Ha, that’s cool. Is that actually Tolex all over the guitar, or some faux finish? The linky doesn’t say. Interesting that there’s a hatch on the back behind where the grill cloth is, I wonder what’s in there? I’d guess nothing, but a small amp would be fun.
OMG, that tweed gootar is way too cool.
I’d bet my grandma’s Plexi that that’s Tolex, given how painstaking it would be to paint something to look that way, and then to distress it as well. Also, you can see a few irregularities where they couldn’t quite get the fabric to conform to the curves; certainly nothing egregious, though.
The hard part would be getting the seams perfectly straight, but since we don’t get a side view of the guitar, we only see bits, which do look flawless.
Love it.
Hehehe, even the Indonesian made ones are more expensive new than the basses I’m currently playing at shows, or even own. 
But, I’ve been thinking about splurging, and that may change. Either way, yeah, the country of origin is meaningless when it comes to judging the quality of a guitar.
If you Google Tweed Telecaster, you’ll see many variations. It’s a Thing - folks love blending their retro things I guess, and Teles are a great platform.
Here’s a thread on someone’s Tele-based Brian May Red Special: Red Special Tribute Tele | The Gear Page
Reminds me of Waylon’s guitar. It was covered in leather.
https://goo.gl/images/tHx1Q4
He had it early in his career.
https://goo.gl/images/X2XWGE
Sorry it took me a while to reply, I forgot I posted those links.
What led me to them? Alcohol! Anytime I’m posting links to YT videos it’s a pretty good bet that I’m drinking. That’s really the only time I listen to music anymore. I actually busted out a guitar and played for a bit that night, first time in months.
I found those vids a long time ago searching out 1966 Stratocasters. That’s always been my favorite year for Strats. I like the big headstocks with the “transition” logo. That’s late '65 to early ‘68. I’ve even come to like the cheesy "target burst’ paint jobs and grain free wood that were so common in those years. What I liked about those particular videos was that I felt like they really showed the true tone of the guitars and the guy’s playing is pretty much what I dream of accomplishing. Tasteful, interesting improvisation.
Here’s another fun one, Bernie Marsden playing his '59 burst. And yes, I’ve had a couple beers tonight!
I thought I’d wade into this thread and say hi!
I spent a fair bit of my youth playing percussion: snare drum, timpani, xylophone, chimes, etc. Pretty much anything you can hit with a stick. But in recent years I started thinking about trying guitar on for size. Well, two years ago I came across a discount electric at Winner’s for less than $100 and my wife was gracious enough to buy it for me as a Christmas present. It’s a Spectrum Strat, painted up like EVH’s Bumblebee and even came with a tiny, chintzy practice amp that sounds awful, but at least it provides a wee bit of sound. All very, very entry level. Anyway, I started noodling around with it, using the guitar lesson on Garage Band to help learn finger positions and the basic chords. I got myself a Marshall Double Stack practice amp which was a massive leap forward from the garbage Sprectrum amp.
A few months later I came across a Squier Bullet Strat at the local music store, lightly used, and super inexpensive, so I got into that. Since then I have added a Fender Mustang II amp, which I adore because I can get so many unique sounds out of it, and a serviceable Yamaha acoustic. I have a friend locally who apparently was a very good guitarist as a youngster and he’s helped me with some technique stuff and getting my electrics properly set up.
So a couple years in I can now play about 50 songs poorly, I’m messing around with Travis picking, experimenting with different strings (nickel v. stainless steel; thin v. thick), and I’m thinking I need a Les Paul and a bass. I don’t ever expect to be playing in front of a crowd and my guitar collection seem to be well enough built for my purposes so I’m pretty happy with my gear overall, while recognizing that I could get much, much fancier and probably get much better tone. I’m also toying with the idea of starting to swap out some of the cheaper components of my current guitars for better parts instead of dropping the big bucks on an authentic Fender.
Having lots of fun!
Ah, guitar geekery. The gift that keeps giving. Yep, '66 Strats can be excellent even if I can’t handle the three-tone burst (I love a '57 two-tone burst ;)). I’ve played a few '66’s - some were excellent.
DPJimbo - sounds fun! Thanks for the update. Yeah, most guitarists are inveterate tinkerers. Have fun with it - just make sure your willing to lose that experiment, i.e., something goes sideways and the guitar isn’t the same. Taking my guitars apart and putting them back together then building a couple has really helped me understand the instrument and approach it better in my playing.
DPJ, that’s good to hear and I recommend doing the upgrades for two reasons; 1) the sense of accomplishment you get when you look at your handiwork and say, “Yeah, I did that!” 2) You get better insight as to how everything contributes to the sound when you start playing with components, which can also help you decide on what you want in later instruments. This is why Fender type (Especially Teles and Strats) guitars are great, change the neck, swap the body, drop in new pickups, and you can still revert it back if you don’t like the chunky 59 baseball neck you put on. 2.5) Now they’re your Custom guitars and no one else has one quite like yours. Why, you’re EVH and SRV rolled into one! 
