Xaviere XV610 Mods

Hey there telemasters - I've been reading this forum for MANY years, but never joined for whatever reason. I thought it would be cool to catalog my proposed Xaviere Tele Mod. I've seen this XV610 guitar in other posts - I've owned mine for about a year now - but mostly I see people showing off the unboxing of the guitar and not much else. I've been putting my guitar through the ringer - both on stage and in the studio, and I think it's a decent player guitar - it doesn't have the tonal flexibility I'm looking for anymore (everyone's tastes change) If this mod doesn't revive the guitar for me - I'll give her a new home somewhere.

I would love to encourage other members to post Mods and projects to Xaviere guitars as well!

Here's the Skinny:
- Starting with XV610 - Surf Green, Rosewood Fretboard.
- Dream 180 Pups.
- I added the Push/Pull pot (for splitting the Pups) as soon as I got the guitar.

Just Ordered:
- Dream 180 Bridge (white pearloid surrounded by chrome)
- Dream 90 Neck (same as Above - just P90 version)
- GFS Xtrem Tremolo...excited to see what this is like.
- Pearloid knobs.

The Hummer/P90 combo was inspired by Duesenberg guitars - they're super slick. I'm going to swap the 3-way switch for a 5-Way, and do a wiring job inspired by the Fender Blacktop Strats.
1 - Full Bridge
2 - South Bridge
3 - Neck and Bridge Full
4 - Neck and North Bridge
5 - Neck Full

I'll be posting Vids, and Photos As I go. Cheers Everyone!

Parts are getting here today!! Stripped down the guitar and am getting ready:
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5498.JPG

VERY stoked to see how this build will go - I think the biggest challenge will be trying to get the Bridge situation worked out.

Stock Bridge plate: pretty standard string-thru humbucker tele bridge.
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5501.JPG

XTrem bridge plate: would fit perfectly on a stock tele with a single coil pup - bridge is lined up and set in the plate.
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/xtcombocr.jpg

Solution:
I'm thinking about taking the roller bridge off of the XTrem plate and attaching it to the Humbucker bridge plate...I'll have to see how that works. Thoughts?

NGPD!! (New Guitar Parts Day? Maybe it'll catch on!) So the Bridge Mod was a piece of cake - except I'm an IDIOT and drilled the holes for the bridge-pins 1/2" too close to the neck the first time...Measure Twice. Cut Once. I always say it and never do it. Oh well - it's fixed now - maybe the extra holes will be like Andy Summers' cracked tele bridge. Yup I'm going with that - their TONE HOLES!!
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5511.JPG

I'm always amazed at how Guitarfetish.com packs a huge order into a tiny box...
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5502.JPG

There's a bigsby style tremolo in this box...really?

Here's the stuff:
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5506.JPG

Here it is placed on the guitar...this is gonna be SWEET.
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5508.JPG

Nice! :smile:

Welcome to the forum!

Have you ever ordered from StewMac? They're the polar opposite of GFS in terms of packing. I always wonder why they chose such a big box to pack so little.

Nice project!

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the encouragement! Here's Where I'm at:

The operation, so far, was a success. Everything went together beautifully with the exception of a few things.

The Bridge:
The bridge-plate on the original guitar was lined up in a funny way to the neck. You can see they had to drill the holes for the string-thru in a way that is less than satisfactory.
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5513.JPG

When everything was strung up - there were no problems, but as soon as I lined up the XTrem to the wonky bridge - the problem presented itself. Strings aren't centered...ahhh!!
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5518.JPG
I should've done the fishing line thing to line up the XTrem, and re-positioned the bridge...but - I actually don't mind it all that much.
I kind of like the "Jack White School of Guitar Thought" these things are man made objects and they are bound to have flaws - each flaw gives it it's own unique personality - and sometimes fighting the imperfections will give you interesting results on a recording or live performance...I can dig that.
Also thought I'd show a shot of the ground-down bridge plate - pretty standard stuff, back of the bridge where the saddles used to connect was too high...take it to the grinder and viola!
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/IMG_5519.JPG

Also - the 5-way switching proposal didn't work - mostly because I didn't know there was a thing called a "Super Switch" which will give me the necessary Connections to split the Pups in the way I want to. Right now it's wired as a standard 3-way Tele...
All that said - it sounds F$#$@# AWESOME. Will post Vid when I have time.

Cheers,
Tyler

So - My wife and I decided to party last night. I needed a Fender Super Switch for the pickup switching on this project. So I jumped in the bay, and got one - but I also found a neck I've always wanted to put on a tele -
http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/New_Neck.JPG

She's sooo, *sniffle* pretty I said aloud - which made my wife think I was looking at illicit photos of other women...(you should've seen her reaction when I had "hugeracksinc.com" open on the screen once.) She liked the neck too and told me to buy it. Wait, why did I say DON'T get drunk and get on eBay again?

Will update with photos soon.

Cheers,
Tyler

This is going to be a superb guitar.

OK folks - as I mentioned before - I wanted to do a unique pickup selection. What I've found is that I'm retarded when it comes to creating my own wiring schemes. I've always had the internet - so I've never had to figure out how to wire something on my own. But super switches (4P5T) are still a bit of a mystery on the interwebs - so I got mine in the mail today for this build and I've spend the past 6 hours trying to noodle it out. Here's what I've come up with:

http://www.tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Wiring-Diagram.jpg

I'm hoping to vet it with some veteran wiring cats to see if I've done anything stupid?

