#cv50

Phase 1

Here's a bone stock Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster, by Fender.

A really wonderful guitar, even stock, from Fender's budget line of guitars.

The original plan was just to sand off the high polyurethane finish on the body, because I like matte finishes, and I think the high shine looks cheap. Then I figured I'd do the neck, too, for playability's sake. I can't stand sticky necks. As a matter of fact, that was always my main complaint about my beloved Rickenbacker 360, and I took a scotchbrite pad to its neck, as recommended by Rickenbacker's CEO, John Hall. But that's for another post ...

I completely dismantled the body to sand every piece. Since I had to remove all the hardware from the body, I finely brushed it with fine grit 200 sandpaper, and placed all of them in a plastic tupperware tub, inside a larger tub. In that larger tub I put a quarter cup of regular white vinegar and put the lid on it and let it fume the chrome parts overnight to give it a slight patina. It was at this point I decided to not only dull the finish, but to do a slight relic job to the body.

And here's the finished project of the first phase of the project. I ended up using my random orbital Black & Decker with the same 200 grit sandpaper, and got a little aggressive on the edges and on the upper body, to give it a used look.  Fake? Sure. Pretentious? Maybe. But I like how it looks and, especially, feels, compared to the stock finish.  Besides I had some nicks and dings I could cover up with the relic job.  

Now, the stock pickguard was a thick shiny chunk of plastic. Not only did it look cheap but it also didn't match the new matte finish, so I got a replacement from Warmoth.

At this same time, I was jonesing pretty hard for a Les Paul, or a PRS; something with humbuckers. But due to some unforeseen plumbing work in our rental house, it was out of the budget. So I did the next best thing, and that's:

Phase 2 - Fat Tele

Remember how I said it was a fantastic guitar? Well, that's mostly true. But like most guitars at this price point, the electronics are flaky at best. The pots had a terrible dropoff taper and the switch was already flaking out on me. The neck pickup wasn't bad but it wasn't exactly wonderful either. The bridge pickup is actually great.

It's not uncommon for a Telecaster to have a humbucker in the neck position. But I'm a sucker for versatility, so in researching my tonal options, I discovered that Fender made a Telecaster from 97 to 03 that they called the Fat Tele. Not only did the Fat Tele have a humbucker in the neck, but that bucker had a coil split option, allowing you to run it in a single-coil configuration. Fender even has the full schematic and parts list on their website. I knew this was the one.

I got the electronics from GFS. They have a longstanding reputation for outstanding pickups at great prices.  I replaced the stock 3-way switch with 5-way Strat switch, replaced 250k tone and volume pots with 500k pots, one linear for tone. Replaced stock capacitor with .022uf Sprague Orange Drop cap.

After some deliberation, I went with GFS's Bigmouth humbucker for the neck position.  It has a reputation of very convincing single-coil sounds when it's split.

So using this schematic (courtesy of Deaf Eddie on The Telecaster Discussion Forum), I wired it up as such:

Position 5: Full humbucker

Position 4: Split humbucker (single coil)

Position 3: Full humbucker + bridge pickup

Position 2: Split humbucker + bridge pickup

Position 1: Bridge pickup only (Twang Central Station)

After some trial and error, she's all done. This was more than a refinishing job, it was a total rebirth. The guitar sounds completely different. It's still vintage, but now it has a ballsier sound.