HB TE-70 Rosewood Tele - Oh Bugger!

Chalky

Ordered 1pm Tuesday and delivered 9am Friday. Opened the the box and oh bugger! Mega problem!

It looks great and despite my hardest prejudices it plays good too! Mega problem is that it seems to need almost nothing doing to it!

Only cosmetic blemish is round the neck pocket but very minor and too small to photograph. Wiring works too though the tone control does nothing until it is almost fully off. Pickups are usual Wilkinson quality - good but not great. Fret ends are not super smooth - if this was £250 it would be ho-hum but at £107 you lower your quality bar to the bottom and accept such minor things.

Initial thoughts:
-New pickups, maybe new pickguard to accomodate larger neck pickup
-4 way switch
-Drill body and add ferrules for string through body
-Tidy frets
-New nut
-New bridge possibly
-10 guage strings

but not necessarily in that order...

underdog

Just had same experience with the explorer, plugged it in to little practice amp I keep at work, and other than electric and fret polish it's a hell of a guitar.

stimpsonslostson

This thread NEEDS pictures!!

Well done, I considered one of those too! My TE52 genuinely surprised me- it's fine, a perfectly serviceable guitar for £90! As with yours the wilkinson p'ups are nothing special, but they work just fine. 

Megii

Your description of the tone pot sounds like it's a linear taper one - FWIW I'd fit it with a log/audio taper one instead, probably a 250K if dealing with typical tele pickups. But sounds like a great buy, the "problem" not withstanding...

Chalky

Some phone quality photos...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d6i7qa631368c11/hbte701.jpg?raw=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a90p7haf0r21cj5/hbte702.jpg?raw=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgu24d7ldh4lkjr/hbte703.jpg?raw=1

Chalky

@Megii - thanks for the advice, will get a log 250k pot sorted.

Megii

Chalky said:

@Megii - thanks for the advice, will get a log 250k pot sorted.

No worries, hope it helps - should do anyway, from experience. That is a really handsome looking guitar you've got yourself there.

impmann

How heavy is yours? I have been considering buying one but reports of them being boat anchors has put me off

JudasVigilante

@impmann Yeah, my TE30 weighs a tonne. Heaviest guitar I own. There's an exact weight for it in my mod thread for the challenge. Can't remember what it was. 

Chalky

@impmann - My TE70 weighs 8lb 4oz. So yes its a bit heavy for a tele.

Chalky

Changed the neck pickup to a Harmonic Design mini strat pickup. Surprised at how bright and airy it sounds even without changing the pots yet.

Roland

@TheGuitarWeasel. How easy is it to make a mini Strat pickup to fit a Tele?

OilCityPickups

Roland said:

@TheGuitarWeasel. How easy is it to make a mini Strat pickup to fit a Tele?

Like the 'Californian' at the bottom of this page you mean?

Chalky

The one at the bottom of this page - http://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html

Chalky

Just ordered a couple of the Oil City tele pickups - Hard Man and Alligator 90 to try. Might try a real P90 when I've cut a bigger hole...

Chalky

Doh! Got the new OilCity pickups but thought the Alligator 90 was a neck pickup! My excuse is I was multi-tasking at the time Oh well I've got to cut a bigger hole now.

Chalky

Ok so the Achilles heel of this guitar is the set of tuners. Thought they were ok but they drift out of tune just too often so need to find some more. Any recommendations or sellers of best slotted or locking tuners?

Dalefty

Like Kluson machine heads?

DaLefty

Roland

Mine has Axesrus locking tuners instead of the Harley Benton originals. £22.50 IIRC

Dalefty

Dalefty said:

Like Kluson machine heads?

DaLefty

Or clones I should say, in 8.5mm.

DaLefty

Chalky

Klusons would be fine and will check out Axesrus...