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LarsOS
May 23rd, 2012, 06:46 AM
Hi. I used to be a bass player who occasionally played the guitar, but three years and a couple of weeks ago, the singer/songwriter in the band I play in, gave me an old Squier Telecaster. It was a slightly worn, black guitar with a white pickguard. He told me I ought to be the tele-ist in the band from now on, instead of the bassist/misc that I had been until then. I was intrigued by his request, and accepted the challenge.
The guitar was easy to play, felt good, and initially it even sounded OK, but after a couple of years it started humming and buzzing more and more, and twanging and singing less and less. So in the autumn 2011, I opened it up, soldered the ground wire to the bridge plate, and shielded the pickup cavities with aluminium foil. Big difference. The Tele was almost noiseless.
We went to England to play a few gigs, and as soon as we came back home, my mods disintegrated. Aluminium foil + scotch tape ... I reluctantly had to admit, was not made to last.
So I found some copper tape on Ebay, and shielded the Tele properly. Including the control cavity. Now the guitar was completely noiseless, even when I sat playing right in front of my electromagnetically noisy laptop. I upgraded the selector switch to a 4-way so I could run the pups in serial if I wanted to. I also installed a push-pull switch to phase-invert the neck pup. (I have a couple of years of electronics training, so this was pretty easy for me.) And I inverted the control plate. Just because.
Searching Ebay had opened my eyes to all the nice and cheap hardware out there, so after a while I ordered a set of Wilkinson Vintage Tele pickups. Tone much improved. (And even more noiseless, which I hadn't thought possible. One of the pickups has inverted magnets+windings, so they cooperate to work as a humbucker when run in serial or parallel.) I also found a red tortoise shell pickguard for $5. Looks improved. Then I bought a Korg Pitchblack+, a very accurate tuner pedal, which made me realize I needed some better machine heads. So I bought a set of Jinho "Wilkinson" locking tuners. They arrived in the mail yesterday. I assembled them in the evening, and I'm very happy with them so far.
But now I'm hooked. I can't stop upgrading. My Tele has gone from a cheap, average Squier made in Japan (or something), to a very decent and playable axe. I want more. I just ... wait a second ... checking ebay ... YES, I just won a set of sustain bridge saddles right now, for $20. Not extremely cheap, but not expensive either. Anyway, it's time to get rid of those ugly, assymetrical, impractical hammerheads that bend the strings sideways.
After that, I'm going to get some new string trees, preferably some rollers. Or I'll just adjust the stock trees, they sit far too low IMO. And after that? The only conceivable upgrade will be a Parson/White B-bender.
Maybe it's time to buy a new cheapo guitar, and start all over again. ;)
The guitar was easy to play, felt good, and initially it even sounded OK, but after a couple of years it started humming and buzzing more and more, and twanging and singing less and less. So in the autumn 2011, I opened it up, soldered the ground wire to the bridge plate, and shielded the pickup cavities with aluminium foil. Big difference. The Tele was almost noiseless.
We went to England to play a few gigs, and as soon as we came back home, my mods disintegrated. Aluminium foil + scotch tape ... I reluctantly had to admit, was not made to last.
So I found some copper tape on Ebay, and shielded the Tele properly. Including the control cavity. Now the guitar was completely noiseless, even when I sat playing right in front of my electromagnetically noisy laptop. I upgraded the selector switch to a 4-way so I could run the pups in serial if I wanted to. I also installed a push-pull switch to phase-invert the neck pup. (I have a couple of years of electronics training, so this was pretty easy for me.) And I inverted the control plate. Just because.
Searching Ebay had opened my eyes to all the nice and cheap hardware out there, so after a while I ordered a set of Wilkinson Vintage Tele pickups. Tone much improved. (And even more noiseless, which I hadn't thought possible. One of the pickups has inverted magnets+windings, so they cooperate to work as a humbucker when run in serial or parallel.) I also found a red tortoise shell pickguard for $5. Looks improved. Then I bought a Korg Pitchblack+, a very accurate tuner pedal, which made me realize I needed some better machine heads. So I bought a set of Jinho "Wilkinson" locking tuners. They arrived in the mail yesterday. I assembled them in the evening, and I'm very happy with them so far.
But now I'm hooked. I can't stop upgrading. My Tele has gone from a cheap, average Squier made in Japan (or something), to a very decent and playable axe. I want more. I just ... wait a second ... checking ebay ... YES, I just won a set of sustain bridge saddles right now, for $20. Not extremely cheap, but not expensive either. Anyway, it's time to get rid of those ugly, assymetrical, impractical hammerheads that bend the strings sideways.
After that, I'm going to get some new string trees, preferably some rollers. Or I'll just adjust the stock trees, they sit far too low IMO. And after that? The only conceivable upgrade will be a Parson/White B-bender.
Maybe it's time to buy a new cheapo guitar, and start all over again. ;)