The devil's in the details, Fender

[SpinWheelz]

When I sprang for my new Nashville Tele, it was in spite of how it looked, not because of it. I scored the ash-bodied maple blonde one with a maple neck. And when it came with a brown shell pickguard, it only made the maple blonde more nauseating. The maple blonde was the color of that "skin" crayon you used back in kindergarten - you know, the one that never matched anyone's skin color on God's green earth. And it was only exacerbated by the gawdawful brown shell pickguard. And what do the put in the middle of that pickguard? A stark white Strat pickup.

How on earth does this even look good to anyone? It's effin' terrible!


So before the guitar even arrived, I placed a sizable order for new parts. 3-ply black pickguard. Black Strat pickup cover. Mustang knobs. Tophat switch knob. And a vintage-styled bridge plate with brass compensated saddles.

To me, it's like night and day.


Now it looks like something I'd actually want to play. Even the maple blonde is exponentially less offensive. It looks brilliant now. And when that button-style string retainer gets here in the mail, it'll be done aesthetically.

See, Fender, was it really that hard.

[Telemarkman]

I like both versions! But then I've always loved tortoise pickguards ... I've even put one on my Butterscotch '52 RI.

But the Nashville sure looks good with a black guard!

[Telegator]

Looks good now but I like tortoiseshell too. I agree about the middle pickup.

You also get points for using the words "exacerbated" and "gawdawful" in the same sentence

[Stuco]

I think it looks good both ways. What about the guitar did you like?

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by SpinWheelz

The eye sees the body color differently, and the digicams see the color of the guitar body differently, also.

I had a false start with a single ply semi matte black, which doesn't behave in quite the same way. The gloss black works absolute wonders.

It is the same color as before, only it is not.

Wanna see something awful. Put a mint green pickguard on this color Tele.

Wretched in every sense of the word.

I thought the color went from decent to superlative, myself. But we all see color differently - however it does seem like things don't look so good in the Winter. In the Northern Hemisphere.

[SpinWheelz]

Cheers. I did like the Tele shape! No, all kidding aside, I was most excited about the three-pickup, five way configuration. I've had a hard time getting along with Strats and for a Tele to offer up pseudo-Strat tones, it was hard to resist. And there's an ash body underneath that frappucino paintjob!

[HC]

That actually looks really good! Two thumbs up!
Not that it was bad before but...

[NEPATelecaster]

HAHA! YES!

I too, had bought the SAME guitar (POWER Version w/ piezo - RW NECK) and felt the same way....

I made Immediate Modifications...

Parchment Pickguard and Fender Aged White P/U cover...

[SimpleOne]

Shows ya that even a guitar needs ta get out once in a while!

Great improvement IMO.

Don't know if I would have bought the guitar as was, but now...,very nice indeed. :}

[Alamo]

I never liked the look of that stark white Strat pup cover.
it sticks out like a sore thumb on any pickguard, imho.

you guys did it right - you have a more stealthy look now.
do they make tortoise strat covers at all? lol.

I'd even use black screws for that pickup or a dab with a felt pen.

[1962guitargeek]

looks good


love the black knobs

[danajohnhill]

I have never understood the white pickup cover on that guitar, either. And I do think your black pickguard looks better, too. But I don't get the Mustang knobs. I like chrome. I wonder what a chrome pickup cover would look like in the middle.

[Guitartom_ca]

interesting how changing the pickguard makes the body color look so different.

[ADK Teleman]

Beautiful guitar!! I like everything but the knob changes...I love the standard knobs...but...that is my preference...hope she plays as well as she looks!

[mistermullens]

Good call. I would have done the same thing. In fact I did for my first partscaster. Nashville body, 50s Classic neck, black pg, and the standard Tele pup config.

[oramac7891]

I like the improvements!!

[Groovey Records]

you you you waskely wabbit you!

[smsuryan]

i never thought of this till now...but if you were color blind it would be a whole different ballgame!

[Chris S.]

You know what they say:



Beauty is in the eye of the bee holder. CS

[pdxjoel]

At least they got the horn cut right on yours. On mine the pickguard goes almost all the way to the edge on the end of the horn. I guess my best option is to trim back the guard.

I did similar mods - bwb guard, 3-barrel bridge (tone!), reversed the control plate, tophat knob, black PU cover and a button string retainer. Much better now. It gets the soldering iron tomorrow to swap out the switch for a superswitch to get the NB middle throw. The All Parts guard scooted the strat pup toward the neck to the American Nashville position. Not sure how I feel about the tone change yet - not quite the same funk quack I was getting before.

[New2Teles]

I think the blonde is actually a pretty nice hue - I agree that the mods make it look better, though.

If it's any consolation, my Lite Ash in "Vintage White" is possibly the most awful colour i've seen for years in real life. Almost vanilla icecream-esque. Really bright vanilla icecream. I'm sure it would look even worse if it came with a white guard.

[StuH]

Aha........
I know exactly what you were going through.
Here's my wart. It looks like vomit to me.

