Double Standards (the Tale of Two Teles)

Recently picked up a couple of Squier Standard Teles very cheap, which I had plans for.

First one went to plan. This was a rather beaten up Walnut Fat Tele, which I got for £65 posted.

Added a 4 way switch, and with a bit of diagonal drilling managed to shoehorn a three saddle bridge on there. Many dings and dents on this one, but it plays great and fills a hole in my collection, not only for a beater Tele for those "tougher" gigs, but for a Tele with a rosewood board neck.



I also scored a sunburst Squier Standard, which I planned to turn into something like this



But a previous opwner had put some much longer and thicker screws into the control plate, thus splitting the body timber and lacquer at the rear, rendering it useless as a reso conversion. Took this up with the vendor who had sold it to me as pristine, refunded half the price, so I could keep the nice neck.

So put the neck aside, and decided that the sunburst body was Ok for a solid Tele, so I swapped the neck off my old beaten up Affinity and made it into a sunburst Esquire.


So what to do with that nice Squier Standard neck?

Well I ordered in an ash topped tele body, and made it into this

Nice stuff Sollo

I have built countless teles from parts. Great simple little guitars to play and always great to mix and match parts and colours to create different themes.

I usually make them 50's style relics.

Hoax

Great stuff Sollo! Now that's what I call Recycling, of the finest order!

I confess that I have come very late in life to appreciate the Tele. I never had anything to do with them (or any Fenders for that matter) during my playing days. I was more drawn towards the Gibson designs and of course Westone, and never, ever, Strats.

But since working in the "shop" and now having one Tele Squire and a Tele clone in the collection, I have come to appreciate the simplicity and versatility of this design. And as mentioned before by me and others in these forums, the current crop of Squires is just top notch for little $$$.

Man those resonator Tele's are sweet! Great job. I assume you do a lot of chicken pickin', love that sound. YeeeeeHAWWWW!!! What's it look like under there? I know there's a biscuit where the bridge is, right?

What! a digestive milk/dark?
They're nice looking guitar never heard one. Should imagine a solid type of reso sound??

Squire make some nice guitars. The Standards are fine, nice neck, some have ok pups.

Check out these 'Classic Vibe'. They are 'king good.











This is a 50's 'Vibe' they're so good I bought 2 and a 60's with a rossie f/board, with slightly hotter pups.
Barry's had a few in the shop, man these are the dogs bollx.

They do a few Tele models as well. Apparently the pups are Tonerider.

Here's a little link for anyone interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFaWYSr6d_Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gaP7ckFXTA&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Nice work Sollophonic!

This is interesting because I believed these modern Chinese-made Squier's were made out of plywood. Have one myself actually. Love the neck (except for the super-low frets). The body weighs like 1kg and the bridge is string-molester. Was thinking of replacing the pups as they are horrible but figured that would be a waste of time and money on a plywood body. It's a great guitar to begin with though.

(Gotta love those "CE" stickers on the back of the headstock)

There's various Squier models. Affinity, Standard, Classic Vibe.
The Affinity are the bottom line, possibly plywood,basswood, not all though. The bodies are thinner as well, 40mm.
Standard's are agathis these days.
Classic Vibe's Strats are alder just as the originals and cost about £300. Don't worry about the 'made in China' they are a top class instrument. Check out any reveiw.
The whole range of 'vibes' are 'king fine.

Looks like we might be collecting MIC squiers in 30 years then.

beavis wrote:Looks like we might be collecting MIC squiers in 30 years then.

In 30 years!! Already started mate...

Westbone wrote:

beavis wrote:Looks like we might be collecting MIC squiers in 30 years then.

In 30 years!! Already started mate...

hahaha right! In that case, I might have to start collecting PRSs, just to look cool (just kidding of course)

Certainly wish I would have kept half the guitars I've had or passed up on.
The days when Strats were 2 a penny, look at the silly prices now!!!
Although I kept 2 '62 Fender Jazz basses.

Westbone wrote:Certainly wish I would have kept half the guitars I've had or passed up on.

I hear that; I'm sure everybody knows my main stage instrument before I got my Vantage in 1980 was a 58 Telecaster - you couldn't give them away down this way then! The Aria Pro II ST - the twin neck - in a small 2nd hand shop in rural New Zealand that I dithered on for half an hour... Went back to get it and it was gone. The Gretsch White Falcon hat I turned down cause it wasn't "cool" enough. The Ibanez LP Recording I sold for next to nothing, because it was Japanese. The Gibson mandolin I laughed at because of the funny headstock.

I'm going to stop now.

The Gretsch White Falcon hat I turned down...

Funny you mention White Falcon...one of our regular customers just picked one up this week. First time I've seen one in the flesh. Very mixed feelings I must say. I love the Gretsch Brian Setzer, Chet Atkins and Tennessee Rose models, and all the rest, but this one was well, odd.

I dug the vintage vibe but rather than get excited I found the thing a bit on the "cheesy" side. The purfling and head stock trim was a kind of a gold sparkle, almost "Roxatone" finish. Really detracted from the experience of it all. Didn't get to play it unfortunately so can't compare it to anything else.

Very few Squiers are plywood bodies, I think maybe the Korean ones from the late 1990s were.

Also the Squier Standards are made in Indonesia.

I did a bit more stuff with the brown Tele. Decided I didnt really like the neck bucker, had a Tex Mex pickup lying around. This was a bigger 9K output, but I added a baseplate for more twang and brightness. Then I wired the guitar as an Esquire with vol+tone/vol only/straight to jack switching



Fun guitar!!!!

Sollo

Where do you get he Esquire scratch plates?

Hoax

Made the pickguard for that one myself, from some vac forming plastic

But there are also these on ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLIND-FACE-SCRATCHPLATE-TELECASTER-BLACK-PEARLOID-/190584093212?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2c5fb27a1c#ht_3933wt_1270

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BLIND-FACE-SCRATCHPLATE-TELECASTER-WHITE-PEARLOID-/150671382424?pt=UK_Guitar_Accessories&hash=item2314b6d798#ht_3909wt_1270

I think either would look OK on this one to be honest

Thanks for that Sollo.

I have used the perloid blind faced ones myself but I prefer the black guard look. I have also made my own but I have difficulty getting 1.5/2mm acrylic .Most suppliers start at 3mm, which is too thick. The bespoke scratch plate material is a bit too expensive.

I know I am cheapskate!!

Hoax

Sollo those are brilliant. Hoax: can you post a few pics of your creations? This is really good stuff....

I