More Builders And Their New Guitars, Part 1!
Okay, I haven’t posted anything here for quite awhile. Largely that’s been due to the number of guitars I’m helping people assemble, as well as my own projects and some work on refining certain steps in the process (more tools!) and using Trans Tint dyes.
First up we have Bob’s very cool pine Tele, featuring a Clearfork body and a Warmoth neck. Bob did most of the work himself. He finished the neck and body, selected and ordered his parts, and installed his own pickups (Duncans) and wiring. He was after a Tele for jazz playing, with warmer, fuller tones than you’d think a Tele might produce. He also wanted individual volume controls for the pickups and a master tone control. I helped with a few of the trickier assembly steps and the setup.
This neck features the Gotoh truss rod adjustment at the side of the heel (http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Necks/SideAdjust.aspx). That makes it possible to preserve a more vintage peghead appearance without the inconvenience of having to remove the neck to do rod adjustments. It works very well! No doubt there have been plenty of forum arguments about how it changes the sound. There is certainly more routing involved at the factory and more hardware inside the neck. I can’t speak to its durability, but if it ever broke, there’s a conventional truss rod in the neck as well.
Anyway, the guitar plays very comfortably and nailed the sound Bob wanted. It’s very smooth, and fun to play. Well done!