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#1
02-23-2023, 02:42 AM
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Tele Body Swap
A few years ago, for Christmas, my buddy gave me a Tele Partscaster, and man, what a gift. Only downside was that it was very heavy for a Tele (around 8 lbs). Because of the weight, I didn't play it much, as I have other very good sounding Teles that are lighter in weight and more comfortable to play.
So I asked him what he thought about me swapping the body for a much lighter one. He was okay with it, so I started the search for a good body. A few weeks back, I got an email from a company called AE that sell cheap guitar bodies that are made from Paulownia wood, with an average weight under 3 pounds. And they had a very cool looking metallic purple which was spec'd with a standard size vintage route for the bridge pickup, and a multipurpose larger route for the neck pickup which was good because of the mini-humbucker sized Gabojo Dynasonic style pickup that I was using. And the body only cost about $100!!! The work that I had to do to the new body was: slightly open up the jack route with my 7/8" Forstner bit for the Electrosocket jack, drill the mounting holes for the strap pins, pickguard, bridge, and control plate, resolder the pickup connections to the control assembly, mount the neck, and install and align the bridge. I also cleaned up the wiring inside the guitar. The wiring channels in the new body were better, so I could shorten the pickup leads and I also removed a redundant ground wire that wasn't needed. The job went great, and now my guitar looks even cooler, sounds better, and more importantly, is almost 3 lbs lighter! Did I say SOUND BETTER? Yes I did!!!.... For those who believe wood type doesn't change the tone of a guitar, sorry Charlie, this guitar was transformed! It is way more resonant than before the body swap! It's a twang machine! And I'm comparing apples to apples here, as not only did I setup the guitar exactly to the same specs that it was setup to with the black body, I even used the same strings (gotta love locking tuners)!!! I liked the black bound body,  ...but I LOVE the purple metal flake! Purple is my favorite color!!! Without any further ado... Reverse Headstock with Graphtech TUSC String Retainer and Nut  Graphtech Locking RATIO Tuners  Custom Neck Plate and Gasket  Nickel Ferrules  Angled Switch Mount Control Plate with Custom Anodized Aluminum Black Knobs / Switch Tip, and Electrosocket Jack  Joe Barden Bridge with cutaway bottom lip for easy volume access, and Brass Compensated Saddles  Gabojo MR2000 Dynasonic Style Neck Pickup, and Cavalier Holy Grail Broadcaster Bridge Pickup 
Last edited by rockabilly69; 03-20-2023 at 11:59 PM. 
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#2
02-23-2023, 06:41 AM
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That looks great!
Did you do anything special with the neck screws? I didn’t know if that lighter wood held screws well…
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#3
02-23-2023, 07:09 AM
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Quote:
…man that’s a sharp looking guitar….and you rarely see a reverse tele headstock….super cool…
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...Grasshopper...high is high...low is low....but the middle...lies in between...Master Po Last edited by J Patrick; 02-23-2023 at 08:16 AM.
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#4
02-23-2023, 07:54 AM
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Looks great Rocky! Dig the dynasonic styled pickup!
__________________
-Joe Martin 000-1 Rainsong CH-OM Martin SC10e sapele My Band's Spotify page https://open.spotify.com/artist/2KKD...SVeZXf046SaPoQ
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#5
02-23-2023, 08:43 AM
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Purple flake bod with a reverse headstock and locking machines! Get out of my head, will you please!
GraphTech teflon embedded nut and string trees work great. Brass saddles for weight. Man o’ man, what a rocking telecaster. Get you buddy at the body shop to lay down some pin stripe over that purple metal flake, Billy Gibbon!s style, for a rat rod finishing touch. You have an eye for this stuff Dano. A talented singer/songwriter/performer for sure, with the classic era style of building stunning hot rod show and go guitars. Another DannyBoy original! frank d.
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I love playing guitar
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#7
02-23-2023, 09:28 AM
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LOVE this!
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#8
02-23-2023, 10:02 AM
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Hi Daniel,
Man, that came out looking GREAT! I really like that purple body color! The whole thing looks fantastic! - Glenn
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My You Tube Channel
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#9
02-23-2023, 10:03 AM
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That's a beautiful guitar!
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https://www.mcmakinmusic.com
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#10
02-23-2023, 10:19 AM
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Send me the bound black body please. That's beautiful!
8lbs. isn't unusual for a Tele by the way. I have one that weighs as much as my Les Paul. It's always fun to mod Fenders IMO because it's like changing outfits for the seasons. You can always switch back to the black one if you want. Enjoy the beautiful new body, it looks sweet!
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1990 Martin D16-M Gibson J45 Eastman E8D-TC Pono 0000-30DC Yamaha FSX5, LS16, FG830, FSX700SC Epiphone EF500-RAN 2001 Gibson '58 Reissue LP 2005, 2007 Gibson '60 Reissue LP Special (Red&TV Yel) 1972 Yamaha SG1500, 1978 LP500 Tele's and Strats 1969,1978 Princeton Reverb 1972 Deluxe Reverb Epiphone Sheraton, Riviera DeArmond T400 Ibanez AS73 Quilter Superblock US[/I]
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#11
02-23-2023, 11:58 AM
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Whoops. You put the neck back on upside down!
 Good looking guitar, and tone or not-tone, I dislike heavy guitars.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses....
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#12
02-23-2023, 12:19 PM
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Quote:
Congrats to the OP on finding a nice looking and sounding tele body!
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https://www.mcmakinmusic.com
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#13
02-23-2023, 02:21 PM
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I don't like heavy guitars either.Quote:
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#15
02-23-2023, 08:55 PM
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Congrats - Looks great!
I did the same thing with a 10 pound Squier CV50's Tele. Great Tele, but WAY too heavy.. I lived with the weight for quite a while, but finally did something about it. So I swapped out the body for a lightweight GFS paulownia body, and couldn't be happier. And best of all, it still sounds the same!  
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