Who is modding a Tele? Chime in

[Rudy4]

I love Teles and love lightweight Teles even more. I purchased 2 MIMs many years back and made new hollow bodies for them. Other mods to suit my needs like top jacks, Texas Specials, re-positioned controls, 4 way switching, stainless bridge plates, Dunlop Straploks, etc.

Might as well make 'em your own!

[Andyfreddy]

Not really “MODs” …but I spent the afternooon solving. A few issues in my new squire affinity telecaster:

-filed fret ends and polished frets, rounded over fingerboard a tiny bit.
-added copper shielding tape in cavites and guards. Solder-.wired the sheilding tape to ground.
-oiled fingerboard.
-new 10 gauge strings to replace the 9’a it came with.
-adjusted string height and into intonation
-adjusted pickup height.


Made a big difference, ground loop buzz went from unplayable to “almost” gone tiny bit left, but not sure if that is just the 60-cycle hum…

Strings feel better to my acoustic fingers, and frets feel better.

String volume balance is better… neck pickup used to have louder bass than treble.

[davidd]

Just put some Bootstrap Extra Crispy pickups in my Road Worn Tele. I also lightly scuffed the pickguard and then shot some lacquer on it.

Painted many Tele's over the years. I even restored to a certain extent my buddies '59 Tele which had been highly abused through the years.

[Guitarplayer_PR]

Three Telecasters. Modifications?

1. Telecaster Vintera 50s: changed the pickguard from white to parchment and changed the bridge from stock to a Wilkinson compensated bridge
2. Telecaster Aerodyne Special: it has a 4-way switch (the 4th. position is the neck+bridge in series) and changed the pickups to Gen4 Noiseless
3. Telecaster Vintera Deluxe 70s: NO MODIFICATION WHATSOVER

[Andyfreddy]

I just finished a complete electronics gut of my Squire affinity Tele:

-replaced all electronics with a pre-wired control plate with nice quality pots/caps/jack, and most inmortainf: A 4-way switch!

-replaced pickups with Tonerider Hot Classics…

-I had previously setup the action, filed a few fret ends, and added full copper tape shielding.

I’m beyond happy. The guitar just sings now, plays great, is quiet, and the added 4th position with both pickups in series is great…though I still might like the bridge pickup sound the best.

[rockabilly69]

Bigsby Tele



Copper Esquire

[imwjl]

Been there, done that, and went back. When I got my Dave's/Wildwood Thin Skin '68 reissue 12 or so years ago I had a '52 AVRI and Highway One plus some 3rd party pickups.

With those differences the stuff present I moved components around and played same things into my looper's channels so I could compare differences. I found them to be subtle, casual listeners could not hear a difference.

I put everything back to stock, sold the 3rd party pickups, and now from the dozen years, maybe a nitrocellulose finish, the guitar and pick guard have changed color and all look nicely blended. It was a fun exercise at the time but as far as Telecasters I consider myself done and set for life.



P.S. I also understand the premium these have when they show on Reverb but say go for it. They are super nice.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by imwjl

"I found them to be subtle, casual listeners could not hear a difference..

I put everything back to stock, sold the 3rd party pickups, and now from the dozen years, maybe a nitrocellulose finish, the guitar and pick guard have changed color and all look nicely blended."

That's a nice looking Thinline! And sometimes Fender gets it right and you have a guitar that just plain works perfect for your situation. Sounds like you have found exactly that! And when I find a guitar like that I feel lucky

I bought a Wildwood Thin Skin Jaguar that sounds great stock, although I bought it used, and whoever had it before me never had it properly set up, so it took a bit to dial it in. It didn't need any new parts except for a slight shim in the neck, an $8.00 part.



As for changing components, and just getting subtle differences, I say sometimes that's true, but in my experience sometimes the differences are pretty big.

I have swapped certain pickup sets into some Teles that really brought them to life. One pickup that really brought a guitar to life was the Seymour Duncan Billy Gibbons Tele bridge pickup. While still sounding like a Tele, it gave my guitar enough output to get the amp that I was using with it into the zone. I've also swapped stock Fender pickups for some reasonably priced replacements made by Rob Distanfano (Cavalier pickups), and in every case they were better sounding than stock Fender pickups.

