Telecaster Project; Please Help, I Don't Want to Screw It Up

JamesSmith

I've been playing guitar for five years, and I'm not-too-bad if I do say so myself. I understand the basics of how an electric guitar works, but I desperately need helped.

I have an Epiphone Les Paul (which is great) but lately I've been wanting some single-coil brightness. That's why I joined this forum, I thought I was going to get a Mustang for my birthday, but I decided that I would benefit more from some pedals. My single-coil void is still un-filled. I've always loved the look of Telecasters, but the tone is just not fit for my style. While searching the internet for a good starter guitar for my friend, I discovered the Squire Tele Custom II with P90 pickups.

http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/prod ... sku=519584

My jaw dropped. I loved the look of it, all-black, maple fretboard, beautiful, and P90 pickups! (I don't want it to be too trebley) I read the reviews, and at $250 it seems like a good buy. However, it's a Squire, I've never played a Squire that stayed in tune for more than a few minutes. This will need some upgrades. Unfortunately, I don't know much about the way guitars work, so I'm going to have a local guitar shop do it. I still need help from you guys though,if I'm planning on doing something extremely stupid that won't work, please tell me. I will be forever grateful.

First of all, I'm going to replace the tuners with Grover-Trophy 205C6 6-In-Line Guitar Tuning Keys

I'm considering two opitons for pickups:

1) Gibson P90 Dogears or GFS Soapbars (not sure which the guitar is fitted for) in both the Bridge and the Neck

This is the first place I need help from people more expirienced in the guitar modification department, which would fit, soapbars or dogears?

When trying out guitars a few months ago, I played a few with Bigsby tailpieces. I loved them. I like vibrato, but I'm not into squealing-shred-metal-whammy noises. This Bigsby seems perfect. Here's another area I need help with. I'm not very clear on the whole bridge-tailpiece thing. From what I understand, I will need to buy The Bigsby Tailpiece, and a bridge separately. Is that correct? Will that tune-o-matic bridge work? Do I even need to get a bridge? Are you laughing at my ignorance?

Before I tried the guitar, I was thinking about replacing the neck, but the neck on the guitar is great. I expected it to be awful, but it was vey comfortable.

My plan is:

1) Buy Guitar (Obviously, I have almost enough cash, I'll be able to get it in two weeks)

2) New Machine Heads

3) New Pickups

4) New Bridge and Tailpiece

I would really appreciate advice, and don't be afraid to tell me what is wrong with my plan. Thank you in advance!

feedbackismyfriend

My thoughts would be this:

get the guitar and play with it for a few weeks or so and figure out what you think is more important to upgrade first the pickups or the tuners. If u like the sound pretty well, but it goes outta tune every 3.5 minutes, then upgrade the tuners. If u get a guitar that plays really well and stays in tune well enough to leave the tuners alone at first but hate the sound the pups, then you should prolly change them out first. After that, I'd change whatever you didn't change in the first mod. The bridge should definitely wait until after the pups and tuners imo.

JamesSmith

feedbackismyfriend said: My thoughts would be this:
get the guitar and play with it for a few weeks or so and figure out what you think is more important to upgrade first the pickups or the tuners. If u like the sound pretty well, but it goes outta tune every 3.5 minutes, then upgrade the tuners. If u get a guitar that plays really well and stays in tune well enough to leave the tuners alone at first but hate the sound the pups, then you should prolly change them out first. After that, I'd change whatever you didn't change in the first mod. The bridge should definitely wait until after the pups and tuners imo.

Thanks for the advice, that makes sense. So everything should work out? Nothing I'm planning on doing will screw up the guitar?

connor

when i put a bigsby on my jag i bought the one with the fender F on it, it came with a tele plate (although that part is for the single coil so won't be much use to urself) but it also has a bridge with it. i've never used the bridge as i decided to keep the tom that was already on so i dunno wot it's like but it looks like a tele stlye bridge in a more familiar bridge shape designed to rock slightly for use with the vibrato.

http://www.guitar-parts.com/products/1454/Bigsby-Kit-for-Tele.htm

if you shop around you can prolly get one cheaper this was jus the first one i found.

best of look with the project 😁

jacksonjackass

I have a squier with a fake floyd rose that stays in tune perfectly!

But with any squier, try it out, they're very hit and miss.

If you're thinking of buying parts, then go for this website: They do nice P90s for like $40 and great tuners too - Chris (jaguarOW) uses the P90s and I've used the tuners. And pickups definitely make more of a difference to tone that bridge +tailpiece 😉

JamesSmith

Thanks for that link, that will save me a lot of money. Are the parts of equal and superior quality to the ones I've been considering?

