1971 Rosewood Tele: Any recs for routing repairs? (ideally SoCal/AZ)

[knavel]

I'm in the buy a new pick guard camp but this is the guy you want to talk to
JW Guitar Restoration
https://www.instagram.com/jw.restoration/?hl=en

and this is why:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW5TpYiB9B5/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CW7cg4QhcAl/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXCBkcLrN7t/

I don't have an account with instantgram but the one pic they let me look at makes it clear why the rec. I'll have my daughter or wife pull the whole file up with their accounts!

 

[knavel]

I understand why they would want one restored just like it was when rolled out from the fender factory,
but this is the Billy Fender signature artist model 71 rosewood tele!
it's even pictured on the album cover, how cool is that?

I think it sounds good too. that's a fun track, I bet it can do a lot more than just jazz fusion.

thanks for posting a link to the original owners album, what a neat little piece of history.

whether or not he restores the guitar, he should definitely track down a copy of that LP.

He got a copy off of ebay many years ago when he got the guitar!

The RW tele itself was more Gibson like to me in sound than any Fender I've played.

 

[eddiewagner]

I would find someone who can make the humbucker-hole look pretty. And then „let it be“.

 

[hemingway]

Put a new guard on it, and occasionally take it off and tell people the story. Way cooler than tidying up those routs.

Can you imagine how cool that is gonna be in another 50 years?

But only if you don't fix it.

 

[knavel]

Put a new guard on it, and occasionally take it off and tell people the story. Way cooler than tidying up those routs.

Can you imagine how cool that is gonna be in another 50 years?

But only if you don't fix it.

Here are some pics of the effects circuit Billy Fender put in. Actually kind of interesting.

 

[EsquireOK]

1. Track down a period correct guard and neck pickup, and whatever else.

2. Call it good.

The damage is done, and will always affect the instrument's value, repaired or not.

You can't see the mods, if you do what I said to do.

The "repair" you're talking about could actually devalue the guitar, at this point.

Again, proper vintage parts, and you're done.

I, myself, would just leave it alone, just as it is. And as a collector, I would rather buy it exactly as it is, than to buy it with a contemporary "restoration" done to it.

 

[Antoon]

Keep this uber cool guitar as is! Including the HB. I would buy a second Tele with the regular PU setup. if I needed that.

 

[Downsman]

I'm curious, why does he want to restore it given everything but the hole in the neckplate is covered up? I'm in the camp that's saying it is what it is, and there's a cool story behind it. If he wants different wiring/pickups just get a new pickguard to match, but keep all the original parts in case he sells it, as it might be worth more how it is now, than as a restored regular tele.

 

[NoTeleBob]

History. Sacrilege to "fix" it.

 

[Boreas]

The hole in the neck pocket goes all the way through the neck plate

My 74 Thinline has a pickup tunnel to the WRHBs as well. I assumed it might be part of the Fender 3-bolt neck adventure.

 

[archtop_fjk]

I now have the reference to the late original owner's record. In tribute - also a youtube link--it sounds like he was using the effects he built into it:



View attachment 930908 View attachment 930909

Great 70s jazz-pop from Billy Fender - thanks for sharing that! Sounds like it could have come from a Steely Dan session.

So is the phaser sound at the beginning of the track being produced by the on-board circuit? If so, it may be a two transistor Phase 45 type circuit. Maybe someone could trace the pcb.

(Edit: Scratch that - I don’t see the two op amps needed for a phase 45. Probably a boost circuit).

 

[jimmywrangles]

The hole in the neck pocket goes all the way through the neck plate

OK I'll change my opinion to a bullet hole.

 

[Blue Bill]

I'll chime in with the crowd; there's no reason to "fix" something that will be covered. Show your friend this thread; nobody can argue with the internet.

 

[fenderchamp]

I'm just curious, but was everything working initially?

 

[Telekarster]

I now have the reference to the late original owner's record. In tribute - also a youtube link--it sounds like he was using the effects he built into it:

Are you kidding me???? Wow man!!! THIS is the guitar I hear on this record??? I wouldn't touch the notion of modding that guitar with a 10 foot pole! I'd leave that awesomeness exactly as it is, and keep the historic importance alive in it. Mojo man... MOJO. That dude could really play man... Wow.

 

[knavel]

I'm just curious, but was everything working initially?

The most obvious question is the one hardest to answer. I haven't had much time with the guitar; The one time I played it I just wanted to try "the tele" not its onboard effects. I never actually gave them a whirl. I'll ask; or maybe the owner will chime in.

 

[knavel]

Are you kidding me???? Wow man!!! THIS is the guitar I hear on this record??? I wouldn't touch the notion of modding that guitar with a 10 foot pole! I'd leave that awesomeness exactly as it is, and keep the historic importance alive in it. Mojo man... MOJO. That dude could really play man... Wow.

Great post.

We are all so used to dumba$$ mods from the 70s on guitars, drums and amps and we presumptively look to restore to what came from the factory. But what you hear on the record shows that not every mod was poorly done or distasteful. Billy Fender was a pro player. The guitar is how he thought best to express himself and that's really what it's all about.

 

[knavel]

You might look for someone that specializes in fine woodworking repairs rather than focusing on a luthier.

That's actually a really good suggestion. This isn't a guitar repair but a wood furniture sort of repair and coming at it from that perspective may lead to fruitful results.

 

[ivanivanivan]

I hope this doesn't pull the thread too off-topic, but chancing across it made me nostalgic.

I was playing a trasher Ibanez ES-335 imitation as a freshman in high school in the mid-1980s and practicing my blues scales, when I chanced across a 1969 all-rosewood Telecaster. It was in virtually unplayed condition, and the thing was so gorgeous that I couldn't decide if I wanted to play it or to eat it.

My parents helped me out with half of the $450 price and I was in heaven. As I got more proficient and I'd experimented playing both types of guitars--Telecasters and non-Telecasters--I began to cool on the rosewood. That thick, sticky polyurethane that encased the guitar was just so un-organic feeling with no sense of real wood. The pickups were super thin and wimpy-sounding, with the CBS bean counters solidly entrenched by then. Finally, the guitar was as heavy as a boat anchor. After the honeymoon period wore off, I almost never played it.

But the guitar looked cool as hell.

Pragmatism finally won out @2010, and I listed it with a guitar dealer I knew in the upper midwest for what was a high price at the time.I get sentimental about the rosewood Tele every now and again, but the bottom line is that it wasn't a player.

My advice to the OP: the premium vintage value in this guitar is gone and it's never coming back no matter what you do. Rip that perverted polyurethane off of it--except for the front of the headstock--and have it sprayed with lacquer. Throw some Seymour Duncan pickups in there and slap a b/w/b guard over that big ugly route (if I remember correctly, the original was black/white/tortoise). Swap in a 3-saddle Tele bridge.

Play the hell out it and have fun.

Oh, and if anyone sees Kirk Hammett playing or talking about his all-original late 60s rosewood Telecaster, I was the steward of that guitar for 25 years.

 

[Steve Holt]

I have a bad idea.

Plane the top off the guitar (or cut it off), glue on a new rosewood top on top of that maple, using yhe bottom piece as a temple, route the top to match. Cut new pickup and control cavities, refinish. If you Cut the top off you could have a ship of theseus situation. Where you have repaired the bottom of the body, so it's still the same guitar, then you can rebuild a new guitar out of the top, giving you another same guitar. Two 1971 rosewood teles for the price of one!

Now go back and read the first sentence.