaped. To throw a wrench in the rebuild, I just found a nice replacement Tele neck and body that came out of a closed up custom shop somewhere. Don't know if they are branded or not but they look and feel pretty decent. So.... all those replacement parts (except the new frets) will be going on the new guitar. I'll start a build thread soon on the new guitar and show the goofy B-bender I came up with.
Cobbler
Quick bio... started playing in bars at the age of 17 in the early 80's playing a full range of country music. Did the rock-n-roll thing for a few years but soon came to the realization that, although I liked the music I was playing, it did not suit my skill set so I went back down the country music path. (I used to tell people that I was cursed with a "country voice".) Put myself through college playing and leading a 3 piece group. First 10 years of playing was always on a Strat or Strat style. When the commitment was made to country, I decided a Tele was in order but finances only allowed a "State-of-the-Art" copy. Put new/better tuners on it and it turned out to be a very playable instrument. Further down the road, I replaced the low E tuner with a Schaller copy of the Keith tuner and added a B-bender of my own design.
About 8 years ago, the arrival of children and serious employment sort of put the music stuf aside. 6 years ago, I broke both of my arms and now have a bit of arthritis in both wrists. Today, the children are getting older, the wrists have plateau'ed pain-wise, and the itch to play has taken over. I pulled out the old "State-of-the-Art" and decided to treat it to a re-build. I purchased new pickups to replace the weak originals, a new bridge to replace the rusted original, new tuners, new wiring harnes (pots, switch, and jack), a new graphite nut and new frets to replace the deeply grooved originals. I even attacked the original Strat shaped headstock with a bandsaw to make it more Tele-shaped. To throw a wrench in the rebuild, I just found a nice replacement Tele neck and body that came out of a closed up custom shop somewhere. Don't know if they are branded or not but they look and feel pretty decent. So.... all those replacement parts (except the new frets) will be going on the new guitar. I'll start a build thread soon on the new guitar and show the goofy B-bender I came up with.
Cobbler