3-Ways

Coming up... 3-ways.

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(Thank you to the guys at The Music Zoo for these wonderfully clear photos of my guitar insides).

How to Date Your Tele/ Esquire Pot

Next up... how to date your pot(s)... This is a 1958 Telecaster Potentiometer (Pot) from my Esquire, which reads (clockwise) '250K...AUDIO...137...947...3596. After 1952, ALL Fender Pots have '250k' on them... if they don't, they have come from another brand of guitar. Here are a couple examples of how to read the numbers on your Pot: If the code says '304 521'... you ignore the 304 portion (which is the manufacturer's code... 304 was for Stackpole, and 137 was for CTS... 140 would be a Clarisat pot), and use the 521... in this case... the '5' means from 1955, and the '21' means the 21st week of 1955. What if there are a total of 7 numbers... for instance; '304 5913'... once again, ignore the 304 portion, and date using the '5913'... in this case it would mean... the 13th week of 1959. Either of these 'code schemes' are genuine. In the case of my Pot, we read the '947'... which would mean the 47th week of 1959, for the manufacture date. Remember, Leo (at Fender) probably had these delivered pretty quickly to his shop, where they were immediately made available to be assembled into guitars. I hear Leo was 'tight'... so it is possible he would order a week or two supply at one time... and then go through them making guitars (this is just conjecture on my part, after reading a lot about the early Fender manufaturing process).

Insides....

Here is what is inside my 1958 Esquire. There are many things you want to check for in here, before buying. However, a lot
of the talent in knowing where to look will come from study and hands-on experience with vintage Fender guitars. Since this is
'Spotting the Fakes 101' we are going to keep it fairly simple. Esquires used a three cap (short for Capacitor) set-up and one resistor. In 1956 Fender used something called a Cornell Dubilier, but just after that went to flat white caps called 'phonebooks'. Caps were .05 @100V s. Now that you see how complex this can get, all you want to know is who to take it to for an appraisal and a little about what is going on inside yourself (since you are buying the guitar). The little photo here is a .05 @100V Cap (the phone book one looks like a little phone book, no joke). When it comes to the wiring, and the soldering... a professional can tell if the connections are 'original' or have been re-done. If anyone out there has ever assembled (as a kid) one of those 'make it yourself' transistor radios, and had to mess up the soldering, you know that the more you re-do things on a connection, the worse it looks, and the more 'mess' you leave. Suffice it to say things should look rather clean with all connections, and all the parts (for the given Fender year) should be correct. Since this Esquire once had been converted to a Tele by someone, and then put back to original again with a period correct Fender wiring harness, the connections you see should be mostly original, apart from a couple that it would have been necessary to resolder to get the harness back into the guitar and attached to the pickup and jack attachments.

Bones...

How is your bone nut... or maybe it's plastic, brass or even graphite. If it's bone (for tone... and my favorite)... then maybe if it's on a 50's Fender guitar, it's worn out. If it's any of the other materials, it might be poorly made. Did you know that a badly worn or poorly made nut can ruin your Electric guitar's playability
and tone? Hand fitted nuts for your guitar take at least an hour to be made... to be fitted to your guitar properly.. assuming the person knows what they are doing. To check to see if your nut is overly worn... fret each string at the third fret, and then try and slide a piece of regular paper (a little piece) between the fretted string, and the first fret. If the piece of paper doesn't slide right in, you may be looking at buzzing on the open strings (either now, or soon) which will require someone (skilled) to install a new nut on your guitar. As I say, I love bone nuts... but graphite also has it's place... I have owned guitars with graphite nuts, and many professionals swear by them. I tend to only like my plastic on my cars, and I limit plastic on guitars to where absolutely necessary.

Blitzen Trapper...

Real Broadcaster Neck

I just saw on-line that someone has taken all the measurements from early Broadcaster and No-Caster necks, and come up with a copy of the 'average' clubby neck from that period... but I bet they forgot something. I once owned a real-to-God Broadcaster (it was in the Banos Blackguard book too). If you look at the arrows on this diagram, you can see (I hope) how an early Broadcaster neck (from when they were totally hand-carved... basically) had a slightly flat area on each side of the fretboard (which I actually miss on more modern Tele's). If you don't get an original Broadcaster, or alternately have someone customize a neck to your liking, you will not find this shape anywhere. In addition, the bottom of the neck (where it fits in the palm of your hand) had a pronounced 'V' shape that you could definitely feel as you played it. To tell the truth, the neck also was not as 'fat' as some 1953 Tele's I owned... granted my Broadcaster neck wasn't as thin as a late 50's Tele (for sure, as they can be really thin)... but since they were all individually shaped back in 1950, there was a lot of variation between necks. I do miss my Broadcaster... even if the body was a 'refin'....it's all about the sound and feel (as we know).

Back To School...

