My New Toy

I got a $35 Factory Clearance body and a bridge from GuitarFetish.

I got an $8 Squier Tele pickup from Reverb.

The neck came from a First Act mongrel (Gibson-style 3-per-side headstock, Tele body, Strat pocket, tremolo bridge and controls, single bridge humbucker pickup) that self-destructed years ago.

Nut is from another guitar, but really fits neither, so I have a capo on the first fret, making it effectively a zero-fret guitar.

I took the control plate, jack, and strap buttons from other projects, mostly hardware replaced on other guitars. I lost my old jack cup, so black duct tape is serving.

And, for now, it has no electronics besides a pickup and a jack, yet I still reversed the control plate, because that's how I roll. I'm torn between volume-only ("EVH"), volume w/ push-pull or push-push kill switch, volume/tone/kill, old Esquire wiring, Eldred "cocked-wah" wiring and leaving it just like this. I have a wiring harness I might stick in and leave alone, just to be like that.

Because is is a cheap factory reject body (and I still need to work on it to get the neck sitting right, so the high E stays on the neck), I feel free to modify the body in any way I feel like. I have vague plans of carving cool stuff into it with a laser cutter, and I've recently been inspired by the art on Johnny Hickman's "Lucky 7" Les Paul, but looking good pales in comparison to playing good, so that can wait. And I'm thinking about getting another, Tele-style neck, but honestly, I like the way this neck feels.

My #1, besides my #1, is called "Johnny" because it was signed by John 5. My white Tele-style was signed by Bill Kirchen, so I call it "Bill". My dual-humbucker Bullet Tele has yet to be named, and the same with this one. Over time, it'll reveal a personality and receive a name.

I'll set up a camera and play something with it soon. Last time, the mic was close and the amp was far, so you only got the acoustic sound. I'll move an amp closer, or maybe DI it, and try again.

NGD Squier Bullet HH Tele

Guitars, left to right:
1986 MIJ Fender Tele, murdered out by owner,
2013 Squier Bullet Tele, murdered out by factory.

I saw a deal on Musician's Friend and couldn't resist. It's a Squier Bullet Telecaster HH Blackout FSR and cost me $150. I was getting a new gig bag (seen in the background) and could not resist.

Honestly, I like the look of a maple neck on an all-black body (heavily influenced by Sting's video for "Fortress Around Your Heart" — I should get a black Strat with a big CBS headstock some day) so I've been thinking of getting a maple Squier neck off eBay for it.

I was a little worried, because I've played budget guitars from even decent brands that had issues, and getting a guitar you never touched is somewhat worrisome. The biggest issue I've had is frets that stick out of the side of the neck. But this guitar has none of those issues. As you might guess from the picture, I've played it out once. The humbuckers have higher output than my #1 guitar's single-coils, which means I'm going to have to set up another set of patches to my pedalboard so that the output is about the same.

Right now, it is my "working" guitar, as I'm not liking the stage buzz on my old Tele, I have to work out some issues and maybe get some new pickups for my Hohner Steinberger copy, and my white Tele copy has some fretboard issues above the 12th fret, making it only good for rhythm playing. That means I won't do any mods until I have another guitar fully functional. But, when I get to that point, I have so many ideas for this thing. Since it has a six-saddle bridge, I could easily put on a GraphTech Ghost system and fairly easily switch between acoustic and electric sounds on it. No, wait: Looks like GraphTech now sells 3-barrel Ghost saddles for Teles. They didn't before. Maybe I should put that in my #1? And when I do, switch to Seymour Duncan Hot Rails to up the output?

Or maybe not. I've been thinking of that mod for over a decade. Anyway, eventually I will have the HH set up for volume-tone-switch, like my #1, instead of switch-volume-tone. That's the non-negotiable.