Mojo Mutt - my new Tele

[e-merlin]

If you go for a full resto, just getting the parts will cost as much as you paid for the guitar. Then, you have to factor in the cost of filling the hacked out wood, stripping and refinishing.

If it were mine, I would change the things that bugged me the most and leave the rest alone. I know that bridge and pickup would have to go in favor of something more authentic, but I wouldn't hold out for vintage parts. I'd certainly clean up that electrician's dream, and get that humbucker in there straight.

[numeric]

Were you able to determine what the little toggle was supposed to do?

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by robt57

While I am at it, Please educate me folks: I can't help but notice the fret board is hardly a slab-o-rosewood. It look like a heavy veneer almost. What is the pattern for this in Fender across the years?

I'd guess this may well be a by product of refret(s) on this particular neck, the frets are hardly original type for that I am guessing. And the fretboard being thinner on the treble side lead me to think fret job, or jobs given the age. ;)

I gotta get out of this thread, this Tele is giving me the worse case of gas I have had in a long Time.

A slab board would be flat on the bottom and the neck would also be flat. I can't remember what those are called, but I'm sure someone like Mark or Jwells will be able to answer that.

[impmann]

That is a seriously cool Telecaster. I wish we could find stuff like that here in the UK. All of my 'cool' guitars have had to come via US-ebay.

Our pawn shop fodder tends to be at best dodgy old Burns guitars and at worst nasty old 1970s Japanese rubbish that is best used as kindling.

I'd gig that as is - or maybe with a SD Broadcaster in the bridge.

Nice one!

[Bruster]

Originally Posted by Colt W. Knight

Personally, I would restore this baby to its original 1966 glory. Gut all the aftermarket stuff, redu the neck route, and completely refinish it.

I couldn't agree more. What a super project! I'll be watching this space.

[Lost_N_Austin]

Well you move two steps forward and one step back.

I replaced the humbucker and pickguard and cleaned it up a bit to see how it would look. When I tried to straighten the tuner it snapped into.

That's all I can do for now. Here are the latest pictures.




L_N_A

[e-merlin]

Originally Posted by Lost_N_Austin

Well you move two steps forward and one step back.

I replaced the humbucker and pickguard and cleaned it up a bit to see how it would look. When I tried to straighten the tuner it snapped in two.



L_N_A

Fixed!

You could always move the guts from the low E string tuner into the busted one, replace the humbucker, and do a Keith Richards tribute.

[Yman]

I think i liked it better in its original form, gnarly humbucker route and all. Especially if its called the mojo mutt! my bet is that the switch was a coil tap for the neck bucker. The wiring probably wasn't correct, and so it didn't do anything when you tripped it.

Either way, its an amazing guitar! What a good way to get a hold of a 66! And that neck, i love rosewood boards....

[robt57]

Originally Posted by Yman

I think i liked it better in its original form, gnarly humbucker route and all. Especially if its called the mojo mutt!

My gas is even worse now, but the Mutt distinction is revoked IMO. Not necessarily a bad thing.

If you leave HB route alone, yo can swap out the guard and pop just about anything in there with each string change. You will need a mini molex plug for that insanity. I'd do it. ;)

[benadrian]

I dig the big knob. My old tele has this guy on the tone control.



It started out as a fluke. I put a no-load on the guitar, adn the japanese knob would no longer fit on the post. That was the only thing I had lying around that would fit. i put it on as a stop-gap, and I began to really, really love it. The numbers are great.... I can tell positioning by sight. The larger radius for the knob portion also feels nice to me.

Ben

[Guitfiddler]

See, now I think it's starting to get uglier. If you've got something unique-even if it's a bit quirky-don't go and make it all vanilla.

[Southern Ill]

Originally Posted by Guitfiddler

See, now I think it's starting to get uglier. If you've got something unique-even if it's a bit quirky-don't go and make it all vanilla.

Go big and restore or just get the electronics in order....I will say I liked it so much better after the first cleaning and ditching of the "Big Knob".....IT had a true vibe going or dare I say "mojo".......

[mistermullens]

Looks better already! If it were me, I'd do what you've done. I'd love to to see a blackguard on there with the Tele neck pup. I'd also like to see a vintage 3-saddle bridge on there and standard Tele wiring/assembly.

[HOBBSTER01]

Leave 'er be.
Major mojo. Let it roll.

[skunqesh]

Originally Posted by Lost_N_Austin

Well Good News and some bad news.
It's a 1966 Tele

It looks like someone tried to refinish a Blond body. It does look like the neck and the body belong together based on the old paint residue inside the neck pocket.

Now the bad news is some cretin butchered the neck pocket when they added the humbucker. I'm pretty sure this is a hanging offense here in Texas, at least it should be.

The control plate is really a mess.

I think the body was stripped completely and then sanded with coarse sand paper and a wipe on or spray on finish was applied. The electrical mastery on this guitar matches the woodworking skills.

