Hello from the deep South (of England)

I've been playing Fender guitars since the early 1960s. Yes, I was the lucky guy whose parents owned a music store and was able to take my pick. When Vox (Jennings) lost the Fender franchise to Selmer, they sold their stock of Fender guitars off cheap. I got a Jaguar, being the top of the range in those days, but I did later have a Stratocaster and Telecaster. Wish I still had them! I bought a new Strat in 1983, which I still have in mint condition. Telecasters are a newer obsession. A couple of years ago, I built three - from parts scavenged off eBay and some new Fender parts. I also bought a new, expensive '52 reissue, which must be my favourite guitar ever. It cost over £1500 in the UK, but it is just wonderful. Light, with a woody tone. I cheekily added a four-way switch to give me the series option and I use this more than any other. Another, has a five-way switch, giving a nasal 'phased' option that I use for some vintage blues numbers. Love Telecasters more than anything!

 

Thanks for the welcome, Big_Bend. This is one of the Teles I built two years ago.



I sprayed it in transparent nitro gloss over a bought body blank and fitted it with a tooled leather scratch plate to give a 'blue jeans' look. It has five way switching and mostly Fender parts. I have recently changed the Chinese triple-A grade maple neck for a US Fender neck and the Fender 'Texas' pickups for the Fender 'Vintage' ones. Yesterday, I changed the bridge saddles from the stock Fender vintage to ones with compensated groves as the Fender ones put the tuning out after extreme string bends. Apart from being a little heavy, it is as near perfect as I can get.

 

This is an amp I built from original Fender schematics. It is a Frankenstein with different circuit blocks from various vintage models. The main amp is 5 watt single ended with switchable EL84 and 6L6 output valves. It has switchable tone stacks with Champ and Bassman circuits. The reverb is from the Twin and the tremolo from the Tremolux. To that, I added an extra ECC83 gain stage up front with switchable clean, crunch and overdrive modes. It has a 12" Celestion speaker. Did I say it was loud? This amp literally sucks the notes from your fingers

The cabinet.


The guts. Back panel with reverb and tremolo speed and depth not yet fitted here. There wasn't room on top.