Spec Out Your Signature Telecaster

[Fiesta Red]

Borrowing this idea from @RaistMagus ‘s thread:

Thread 'Spec out your signature strat!'
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/spec-out-your-signature-strat.1181597/

If you ever got to have your own official signature Telecaster, what specs would it have?

 

[Fiesta Red]

My answer here would be a little different from my answer regarding “My Signature Stratocaster”.

I already have the perfect Stratocaster for me…there’s not a whole lot I could or would do differently with my Strat.

…and as I have often documented here, I already have a spectacular Telecaster—my pinstriped Tele Special I call “Big Tex”—it’s my #1 guitar for performing, recording, jamming, songwriting, etc.

But if I were to create an Official Signature Telecaster, it would be a mashup of my Stratocaster “Fiesta Red” and my pinstriped Telecaster “Big Tex”, especially in a visual sense…

Similar neck profile to my (US Vintage ‘62) Stratocaster, albeit with a Telecaster headstock and pre-CBS (1960’s) Telecaster logo.

Rosewood fingerboard

Vintage frets

Fiesta Red Finish with aged white/cream-colored pinstripes

Aged White Mother of Pearl pickguard

Painted outline of Texas on the back upper bout of the body

Ash body

Chrome-covered P-90 neck pickup

Flat-pole Telecaster Bridge Pickup

Telecaster 4-way switching

Fender No-Load Tone Potentiometer

Chrome-dome volume and tone knobs

Vintage-style bridge plate, albeit with 6 saddles

Large “ashtray” bridge cover

Neck plate custom-etched with Screamin’ Armadillos band logo and nickname of the guitar “Big Tex”

Schaller Strap Lock strap buttons

Basically a mashup of these two guitars:

 

[Wrong handed]

Snakehead headstock
44mm nut
roasted flamed maple neck, ebony fretboard. No inlays. D neck profile, jumbo steel frets.
Walnut body, spruce top, tobacco sunburst on the top, clear on the back. Ivoroid binding. Charlie Christian in the neck, regular tele pu on the bridge.
Vintage bridge, brass saddles.
1 vol, 1 tone, three way switch.

 

[DirtyHippie1]

Currently building mine:

Warmoth walnut Thinline body
Double bound white with F-hole
Routed for a Nashville pickup config
I did my best attempt at a kind of French polish
Warmoth Jazzmaster neck
Roasted maple, bound white & white block inlays
1 11/16” nut width
10-16 compound radius
Boatneck profile (1” deep soft V)
Stainless 6150 frets
Fralin Vintage Tele set - bridge overwound 5%, neck has same polarity
Fralin Real ‘54 middle strat pickup (RWRP)
1 volume, no tone (wiring in a 250k resistor to simulate a tone pot that I never use)
6 way Freeway toggle switch which will give me:
Neck, Neck + Middle, Middle, Middle + Bridge (parallel), Middle + Bridge (series), Bridge
I have a Mastery Tele Bigsby bridge and B5 Bigsby (with Callaham upgrades) I’m taking from another build for this one

Basically kind of a hybrid of all the things I’ve liked about previous partscasters I’ve put together. This could kind of work as well for my custom strat I’d spec too, just shaped like a tele haha!

Also had to hand make the pickguard from some thin craft wood and some walnut veneer I had leftover from a non guitar project. Attached pic shows my current progress (painting the pickguard with a white wash paint I have)

 

[Jakedog]

I already have it. It’s perfect. If Fender ever came to me and said “we’d like to develop a signature model” I’d just hand it to them and say “here you go”.

Recently replaced the demolished original bridge saddles with a full set of machined brass. That was the final step.

2020 Boxer reissue.

DiMarzio PAF Joe bridge pickup.

DiMarzio Air Norton neck pickup. Flipped over 180 degrees to tighten it up just a hair. Open cover by Mojotone. Sounds uncovered, but keeps my high E from getting hung in the bobbin when I get rambunctious.

Bourns low friction volume pot.

Stock TBX tone.

Stock coil split switch converted to a series/parallel for the neck pickup coils.

Machined brass roller string tree and saddles.

I use the same guitar, amp, and pedal board for rock gigs, old school country, blues, jam band/Dead stuff, singer-songwriter duo shows, all of it. It does everything I need it to. Sometimes I don’t even know why I have other guitars.

The only thing that would change if fender wanted to do a sig is that it would have SS frets, and also be available in burgundy mist and pearl white.

 

[brookdalebill]

I already have it, my avatar guitar, but …..

1 piece lightweight roasted alder body, routed for TV Jones pickups, natural finish, faux (countersunk) F hole, selector up top (like Les Paul/Tele Custom), no other controls (!), substantial rosewood board, bound curly maple neck, 1 3/4 inch nut width, medium jumbo SS frets, tortoiseshell Tele Thinline type pickguard, Glaser or Evans B bender.

So ……
I should probably just put one of those benders on my avatar guitar.

 

[badinfinities]

Double-bound alder body with large flake silver sparkle finish
Maple cap fretboard on a baseball bat maple neck
Medium jumbo frets
PV 64 pickups
Parchment pickguard
Glaser B-bender

 

[castertom]

Just went through this exercise when I put together my last partscaster. Started when warmoth re-released the transparent blonde finish. I bought a light weight body. Neck is a warmoth boat with 6105 ss frets 7.25 radius finished clear gloss birchwood tru-oil. Nocaster holygrail and wolf pickup set from Rob with a 4-way switch. Callaham compensated bridge and gotoh split shaft tuners. Finished with a stew macdonald bakelight pickguard.

