My first hot rodded tele

[renegadetele]

I decided i wanted to hot rod a guitar so i went out an bought a mexican tele.
I'm liking the feel of it a lot (it has a nice thick neck)

this is what it looks like now


I just ordered a chrome housed humbucker for the neck and one of these for the new pick guard


i intend to also replace the bridge with one of these
http://store.guitarfetish.com/wicotebrbrsa.html

and to use either one of these as a bridge pickup
http://store.guitarfetish.com/lilhotpuhuov.html

or

http://store.guitarfetish.com/neprotuliteb.html

your thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated. is there anything else i should look into modding? perhaps some knobs or something you think might go well with this sort of thing?

[renegadetele]

incedentally, i'll be doing my first pup wiring job tomorrow. it seems all i have to do is unsolder the wires coming from the pickups that are there already and replacing them with the ones from the new pup. my question is that since the new pickup is a humbucker with 4 wires (for coil tapping) and the ones i have are single coils with 2 wires, how do i know which wires go where on the new pup

[Pete Galati]

The new pickups should come with a wiring diagram teling you how to connect them.

The lipstick bridge PU looks pretty cool. I'm not sure if it'd have enough power to keep up with a humbucker in the neck position. Just a generalization, but you usually want the bridge PU to have more power than the neck PU because the string is moving more at the neck position than it is in the bridge position.

[Pete Galati]

This is my first hotrodded Tele:



Hacked from a MIJ Tele that cost around $300 new. I almost feel bad for the thing because it was a pretty decent traditional Tele.

I made two more hotrodded Telecasters, but those were made from parts. Just off hand, I'd say that my first one was the best, and the second one suited me best. The third one needs tweaking.

[eryque]

Originally Posted by renegadetele

incedentally, i'll be doing my first pup wiring job tomorrow. it seems all i have to do is unsolder the wires coming from the pickups that are there already and replacing them with the ones from the new pup. my question is that since the new pickup is a humbucker with 4 wires (for coil tapping) and the ones i have are single coils with 2 wires, how do i know which wires go where on the new pup

If you're not doing any coil tapping, then it's easy. Follow your diagram, you'll be soldering your hot and ground in place of where the old pickup's wires were, and then you'll solder the other two wires together.

If you're going to do the coil-tap thing, those extra two wires get connected to whatever switch you're using to do the splitting.

As for bridge pickup not keeping up with the neckbucker... I've found that this isn't really a problem, but I really like the boost I get from the neckbucker for leads. If you don't like the way it balances, you can easily change it by adjusting the pickup heights. You can lower that bucker way down and still get a good sound, though it's best sound will probably be when it's up closer to the strings.

[pfflam]

This is mine . . . painted configured, soldered everything - CSTS and in the middle a Bill Lawrence L-500, Callaham saddles, Push/pull, Warmoth neck 4105s, 1-11/16th, Ash, Patinated Brass Pickguard. Nitro neck and body.





I've yet to introduce it properly on the site . . . just finnished it

[renegadetele]

my pickup just got here today, im waiting on the pickguard so i can get started. quick question though, the pickup has one braided wire casing with a white and black wire inside. ive never really seen anything like this before and i was wondering is there's anything special to do with the silver braided casing (does it have an electrical function)?

[Pete Galati]

Ground the braid to a pot casing, along with whatever lead you ground. The other lead would go to the switch.

There should be an explanation or wiring diagram with the PU.

I have a P90 from GFS with that arrangment, but I haven't looked at any diagrams that came with it yet.

[endzone]

I put that Wilkinson bridge on my Tele and the saddles gave me and a Tech fits on intonation/buzz. We ended up replacing the saddles with regular brass barrel compensated ones. Might have just been me and my partscaster. You'll have some fun with this. Keep us updated with pics.

[renegadetele]

ya know, i was actually thinking it'd be awesome to put a bigsby on this baby. i know that kahler makers floyd rose like trem systems, and many companies make strat trem systems, so i was wondering if any company outside of bigsby makes top-mount trems for teles? my other question is about the actual bigsby assemblies. ive checked around online and ive seem a few b5's where its just the tail piece. i would imagine that there's another source for the bridges, but idk what i would be looking for? i could of course go with the b16, but i wanna weigh all the options.

ooo btw, my pickguard is coming in tomorrow and phase one will be complete

[renegadetele]

I used the kisake designer to make a prototype of where i wanna take this guitar design wise. i think it looks pretty killer

[Yutaka]

Originally Posted by renegadetele

ya know, i was actually thinking it'd be awesome to put a bigsby on this baby. i know that kahler makers floyd rose like trem systems, and many companies make strat trem systems, so i was wondering if any company outside of bigsby makes top-mount trems for teles? my other question is about the actual bigsby assemblies. ive checked around online and ive seem a few b5's where its just the tail piece. i would imagine that there's another source for the bridges, but idk what i would be looking for? i could of course go with the b16, but i wanna weigh all the options.

ooo btw, my pickguard is coming in tomorrow and phase one will be complete

A couple of links for ya :

Bigsby tele kits
Stetsbar

Stetsbar is actually quite ugly, but from what I've read it's very well designed and works very well. Looks like it's easy to install, too.