So I got a Tele. Traded my Devlin Imposter + a few moneys for this, a 2004 MIM Standard Tele in Midnight Wine that was in the back of a church.
Took her straight to rehearsal from the church, and she sounded good. Good comfortable neck, heavy (but balanced) body. Overall in good shape, very little fretwear, a few minor surface scratches on the back, and a tiny pinhole sized ding on the bottom. Afterward I swapped out the string tree for a roller tree (had one at home), cleaned her up a bit, and put new strings on her. I'm thinking of putting a set of hotter pickups in it- still single coils tho- and maybe a different color pickguard, but other than that leave it untouched.
Well, after a quick search on TDPRI, I've decided to swap the bridge, since I'm just not a fan of the 6 saddle Tele bridge (and it's got a little bit of rush). I ordered a Fender 3 saddle 52RI bridge plate, and a set of Wilkinson compensated saddles, which should do wonders for the tone.
mkt3000 wrote:Well, after a quick search on TDPRI, I've decided to swap the bridge, since I'm just not a fan of the 6 saddle Tele bridge (and it's got a little bit of rush). I ordered a Fender 3 saddle 52RI bridge plate, and a set of Wilkinson compensated saddles, which should do wonders for the tone.
mkt3000 wrote:Well, after a quick search on TDPRI, I've decided to swap the bridge, since I'm just not a fan of the 6 saddle Tele bridge (and it's got a little bit of rush). I ordered a Fender 3 saddle 52RI bridge plate, and a set of Wilkinson compensated saddles, which should do wonders for the tone.
Love that colour! I had a MIK Squier Tele in a similar colour in the 90's. Nice score
I'm not against the six saddle bridge, my US model sounds fine with it but there is something admirably grass roots about the three saddle bridge that i have on the Telebastard. Three Brass saddles seem to add more aggression to the tone.
George wrote:Brass saddles = strong upper midrange
i shit you not
You shat me not. The saddles and plate arrived today. An hour later, after swapping out the bridge and doing a quick setup, my Tele sounds a lot better. The mids are a lot sweeter. Better enough that now I have no intention of changing the pickups.
Small update... the pickups were changed, I have a Twisted Tele in the neck, and a GFS Fatbody in the bridge. I have 0 complaints about the Twisted Tele, but the GFS in the bridge is kinda meh. It's not bad, but it's not really much of an improvement on the stock pickup.
So I decided to order something from left field. I was debating between a Rose ALBA and a G&L ASAT Classic MFD Tele pickup, and the G&L won out. I loved how my S-500 sounded, and this is a similar pickup, but in a Tele form factor. So once that arrives, it's going in.
