The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Guitars Etc. => Topic started by: Alanko on July 29, 2016, 04:04:22 AM
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I recently modified my Strat to accommodate two humbuckers. I chose some zebra-style PRS SE pickups. These are manufactured by 'G&B', who seem to get around a bit. I chose the pickups because the general consensus online is that they are good sounding is somewhat dull. They are also trem-spaced. I took a gamble that 'dull' would translate into 'sounds alright' when transplanted onto a Fender instrument, and it worked!
However I'm just not a Strat person. I love my MIM Tele and don't wish to modify it for personal reasons. My Strat was 2nd hand, so isn't precious to me. I do however like the neck.
My plan is to purchase one of these: https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbt1952.htm (https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbt1952.htm)
I would modify the heel of my Strat's neck to fit the Tele pocket, route it for humbuckers and buy a Wilkinson Tele half-bridge.
Does this seem like a silly idea? The Harley Benton route seems to be the most cost effective way of getting a bunch of Tele-style hardware together, with the option of selling the parts I don't need.
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I see you point about the components.
Have you seen their stuff before?
I tried that once on some bass body and ended up tossing or at least not using everything before I was done.
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I have a Harley Benton electric mandolin, and I have some of their pedals somewhere (an ODB-3 clone and something else I forget). Never touched one of their guitars, and no idea who the OEM is either.
I've bought a Harley Benton Tele on Ebay. It was a bit cheaper, though I saved zero money from buying direct from Thomann, the advantage is that Thomann are currently out of stock on this particular model. The one I've ordered is Mary Kaye blonde, and has a top-loading bridge only.
For me it is the most cost-effective way of getting a Tele body in that finish, with the option of scraping back more money down the line. The output jack, control plate, knobs, switch tip, neckplate and screws will be recycled into my build. The neck, pickguard, bridge, pickups and pickguard will go back up on Ebay.
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I don't think it's a silly idea at all, as long as you realize it'll be a frankenstein with no particular value except to you. Nothing at all wrong with that: I think it sounds like a fun project and just might result in a great player.
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Well then you know what to expect I would do it.
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I used a Harley Benton tele for my twin neck, the worst part about it was the neck so that shouldn't be a problem for you
I got caught out because the one I used turned out to be Gibson scale rather than fender scale length so when I looked at upgrading the neck it was gonna be a ball ache, but the one you linked to is the right scale
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You may be surprised from the quality of those Harleys, I've been told from friends that have bought them just for fun that they actually have very nice finishes, the necks are very playable and the pickups are good too! Maybe they need some minor fretwork, but alot of new and much more expensive guitars (I won't say names...) need this treatment too, so...
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I'm not keeping the Harley Benton neck, just the body. The body seems to be the best way of getting an Ash Tele body with the correct thickness (Squier Affinity Teles are thinner) and in the appropriate blonde finish.
The neck is from my 2013(ish) MIM Strat. The neck is very comfy, and I've leveled and polished the frets (they needed it!). The Strat itself was a weirdly dead sounding guitar. I was absolutely taken with it for the first week I owned it, in part because it made all the correct Strat noises. At the end of that week I realised the pickups were pretty lifeless; though the bridge pickup was tolerable. Strats just don't seem to ring like a Tele does. I can hit my Tele as hard as I want and it still bounces back. Everything you throw at it comes back as playing dynamics, whereas I find Strats a bit more idiosyncratic and wiry, which translates into what I feel with my hands somehow.
I appreciate that the instrument I build won't have any value. To me, hopefully, it will have supreme value! The thing I love about Teles is that with the tone wide open it is pure Tele,but with the tone rolled back to 8 it starts to get muscly and Les Paul-like. I'm hoping that the humbuckers give it a slightly warmer, muscly edge, and a warmer jazzy edge to the neck pickup. I'm 100% certain that an HH Tele is my perfect guitar, as it has the attack of a Tele with the warmth of a Gibson, less the ice-pick edge of a single coil Tele or the mud of a Gibson.
I might add some photos to this thread if I can actually do quality work. My first trick will be to build humbucker router templates....
Fender Japan and Greco have all built Telegib replicas. For clarity, Seymour Duncan built a couple. The one for Jeff Beck has the double-cream bridge humbucker, grey pickguard and chopped Fender bridge. Seymour traded this for Jeff Beck's Yardbirds Esquire, though depending on who is being asked the trade was more or less begrudging on Beck's part. Seymour Duncan then built himself a second Telegib, using a natural-finish Tele body with contours sanded in. This instrument has double zebra pickups and a Gibson tune-o-matic bridge. This is the instrument that was copied for the Seymour Duncan 35th Anniversary guitar, and recently Duncan made himself a copy of this in red.
Here is a fine pair of Greco TL600Js.
(http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee406/bsharpflat/srvandbeck041.jpg)
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Babicz makes a tele-style bridge that takes a humbucker if you want to keep that look.
