NGD/NTD

nick · 2012-08-15T12:19:51+00:00

It arrived! After being scanned as damaged I rushed off to Cape Mail to collect and assess the damage. Outside box was all taped back together but the air pillows were still there and the inner Fender branded box looked like new. Opened the fender box, two gig bag straps fell out and I pulled out the guitar in its Fender gig back. Opened the gig bag, guitar is wrapped in a white thin foam type bag. Hang tags etc on, hasnt been touched since the factory. First off, its light, weirdly so. Weighed it at work and its 2.9kgs, not sure what the stock weight of a tele is but it definately feels lighter than Reinhards Classic Vibe I was using. It has a ding in it.. not sure how it got there, probably from shipping or something, just next to the input jack, finish is cracked and a slight dent. No biggie really, not worth all the effort to get a replacement. Neck pocket has some cream coloured stuff around it, possibly polish of sorts, will try clean it when I get home. Vol/Tone pots feel weirdly loose too, will change them though if they annoy me. Neck is chunky but it feels right, can feel the extra meat on it but it doesnt feel big, not sure how to explain it. Tonally unplugged it sounds quite good, rings after I guessed the tuning. Will wait for the neck to settle then set the relief.. which means pickguard off, sucky but not a train smash. Thats it, cant't wait to get home and try it. Will snap some pics too and upload ?

nick

AlanRatcliffe

This is the Baja Tele, right? The lighter ones are best with those. Nice score - congrats!

Those necks are chunky, but have a soft V profile, which makes all the difference. That's the neck that changed my preferences in necks. ? Doesn't take long to get used to it.

needleshy

You makin me miss playing my tele, its been in storage for about 2.5 yrs. I can hardly remember how it sounds.....

Tele's have one of the best looking bodies out there and are pretty darn comfortabled to play........you have a great guitar there. How's it sounding through that Marshall you gots there?

whats the difference between a normal tele and a baja?(apologies for the hijack)

nick

Alan Ratcliffe wrote This is the Baja Tele, right? The lighter ones are best with those. Nice score - congrats!

Those necks are chunky, but have a soft V profile, which makes all the difference. That's the neck that changed my preferences in necks. ? Doesn't take long to get used to it.

Correct ? Everytime I pick it up its weird its so light.. but it rings like a bell acoustically. I was quite suprised to read on the forums how people claim they vary wildly in weight, anything from 7-9 pounds, and if my conversion is correct, mine is less than 7 pounds..

The neck is amazing, its big but it doesnt feel it, think its definately my new benchmark in neck profiles 8)

Chatting to Andrew about the mods on yours, anything you recommend that made a massive difference? It is a bit noisy (especially since I have 12v downlighters throughout my house) so I'd like to insulate the pickup cavity. You fitted compensated saddles and change the nut?

nick

needleshy wrote You makin me miss playing my tele, its been in storage for about 2.5 yrs. I can hardly remember how it sounds.....

Tele's have one of the best looking bodies out there and are pretty darn comfortabled to play........you have a great guitar there. How's it sounding through that Marshall you gots there?

whats the difference between a normal tele and a baja?(apologies for the hijack)

What Tele is it?

That particular Marshall makes anything sound great, even my strat (which is saying alot ? ) but with the current pickups are amazing, the neck is bassy without being muddy and the bridge is bright without being shrill. Difference between a normal Tele and a Baja is the pickup configuration mostly, its modelled on a '52 Tele but has a Twisted Tele neck and Broadcaster bridge pickup, with a 4 way selector and an out of phase S1 switch. Gives you 8 different selections basically..

Im loving position 3 (I think it is) with the switch on and the TS9 8)

AlanRatcliffe

nick wrote Chatting to Andrew about the mods on yours, anything you recommend that made a massive difference?

Didn't do much:

Graph Tech nut - Standard mod for me. Also removed string trees IIRC
Compensated Wilkinson saddles - the solid ones, not the adjustable ones
Electrosocket - I hate Tele cups, usually fit a Neutrik locking, but tried the Electrosocket and Switchcraft jack with great success.
Screened everything - Using copper tape: the pickguard; Control cavity; wire routs; and pup cavities. This made a big difference to noise.
Pots - Did away with the S1 switch as I'm not a fan of phased sounds thanks to the volume drop. Replaced with normal CTS pot. IIRC, I replaced the tone at the same time.