[varakeef]

I see the point of the white middle pup.

Nashville version is basically a mod of regular tele that session players started to do in the 70's. With different color pup the butchering history becomes more evident.

However I like it better with the black pup and pickguard. But what would look best to me would be two metal covered tele neck pups in there.

[StuH]

Originally Posted by varakeef

But what would look best to me would be two metal covered tele neck pups in there.

That would look good. Like the idea.

[telideli]

Much better,....great move!

[Fatmanstratman]

Originally Posted by Chris S.

You know what they say:



Beauty is in the eye of the bee holder.

Chris, if that's a bee it sure looks a little malnourished!...

Are you sure that's not a wasp?...

Anyway, nice job, SpinWheelz!....

I too was rather wondering why you had bought this guitar when you clearly had so MANY issues with it. However, what you've done looks great. Not too sure if the black knobs were necessary, but obviously that's a matter of personal choice rather than aesthetics, I take it?

[Miles Smiles]

Originally Posted by SpinWheelz

It looks brilliant now.

I agree, except for the knobs. ;)

[SpinWheelz]

Oh great, I thought I was OK with it, and now I gotta get all neurotic about the color of the screws now?! God, now I gotta go shopping for black screws...!

And I thought I was imagining things, but I think I agree with pdxjoel's assessment of the placement of the middle pickup in that pickguard. By using a 1" spacing pickguard, it does feel like that spanky tone when in the middle/bridge position has been diminished. I'll need put that original 3/4" spacing tortoiseshell pickguard back on to test it out, and if I do get that spank back, then I've gotta go pick up a black one.

Details, it's all in the details...!

[Teleholder]

Originally Posted by pdxjoel

At least they got the horn cut right on yours. On mine the pickguard goes almost all the way to the edge on the end of the horn. I guess my best option is to trim back the guard.

Mine has the same problem. I thought I was the only one and it was just a fluke from the factory.
I actually really like my honey blonde Nashville with the tortoise pickguard. Guess I'm in the minority. Though I did just wire it up with Dimarzio True Velvets with a black middle pup cover, which looks much better.

[jimd]

Great job! I always hated the looks of the N-ville tele's. I don't know what they were thinking when they came up with the color/pickguard combinations for those.

You made it right.

[cowardm]

The difference really is night and day. Details really matter on a guitar. Ugly binding and totally offset the whole thing. I like your new look for that guitar.

I did the same and I'm much happier now.

[allen st. john]

Martin is even worse. On a very very expensive guitar--the Steve Miller sig model which is like $7000 list-- they put stark white boltaron purfling around the soundhole rosette and off-white, almost cream ivoroid binding on the rest of the guitar. (It's pretty obvious in the pic below on my monitor, and it's a sore thumb in person.)

The problem, of course, is that you can't just swap out parts on an acoustic.. This is permanent, and the ivoroid is likely to darken faster than the boltaron so the contrast will only get worse.

[telepathetic]

The black pickguard looks great on your Tele.
Tortoise pickguards don't usually do much for me..... but I stuck one on my white Tele years go and I like it there.

[Fret Wilkes]

Originally Posted by SpinWheelz

Oh great, I thought I was OK with it, and now I gotta get all neurotic about the color of the screws now?! God, now I gotta go shopping for black screws...!

I don't mind the screws holding the pickguard on, but the screws mounting the pickups to the guard MUST be black. For some reason the screws mounting pickups to a Tele guard drive me nutso. Details indeed!

The guitar looks good, though personally I'd go back to the metal knobs.

[Ortho]

Both look great. But I enjoy the vulgarity of the factory original.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by varakeef

I see the point of the white middle pup.

Nashville version is basically a mod of regular tele that session players started to do in the 70's. With different color pup the butchering history becomes more evident.

However I like it better with the black pup and pickguard. But what would look best to me would be two metal covered tele neck pups in there.

I'm completely the other way around. Once you add a 2d pickup, they might just as well both be Strat types or anything else.

Once you "Break Leo's Law":

[Fret Wilkes]

Originally Posted by boris bubbanov

Once you "Break Leo's Law":

Nice guitar Boris!

[SpinWheelz]

My original ambition was to make a psuedo Stealth Esquire by burying a pair of Texas Special strat pickups under an Esquire pickguard. It'll be interesting trying to bolt on the pickups to the body under the pickguard - the leads coming out of the bottom of these pickups don't allow the pickup to sit flush to the body, unless I use a washer of sorts under each mounting foot, and if so, I think the pickup ends up sitting a bit too high.

All in all, I have a feeling this won't be final iteration of this guitar.

[Donnie55]

I like the changes you made , it looks way better to me. I can never figure out why they call it a Nashville . All the guys that I know in Nashville with a three pickup tele use a mini humbucker in the neck position. Like Brent Mason.

[Verne Bunsen]

I couldn't agree more. I've got that same axe, and my first move was B/W/B pickguard and black pup covers. Tortoise shell was never my thing.