I decided to go with a telemaster style guitar since I recently switched from playing les paul style guitars to my telecaster in my band. I also wanted to have a different body shape then the telecaster I already have but wanted to keep a similar sound. I kept the telecaster style neck pickup but switched to a humbucker size pickup in the bridge. I'm not planning on going for a full humbucker though, instead opting for a humbucker size p90. I did this for several reasons. I wanted to keep my options open in the future incase I wanted to switch pickups and there are many more humbucker choices. I also like the p90 sound as it is a bit fatter then a single coil while being a bit more raw then a humbucker. I also have never really dug the full twang of a tele, always preferring the sound of the neck pickup. This way I can keep some of the twang but minimize it to a tolerable level. I have also recently switched to a quarter pound set of pickups in my telecaster which provide a similar type of set up to this.
The pickups are from guitar fetish and are their dream 90 for the bridge and a repro vintage alnico tele neck. These are going to be hooked up to a 4 way switch which I am going to wire for neck/neck+bridge parallel/bridge/neck+bridge series. Normally a 4 way switch is wired so the the bridge alone setting is all the way on one side but I use the neck more and want to be able to slam the switch forward to my default position and not have to worry about setting it to a between setting. I am also installing a killswitch for shits and giggles. I haven't ever used one before, but I figured why not since Johnny Greenwood from radiohead uses one and his tele is set up in a similar way. I am going to try it with the "vintage les paul wiring" which means the tone pot goes between the volume pot and the tone pot from the volume pots middle lug. This is a bit different and makes the knobs interact a bit differently. We shall see if this adds anything to the mojo of the guitars tone. The tone cap itself is going to be a .033uf orange drop because again, tonz.
I am going to stain it an ebony color and use tung oil to finish it. I never liked shiny finishes and have always like the natural wood look. Thanks to skullservant for some tips since he finished a few of his guitars in the same way. I will pair this with the cream colored pickguard. I am still waiting on it but I ordered a warmoth neck which will be a tele reverse headstock with the vintage nitro finish.
But on to pics:
I will post updates as they come.