 

[P Thought]

The world needs a P Thought signature Telecaster:

One-piece Douglas Fir (quartersawn) body, 1/4" roundover, Tru-Oil finish
One-piece rosewood neck, light Tru-Oil finish, customer's choice frets
Tort guard
Nickel-finish hardware
Reverse controls, flat-top knurled knobs, electrosocket jack
Split-shaft Kluson-style tuners
3-barrel (compensated brass) saddle
1 3/4" bone nut
3-way switch
Cheap-ass tele pickups; the customer will change them anyway

 

[jdl57]

I think that most signature guitars come about from experimentation and need, although sometimes it's just cosmetics. I just built a true signature guitar, a Brent Mason. Fender second body and neck, most of the rest of it to spec. It came in about $1,000 under current price but I did not include the Glaser bender, which would have added about another $750. I bought a Certano palm bender for about 1/4 of that price.

This is an amazingly versatile guitar, which is what Brent Mason was looking for. It's all go and no show. I would put it high on the list of the best guitars I have ever played. But it would not be my signature guitar. My signature guitar would be this one.

I bought the body and neck already made and finished from Guitar mill. The body is paulownia, double bound. The neck is maple with a quarter sawn, roasted, flame maple fretboard. The neck is 9.5" and thinner than most. Quite frankly I would not have chosen this combination if I had it built to order, but I could not have been happier with the results. Finally, it has Ron Ellis pickups. I was told, on this forum, that Ron Ellis pickups are a rip-off and waste of money. Any $20 pickup with the same specs would sound exactly the same. Uh huh. I would buy them again.

And another finally, my Van Dyke Harms monolithic saddle.

One solid hammered brass block, intonated, and great sounding.

So my take is that you cannot spec out a signature guitar, you have to happen across one, or at least evolve into it.

 

[memorex]

No company would make my signature Tele, except as a one-off, because nobody but me would want to buy it.

 

[DFB1]

Double-bound alder body in British Racing Green
Soft V maple neck,ebony fingerboard .
SS medium jumbo frets.
Tex -Mex pickups w/4- way switch.
Vintage bridge with brass saddles.

 

[Winky]

Borrowing this idea from @RaistMagus ‘s thread:

Thread 'Spec out your signature strat!'
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/spec-out-your-signature-strat.1181597/

If you ever got to have your own official signature Telecaster, what specs would it have?

The one I have. It's a 2009 AM DLX and I like it just as it is. Love the modern bridge, belly cut and the compound radius. Also the series/parallel switch.

Edit: I'd maybe swap the D tuner for a short post version for a better break angle. I simply swapped it with the short high E tuner on mine. The high E has a string tree so post length doesn't much matter. I think the new locking tuner sets have all short posts?

 

[naveed211]

It’d honestly be the Kotzen with locking tuners.

To me it’s already pretty close to perfect.

 

[tomtama]

Great timing for this thread. I just built this partcaster to my specs. Thinline mahogany body with flame maple cap, roasted maple/rosewood neck with stainless steel frets, Lollar Novel 90 low-wind neck pickup, Lollar Special T bridge pickup, Gotoh vintage tuners and compensated saddles, various other parts sourced from Philidelphia Luthiers. Medium C, 10" radius neck, 42mm at the nut.

 

[tubedude]

This one i built a few years ago.
Paulownia body, fat, 7.25" roasted maple neck, cold rolled steel bridge, brass barrels, Monty's '53 pickups, bakelite, vintage amber finish with gold mica flakes in the grain filler, nickel, 13-58's, and it's 5.0lbs. total!

 

[Geoff738]

I tried to play, but the forum or my ipad ate my homework.

So I will just say mine would be blackguardesque with little tweaks to virtually every aspect of it. Leo got it almost right the first time.

Cheers,
Geoff

 

[AAT65]

It would be pretty much my AO’60s Tele but I’d have a two-tone finish: Sherwood Green top with matching headstock, and Olympic White back and sides. Most likely a tortoiseshell pickguard but gold-anodised aluminium isn’t ruled out. I’d probably go for tortoiseshell binding, but maybe black.

 

[4pickupguy]

It would be this:

 

[KelvinS1965]

I like how many of the replies are that we already have our signature guitars, as per the other thread.

In fact this is something I've been actively doing with my collection; getting rid of the ones that I don't like/bond with and making, modifying or in some cases just buying the 'best' example for my needs. Each one being my 'ultimate' XXX guitar.

In the Telecaster case I've gone for a DIY version of the Paul Waller CS '53 Telecaster in White Blonde, with a fat neck and a mid boost circuit. It's not quite complete yet (haven't fitted the mid boost), but it's pretty much there otherwise:

Lightweight Swamp Ash with a nice grain showing through the White Blonde.
Fat neck, 1" deep all along. Vintage tall frets and 9.5" radius, vintage slotted tuners and bone nut. Nitro, but satinised on the back.
Fender Original Vintage Alnico 3 pickups from early 2000s.
Satin finished Bakelite 'guard.
3 saddle bridge, using slant compensated saddles, sides cut down.
Eric Clapton mid boost under the pickguard.
Electrosocket.

Pictures or it doesn't count I guess?

Could just be one of a million other Teles, maybe even a Squier CV, but it's the specs that make it for me.

Still not 100% happy with the White Blonde finish though, so I might have to strip and redo it so the grain shows more next time.