Whaddaya think?

AlanRatcliffe · 2010-06-06T11:32:08+00:00

Much as I like the look of the body wood on my StraTele, I've never really been happy with the overall aesthetics of a Strat shaped guitar with no pickguard. So yesterday I fished out an old pearloid pickguard and went to town with hacksaw, Dremel, files and scraper blade and ended up with this: Obviously it still shares most of its DNA with the Strat guard, with a vague nod to the Tele around the bridge. The one thing I'm not sure of if I should retain the straight edge perpendicular to the bridge on the treble side of the bridge, or if I should angle the bottom edge more to make it shorter.

AlanRatcliffe

nicovlogg wrote I like it, but now I'm starting to feel like it needs a steel control plate.. :-[

You know, If I were to do it again, I'd probably do it that way, just angling the plate down from the usual Tele plate.

[deleted]

Alan, may I ask why you went for that kind of Tele bridge in the first place?

nicovlogg

Brentcgp wrote I like the original one

but the second one is also nice...

nicovlogg wrote I like it, but now I'm starting to feel like it needs a steel control plate.. :-[
Sacrilege...

Hey, tele bridge but no tele control plate!? ?

AlanRatcliffe

You mean the Wilkinson specifically, or the concept of putting a Tele bridge on a Strat?

I generally like the tone of the three saddle ashtray bridges, but there is one major downside - no piezo saddles available. The Wilky is a GFS sourced Chinee one and only a placeholder until I can pop a Glendale bridge in there. It's a bit insubstantial and adds a bit of a harsh high end. The original compensated saddles ended up on my (now Andrew's) Baja Tele as they are not needed with an Earvana compensated nut (in fact they throw intonation out).

The concept was the big thing about this guitar for me. I like the Tele bridge pickup tone (fatter than a Strat's) and middle, but not the neck position. I love the Strat's position 2, 4 & 5, but not bridge alone or middle. The uncontoured Tele body is very uncomfortable for me, while a '50s Strat is ergonomic perfection. A Tele ashtray bridge gives me something to anchor my pinkie on for fingerpicking (a lynchpin of my playing), while on a Strat my right hand ends up too close to the bridge.

So this was an attempt to get the best of both guitars in one. I kept the pickup set pretty low powered and bright (DiMarzio AreaT & 2 X Area '58s) and the middle position on the switch gives me bridge and neck. So overall it gives me a contrasting voice to my (relatively) warm Strat, replacing the Strat bridge and middle sound with Tele(ish) versions (position 2 stayed surprisingly Stratlike). If it were my main guitar, I'd probably go a little hotter and warmer on the pickups (DiMarzio Area Hot T and 2 X Kinman Blues), but that's not going to happen because of the lack of piezos.

[deleted]

Hahaha, OK - our tastes differ somewhat over the bridge. I didn't know you had a compensated nut going there, which was actually the second drive behind my question. The first was that the flipping ashtray gets in the way of my right hand's freedom to search for treble. But your style is obviously suited to the pinkie armchair.

singemonkey

Informative to hear that rationale. In terms of a metal switch-plate, I was imagining more like a mustang/jazz bass. But it would probably be overkill.

AlanRatcliffe

Stratisfear wrote I didn't know you had a compensated nut going there, which was actually the second drive behind my question.

Nothing sounds quite like a three saddle ashtray and it intonates very well with the Earvana (within 1 cent anywhere on the neck) - better than most with individual saddles.

The first was that the flipping ashtray gets in the way of my right hand's freedom to search for treble.

That's why Glendale has the single and double-cut ashtrays:

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