 I have been playing guitar for over 20 years. Hotrod fever started for me with a late '70s Z-28, then moved to the much more affordable hobby
of modifying guitars. My first Tele was a mustard yellow Japanese Standard in the '80s. I only slightly modified it by adding a middle pickup and a push-pull pot to activate it.
The early '90s brought a B-Bender American Standard that ended up with 3 Lace Sensors, Piezo saddles and a collection of switches that gave me
every possible series and/or parallel combination of the three pickups.I eventually sold it to get a Variax, but that only lasted a couple
of years before I was trading in the convenience for real tone from real pickups. My current Tele is a work in progress. Here's the rundown:
- Butterscotch Fender HotRod 52 Tele Body
- Temporary knock-off Tele Neck
- Joe Barden Compensated Bridge
- Gotoh Locking Vintage Tuners
- Fender 52 Reissue Neck and Bridge Pickups
- Modified and Hidden Fender 57 Reissue Middle Pickup
- Built-In BYOC 5-Knob Compressor (all controls converted to Trimpots except Sustain)
- Future Generation Prototype Turnstyle Switch (passive switching circuit for pickup voicings of Strat, Tele, Tele "Wide-Range" Humbuckers, P-90's, PAF Humbuckers, Dot
332 PAF's, Casino P-90's and a Rickenbacker 330
- Controls are: 5-Way Pickup Selector, Volume, Turnstyle Mode Rotary Switch, and Tone (top) / Compressor Sustain (bottom)
It's a blast having a Tele again! Future plans include upgrading the neck, bakelite pickguard as well as a few choice parts from Glendale Guitars.
Blondie's brother is a Strat with a Buddy Guy Signature Neck, Lace Hot Gold pickups, Fender-Clapton 25dB boost and earlier
Turnstyle prototype. Their new sibling "Jazz" is hanging in the garage drying from a new paint job (same color as the Z-28 that
stated it all). It is a Warmoth Jazzmaster body that will have a similar switching setup as Blondie, but with Fender Reissue Jazzmaster pickups on the bridge and neck with a Jaguar pickup
in the middle.
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