I've also swapped bridges which seemed to intonate better, be more comfortable (with cutouts on the side so they don't bite into my hand), and ring a little more. One bridge that I love is an actual Fender part that uses compensated bullet saddles that are rounded, and have screws that aren't overly long so they don't poke into my hand. It also has a mini ashtray that helps with comfort. I like some of things that Fender does with the American Standards because they incorporate some cool new features, and that bridge is one of them. But some of them have the V mod pickups which for me DEFINITELY work.



And I've played around quite a bit with pots and cap values that make my guitars more usable.

So some mods I did were not only for sound, but for feel, and a guitar that feels right seems to inspire me more.

It's funny, of the six telecaster I put together, none of them sound the same to me, they all have something that sets them apart, which I find very interesting since they are such a simple guitar to begin with.

But, I didn't stop with just changing pickups once, I tried many different bodies, necks, pickups, electronics and hardware till I found combinations that worked for each of them. I'll probably sell off some of these guitars since I have quite a few other guitars, as I definitely have some favorites of the bunch, but man did I learn about what makes a great Telecaster tick for me

[Steev]

The best mod I have done to my tele is the Babicz 'full contact' bridge.
Increased sustain with fine tuning of height and intonation adjustment. Solid and saddles lock in place and don't drift.

https://www.fullcontacthardware.com/fch-tele-bridge

[Ramblin' Dude]

at least two of the Teles in the photos above have the best mod IMO - the Kirchen mod of flipping the switch plate and having the volume mod in the forward position and the selector switch in the rear. My primary tele has that wiring and I love it. Occasionally using the right pinkie to create some swells is a fun little tele trick.

That one is a surf green with rosewood board and matched Lollar pickups - humbucker in the neck.

[Matthew Sarad]

I put a new neck and pickups in/on my Butterscotch MIM.
I'm converting my red sparkle Squier into an Esquire with a 1997 Fender Tele bridge pickup and pots with a new pick guard.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Ramblin' Dude

at least two of the Teles in the photos above have the best mod IMO - the Kirchen mod of flipping the switch plate and having the volume mod in the forward position and the selector switch in the rear. My primary tele has that wiring and I love it. Occasionally using the right pinkie to create some swells is a fun little tele trick.

That one is a surf green with rosewood board and matched Lollar pickups - humbucker in the neck.

One of those Teles is mine, and I learned that trick from watching Bill Kirchen close up He's a friend of mine, he actually played with my duet when we did a showcase in Austin for winning Utah's South By Southwest contest. I've played a few other shows with him too. He played a full set with my duet in Sun Valley. And we opened up for him in Ogden Utah a few times. After our opening sets, he would call us up to play a few songs with him. He actually taught me a trick where I strap on his guitar and play the lower three strings of his Tele, while he reaches around me and plays the higher 3 strings! We called it the two headed guitar monster and people loved it, I played the rhythm to Mystery Train by Elvis while he played the lead!

[gmr]

I’m just a plain old couch picker type player. I picked up one of the 40th anniversary Teles. The satin blond. That finish is kinda horrible, honestly. The “aging” on the metal parts is not very good. But the guitar is nice. I shielded the cavities, put quick connections on the pickups for some future tinkering, brushed the metal pieces to polish them up a bit. Now, some of the copper color shows under the formerly gritty looking chrome and there is a nice semi polished look on the metal bits. I wet sanded the body and tried to polish it up a bit. Since the finish was that satin texture thing, the final sand from the factory was not given a lot of attention, but the imperfections give it a broken in look, I think. I Replaced the bridges with the brass intonated types. Not perfect by any means, but I like it. The neck on this thing is excellent!

[Rumblefish]

Edit: Photos are too much of a PITA on this site. Oh, well.

I took an FSR Tele and added a custom shop bridge. Those things are tough to find aftermarket and are very comfortable to rest your hand on. I spiced it up with some Rutters burled knobs and switch-tip, along with a 3/8" over switchplate. The switchplate moves the pickup selector a little further from the knobs, a simple, quality-of-life mod that I've grown quite accustomed to. Lastly, a set of DiMarzio Area 51 noiseless pickups. This is my modern Tele with the tummy cut, and forearm cut with the Fender Thin Skin finish. I also have a traditional double-bound Tele with a 3-barrel bridge, and, conventional single coils.