Music - Telecaster dreaming

Custom Warmoth design

The Telecaster has been in my top five of favorite guitars of all time. I've always lusted over these beasts, and I think I've owned a dozen...

I had a 1962 replica in daphne blue, it played splendidly, sounded great, and... I sold it for an SG Supreme. Which I sold for my Taylor 310 CE Koa Limited. One of my favorite guitars.

I had an American HH Deluxe in candy apple red. This was a really badass tele. Which I sold for the '62.

I messed around with a dark red mexi telecaster for a while, but it felt like garbage. It had to go.

From there I picked up a Parker Fly with a telecaster setup... that was a strange ass guitar. But it was really cool with a piezo bridge. Someone threw a dimarzio super distorion in the bridge and a Fender CS Twisted Tele in the neck. I ended up hating everything about that guitar in the end aside from that Twisted Tele pickup... so I yanked it and threw a squire pickup in there and sold it off.

Finally I picked up a Tokai Breezysound. Originally believed to be a Japanese 52' knockoff. Well, it wasn't. Thankfully I didn't pay lawsuit era prices for it. I still own it, and I've beat the ever loving shit out of it. It doesn't play overly smoothly, it buzzes, and the american tele bridge that I tried mounting myself is a little offset. But it stays in tune and it growls sweet Tele growls, then cleans up for that jangly smooth tones. I threw that Twisted Tele pickup in the neck and found a Seymour Duncan Jerry D which went into the bridge. It stayed like that for a long while, but then I needed more output so I swapped that JD out for a Hot Rails.

Fender Original 60's Telecaster

But I want something that really rocks, something with classic Tele tone and styling. I'd love another '62 because I'm a total sucker for double bound bodies. I could grab the new "Elite" or the Original 60's from Fender in Lake Placid Blue to give me that sexy sexy double bound body... But have you seen the current prices on these things?! $2500 CAD for a Telecaster?!?!

So I went back to designing my dream tele's on Warmoth. For the most part over the past 10 years I've been doing this... I haven't changed much in my design. I start off with a standard alder telecaster body.. I've played with the ideas of going Mahogany to give it a bit more bottom end... or maple for that extra bright jangle. But I decided to stay in the center with alder. More versatile, more like an original Telecaster.

I then throw in the double bound body... either a metallic Candy Tangerine, Lake Placid Blue, or Alpine White. Throw in a standard telecaster control setup...but a humbucker in the bridge. The recent change tho has been for that bridge pickup to be a Seymour Duncan P-Rail! Which I had in my Gibson RD, a really cool pickup. Before it was a Gibson Dirty Fingers. Go from smooth Twisted Tele in the neck to dirty as fuck power in the bridge. Love it.

But... with the Canadian exchange rate... that Warmoth Telecaster...just the body... $880 USD is like $1200 CAD. I'm into Fender American Standard territory... and that guitar (aside from the double bound body) now has my favorite neck pickup stock. So just swap in a hot rail or little '59 or something into the bridge with a coil tap.... Or even better, save a few hundred dollars and get the Fender Classic Baja.

This is something I've been wanting to do for years. I still don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon... but maybe by the end of 2018. It's hard to justify buying a new guitar right now when I got quite a few and I'm not gigging... but a nice Telecaster has been something I've wanted to add to the stable for a while.


Fun fact:
Top guitars I've dreamed of owning since I first started loving guitars.. in order of love!
1: Fender Telecaster
2: Gibson ES-335
3: Gibson Les Paul
4: Gibson RD Artist
5: Gretsch Jet

I have 3 out of the 5 currently. Had to sell my RD unfortunately.