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Just keep this thread going as you do the mods please.
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I've been GASing for a HB equipped Tele off and on. I thought a dual HB setup would be slick too (like the SD Beck build). Hadn't seen that particular Greco model before - pretty cool!
Here's a recent build by Danocaster that I really like:
(http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o182/rauschenberger21/Mongrel%201_zpsjz0iswyj.jpg)
Folks seem to say favorable things about those, but cost of admission is kinda steep (for me). I'll probably also end up going the route of a parts build in the future to try and achieve something similar.
Look forward to seeing yours progress! 8)
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That Danocaster is basically the far more professional version of what I hope to achieve.
I have a bridge that is similar to the Gotoh mentioned above. It is basically a flat Telecaster plate (like a MIM bridge) with six saddles. I Bubba-modded it to accept three Wilkinson compensation saddles and, latterly, my father helped me modify the Tele body it was on to work with string-thru spacing.
I've jumped ahead here. This is my third parts Telecaster that I'm building now. The first was a total mutt of low-cost Ebay parts, which I built as a 'stealth Esquire'. The second paired a Mighty Mite neck (with a bootleg decal) to a Squier Affinity body that was very light and thinner than standard. I think it was pine if anything.
My father inherited his father's tools. My grandfather built model steam engines (00 gauge) from raw brass, and machined a lot of parts himself. Immediately after WW2 the quality of model railways was, obviously, not up to scratch. My grandfather was offered money for his locomotives back in the day because they were of a much higher quality than what was commercially available, but he held on to them. He also modified stock locomotives to either change their specs to different models or to make them more accurate. He was quite a clipped, precise gentleman with a no-nonsense attitude, so the idea of him doing something as whimsical as driving model engines around still seems pretty contradictory.
My father and I tried to use my grandfather's drill press to drill out the Squier body, but the holes still ended up all over the place...
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You're certainly not alone in thinking there's something magical about a tele with humbuckers, at least for the neck.
For one example. I am rarely impressed to be in the vicinity of famous guitarist's guitars, but for whatever reason, I was really tickled to see this particular oneup close (behind glass):
(http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b237/open-g/20060416aucklandcloseup_JeffBrass_g.jpg)
... as part of this exhibit http://www.stonesexhibitionism.com/
It's perhaps not as famous as its owner's number one favorite humbucker-equipped tele, which apparently has a PAF in the neck position:
(http://cdn.antiquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Keith-Richards3-275x373.jpg)
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Assuming the pockets follow the same spec, you shouldn't need to modify the S-Type neck, but you will need a new pickguard to make things look tidy:
(http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/mcintirem/miscellaneous%20post%20photos/StratNeckTeleBody.jpg)
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I'm not keeping the Harley Benton neck, just the body. The body seems to be the best way of getting an Ash Tele body with the correct thickness (Squier Affinity Teles are thinner) and in the appropriate blonde finish.
The neck is from my 2013(ish) MIM Strat. The neck is very comfy, and I've leveled and polished the frets (they needed it!). The Strat itself was a weirdly dead sounding guitar. I was absolutely taken with it for the first week I owned it, in part because it made all the correct Strat noises. At the end of that week I realised the pickups were pretty lifeless; though the bridge pickup was tolerable. Strats just don't seem to ring like a Tele does. I can hit my Tele as hard as I want and it still bounces back. Everything you throw at it comes back as playing dynamics, whereas I find Strats a bit more idiosyncratic and wiry, which translates into what I feel with my hands somehow.
I understood that, I am just saying that you may be surprised by the neck of the HB and decide to keep it.
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I will wait and see what it is like. :mrgreen: Dodgy fretwork I can deal with.
As for the neck heel, I've shaved some wood off the Strat neck, leaving an overhang from the fretboard that will cover the pickguard at the neck.
Nice to see the Keef guitars up there!
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As for the neck heel, I've shaved some wood off the Strat neck, leaving an overhang from the fretboard that will cover the pickguard at the neck.
A standard Strat neck should fit a standard Tele pocket without modification, you only need to cover up the little gaps at the corner. If you removed wood from the butt end, that could throw off intonation if your bridge is located in the usual position.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you've done.
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A standard Strat neck should fit a standard Tele pocket without modification, you only need to cover up the little gaps at the corner. If you removed wood from the butt end, that could throw off intonation if your bridge is located in the usual position.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you've done.
It also might give you a nice sloppy neck pocket due the side tapers of the pocket and neck... depending on how close the two were to start with of course. You could get lucky.
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Fingers crossed. I've removed maybe 2 - 3 mm from the back of the heel, just to square it off slightly. If it doesn't work then I have a couple of other necks, and the stock Harley Benton neck, to work with. I was hoping to sell it to recoup some costs though.
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That's less than 1/10th of an inch you can still shim that if necessary.