OK. Maybe I did do quite a bit (by other people's standards, not mine ?). The switch was fine - an Oak Grigsby. The pups are great too.

needleshy

nick wrote
needleshy wrote You makin me miss playing my tele, its been in storage for about 2.5 yrs. I can hardly remember how it sounds.....

Tele's have one of the best looking bodies out there and are pretty darn comfortabled to play........you have a great guitar there. How's it sounding through that Marshall you gots there?

whats the difference between a normal tele and a baja?(apologies for the hijack)
What Tele is it?

That particular Marshall makes anything sound great, even my strat (which is saying alot ? ) but with the current pickups are amazing, the neck is bassy without being muddy and the bridge is bright without being shrill. Difference between a normal Tele and a Baja is the pickup configuration mostly, its modelled on a '52 Tele but has a Twisted Tele neck and Broadcaster bridge pickup, with a 4 way selector and an out of phase S1 switch. Gives you 8 different selections basically..

Im loving position 3 (I think it is) with the switch on and the TS9 8)

Its a MIM tele that i modded up a bit, scalloped frets, DragonII treble and SD P-rails in the neck also, loved that guitar but i dont have space for it where i am staying at the moment until i move to a bigger place. ☹

@ Alan, i also installed Graphtecs on a couple of my guitars which i use most as a standard thing, i find it does reduce string breakage, but i may be getting guitars with bad saddles all the time, i can't recall the last time i had a string snap at the bridge since i have been using them and 99% of the time when a string snapped it was at the bridge. I don't notice a tone difference between the 2 or gain in sustain as they always say.

nick

Random pic I snapped, been spending too much time on tdpri.com hence the theme of the pic ?

kayDUB

Awesome pic!

Danny-B

Now that is a real man's guitar. Beautiful!

nick

A few days with the tele..

So far I've dinged it, twice. I thought poly was hard but it seems to ding quite easily. Dont mind the dings, battle scars are welcome ? Let the neck settle a bit and Reinhard and I adjusted it last week, action is lower now and there still no real buzz on any of the frets.

Had to rethink all my effects settings going from humbuckers to single coils but I really like the p'ups on this thing, the neck is bassy without being boomy and the bridge is bright without being shrill and anything else is easily tamed with the tone knob. I find the vol to to be all at the end so the last 3/4 of the knob doesnt do anything. Not sure how easy it is to replace that as the S1 switch is in there too.

Liking the out of phase positions, had plans to turf that thing and return it to a standard 3 way but rethinking that.

It has its flaws, on close inspection the neck pocket isnt routed level, so the one side has a gap, the other doesnt. The pickguard lifts slightly, you could lose a plectrum under the section by the cut away but its a simple piece of kit, like a hammer. It does its job perfectly 8)

Reinhard

nick wrote

Random pic I snapped, been spending too much time on tdpri.com hence the theme of the pic ?

Classy pic 8)

ezietsman

I want to install something like the S1 on my Tele, but instead of the out-of-phase thing I think I want it to wire the pups in series, for a output boost. That seems like a fun thing to have ?

charleshaupt

beautiful instrument..enjoy

AlanRatcliffe

ez wrote I want to install something like the S1 on my Tele, but instead of the out-of-phase thing I think I want it to wire the pups in series, for a output boost. That seems like a fun thing to have ?

Just change the switch to a 4-way. That's how they are usually wired up and it's a very useful sound.

ezietsman

Alan Ratcliffe wrote
ez wrote I want to install something like the S1 on my Tele, but instead of the out-of-phase thing I think I want it to wire the pups in series, for a output boost. That seems like a fun thing to have ?
Just change the switch to a 4-way. That's how they are usually wired up and it's a very useful sound.

So on a 4-way it is something like: Neck, Both (parallel), Bridge, Both (series) ? I kinda like the idea of a blower switch on it, push button and I get two pups in series wired straight to the jack.

shaunf

Lovely guitar Nick! Congrats!

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