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Well Here we are ladies and gents!
My long suffering Fender Squier (E series, MIJ mid 1980s) Telecaster has been renewed!I asked Etienne Vanhove to install the bridge pickup, wire it for Esquire settings, decouple the neck pickup, and reverse the control plate.
For those of you unfamiliar with Esquire wiring here’s a description:
One bridge position pickup , but it has a switch. In the centre position, the volume and tone controls are engaged. In the back position, the tone control is bypassed so that the pickup is essentially acting as thought the tone control is all the way up. In the forward position the tone control is also bypassed and a capacitor rolls off a little more treble than you can roll off with the tone control. Unless you’re prepared for it, the forward position is a bit hard to like.I’ve been playing it through one of the amps that Matt Hayden so very kindly shipped across a continent and an ocean, the Ampeg Jet II J-12T 15w. It’s all tube (except for the reverb circuit) and louder than the 30w Marshall next to it.
And now I know why these two items have been hanging around unused for 30 years and 11 years respectively. Together they rock!
I played the E-Squier through the amp alone for a few days to get a good sense of the complete tonal possibilities before plugging my effects board back in. I love the tone I’m getting this way and I would be happy to run it like this in a band situation. Adding or subtracting overdrive is a matter of adjusting the volume and tone while the switch is in the middle position. Then you can flip the switch to bypass the tone control and if necessary add some volume to get a bit of treble cut-through and some boost.
I set the volume on the amp to about three, add some tremolo and some reverb. Beyond 5 the amp doesn’t actually get any louder, believe it or not. But the overdrive gets more harsh. At 3 I can roll back the volume on the guitar to return to a decent volume and get a good clean sound.
Someone once said that you should like your guitar-amp sound enough that effects are an addition rather than a fix. And for the first time, I’m in that territory. It’s a good place to be.
🙂
Daniel
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Daniel, I’m not sure if it’s a refinish or a finish over, here’s my suspicion in the photo but yea…it’s funky as heck, it’s getting a set of Van Zandt’s from 97 that the master wound this week, that should top it off. Check the wear on the healYour control plate is reversed, did you do that or do you do the Bill Kirchen swells with it? Love your pickguard, what color do they call that?
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No worries Richard! I love the Strat. “Nicotine cream” is a good name for that color.
Yep I had the control plate reversed as well. I wanted the ability to use it a la Bill Kirchen, but I have yet to get comfortable with it. I have been bumping into the volume knob, but no biggie. I’ll get used to it.
Daniel
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Forgot to answer the pickguard question…
Yes, I love this pickguard. I’ll be sad to see it go. It’s the original single-ply white 5 hole guard onto which I have added denim patterned contact paper. I trimmed the edge to make it look like a 2 ply. Simple.
But I cannot find denim contact paper anywhere. So replacing it will probably be impossible.
Yes, Amazon has some but it’s not the right pattern and looks pretty lame.
Daniel
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I’m on the lookout for you for the contact paper……you have to switch the volume and tone pots, it would be pretty hard to do with the tone pot in that position, just an FYI, I put .015 caps in my tele, it’s what Lollar says sounds the best across the board, I love the control with it, real cheap upgrade
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Yep. To reverse the control plate you swap the volume & tone controls and then reverse the switch as well. You need to rout the bottom of the trench about 2mm as well it the switch will bottom out.
This guitar ain’t finished yet. So when it comes time to add a neck pickup or replace the pickguard, I’ll have a look into those caps.
Thanks for being on the lookout for that contact paper. I think I bought it at Target back in the mid 1990s.
I was thinking of taking a scan or a hi-res photo of a clean part of the pickguard and asking someone to print it on some type of film which could then be transfered to a pickguard or cut into the correct shape.
🙂
Daniel
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Old post, but here’s my Squier. It is perhaps a bit the worse for wear for a few live shows and such, but it sounds and plays wonderfully. At least three of the kids at work – yes, they’re in their 20s, I’m gonna use that word – want to buy it, and they’ve offered multiples of what it sold for new.
To which, “nope” and a smile is the correct response.
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