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So the Harley Benton showed up! The neck pocket is wider than a Fender, but oddly a spare Yamaha Pacifica neck fits perfectly. :sad:
The bridge pickup route is also a tad oversized, so a normal humbucker ring won't cover it. Time to get creative!
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Let's see some progress pix :toast:
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Nothing to show yet! I'm still working on the Aria bass, as I discovered that the Strat output jack hole allows me to use full-size CTS pots for the wiring
loom harness.
The Tele at the moment is simply a finished ash body with a black pickguard screwed to the two holes that aligned correctly and with a zebra humbucker + cream ring in the neck position. I've not figured out a way to use a cream humbucker ring for the neck pickup yet, but I do have a couple of ideas. If I use the Pacifica neck then I will need to move the bridge... measure twice drill one!
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Aria bass is now up and running on the Epiphone Genesis pickups. I had to re-mount the Genesis pickups on short-legged Wilkinson humbucker baseplates, so that in turn I could get the pickups to work with two Wide-Range humbucker adaptor plates I purchased off Ebay. The bridge pickup runs through a passive bass cut pot before it reaches the pickup switch. I will try and get photos tomorrow.
I'm thinking of modifying my MIM Telecaster, as at least everything on it is standard. I'm thinking of the Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups that come in single-coil sizes, namely a 'T' and an 'S' in the neck. Would get me the Danny Gatton look and a nice Telegib tone. The SD pickups are known for the bassy quality, but this would be offset in a maple-necked Tele, right?
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Hard to say what the result would be. I've found that maple necks aren't always bright. But I'm not familiar with those pickups.
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I've never tried these exact pickups either, just other Fenderoids with Super Distortions. I'm leaning more towards a Dimarzio Pro Track in the neck, given the blurb on their site. Seemingly I need a 'Clarence White' pickguard to accommodate a bigger Strat-type pickup in a Tele?
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I never heard it called that, although Clarence White did have a Strat pickup in the neck position. Guitar Fetish makes one like that, and I know Warmoth can. Probably better for you to get one nearer to you.
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That is what they call it on Ebay. 8) No idea beyond that, I stop listening to the Byrds at pretty much the point Clarence White showed up.
Dave, don't kill me. I'm planning to put a vintage-style Fender bridge on the guitar. I know I pilloried these, and your TDPRI brethren, a while back but actually the look of them has grown on me. I've been looking up a lot of Telecasters to see what sort of pickups people have been using, and the Vintage bridge just looks a bit more special than the stock bridge on my MIM. I already have a set of Wilkinson compensation-saddles ready to go from the original Telegib project in my first few posts.
Today's project was distantly Tele related. I stripped down my Harley Benton electric mandolin, which is vaguely patterned like a '70s Telecaster. Mine has caught some paint over-spray at some point and the electronics are dead for some reason. When I bought it it shipped with some fairly stiff, worryingly high-tension bronze strings on it that barely elicited a chirrup from the pickups. I took to stringing it with guitar strings, though I had to buy multiple sets of cheap strings to make up the gauges. I basically went down a gauge per string pair to keep the tension down. I also lowered the action. Mandolin players will consider this all cheating, but on the recordings I have of it it sounded like the real thing. I plan to build a new three-ply pickguard for it as it came with a fairly crude single-ply white guard.
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Here's one of the Guitar Fetish models http://guitarfetish.com/Telecaster-Pickguard-cut-for-Strat-Pickup-White-Pearl_p_741.html
No need to justify the traditional bridge. Whatever works for you is good.
I've seen pics of a Tele-shaped Harley Benton mando, it's an electric model so I'm surprised it doesn't come with steel strings.
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Well I went and done it!
I bought a new pickguard for my Tele, alongside a Dimarzio Super Distortion T and a Pro Track for the neck. This vaguely follows the form of the Seymour Duncan JB + Jazz combo that goes into Seymour's Telegib creations. I suppose the tone will be different because blade 'hotrail' pickups sense a thinner slice of the string than a full-size pickup, but the effect is probably pretty minimal.
I've just received an ashtray bridge plate today, so maybe later tonight I will get that fitted. At the moment the Tele is running on the stock MIM bridge plate. Tonally the Super Distortion is way more powerful than the stock pickup, albeit quite compressed and with a very fast, hard attack. There still the classic Tele 'twang' in there, you just have to dial it out by rolling back the volume. The neck pickup is pretty much like a nice humbucker, and I've found nice jazzy tones in there. It stays clear under gain though, rather than resorting to mush. I always thought Teles make a good humbucker guitar, as you can adjust the overall power of the instrument with the volume control, and cycle from an over-bright tone to a darker Gibson tone using the tone control in conjunction with the volume control.
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The longer scale compared to Gibsons helps with clarity also.
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Back from the dead! My Fender MIM Tele body is away getting routed for a humbucker in the bridge. I've modded a 'Blacktop' Strat to my personal specs, and it has a better single coil tone than my Tele. Ergo, my Tele is becoming a humbucker machine.