As I’v noted in this tread before, don’t sweat getting the fancy gear. While it’s pretty and shiny, You are the biggest influence on your sound and pursuing “tone magic” ( That will instantly make you the best player ever) is kind of a waste of time (but a whole lot of fun). If I were to play a pristine 59 LP Goldtop through a Marshall Plexi or a Dumble with a pedalboard the size of a Volkswagen full of the most coveted pedals in existence, Slash would still kick my ass six ways to Sunday with a LP knockoff, a Boss distortion pedal and a Line 6 Spider. Time well managed on the strings is your best tool.
Thanks for the support, folks! Any attempts at tinkering will first be attempted with an expert at my side so no permanent damage is done, but I’ve watched a couple videos already on upgrades you can do to a Squier to improve its performance, such as swapping out the pots using a solderless system, and replacing the machine heads, so I have some ideas. My main focus, as you suggest swampspruce, is playing and developing my own style, rather than just mimicking others. And learning a couple more Spinal Tap songs, 'cuz “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” is a blast to play.
I’ve managed to sneak in about an hour each night on the new bass. After playing for about an hour last night, I decided to pick up my Tele which I haven’t touched since I got the bass. It felt very funny playing those dinky little wimpy strings. Very odd to go back to it.
Stumbled onto it on YouTube when I Googled how My Bloody Valentine gets their sound: - YouTube
Good research, solid talking heads, nice variety, including smart focus on women-written riffs and the silliness of some aspects of riffages. Smart inclusion of Nile Rodgers. Doesn’t mention Sunshine of You Love, which is the biggest WTF moment to me, but there are others. Otherwise a great way to spend an hour.
I ran across an awesome set of Bluegrass Songbooks.
Parking Lot Picker’s Songbook
By Dix Bruce. Published by Mel Bay
There’s six books for Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Fiddle, Dobro, and Mandolin. Dix has written a lot of Music instruction books. This is his best work yet.
Fantastic reference for any young bluegrass band. Over 200 Bluegrass standards. Standard music notation and Tab!
I’ve often been very frustrated by the lack of Bluegrass sheet music. It’s tough learning the lyrics and melody without it.
I ordered the Guitar and Bass books today. Eventually I’ll get the entire series as a reference. I’d love to start a bluegrass band someday. It will be extremely helpful for each instrument to have its own songbook.
They are on Amazon and Ebay.
I know I’m in for some kidding because I rely on charts to play.
But, that’s from 6 years of school orchestra. I get confused playing or singing without them.
It may be a slight hindrance. But it’s better than not playing music at all.
I do sometimes change things up. Pencil in my changes. Make the arrangement my own.
There’s no best way, ace - whatever keeps you playing is all that counts.
I’m not gonna rib ya, because there’s no wrong process as long as you’re happy with the results. However, I am completely amazed by this, and have to ask questions. It’s like someone told me they could only dance on stilts.
My own reading skills from orchestra are so neglected that they might as well be non-existent, and I could never read a jazz chart well enough to use one. The chord chart isn’t a problem, I can construct whatever chord you ask in a second or so, but figuring out whats going on in that staff is going to be a slow, painful process. It’s like reading a language I know in an alphabet I don’t really know. As a result, playing music is a bit of a memory game, and somewhat a puzzle game for me.
So, it seems to me that you’re saying that without the chart, you don’t recall how the song goes. If that’s correct, if you run through the chart a couple of times, can you then go through it without the chart? If someone calls out a simple song structure like “blues in A” and starts playing, can you follow along? When you write music, do you write on the instrument, or directly to the page?
If by charts do you mean sheet music/notations?
Yes, Charts / sheet music or Tab. I just started using Tab a couple years ago. Tab is very useful because it identifies the string and fret position of each note.
I can eventually memorize a piece that I’ve played for awhile. I’d worry about a brain fart playing live. It’s safer to have the sheet music cue me.
I wish that I could play entirely by ear. So many people listen to songs and work out the chords and melody.
For me that would be like taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon without a map. I might eventually get there after a couple weeks of wrong turns and frustration. But, I still wouldn’t know the exact route back home.
Sheet Music helps me visualize how the music is organized. Like a map shows the symmetry of the streets.
I agree with Wordman. What matters is playing and enjoying music. How you do it really doesn’t matter.
Pretty much the same boat I was in. When I broke out of music theory and played by ear the other players couldn’t follow me as I was atonal.
The people told me I sounded good/jammed. :rolleyes:
ETA: on second thought, I think it was more likely key changes rather than atonal.