NGD Custom Shop Telecaster

[philipnz]

I've been drooling over this online for a little while now. I play one-man band stuff with backing tracks at local pubs. I've been pretty happy with my Rickenbackers 360 and C63/12 but I've always loved the thought of a Tele and have bought and sold a few over almost 40 years. Much to my disappointment, none really worked for me. I've tended to like thin neck guitars and struggled with the thicker necks of Teles and Les Pauls. So I didn't let myself get too keen on this one because of that history.

This caught my attention because it was bound sunburst which I love, hollow body (I'm getting old) and little different. The online reviews of similar models were impressive, so on a trip to Auckland a week ago I looked at it, played it, went away, thought about it, went back, looked at it, bought it, headed home

This is where my world gets turned upside down. I sing and play, neither very well but good enough to entertain a crowd and get asked back. I keep my pedalboard to a minimum because singing and tap dancing don't mix all that well. To date I have been running my amp relatively clean and using a couple of drive pedals and I've been really struggling lately to get the sounds in my head that I want. I must have bought and sold 20 different drive pedals over the past 6 months.

I was so keen to try the guitar out on my Matchless Nighthawk that I plugged it straight in and cranked it up to my favourite classic rock sound (think intro to "hurt so good" or pretty much any Black Crowes song) OMG I'm in love. Then with a little guitar knob turning and pickup section I found out that it cleans up beautifully. Something I have never been able to do with any other guitar. So off to my gig I went running just the amp cranked to 2/3rds on the gain and a turbo rat with everything set at 2pm for leads and heavier stuff (again, riding the volume knob) I am so blown away with the combination. I was able to pull off every sound I needed. And the neck is just perfect.

I think I've found my perfect guitar/amp combo and all I need on the floor is a Tuner, Rat, Phaser, Delay, Tremolo, Reverb

Happy as..........

Tele All.jpg (278.79 KiB) Viewed 3075 times

Tele Cert.jpg (201.53 KiB) Viewed 3075 times

Tele Body.jpg (159.04 KiB) Viewed 3075 times

[Kev77]

I deeply converted these when they came out , that is an epic guitar good sir

[MikeC]

Nice, love the look of a bound Tele!

[AiRdAd]

That looks very cool!!!:-)

[kdawg2a]

Beautiful! That's a great looking variation of the classic tele look.

[olegmcnoleg]

Very nice guitar indeed, and it must weigh almost nothing...?

[jeremyb]

Far out thats superb!!!

[philipnz]

Special mention about the wiring. There is no tone control and I've never used them on any guitar I've played so that suits me fine. Position one is both pickups with the "tone" being a blend in of the next. Position 2 is neck only and position 3 is neck (very) slightly darker. The volume and blend work so well together.

So much easier to use than the Ricky where you're forever fiddling knobs to get the right mix and the 5th one has a mind of it's own.

[Aquila Rossa]

That's a flash guitar for sure.

I am a Jimmy Page fan, so should really have had a Telecaster by now. A Roy Buchanan fan too. He's who I tihnk of when I see a Tele. He was the Yoda level Tele player, i.e., he mastered them.

[KNNZ]

sex!!!

[vintage52]

Love the specs....BLACKGUARD pickups on a WHITEGUARD tele.....

Most beautiful!!!

[jeremyb]

Special mention about the wiring. There is no tone control and I've never used them on any guitar I've played so that suits me fine. Position one is both pickups with the "tone" being a blend in of the next. Position 2 is neck only and position 3 is neck (very) slightly darker. The volume and blend work so well together.

So much easier to use than the Ricky where you're forever fiddling knobs to get the right mix and the 5th one has a mind of it's own.

This is the original Broadcaster wiring, some believe this is what Keith Richards uses in Micawber with the neck humbucker, either way its a cool setup and I am similar in that I don't use a tone knob, I prefer to set the EQ of my tone thru pedals.

[vintage52]

Special mention about the wiring. There is no tone control and I've never used them on any guitar I've played so that suits me fine. Position one is both pickups with the "tone" being a blend in of the next. Position 2 is neck only and position 3 is neck (very) slightly darker. The volume and blend work so well together.

So much easier to use than the Ricky where you're forever fiddling knobs to get the right mix and the 5th one has a mind of it's own.

This is the original Broadcaster wiring, some believe this is what Keith Richards uses in Micawber with the neck humbucker, either way its a cool setup and I am similar in that I don't use a tone knob, I prefer to set the EQ of my tone thru pedals.

My 52 RI came with that wiring.

Had the pots to convert to the "standard" 3 way selection.

I struggled with the original wiring scheme but feel I should change back and live in that space for a while.

[jeremyb]

Special mention about the wiring. There is no tone control and I've never used them on any guitar I've played so that suits me fine. Position one is both pickups with the "tone" being a blend in of the next. Position 2 is neck only and position 3 is neck (very) slightly darker. The volume and blend work so well together.

So much easier to use than the Ricky where you're forever fiddling knobs to get the right mix and the 5th one has a mind of it's own.

This is the original Broadcaster wiring, some believe this is what Keith Richards uses in Micawber with the neck humbucker, either way its a cool setup and I am similar in that I don't use a tone knob, I prefer to set the EQ of my tone thru pedals.

My 52 RI came with that wiring.

Had the pots to convert to the "standard" 3 way selection.

I struggled with the original wiring scheme but feel I should change back and live in that space for a while.

Blends are cool, I think in a two pickup guitar my ideal setup would be 3 position switching with each position engaging both pickups but you have different levels of each blended in that you can set in each position, hmmmm....

[philipnz]

This is the original Broadcaster wiring, some believe this is what Keith Richards uses in Micawber with the neck humbucker, either way its a cool setup and I am similar in that I don't use a tone knob, I prefer to set the EQ of my tone thru pedals.

My 52 RI came with that wiring.

Had the pots to convert to the "standard" 3 way selection.

I struggled with the original wiring scheme but feel I should change back and live in that space for a while.

Blends are cool, I think in a two pickup guitar my ideal setup would be 3 position switching with each position engaging both pickups but you have different levels of each blended in that you can set in each position, hmmmm....

That would be a great idea. The 2 neck positions are so close tonewise. Be great if forward position was full neck and blended bridge......
A complete set of normal controls came with it