Fender Telecaster Bass transformation

[hieronymous]

Back in the early '90s, a friend offered me a mid-'70s Telecaster Bass. He loved P-Basses, and was offering me the Tele because he never played it. He had had it refinished black, but his greatest sin was trying to turn it from the later humbucker-equipped version to the earlier single-coil version. Then he decided that he didn't like the sound of the single-coil pickup and had it routed for a regular split-coil pup. Fortunately or unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of it in that state. Anyway, he sold it to me for $250!

I used to drool over the mid-'80s Fender Japan reissue version, black with black pickguard and the humbucker, so I asked Jim Mouradian if he could find a humbucker for it. He found a NOS in the box at a guitar show for $100, and I had him put it in with probably a Warmoth replacement pickguard. At various times either one or the other pup was wired exclusively (so the other wasn't usable), or at one time I had them wired together so instead of volume & tone, it was volume/volume for each pup. The Telecaster humbucker is very high-powered, kind of like a mudbucker (though with more mids), so you either had the P at one volume, the 'bucker at least twice as loud, and together they were closer to the P volume but with a really round, fat tone. Oh yeah, he put a Badass II on it as well.

Here's a (bad) pic of it as it ended up:


And a close-up (I wish I had taken a few just regular shots when I had the chance!):


There were two things that I really liked about this bass. One was the neck - kind of like a baseball bat sawn in half! I like thin necks too, but sometimes a fat chunky neck is what you need to get you (or me that is) to stop overplaying! The other thing was that the G-string was just as fat and powerful as the other strings, unlike my MIJ Jazz whose G-string could be kind of thin compared to the others.

But then I stopped playing (back around '95), and it languished in its case. I never really liked the finish or the P pup. When I found a used set of Alembic Activators for $275 (they usually go for close to a grand!), I jumped on them. I've also been jonesing for a "root beer" finish lately (though I found out it's really called "mocha"), so I got in touch with our very own Boston Guitar Repair, and shipped it out to him last week. He just called me today, we talked about what's going to be done with it. I'm going to have it refinned mocha, he's going to cut a black pickguard for me, tweaked slightly from the original design to cover the hole for the single-coil (even if the hole gets plugged, since mocha is a transparent finish):


I want the pickups wired completely independently, so he's looking into routing another hole on the side next to the current one, though I think I'm going to have the humbucker go through the original plug and the Alembic controls and plug all top-mounted. I also put on an old MIJ reissue bridge.

I'll update as details come in - also, BGR will probably blog it as well!

[ilan]

Good luck with the project. $250 is a great deal in any condition.

I've also been jonesing for a "root beer" finish lately (though I found out it's really called "mocha

The official designation was Walnut. Not to be confused with real walnut Fenders, like the walnut Telecaster (George Harrison), walnut P Special or the walnut Elite P.

I just sold a '73 J in this color.

[Dave W]

Are the Activators soapbar style? And am I understanding correctly that you're planning to replace the neck humbucker with one of them?

I'm surprised that the neck is thick. That was typical of the 68-71 single coil models, but my 77 and other humbucker era examples I've played all have had what I'd call average thickness necks.

I believe Ilan is right about the official name of the color according to Fender.

[hieronymous]

Are the Activators soapbar style? And am I understanding correctly that you're planning to replace the neck humbucker with one of them?

No, sorry, I should have been more clear - they are P-Bass shaped Activators, so I'm going to leave the humbucker (which I love!) and replace the P-Bass-pup-of-unknown-provenance.

I'm surprised that the neck is thick. That was typical of the 68-71 single coil models, but my 77 and other humbucker era examples I've played all have had what I'd call average thickness necks.

According to the serial number locator that I found, mine's from '73-'74. So maybe that was a transitional time?

I believe Ilan is right about the official name of the color according to Fender.

Yeah, I like root beer as a name myself, but then I thought, root beer isn't really that color, but it's kind of the color of a root beer or coke float after the ice cream has mixed together, so how about "coke float"?

And I love that bass Ilan!

[Dave W]

Whatever you call it, it seems to be one of those love it or hate it colors. I don't know why, it's not really controversial like Antigua.

Maybe the neck just feels thick to you by comparison, or maybe it really is, but I've played a few humbucker models from 72 onwards and they were all reasonable to me. The 68-71s are flat out too thick for me to play.

Since the Activator is P-shaped then at least that won't present any problems, all you have to do is cover up the single coil rout.

[hieronymous]

The official designation was Walnut. Not to be confused with real walnut Fenders, like the walnut Telecaster (George Harrison), walnut P Special or the walnut Elite P.

I believe Ilan is right about the official name of the color according to Fender.

I found something on the net that appears to have the real name of this color:

[Dave W]

You just can't trust those color charts. In person it's more like slightly sun-bleached poo. 

[Chris P.]

George Harisson had a Rosewood Telecaster; not walnut.

[chromium]

I found something on the net that appears to have the real name of this color:

Hey - it really is poo brown!      

Nice bass- can't wait to see and hear the outcome.  Does that Fender mud yield the same strong fundamental for you as the Gibsons when you use it in a fuzzed-out context?  I played one in a shop years ago - I remember it being extra woofy!

[hieronymous]

Does that Fender mud yield the same strong fundamental for you as the Gibsons when you use it in a fuzzed-out context?  I played one in a shop years ago - I remember it being extra woofy!

I haven't really played it much lately, but my impression is that the Fender humbucker has more pronounced mids than my late-'60s Gibson mudbuckers. The output is huge as well, very mudbuckerish. The lows are not lacking at all, but whether or not they approach the massive sub-bass of the mudbuckers I don't quite remember.

My plan for this bass is to run the pickups separately into the SF-2, using the low-pass to emphasize the lows of the humbucker and either band-pass or low-pass to emphasize the mids of the Alembic pup. I plan on having it strung with flats, but that could change.

Oh, and I've been thinking of a name for it - "Telembicaster" is too long, I think I like "Telembic"...

[Dave W]

I haven't really played it much lately, but my impression is that the Fender humbucker has more pronounced mids than my late-'60s Gibson mudbuckers. The output is huge as well, very mudbuckerish. The lows are not lacking at all, but whether or not they approach the massive sub-bass of the mudbuckers I don't quite remember.

That's an accurate description. Plenty of lows but dominated by loud, muddy and angry mids. As Fatdog of Subway Guitars says, it's got that fart-in-the-bathtub tone.

[hieronymous]

One of my favorite songs to use the Telecaster on was when my band played Paul Simon's "Late in the Evening." It's not a blues, but the progression is basically I-IV-V, starting on F. The bass line is basically the root, then octave-9th-octave. On my MIJ Jazz Bass, I would have to play the IV and V chords all on the E & D strings, because if I tried to play the Bb and C on the A & G strings, the octave notes on the G would just disappear. But on the Telecaster, those octave notes on the G were just so clean and strong. Plus, the sound with flats was perfect - in the band setting it gave that nice cushiony bottom, leaving room for everything up top.

Hopefully that made sense!

[ilan]

George Harisson had a Rosewood Telecaster; not walnut.

Absolutely right. I had a blond moment there.

[hieronymous]

I forgot to report - Krishna got the bass and took off most of the black finish. Guess what color was underneath? Poo brown - er, I mean coke float. So this bass is coming full circle. Sure would have been nice if my friend hadn't changed it in the first place, but then I wouldn't have gotten it for $250!

[hieronymous]

My bass is almost done! Here is Krishna's blog entry on it. I am going to pick it up tomorrow, and hopefully use it on a gig and in the studio over the weekend. I'll be back with a fuller report after that.