The Wanderer
TDPRI Member
Hello
I finally finished a very special modification on a Telecaster which I wanted to do for years. And yes, it’s all about short fingers and scale length!
For the last two years I have mainly played a Tele copy „Fazley Outlaw Series“ (25,5“) and a Slick SL55 (24,75“) and loved the sound of both. However, I had to strain my hand and fingers quite a bit, which resulted in sloppy, tiresome and faulty playing that did not improve much over time. When I finally switched back to my old 24“ scale Mustang I instantly played far better and had much more fun. But however hard I tried (treble boosts, pedals and amps) with my Mustangs or Duo-Sonic I just could not quite get the crisp, gnarly, crunchy bluesy sound I like.
There are few Telecasters with shorter scale length. Some are 24,75“ (Warmoth, Reverned Greg Koch, ESP, Slick SL55) but they are still not 24“ and they all come with humbuckers instead of single coils. The ones with 24“ scale length are the „Fender Junior Collection“ and the „Warmoth“ 7/8 bodies (which are compatibel with Mustang necks). They are both rather expensive and have reduced body sizes, which makes them look a bit too small and not quite right for me.
Considering all this, I finally decided to try and build a low cost 24“ Tele with the the body of my Tele copy and the neck of a second hand „Squier Bullet Mustang“ (most comfortable neck I ever played). Of course you could simply attach the 24“ neck to any Tele body and bring the saddles extremely close to the bridge pickup and it would sound not right. You could also move the whole bridge plate 4 cm towards the neck, but that would look weird too (thats why Warmoth and Fender reduced the body size of their short scale Teles).
So I designed something to avoid those issues. I used simple DIY tools like a drill, chisels, saws and sandpaper. It all worked out surprisingly well. The paint job with the spray can however went not quite to plan. So I decided to go for a light relic look and sanded the paint back with a very fine grain and it turned out just fine. The guitar plays like a dream, and to me it still sounds and looks like a real Tele. It has almost the same overall length as a standard Tele (5 mm less). All the „twang“ is still there but I‘m planning to try 11 gauge strings instead of 10 to increase string tension. The cost of the two donor guitars was 200 euros in total. I also had to replace the tuning machines (Kluson for 30 euros, they work a treat).
I finally finished a very special modification on a Telecaster which I wanted to do for years. And yes, it’s all about short fingers and scale length!
For the last two years I have mainly played a Tele copy „Fazley Outlaw Series“ (25,5“) and a Slick SL55 (24,75“) and loved the sound of both. However, I had to strain my hand and fingers quite a bit, which resulted in sloppy, tiresome and faulty playing that did not improve much over time. When I finally switched back to my old 24“ scale Mustang I instantly played far better and had much more fun. But however hard I tried (treble boosts, pedals and amps) with my Mustangs or Duo-Sonic I just could not quite get the crisp, gnarly, crunchy bluesy sound I like.
There are few Telecasters with shorter scale length. Some are 24,75“ (Warmoth, Reverned Greg Koch, ESP, Slick SL55) but they are still not 24“ and they all come with humbuckers instead of single coils. The ones with 24“ scale length are the „Fender Junior Collection“ and the „Warmoth“ 7/8 bodies (which are compatibel with Mustang necks). They are both rather expensive and have reduced body sizes, which makes them look a bit too small and not quite right for me.
Considering all this, I finally decided to try and build a low cost 24“ Tele with the the body of my Tele copy and the neck of a second hand „Squier Bullet Mustang“ (most comfortable neck I ever played). Of course you could simply attach the 24“ neck to any Tele body and bring the saddles extremely close to the bridge pickup and it would sound not right. You could also move the whole bridge plate 4 cm towards the neck, but that would look weird too (thats why Warmoth and Fender reduced the body size of their short scale Teles).
So I designed something to avoid those issues. I used simple DIY tools like a drill, chisels, saws and sandpaper. It all worked out surprisingly well. The paint job with the spray can however went not quite to plan. So I decided to go for a light relic look and sanded the paint back with a very fine grain and it turned out just fine. The guitar plays like a dream, and to me it still sounds and looks like a real Tele. It has almost the same overall length as a standard Tele (5 mm less). All the „twang“ is still there but I‘m planning to try 11 gauge strings instead of 10 to increase string tension. The cost of the two donor guitars was 200 euros in total. I also had to replace the tuning machines (Kluson for 30 euros, they work a treat).
. The shorter dinstance between the pickups made a difference indeed; I had to lower the neck pup an raise the bridge pup a bit to achieve the usual volume and tonal difference between the two.