It's time to go back to school. You don't need to cover any textbooks though (with the missing pages in them), don't need to sign up for stuff with coach, or Glee Club... or anything else you remember about school. There will also be no short-bus, with someone behind you putting a lugie in your hair. I am going to educate you about spotting fakes... especially with something like a '58 Esquire (my guitar here). We can start with 'What is the correct serial number range for a guitar like this?'. The correct answer (not only in the Fender Guitar book I have, but also here)is in the 25000 to 30000 range, with some "0" and "-" prefixes mixed in. There is also a Fender serial number web page here. Granted, if Leo (or his employees) rarely found a missing plate around the shop (this was very rare) the serial number might be out of this range. Some plates might have serial numbers on both sides too... so don't worry if that is the case with your guitar, it is normal. My guitar is #026330.. so all is cool. (Apparently Leo would make these plates in batches, and they would all be put into a box... so there was little order as to when they were put onto guitars (in each batch). Next lets look at the bridge pickup cavity... it says 6/58 (June 1958)... and the date on the end of the neck is (as you can see) 7/58. This is good, since you don't want these to be more than a couple months apart. It is actually difficult to forge an original 'untouched' Esquire or Tele of this period from parts since the holes are unlikely to ever match up just right... as you
can see here, there is only the correct number of holes in the neck from the screws... five. Why five? One is from when the neck was suspended to be painted. If there were more holes, we might suspect the neck and body were not originally on the same guitar. Finally...let's look at the neck pickup cavity... oops! What is wrong here? This is an Esquire... so there should be no holes here. At some point in time, someone put another pickup here, and (basically) made it into a Tele. This was actually more common than you think. This does effect value. I was at a major Guitar store in Hollywood (Vintage... think Eric shops there...) and they had two 1956 Esquires for sale. One had (like mine) once had an extra pickup added to it. It was then restored again to original condition, with a period pickguard... the price difference between the two (modified and restored vs. unmodified) was 10% (a lot depends on how original the rest of the guitar is, and who restored the wiring). Oh... there's the bell... don't forget to study pages 211 through 315... (didn't you hate it when they gave you lots of reading to do?)

Bad Enligh...

No joke... I had to paste this guitar description listed on-line (at a respectable site): " This is guitar exhibition model 60 Stratocaster® Lake Placid Blue Relic! It is very novel one carry P-90, making 60 Stratocaster® basic. If it glances, the tone just a little bit different from Strato will be imagined, but the actual tone has fully inherited Stratocaster® and a real Fender® sound. And the fatty character of P-90 is finished in Stratocaster® which was united well and which can be useful very much. Moreover, the atmosphere of Lake Placid Blue which faded nice, and it settled down into novelty P-90 loading is great combination. Though sound is fat, please enjoy the tone which has never lost Fender-likeness and which was not in ever." Unfortunately, bad Enligh generally scares off most buyers.. at least, after my previous trips to the land of Ebay, I will not send thousands of dollars to someone who has a description (like this). As for this guitar... It is not for sale and has no connection to this post.

Spotting Forgeries

Now, more than ever... in this economic environment... watch out for the Scam. I have gone shopping for guitars on Ebay and been burned at least twice, and always by guitars I had never had any previous experience with. I thought (incorrectly) that if I knew all about Telecasters and Strats, that I would also by default know about San Dimas Charvels. I knew enough about them to get taken. When I took one of these hack jobs to my luthier, he told me that some whiz (probably the guy who sold it to me... even though he denied it over a Bible) had slapped it together, with the intent to defraud some sucker (me). I also had the bad luck to purchase a 1987 PRS, with a 'sweet switch' that had come from Radio Shack, and a pair of pickups that came off another guitar altogether (of course, they were the more common variety pickups). On page 88 of the latest Guitar Aficionado there is a wonderful piece about spotting forgeries. People like this take lots of time to fool even the most savvy of buyers. Granted... nobody is going to try to forge a 1999 Made-in-Mexico Fender Tele -yet... we are talking about higher-end stuff. Please... please...please... don't buy this stuff. Save yourself money. If you don't know the difference between Pearloid inlays and Modern inlays on a Gibson Les Paul... don't trust some guy who is just a big 'unknown quantity'... instead, you should go to a respectable dealer you already know is honest. There are also lots of dealers who place big splashy ads in the magazines, who pull this stuff... so watch out... don't get taken.

Good Match?