So. If this was your guitar, what approach would you take to make it a player?

BTW, I do want to fix it up and keep it. It has a ton of redeeming features.

L_N_A

Heya L_N_A,
congrats on a great score!

For a '66 I'm kinda surprised the string ferrules on the back aren't flush with body, but the CBS transition era guitars are a real mixed bag. It could be a bunch of '66 parts assembled in '67. Not that it would matter.

The neck pup / route - was a popular mod in the day (blame Keef). I have seen some ugly routes but yours is actually pretty well done. If a full restore is really what you want you could just leave the route as is since it's under the guard, and the original pocket outline/level is still there. Pop in a pup, new guard, baddabing, no one's the wiser. Still, the HBs there, and what's done has been done fairly well.

I've attached a couple pics of true relic tele's I've picked up that have seen some interesting work. One looks like someone gouged it out with a butter knife. At least they didn't completely obliterate the pocket - the bottom is still snug with the pup despite the damage around it - and it's not a refinish. It's 'de-finished' down to the original clear coat.

The other's not too shabby of a route. As a bonus, it turned out the HB is a genuine 60s Gibson patent# (schweeet!) and the pickguard is original, too. So I like 'em just the way they are, plus I don't feel so bad if I accidentally add a few dingers, myself

[Lost_N_Austin]

It just keeps on getting better. So I'm searching Epay, looking for a decent black humbucker pick guard and I run across this listing for a Gibson PAF sticker humbucker with a "T" on top. I'm thinkin' hummm

That picture looks just like the humbucker I took out of the Mojo Mutt. I can't hardly wait to get home to check it out so I rush in and Viola or Voilà ! or Holy Cow. Look what I got. I've seen these go for more than I paid for my guitar. No wonder it sounded so good. Now the bad news.

I think I killed it. Yep, tried to test the resistance and it checks out dead. I did not do anything other than unsolder the wire and the grounding braid.

Anybody know anything about the PAF pickup that could give me some help? Does it have only one wire and a grounded braided sheath? If it only has two connectors, that would account for the extra toggle switch not working to change anything with the tone. I would need a four-wire to make that happen.




Also. I think I've found another guitar with a similar bridge and saddles to mine. Check out the bridge and saddles on the Andy Summers the guitar. I did not want to steal a fender image but you can Google Andy Summers Telecaster and see lots of examples.

L_N_A

[robt57]

T bobbin and PAF ???


You'd need one more / a third wire to ground connected to the middle ends of the two coils to shunt.

[shoretyus]

I would have left it. But I am partial to humbuckers.


My 66

[skunqesh]

Originally Posted by Lost_N_Austin

It just keeps on getting better. So I'm searching Epay, looking for a decent black humbucker pick guard and I run across this listing for a Gibson PAF sticker humbucker with a "T" on top. I'm thinkin' hummm

That picture looks just like the humbucker I took out of the Mojo Mutt. I can't hardly wait to get home to check it out so I rush in and Viola or Voilà ! or Holy Cow. Look what I got. I've seen these go for more than I paid for my guitar. No wonder it sounded so good. Now the bad news.

I think I killed it. Yep, tried to test the resistance and it checks out dead. I did not do anything other than unsolder the wire and the grounding braid.

Anybody know anything about the PAF pickup that could give me some help? Does it have only one wire and a grounded braided sheath? If it only has two connectors, that would account for the extra toggle switch not working to change anything with the tone. I would need a four-wire to make that happen.

L_N_A

I'm no expert, but I think all's not lost yet,

Did you mention earlier you were getting signal from the T-Top ('PAF' is okay, but technically that does mean Patent Applied For, what you have is 'Patent Number', to purists it's more than semantics)

now, some dead pups will still give some signal, but it's usually weak, nothin compared to the full output.
Are you getting an open/infinite Ohms reading on your meter?

with some alligator clips you could try hooking it straight up to your 1/4' jack and plug it in to an amp, give it a tap.

From the pics you posted it doesn't look like they coil tapped it, but inspect it closely for evidence of tapping between the coils (typically where one would fish out a ground lead to tap). If so, then you may need to simply repair the break (I think that's what robt57's tryin' to say above).

last but not least - check in with the Gibson gurus on the web.
Someone from that camp will definitely be able to give better quality advice (not that anyone here couldn't it's just good to get a second opinion )

here's a youtube clip of WBGuitars dissecting one

[skunqesh]

Originally Posted by shoretyus

I would have left it. But I am partial to humbuckers.


My 66

niiiice!

I like it, and I'm with ya. For anyone to get lucky and score an old survivor of a tele that's been humbuckered, well, have some sympathy for the poor Devil
(and some courtesy, and some taste... )

finding a nice old Gibson humbucker in there is kinda like finding a huge pearl on the beach. consider yerself one lucky Mojomofo!