Versatile Tele

[GrantB]

Here's something I picked up a few years back from TM...along with my 68 SG it is probably the most versatile sounding guitar I have. It also plays real great. I'm not sure about the poo colour schema but wow, tonally it kills. These humbucker neck p/ups are powerful tho and I have set way down.

Funk is no problem on the in between setting. Jazz - yep. HArd rock - yep - middle setting with the neck vol almost all the way down. Country - hell yes.

So in all a much cheaper option than a normal vintage Tele (this is a '73) yet is retains the classic twang but the humbucker gives it a totally different set of tonal options. Someone here just got a new RI of one of these...good choice!

[bender]

That was me! I totally agree- versatile as a versatile thing. I'd actually prefer mine to be poo brown, but it's pretty hard to fault a black guitar.

I was thinking about coil splitting the humbucker but I reckon simply swapping the neck volume pot for a 500k one will sort the bugger out. I might even put in one of those fancy-pants bass roll-off knobs ala G&L or Reverend.

[GrantB]

Noice! Yeah, that neck p/up can dominate...once it's down a little it's cool, and that also gives it a bit more of an airy sound too...great. I can basically do a whole gig on this thing. Obviously a refret helped the playability.

Ben, I'm pretty sure these had 500K pots? At least one does (I think)...

I too like the brown (Mocha actually), but for some it's just too drab. Obviously next to any Ash Custom it is....

[ash]

How do those Wide Range humbuckers handle being coil split? I would suspect some imbalance between the treble and bass strings one way or the other with the whole offset poles business. Parallel might be a better bet.

I rather enjoy the Versatile Tele concept. Radian Teles with the HB/P90 combo are intended to be just that, although it's a different set of flavours than your example. A batch of tele/miniHB Radians is next off the launchpad along with a dual P-Rails example. That should be pretty useful.

I have another evil Versatile Tele inspired plan that will cause expressions of and and and amongst other things. It involves a custom made tele style bridge that carries two tele bridge pickups wired as a splittable humbucker. And points. And butterscotch blonde lacquer.

[Hot_Grits]

My tele is a reissue of that model. The WRHB in mine appears to be seriously overwound and I modded to split with a push-pull on one of the tone pots. It sounds great split in that way that overwound buckers do.

The real 70s Tele customs I've played have been deeply average, though I'm sure there are good ones out there. I'm told teles from that era fare better than strats (where maybe 2 in 10 are any good).

I recently played a 73/74 'mocha' mahogany thinline with two WRHBs and it was a stunning guitar. I'd love one of those.

Ash: the real WRHBs in the thinline I tried weren't very high output. I don't think they'd suit splitting in that guitar.

[badmotor]

How do those Wide Range humbuckers handle being coil split? I would suspect some imbalance between the treble and bass strings one way or the other with the whole offset poles business. Parallel might be a better bet.

I rather enjoy the Versatile Tele concept. Radian Teles with the HB/P90 combo are intended to be just that, although it's a different set of flavours than your example. A batch of tele/miniHB Radians is next off the launchpad along with a dual P-Rails example. That should be pretty useful.

I have another evil Versatile Tele inspired plan that will cause expressions of and and and amongst other things. It involves a custom made tele style bridge that carries two tele bridge pickups wired as a splittable humbucker. And points. And butterscotch blonde lacquer.

Now this I gotta see...

[telefiend]

I've always been interested in these, but I've yet to have a blast on one.

Unique, you have a crazy amount of cool gear

[bender]

Apparently the MIM reissues have 250k pots although I have yet to check. I'm going to have a look tomorrow before the gearfest if I get a chance and may rewire it in parallel at that point. Sadly I'm out of push/pull and 500k pots at the moment so that'll have to wait. Other knob combos I'm considering are:

1) Volumes for each pickup, a bass roll-off for the humbucker and a standard tone for the single coil

2) Master volume, master tone, master bass roll-off, varitone.

3) Volumes for each pup, master tone, varitone.

I have a Torres varitone kit that I haven't "past participle of get" around to putting together and I'm well keen to check it out. The guitar is actually pretty awesome as is, but I'd like to try some different combos. I really hope that either all the pots are 500k so I can use a 250k on the bridge pup or that they're all 250k so I can put a 500k on the neck pup as they are a little bit too imbalanced for my tastes.

[holelottaluv]

I have another evil Versatile Tele inspired plan that will cause expressions of and and and amongst other things. It involves a custom made tele style bridge that carries two tele bridge pickups wired as a splittable humbucker. And points. And butterscotch blonde lacquer. :

this is a riogrande bridge and twang bucker which can be split. yep 2 tele bridge pickups strapped together. i have it wired to a blend pot so i can pan between the front pickup and the powerfull bridge pick up and all points between

[Hot_Grits]

I have another evil Versatile Tele inspired plan that will cause expressions of and and and amongst other things. It involves a custom made tele style bridge that carries two tele bridge pickups wired as a splittable humbucker. And points. And butterscotch blonde lacquer. :

this is a riogrande bridge and twang bucker which can be split. yep 2 tele bridge pickups strapped together. i have it wired to a blend pot so i can pan between the front pickup and the powerfull bridge pick up and all points between

Cool!

(and for a moment there I thought it had an old Kramer aluminium neck...)

[ash]

this is a riogrande bridge and twang bucker which can be split. yep 2 tele bridge pickups strapped together. i have it wired to a blend pot so i can pan between the front pickup and the powerfull bridge pick up and all points between

Hey, cool! Great minds think alike. I've seen it somewhere else too... something American.

Did you have to trim the pickup bases to get them back-to back?
I'll be making mine from scratch, so trimming will happen before winding.

[holelottaluv]

hi ash its robbie. it was the cream evolinn,you had aplay on it some years back, that guitar was fitted with a riogrande vintage tallboy twang bucker in the bridge[2 singles strapped together]the one in the photo is a twangbucker muy grande, it bas bigger pole pieces and more turns, now the base plate is stamped out of the same material as the bobbin tops and bottoms i imagine that its glued on yes then the coils are strapped together with black fabric tape

[holelottaluv]

[

Cool!

(and for a moment there I thought it had an old Kramer aluminium neck...)

cheers, no its sapale, yeah i remember those head stocks kinda like a V shape cutout, this is solid, bound and painted black and white, i think those travis beans had alloy necks as well. i've made alloy one piece bridge/tailpiece but i feel they put too much of own sound into the brew

[ash]

Aaaahhh, I see!
I'd never noticed the Twangbucker before. I thought you'd cobbled it up out of two individual tele pickups.
That takes some of the cool factor out of my plans, although I still have some bizarreness to unfold with my project.

[rickenbackerkid]

versatile tele's are great. Love you G&L ASAT, bite of a tele with the warmth in there as well.