marnold
February 15th, 2007, 09:22 PM
I went into a local non-mega music store today (Dick's Music in Green Bay, WI, FWIW) to talk with one of their repairmen about my Charvel Tele. He was also going to let me try his Tele that has a Donahue mod on it. He was late getting there so I futzed with his guitar for a bit. I was about to leave when he showed up. I showed him my guitar and that hatchet job of wiring that had been done on it. As I stood there, he corrected the wiring mistakes, solved a short, and soldered and shrink-tubed things together correctly. Now my pickups are properly in phase in the middle position. It's like I got a new guitar! I asked him what I owed him and he said nothing. Hard to beat that. That's why I go out of my way to shop there. I may pay a bit more (although my AD30VT was the same price there as it was at MF), but it's worth it. I'll be buying the parts for my eventual upgrade there.
Having played his Tele, I've determined that I definitely want a single-coil sound for the bridge. He did say that my rails-style humbucker is either or an OBL or a, gasp, Barden. If it is a Barden, the previous owner of this guitar was a real idiot. That pickup would probably be worth more than I paid for the whole guitar. It would probably pay for a good chunk of the mods I'd like to do to this one. It definitely isn't hot. It registered in the mid 6K range for impedance, same as the stock neck Jackson. That's probably why I don't like it. It doesn't have the punch of a humbucker or the tone of a single coil.
Having played his Tele, I've determined that I definitely want a single-coil sound for the bridge. He did say that my rails-style humbucker is either or an OBL or a, gasp, Barden. If it is a Barden, the previous owner of this guitar was a real idiot. That pickup would probably be worth more than I paid for the whole guitar. It would probably pay for a good chunk of the mods I'd like to do to this one. It definitely isn't hot. It registered in the mid 6K range for impedance, same as the stock neck Jackson. That's probably why I don't like it. It doesn't have the punch of a humbucker or the tone of a single coil.