Are your pickups a good match? Probably... if they guitar came from the manufacturer that way. What if you are just starting to build your own guitars...or maybe just do major modifications to the ones you have. It is human nature to want to 'make something your own'. Heck, that's why bumper stickers exist. We have all heard about impedence... basically, the opposition something has to electronic current (to simplify). There is also the term resistance... which is sometimes used also... but's let's not get into electronics 101. People use a multimeter to measure this. If both pickups (let's say two humbuckers) are relatively equal in DC resistance, then like two partners where each one is no more crazy than the other, it will be an equal relationship (as far as your ears are concerned). There is currently (as of this entry) a set of original Gibson PAF pickups on EBay, listed as having readings of 7.87 and 7.97... this would match the requirement of two pickups being 'closely matched'.. So what if they are not close? One pickup will then dominate... sort of like in a bad relationship. A few more points to consider; What if we were dealing with one single coil with a reading of 6 kohms, and a humbucker with a reading of 12 kohms? (If your brain is starting to hurt, stop reading now). The usual way to wire pickups is in parallel... so under those conditions, the 6K pickup will dominate. You could modify the wiring to make them all get along though. Modify it to a split coil situation with the humbucker... then they will all match in readings. You can also adjust pickup heights... and get either more or less signal from each pickup. Also... bear in mind that the string signal is weaker near the bridge and is in a higher range, so various pickup arrangements and changes could be made here too, either by you or your guitar tech. To make things sound the way you want lots of adjustments could be made. (Thanks to a guy or gal named purplehaze at rackcreations.com for this info... since I needed to learn it too, and you don't see this discussed much on-line).

Heavy Bottoms...

Yes... I bought one of these EVH aged and signed humbuckers. It sits in my drawer along with all the other pickups and odds and ends that I always like
to have handy, in case the end of the world comes. Some people want food supplies in their garage, and lots of water... for
me it's 1963 Strat jacks, early blackguard wiring pieces and lots of odd pickups with special sounds... talking about sounds...I have been reading a bit on-line about the early EVH sound. I seem to have the same feeling most people do... that the average 1959 humbucker copy has lots of output, along with heavy bottom edge tone. But I get tired of heavy bottom edge tone after a while. EVH's early version of the humbucker also has a great clarity and lively "punch". Part of this (granted) is the way EVH hits the strings with all those harmonics. If you want this sound without paying more than you have to, Seymour Duncan has their "Custom Custom" pickup, which is priced at about twice the regular one, but at $140 not bad (you can get it for less, read more), for that 'early' EVH sound. Their website lists players of this pickup as Josh Homme/ Michael Wilton of Queens of the Stone Age/ Clint Lowery of Queensryche. I just got the Black/ Bridge one with no logo for $82.95...from Musician's friend. It's going in my drawer.

Looker or Player???

A certain-famous-ex-lead-guitar-player is selling his #1 Guitar... a pink 1956 Fender Tele. It's definitely a player. What I mean is... this guitar will truly sound amazing. I'll take a player over a looker any day. A looker is a really neat guitar that has great eye-candy-appeal, but maybe sounds like cr*p.

Well, ok... it can't sound like cr*p, but maybe it sounds like 'any other guitar' you might find any day of the week at your local guitar store. I currently own two lookers... and wish I had two players instead. My question though is... do you have to pay big dollar for the player? If you want that specific sound, and you know so-and-so is selling his player..and you want that sound... you might have to put up your money, but the best way is to put in the time to try out guitars for sale... at pawn shops, used-equipment stores.. you name it. When you pull into town in Nebraska to see your Uncle, maybe ask where that local used-guitar store/ pawn shop is... and put in that time test-playing. I know for a fact that 'that-certain-well-known-lead-players' guitar is listed on Ebay at 40K right now... you can do a lot better (I think) if you put in a little time looking for some treasure currently waiting (with your name on it)... It's out there somewhere... and by the way... that is exactly the way that lead guitarist selling his pink '56 Tele found his guiar... walking into a second-hand store in Hollywood 25 years ago.

Good Times

Is punk coming back again... at least the style? Or is it just another New York August, where people suddenly use the end of summer as an excuse for a change... the New York Times said yesterday in it's style section that certain hairstyles have been making a comeback... I remember going to see the movie Grease in 1978, at Mamaroneck theater in Mamaroneck New York... it was a hot summer day, and my friends and myself and my brother piled into my 1968 Station Wagon, and then spent the later part of an afternoon staring at Olivia Newton John. We were (of course) oblivious to the thirty-something men and women who had really been there in 1959, and had come to see the movie with us to relive their memories. As we all know, there is a big difference between what really happened 'back then', and our candy-coated-happy memories of those 'good times'. I saw some Punk Rock 'Collection' toted on iTunes recently... the ones on their list were not even on mine in 1978... in fact, some of the groups toted as Punk Rock fav's on their album, were considered "also-ran's" at the time. I remember Elvis Costello, The Damned, Sex Pistols, the B-52's, Debbie Harry of Blondie...Lena Lovich, Wreckless Eric, Madness, Sting and the Police and of course Generation X. New York had CBGB's, Studio 54 at 254 W. 54th, and the Mudd Club at 77 White street (as of October '78). The summers were just as hot and everyone felt young and it would never end and everyone older passed you on the street and they were not invited to the party. Movies help to warp our memories, as if thos memories wouldn't do it all by themselves anyway; like a 33 rpm Stiff record album, left on a hot radiator.

More Posts Coming Soon!

We have been hard at work, thinking of new Guitar Ideas, learning new things about Guitars,
and (of course)... following all things Fender! Expect new posts coming soon....