u/WilcoLovesYou

I somehow went for a little while without a Tele, then I came back with two of them (kinda.) They're not Fenders, but they're incredible.

The one on the left is a DWG (Dan Wolf Guitars) Chubby HT that I bought used. Dan makes his guitars in the US, he makes the bodies, necks and even the pickups himself all for incredibly reasonable prices. This has a swamp ash body, maple neck, and ebony fretboard. It plays great, feels super comfortable and is surprisingly light weight for an ash body.

It originally came with some humbuckers that were really hot. I reached out to him and asked if he could make a set that were a little lower output and more chimey. He came back with the idea of doing slug magnet humbucker. Instead of there being bar magnets under the coils, the poles are the magnets, like most single coils and Fender Wide Range humbuckers. The result is a beautifully clear sounding guitar. These might be my favorite pickups. I'm having him make me a custom guitar now, a quasi-Telemaster, which should be ready this winter.

On the right is a 2014 Creston T-Style guitar. Creston Lea makes guitars up in Vermont and has a great reputation for his builds. He's built stuff for a lot of alt-country / Americana people, along with Ian MacKaye of Fugazi / The Evens.

This has an alder body, mahogany neck and rosewood fretboard. It's really lightweight, and it has a V-Neck. This is my first experience with a v-neck, but for someone who plays with their thumb over the top (for better or worse) it's super comfortable.

It currently has a Lollar Firebird pickup in the neck which definitely does the "big single coil" thing. It honestly almost sounds stratty. It has a Gemini Telecaster pickup in the bridge, which I'm honestly not in love with. It's a little honky and nasal. I have a Bootstrap Pretzel on the way which I've used in other Teles and loved.

Needless to say, I'm back in the Tele fold.

I snagged this yesterday. I had a Gretsch Player's Edition Anniversary but I couldn't make it work for me. I have a round front, it has a round back. That caused issues. I also have my Filtertron needs covered by a Player's Edition Duo Jet, so off it got traded, straight up.

I've been traditional Tele-less for a while now, so I'm glad to have one back in the fold. I've never had a butterscotch one, so that's a lot of fun. It needed a small shim in the neck, otherwise the saddles were decked down to the bridge, and I had to file down the nut a smidge, but other than that it was good to go. A few tiny little specs of wear, but that's OK with me. One thing I forgot about is in that it's a vintage reissue it has all flathead screws. Now, Leo may have gotten several things right the first time, this wasn't one of them. Whatever, I'll deal.

After doing a quick and dirty setup I plugged it in to my Tweed Princeton(ish) amp, man oh man, does that do the thing. Raunchy, edgy, everything you want on the Bridge pickup. Middle position is mellow and chimey and the neck is smooth. Rock the bridge pickup with a treble booster and it's even better.

Can't wait to mess around with this more.