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Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → GASing for a Tele. Need help choosing!
I have three teles, all made overseas. My favorite is a James Burton Standard, and I'd put it up against any of the Custom Shop's for sound (it has the Texas Specials in it). QC-wise, you'd be better off with an American, but if you or someone you know can do a little bit of fret filing, you'd save a ton. I hope this helps!
Have you considered having one custom made. If so I highly recommend Ron Kirn. Ron is about the best in the biz and can build you almost anything you want to your specs. Ron is highly respected on the Tele forums. And Ron is also a Jarhead. Thats a US Marine for you citizens.
Semper Fi
Try the Fender 52 Reissue. I bought one a few years ago off of craigslist for a pretty good price and now I always seem to be picking it up most often, I really do love the guitar and you can't properly play any Rolling Stones tunes without one.
Two out of the three links that Spider provided are 52 Reissues and so you should always value the recommendations of your elders (well not too old) or one of Uncle Sam's Miguided Children.
The weight is ideal and I strung mine with 11's to 52's and the sound is incredible through either Fender or Marshall amps. My only complaint is the 7.25" neck radius which is great for chords, but some have had issues with the notes "fretting out" while playing lead. A good tech can resolve those problems by slightly flattening some of the frets down around 12 to 17 and the cost is minimal.
The 52 thin skin reissues I linked to should be 9.5 necks. My two Teles are a single/single and the other a humbucker/single which is my favorite. Both are 9.5 radius necks and a full profile. I don't like skinny necks.
Semper Fi
Indy wrote:Try the Fender 52 Reissue. I bought one a few years ago off of craigslist for a pretty good price and now I always seem to be picking it up most often, I really do love the guitar and you can't properly play any Rolling Stones tunes without one.
Two out of the three links that Spider provided are 52 Reissues and so you should always value the recommendations of your elders (well not too old) or one of Uncle Sam's Miguided Children.
The weight is ideal and I strung mine with 11's to 52's and the sound is incredible through either Fender or Marshall amps. My only complaint is the 7.25" neck radius which is great for chords, but some have had issues with the notes "fretting out" while playing lead. A good tech can resolve those problems by slightly flattening some of the frets down around 12 to 17 and the cost is minimal.
The 52 thin skin reissues I linked to should be 9.5 necks. My two Teles are a single/single and the other a humbucker/single which is my favorite. Both are 9.5 radius necks and a full profile. I don't like skinny necks.
Semper Fi
I stand corrected, both are 9.5"
Ready begin: one Sir, two Sir, three Sir, four Sir...
Nothing better than playing something you built yourself,the way you want it,my son and I built his,the neck he wanted,the pup's he wanted. But I really dug the 63' customs. LOL
http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii18 … rstele.jpg
http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii18 … 010003.jpg
I have 2 parts-o-casters a tele and a strat. First off they were great fun too do and they seem more special since i assembled them myself.
My Strat is as follows: USA 62 reissue body 3 colour sunburst lightly reliced. Neck is from a kenny wayne shepherd signature, big chunky neck with a 12" radius. Pickups, bridge and middle from an Eric Johnson Strat, neck pickup from the KWS strat. Pots and switches all from the same KWS strat. I did plan on changing these but didnlt see the need. Pickguard and pickup covers all from a 60's road worn strat. Tuners from a road worn tele. Bridge is 62 reissue with graphtech saddles from the KWS strat. I've done some light relicing to the whole thing.
My tele: I've always loved the look of the custom telecasters so I got a squire classic vibe custom and dumped the electronics from a baja tele in there. The parts were all purchased individually on ebay.
Great fun.
I have 2 parts-o-casters a tele and a strat. First off they were great fun too do and they seem more special since i assembled them myself.
My Strat is as follows: USA 62 reissue body 3 colour sunburst lightly reliced. Neck is from a kenny wayne shepherd signature, big chunky neck with a 12" radius. Pickups, bridge and middle from an Eric Johnson Strat, neck pickup from the KWS strat. Pots and switches all from the same KWS strat. I did plan on changing these but didnlt see the need. Pickguard and pickup covers all from a 60's road worn strat. Tuners from a road worn tele. Bridge is 62 reissue with graphtech saddles from the KWS strat. I've done some light relicing to the whole thing.
My tele: I've always loved the look of the custom telecasters so I got a squire classic vibe custom and dumped the electronics from a baja tele in there. The parts were all purchased individually on ebay.
Great fun.
Nothing wrong with a good Franken-caster... 
Have you considered having one custom made. If so I highly recommend Ron Kirn. Ron is about the best in the biz and can build you almost anything you want to your specs. Ron is highly respected on the Tele forums. And Ron is also a Jarhead. Thats a US Marine for you citizens.
Semper Fi
Ron Kirn's stuff is totally bad ****. He's also a straight shooter guy with no BS.
Definitely someone to check out.
conorb
Try LSL T-Bones.
They get great reviews. Apparently insanely light, many under 6lbs!
If I win the Powerball jackpot later this evening one of my Top 10 list of things to do next would be to order a Ron Kirn Barn Buster. Click the link and you'll see why: http://www.ronkirn.com/tele.htm
Just wanted to update something I said earlier the Baja Teles have American Custom Shop pickups. I had heard they were designed by the custom shop and made in mexico but the fact of the matter is I am wrong and these are indeed the pickups that you can only find in the custom shop guitar or the baja telecaster. Which I still think is the most bang for your buck and mostly american.
Spider wrote:Have you considered having one custom made. If so I highly recommend Ron Kirn. Ron is about the best in the biz and can build you almost anything you want to your specs. Ron is highly respected on the Tele forums. And Ron is also a Jarhead. Thats a US Marine for you citizens.
Semper Fi
Ron Kirn's stuff is totally bad ****. He's also a straight shooter guy with no BS.
Definitely someone to check out.
conorb
You got that right. If I was going to...no if I had the money to buy a custom shop tele, I'd be making a call to Ron first.
Have you considered warmoth? You can do some really cool things with their stuff and you get to design it from the ground up. I did a custom mahogany strat with a super quilt top and an all mahogany neck. Super nice playing guitar. I want to do a tele build as well, and the body is going to cost me less than $400 for the body, and I'll just use a fender neck. All in all I'll spend less than $1000 on a guitar that fender charges $3,000 for.
Logan
Joe Bonamassa Forum → Joe's Guitars, Amps and Gear → GASing for a Tele. Need help choosing!
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