Nice pickup overview, Shakester.
E-Sabs - the first step to controlling G.A.S. is admitting you have G.A.S. The Blackout seems fine if you are in the mood for that guitar. I thought you were grooving on your Telemaster?
(I am never one to squelch someone’s G.A.S., but I like to at least understand where it’s coming from…)
I am, and I have successfully resisted the GAS. I just had to find some reason not to want it.
Agreed, unless there’s some tricky wiring in there somewhere. Which, for the price, I doubt.
I bet 5 minutes on Google could find you something else to GAS for. 
I mentioned a while ago that I wanted to replace the body on my Partscaster.
So, today I ordered one of these from GFS.
The one pictured looks very nice and I’m a fan of sunburst in general. Hopefully the one I get will look nearly as good. I like the fact that the sunburst is obviously not a Fender finish, and the back isn’t even trying to be Fenderesque. It adds to the charm.
Weight is the other big factor. I looked up paulownia and it seems like a good choice all round.
Cool - have fun. Paulownia is very light and can be ding-able - I believe the name is for a Chinese variant of Balsa wood (I assume “balsa wood” is a term used in Australia, but have no idea) - basically a super-light, resonant wood that is easy to shape, has some structural strength to its grain, but pick up nicks and wear. I did a bit of checking into it before I ended up getting the Korina body I found online and paid too much for ETA: I just went back and saw the price - wow that is dirt cheap!! Great deal.
I bet your guitar will end up weighing 6 - 6.5lbs…
Thanks. I’m not too worried about dings, especially not at that price. I’m pretty careful with guitars but dings are inevitable.
Balsa wood is well known here. Paulownia - from my Google-research - seems to be regarded as similar in weight to balsa but a lot stronger. It’s commonly used for traditional Asian instruments and is popular for furniture and building, so it’d have to be tougher than balsa.
And yes, the weight (or lack thereof) is a big selling point for me.
All good. You might do some research on the Gear Page - there were reports of needing to be careful with over-tightening screws - they pull out the wood and you have a fill in and start over - hence my comments on ding-ability/softness.
Search on the word “Paulownia” on The Gear Page: The Gear Page
Specific Thread I randomly clicked on: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=892019&highlight=Paulownia see post #8. That poster, K-Line, is basically a custom Parts-o-Caster assembler (you pick the parts, he assembles and sets up) that is very highly regarded on the forum…
Here is another good overview thread, with a link to a longer thread on the Tele forum TDPRI: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=908942&highlight=Paulownia
Thanks for looking that stuff up for me, WordMan. I’m not too worried by what people say on guitar forums because I find that most of it is nonsense and quite a lot of it is fiction. The fact that Paulownia is used by guitar builders and that it’s been used forever in Asian traditional instruments means that it’ll be fine.
I read something like “the wood failed” on a guitar forum and I keep in mind that it could mean “I ruined a perfectly good piece of wood I’m blaming the wood”. Just, you know, for instance.
At worst, while I’m not well-off I can afford to try out one of these bodies and if it’s a disaster then I won’t feel too bad about it. But I have no expectation of it being a problem. I’m sure it’ll be fine. Much more important, as I’ve said before, is the neck. I’m hoping the screw holes in the neck line up with the holes in the body, if they don’t I’m not sure what to do since I really am a terrible woodworker and I’ll freely admit it.
The neck is one I had made to my specs by USACG. It’s a good neck but it needs some attention and, while I’m reasonably competent at wiring and electronics stuff, and can adjust the action and intonation quite well, when it comes to things like fret-dressing I leave it to the pros. I’m a klutz but at least I’m a self-aware klutz and I know my limitations. So I’ll be taking it to a friend I’ve made who is a damn fine craftsman. One day I hope to commission a guitar from him, he does beautiful work.
http://www.destroyallguitars.com/mario-martin/4968-mario-martin-t-master
Apparently, more and more people are digging on the telemaster concept. Yow. Nigh three grand… and they use Paulownia and charge more for it.
Shakester, just be careful and pre-drill any holes you need for the trem and pickguard, don’t just screw in, I think. Going to use a classic trem or a two hole modern one?
Sounds good **Shakester **- good luck getting the neck aligned. Your friend’s guitars are really great-looking; like the Telemaster, his designs seem both new and like they have been around forever.
Thanks for pointing out the paulownia option. Three grand is more than I’d spend on any solidbody electric guitar. Oh well, good luck to him anyway.
I like the Telemaster concept, it’s one of those nice ideas that seems so obvious you wonder why nobody’s thought of it until now. It’s funny how they went from unheard-of a couple of years ago to everyone-makes-a-version now. I wonder who did come up with the first one.
