Tele Trouble

I couldn't deny it.  I had G.A.S.  AKA Guitar Acquisition Syndrome.  For over a year I had been looking, nay, lusting at the XGP parts from Guitar Fetish.

 https://www.guitarfetish.com/BEST-QUALITY-XGP-Pro-Necks-and-Bodies_c_517.html

Despite having quite an arsenal of guitars I did not have a Telecaster or Tele style guitar.  Instead of buying one off the rack, I wanted something a little different.  So I bought 95% the parts I wanted off of Guitar Fetish.  Namely the XGP Amber Arched Tele Body and the XGP Tele style neck with rosewood fingerboard and angled neck.

Now comes my screw-up.  I usually take photos of the build process, but I completely forgot.  The good news, is that, it was pretty unremarkable.  The only problem was that the GFS 3 way switch was DOA.  I ended up going to Sam Ash to buy a Fender switch, and it worked just fine.

So here are the "after" photos of the guitar.

Did you notice something a bit different?  Did you notice that neck pickup?  I tried a standard Tele neck pickup, but I just couldn't bond with it.  I considered many options, but decided on routing out the neck pickup slot for a standard humbucker.

I know they say to measure twice cut once, but very luthier I know measures fifty times, and continues to measure as they cut.  I'm no different.  Since I am dealing with measurements as close as 1/128th of an inch, it pays to be as exact as I can.

I used a Dremel and my mini-router converter to slowly cut away the wood.  I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, just cutting away wood, but it pays to work slowly and carefully.  So this step took a fair amount of time.

I have to say, that's pretty awesome for a hand route.  Next up was installing the pickup.

If the pickup looks crooked, it's because I don't have the holding screws in it yet.  Now comes the part where I am mad at myself for not taking an "after" photo.  But know that I put the neck back on and lightly strung up the strings so I could line up the pickup.  It came out perfectly.

I went back and forth deciding on what pickups I should use.  I was pretty set on the bridge pickup.  I decided on the GFS 63 Overwound Tele Bridge Pickup.  It clocks in at 7.8K ohms.

The original neck pickup was a Cali Guitar V50 Tele 1 neck pickup.  However, it was very weak compared to the overwound GFS pickup.  Instead of buying a humbucker that kinda/sorta sounded like what I would want, I went to my parts drawer, and pulled out a Schaller Golden 50 neck pickup.  As you can see I installed a "half cover" on the Schaller pickup.

Once I plugged in the sound was perfect.  It was one of the most balanced pickup sets I've ever played.  It also had that bite I really wanted.  I think Billy Gibbons would dig this guitar.  Although, not everything was up to my liking.

The XGP neck was more than a little thick.  Since most folks have played a Gibson Les Paul at one of the big box stores, I'll compare it to that.  You know how a Gibson has a pretty thick neck?  Well, this was thicker than that.  It was also wider.  Even though I am used to playing Dean guitars, this neck was even thicker and wider than them as well.

So I am not happy with the neck at all.  I'm honestly thinking about changing it.  That, of course, is when I have the money to do so.  Guitaring doesn't come cheap.  So I might have a "Part 2" for this post in the future.  But for the time being I am not going to put a new neck on it just yet.  I'm having fun with it as it is, and that's what's most important.