One unique thing about this particular volume/tone wiring is that (when I was using a 3-way switch, anyway) Turning down the Volume did NOT roll off the highs - I'm not sure why - I've just accepted that as a standard Volume pot behavior if you don't modify the Volume pot with a high-pass thingy. But this particular configuration seems to avoid that behavior. I want to keep that.

Hey there Tele-crafters. Here's a few finished photos and some discussion on how the product came together.

The wiring I did actually had 1 error. The red and white humbucker wires were backwards I think - but a happy coincidence...as it sounds STELLAR with the wiring configuration it has.
Position 1 = Bridge Full
P2 = Bridge - North Coil
P3 = Neck and Bridge full
P4 = Neck and Bridge - South Coil
P5 = Neck

It sounds quite twangy in 2 and 4, exactly how you would expect a tele to sound - each position is a joy to hear.

Improvements I made - I decided I should line up the bridge, the trem, and the neck - so the strings are perfectly centered now. I moade this choice after much debate about where the strings were sitting over the pickup pole-pieces. now it's flawless. Rock.

I also decided to go with a more Gretsch Filtertron pickup setup. I have a gretch that came from the factory with blacktop filtertrons, and the pole pieces are set at different heights. Guitarfetish claims that their Dream 90/180 pickups have a very 'Filtertron" tone so I backed the whole pickup down to 3-4mm away from the strings and raised the individual pole-pieces to 2mm away from the strings...It's VERY cool sounding.

Also - just a note about the neck...this thing is not only beautiful, it is ASTONISHINGLY well made. The fret-work is perfect (I guess it could use some leveling - but that's my job. The finish is great and the nut is super high quality...They say it's bone, and I can't feel a difference between the guitars I've had setup with a bone nut and this nut.(I did have to file the low-E slot, as I play on heavier strings so it didn't fit quite right.)
The neck should NOT have cost $89 - I think that's WAY too cheap for such a quality neck. But I'll take it. (Guitar Parts Zone on eBay in case you're wondering)

Will post video soon.

As promised - a video review of the project. Complete with poor guitar playing.
LI8TpkCAGq4

Cool build!

The neck should NOT have cost $89 - I think that's WAY too cheap for such a quality neck. But I'll take it. (Guitar Parts Zone on eBay in case you're wondering)

What's your opinion on the neck after having it for a month or so? I just discovered this Guitar Parts Zone seller - I'm really intrigued, and there's very little in terms of reviews or testimonials of their stuff that I've found.

The Neck has been fantastic - I've played on this guitar more than any other I Own and the neck feels so nice. They claim to have put a satin nitro finish on it - and whatever it is - it feel smooth and silky - I haven't come across a sharp fret even when trying. It's a neck that is WAY too high quality for the price I paid.

It seems like those guys are not selling much anymore though - I'm bummed about that - I was going to buy one of their bass necks.

Sounds great, and I enjoyed your review. Thanks for sharing all the great info. I haven't checked ebay, but necks and other parts are available at guitarpartszone.com.

I have an Xaviere XV-650 (Strat-style version of yours with stock P-90s). Has anyone had a chance to compare the stock GFS P-90s with the Dream 90s? Thanks!

I LOVE this stuff!

So much talent here

That's really cool. Wasn't keen on the headstock shape at first, but on the guitar it just gels really well.

Thats one unique guitar you've put together, it's got a cool vibe. Well done!

Duplicate Post - Server Error

Guys - thanks SO MUCH for the feedback...I've started to invest some real dough in making this guitar perfect - I'm going to take photos and show the mods over time. So far the upgrades are:
- Body - Getting a custom made Alder body with a top binding (pearloid - which I will be installing myself....oh boy)
- Neck - I'm with String King - sadly I couldn't get over the headstock shape - so I'm getting a new neck with the Tele headstock, Pearl blocks still and pearloid binding...oooooh!!
- Tuners - Fender Locking - pearl buttons...what is with all the pearl..jesus Tyler.
- Bridge setup - Went with the Vibramate V5-TEV HS..SIIIIICK, and a real Bigsby B5.
- Nitro Finish - MATCHING HEADSTOCK!!! (anyone wanna volunteer to do the finish job? I was thinking of sending it to Mark Jenny finishes)
Can't wait to show you guys the finished deal...but now that I'm done whetting everyone's appetite - I need some SERIOUS Advice.

I didn't hate the pots/cap combo - but I think it could be better...with single and double-coil combos going on in the switching - Is it out of the question to to the following:
- 500k VOLUME and TONE, .022 Cap.
- resistor on P90 to make it "see" the pots as 250k?

I've heard this done before - is it worthwhile? I want the hummer to stay chimey and warm, but P90 to keep mellow and not get icepick-y.

Cheers Gents, and thanks again - will post photos as parts come in...Rock n' Roll!!

You should have almost enough leftover parts now to rebuild your old Xaviere!

Hey TDPRI-ers Just an update on everything:

Got the body (FINALLY) from peachstate guitars on eBay - he custom cut it to my specs - thinline '69 style, dual hummers, and he did a binding channel for me so I could...eek...INSTALL MY OWN BINDING!! (turned out ok!)

All the parts are here except for the neck...got a temporary one coming so I can set the guitar up.

Enjoy the Guitar Parts Porn:
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/body.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Binding channel.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Installing Binding.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Installing Binding 2.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Binding Done.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Binding Done 2.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Parts On.JPG
http://tylerjohnson.info/Tele_Build/Parts On 2.JPG

Rock on!