'57 Relic

 that is all.

all about the 'burst - Now Sold

This guitar started life as a USA Standard Strat and is an example of a less-is-more approach to modification – making mild ‘improvements’ rather than a full relic approach.    

Originally shipped with a modern maple neck, this has been replaced with a 7.25” vintage rosewood neck and tuners (WD) which is a strong preference of mine.

The neck pickup has been upgraded to a Klein S-5 – a scooped mid pickup (think John Mayer) which provides a superb clean tone.

The standard white pickguard and knobs have been replaced with those from a much older guitar, which have naturally darkened.   

Overall just a great looking and very playable guitar.

Fender 72 Tele Custom - £595

Much as I LOVE this guitar, it really does need to go to a good home.

So I present a stunning and all original Fender Crafted in Japan Telecaster Custom - a real rock-n-roll machine with a broken-in feel and a gnarly tone.

A humbucker in the neck position gives you fat rhythm sounds you might not expect from a Telecaster, and the bridge pickup keeps those classic, searing tones intact. 

Individual volume and tone knobs for each pickup further enhance the tonal range of the 72 Tele Custom.

Playability is superb, the Tele is fitted with a 184R / 7.25" radius maple fretboard, 21 Narrow Jumbo frets, perfect for chord work or big bends.

The red tortoishell pick guard adds a twist to the black ash body is a rare factory fited option.

As with all Japanese Fenders, the guitar is extremely well built, plays like a dream and are becoming increasingly rare.

See this guitar here

Also another good demo of the same CIJ model

Twang Tastic Jam Tracks

There's nothing better than kicking back with an old Telecaster, and I have been using these jam tracks to get in a little practice over the last few weeks.

I'd love to see some video responses in the style of...

Waylon Jennings
Vince Gill
Merle Haggard Troy Crook Allman Brothers

'67 Tele with a Twist

A bit of a diversion to making my own great guitars, I came across this and had to add it to the collection.

Built on a standard 1967 specification, Alder body, hand wound pickups and large C shape neck,  the twist is the addition of 4-way switching and a 10" radius on the fingerboard.

Mine is not from Greg though...

Princeton Reverb Clone - First Impressions

I finally completed the testing of the Princeton clone I have been building since January.  Some of the basic spec available here.

First impressions of the amp are great - much richer and mellower sounding than my stock Princeton Re-Issue.  Huge amount of bass - in fact I will probably need to tweak this circuit in the future to calm it down a bit.  That also goes for the reverb - its pretty unusable above 4 or 5.

Enjoy some sound clips - I welcome your feedback!

Clean Tones

Dirty Tones

Tremelo

Blue or Turquoise?

I had some good feedback on the Lake Placid Blue guitar that I put together earlier in the year.  Ultimately I sold the guitar as it wasn't close enough to the colour I was looking for.

I have since done some research on how to achieve an authentic look using blue, and discovered that I am favoring Ocean Turquoise such as the examples from the Fender Custom shop shown here (though they look pretty close to Lake Placid Blue to me?)

Having said that when I have shown these pics to Fender dealers they suspect these are actually custom colours that have been specially mixed to emulate how Ocean Turquoise would have aged over 40 years.  They look nothing like a new Ocean Turquoise guitar.

The search for the perfect 'blue' continues.