My parts-caster has been an ever-evolving project for a long time now. After I replace the body, the only thing remaining from the original guitar will be the pickguard. The bridge is now a Wilkinson/Gotoh VSVG Vintage vibrato unit which I bought from StewMac. It works very well and sounds better than the previous strat-type vibrato bridges I tried.
I’ve had the Wilkinson bridge on there for several years now. Wilkinson doesn’t have the snob-value of Callahan et al, but they also use a solid steel block and saddles, so it sounds just as good as the ones that cost two or three times as much. And noticeably better and more “lively” sounding than cheap mystery metal bridge parts.
I’ll be careful when installing my hardware on the new body, I’ve learned my lesson on that front. Measure twice, then take a break and do something else then come back and measure again a few more times before doing anything permanent. Maybe take a few days to think it over and make sure that you really really think it’s wise before cutting/drilling/etc.
Yep, Anthony’s been selling them as soon as he makes them, and he has great design sense, as you say. A real craftsman, also a great bassist and a genuinely nice guy.
http://k-lineguitars.com/theguitars_texola.php
Found another telemaster.
I think Malden may have made the first one. You know, the guy who my Subhuman came from. The comments on that Fender Custom Shop version refer to his.
http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2009/Feb/Fender_Custom_Shop_Telemaster_Prototype.aspx - Fender Custom Shop article
MaldenGuitars.com is for sale | HugeDomains - Malden Mozak.
Shakester: I’ve got a Wilkinson licensed bridge on my Telemaster now. It’s three barrels, but they’ve got high points so you can intonate better. Works nicely.
Well, I finally got (I thought) all the bits I needed to finish wiring my Xavie e. Last night I shielded the control cavity (heavy duty aluminum foil stuck to the bottom using adhesive, then copper tape to finish the sides and crevices), then just now I pulled the new three wires from the cavity to the pickup switch (the dental floss suggestion from WordMan worked great, thanks dude!). So, I’m ready to wire it up! I flick on the soldering iron and grab the first pot to install in the cavity…
…and the holes for the pots in the guitar face are too small. Damn. It looks like I need about a 1/16" larger hole. Well, hell. I don’t have a drill bit that big, but I haven’t gone to the hardware store more than 3 times for this project so I’m probably due. Or I could rat-tail file the hole until it’s bigger, but that would come out pretty misshaped. And in any case, I’m really afraid of chipping this cheap finish and/or screwing up my shielding job (it was a pain in the ass I’d rather not do twice).
Crap.
Ah, nevermind: the rat-tail made short work of the problem, and the holes don’t look to amateur, and who can tell anyway? The shielding took a bit of a beating, but nothing more copper tape couldn’t make better.
I bought a guitar for the first time about a year ago, figuring I could pick up how to play from the Internet and books. Then school and being busy all the time got in the way, and I’ve been very unmotivated to try learning. I know a couple of chords (G, C, A, D) but have a hard time transitioning from one to the other. I also have the problem that, when I listen to the guitar part on a song, I have trouble translating it into what I’m actually doing. My final problem is that my guitar frequently goes out of tune, but I don’t know when or how much it’s out of tune, because I don’t know how each chord naturally sounds. I bought an electric tuner, but sometimes my playing and strumming sound awful even when the tuning is supposedly right. So I want to learn how to tune by ear. I’ve been meaning to go to an instructor to iron out these initial bumps, but I really can’t afford one right now.
Any help for a struggling newbie?
Get a live instructor. I know it’s expensive, but being accountable to another person helps you structure your lessons and practice and meet intermediate goals. Failing that, find a study buddy. Do you anyone else who is about the same stage of learning as you? You can have a practice session together, decide what to work on for the next session, and then push each other to do better.
IME you have to be at least somewhat advanced/experienced to make significant progress without an instructor.
I agree with this. An instructor teaches you how to teach yourself to some extent. He also gives you a bunch of tools in your instrument-playing toolbox that will feel familiar and useful once you know them, and you’ll likely recognize them when you hear them used ever after.
Laser Pitch Detection system turns your axe into a luminous, latency-free MIDI machine (video) | Engadget Found a nifty thing about MIDI and lasers.
Okay. Strauderhouse? Pick up Guitar For Dummies. It helped me. As far as transition? Practice, practice, practice.
Tuning?
Get one of these. You’ll know in time when it’s out of tune, but again, comes with practice.
As far as listening to the guitar part in a song and translating it? Yeah, I can’t do that either. Some people can’t. I’m not worried, really.