On 1/14/2014 4:16 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/14/2014 6:15 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 1/13/2014 11:26 PM, thumper wrote:
On 1/13/2014 4:14 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:

Another example using guitars as the subject:

The early (1950's era) Fender Telecasters had horrible pickups,
especially the one in the neck position. It had a dull and muddy sound.
But the music of that era was recorded with them and it established
"the sound" of a Fender Tele.

Which one do you pick up more often, the tele or the strat?
(wondering if I 'need' a tele also...)

And what's the scoop on the little 'M' amp? A vintage deluxe-reverb
clone?



Probably two or three Strats for every Tele. The shop does a lot of
consignments as well as straight out buys and I've found that people who
find a Tele that they like tend to hold onto them more so than a
Stratocaster.

The "M" amp (stands for "Marshfield Amps") is a custom build by a
friend, Jeff Neely, "The Amp Smith. He builds tube amps to your taste,
meaning clean, or will break up easily at low volumes. I wanted a
vintage, clean vintage Fender sound and that's exactly what it does.
Sounds similar to a Fender Princeton. Has reverb and puts out about 12
watts which is more than enough for use at home. I rarely turn the
volume up beyond 3.

I had the Surf Green Telecaster and the Surf Green Strat, so he finished
the cab in Surf Green as well.

The Tele and Strat are also custom built by another friend who is a full
fledged luthier. He built the Tele from scratch and installed slightly
warmer pickups on it. The Strat started life as a made in Mexico Fender
but was totally stripped down and all the pickups, controls, bridge and
vibrato were replaced with upgraded components. A standard Fender
vibrato assembly is notorious for not returning to the same position,
even when adjusted properly. He put a Callaham bridge and vibrato
assembly on it that fixes that. The tone control is also a "pull" switch
that adds three more pickup wiring configurations to the standard five
way toggle switch.

To me, the most important part aspect of a guitar is how the neck feels
to you. Second is weight. All the other components can be easily
changed or modified. I liked the neck feel of both of these guitars so
they became "keepers". I like and have owned Gibson Les Pauls, but they
are too heavy for me, even the chambered ones.

The other guitar in that slide show is a somewhat rare one. It's a
Heritage H-525 that the last time I researched, has a production run of
about five per year. If you are not familiar with Heritage ... they are
basically the original Gibson. When Gibson moved from Kalamazoo to
Nashville in 1985 many of the craftspeople and luthiers could not or did
not want to relocate. Gibson made a deal with them and they set up shop
in the vacated Gibson factory and started producing Heritage guitars.
I've seen a few of them over the years and the fit, finish and overall
quality of Heritage is superior to that of a typical modern Gibson off
the production line. I like the sound of a jazz box, so I set the
Heritage up with 11 gauge flat wounds and found a Polytone jazz amp for
it. Great sound.

My favorite and "go to" guitar is the Tele. If you have a Strat, you
really should also have a Tele in your collection.




thumber ... I realized after I posted this that I misinterpreted your
question. By "Which one do you pick up more often, the tele or the
strat?" I thought you meant how many we got at the guitar shop.

But, I did answer at the end. It's the Tele.

Thanks, I did mean pick up to play for while. I have a strat and a Les
Paul deluxe but mostly play the strat for its versatility and comfort.

That Heritage reminds me of my first guitar that I got as a kid from my
uncle. It was an *old* Gibson single pick-up, no cut-away but otherwise
very similar. I wish I still had it.