Now, I have another most-likely-stupid question. Do I need to get Dogear P90s, or Soapbar P90s?

feedbackismyfriend

u should just get regular tele pickups..... but if you're set on p90's the humbucker sized ones would prolly be ur best bet since I've never seen a tele bridge with a hole made to accomodate a p90 and same with the pickguard

EDIT: OOps I fail...... I never even looked at ur link..... I just assumed it was a regular tele.... ignore this post..... 😡

feedbackismyfriend

From the looks of it ur gonna want non dogear p90's

jacksonjackass

feedbackismyfriend said: From the looks of it ur gonna want non dogear p90's

Hang on, do we even know if this has regular P90s or hum sized P90s?

feedbackismyfriend

feedbackismyfriend said: From the looks of it ur gonna want non dogear p90's

looking at the pic in his link, they look like regular p90's....

JamesSmith

feedbackismyfriend said: From the looks of it ur gonna want non dogear p90's

I tried it out a few days ago, and I'm pretty sure they aren't humbucker-sized. At the time I didn't know the difference (and I still really don't known) between dogears and soapbars. I'm almost positive they're regular-sized P90s though, I can't check. I went to the GC with my friend so he could pick up his guitar and I found out that someone bought the only one they had in stock. I'll have to find someone online who owns one and ask what kind they are.

jacksonjackass

Dog ear ones are the ones with sticky out side bits like on gibson melody makers. That tele has non-dog ear ones 😉

feedbackismyfriend

mcconnachiea said: Dog ear ones are the ones with sticky out side bits like on gibson melody makers. That tele has non-dog ear ones 😉

actually I'm not so sure about that anymore.... cuz don't soapbars mount via screws in the middle? It looks like the tele is screwed onto the pickguard via screws on the side....

JamesSmith

mcconnachiea said: Dog ear ones are the ones with sticky out side bits like on gibson melody makers. That tele has non-dog ear ones 😉

I just asked some people who demoed the guitar on youtube which kind they are.

jacksonjackass

Glenn, dog ears are not designed to be under the pickguard, and normal soapbar ones mount from small tabs on the side like this.

It does NOT mount by the screws in the middle

Robbmonster

I don't think the need to really stringently play it before buying since virtually everything is going to be replaced anyway.

Personally, if I was going to mod that much of a guitar, I would hit up guitarfestish and just buy the individial parts and build from scratch.

It's always odd to me when people buy a guitar that they even admit is unsuitable for them and spend hundreds of dollars replacing everything.

Now for something constructive...

If you don't want it too trebly (which for a Tele, is like saying you want a strat that doesn't sound stratty) then you can always replace the pots, caps, and even put in a resistor.

The pups in the guitar you are looking at are standard p90 size.

Also, what did you not like about the neck?

feedbackismyfriend

mcconnachiea said: Glenn, dog ears are not designed to be under the pickguard, and normal soapbar ones mount from small tabs on the side like this.

It does NOT mount by the screws in the middle

OIC I don't understand the purpose of the screws in the middle and just kinda wanted to make sure..... cuz from a lot of the pics I've seen It looks like they just go straight into the body without mounting rings or anything and stuff.... so pardon my confusion I guess I dun understand p90's very well since I dun like em very much most of the time.... I guess I prolly shouldn't be giving advice then lol

JamesSmith

Take it from me, never attempt to make a long post from an iPod Touch.

JamesSmith

Take it from me, never attempt to make a long post from an iPod Touch.

JamesSmith

Robbmonster said: I don't think the need to really stringently play it before buying since virtually everything is going to be replaced anyway.
Personally, if I was going to mod that much of a guitar, I would hit up guitarfestish and just buy the individial parts and build from scratch.
It's always odd to me when people buy a guitar that they even admit is unsuitable for them and spend hundreds of dollars replacing everything.
Now for something constructive...
If you don't want it too trebly (which for a Tele, is like saying you want a strat that doesn't sound stratty) then you can always replace the pots, caps, and even put in a resistor.
The pups in the guitar you are looking at are standard p90 size.
Also, what did you not like about the neck?

Thanks to your post, I've made a few modifications to my plan, first off, about the neck. I tried the guitar out three weeks ago, but I typed the original post up about a month ago. I expected the neck to be awkward and hard-to-play, like most cheap guitars. After trying the guitar, I love the neck. It's very skinny, but at the same time there's a lot of substance to it. I feels great, I'm not going to replace the neck.

I don't think I'm changing very much about the guitar. The only real change is the switch from strat-style bridge to a Bigsby and a Tune-o-Matic. The other two modifications are just improvements to existing parts.

Although I don't want extreme tele-twang, I do want some brightness. I figure the switch to a Tune-o-Matic will at some warmth, but preserve a lot of treble.

I've decided to completely scratch the idea of putting a Hot Noiseless in the neck, it wouldn't work, and it would sound terrible. I'm definitely going for two P90s.

The guitar is already well fit for me, it's got my favorite kind of pickups, and a great neck. I just want to get better versions of those pickups and change up the bridge.

Thanks for your input, you guys are really helping, I can't thank you enough.