Fender Lite Ash Tele

[Bloozcat]

Anyone have any experience with these Fender Lite Ash Tele's?

They're MIK, and seem to get universally great reviews. I like all the features on this one.

http://www.sweetwater.com/images/guitars/TeleLtAshNat/KC07027042/KC07027042-front-l.jpg

Fender Light Ash Telecaster Features:
• Special Edition Series.
• Color: Natural, (Polyurethane Finish).
• Body: Light Weight Ash.
• Neck: Birdseye Maple, Modern "C" Shape,(Satin Polyurethane
finish).
• Machine Heads: Cast/Sealed Tuning Machines.
• Fingerboard: Birdseye Maple 9.5" Radius (241mm).
• No. Of Frets: 22 Medium Jumbo Frets.
• Pickups: Seymour Duncan® APTR-1, APTL-1, (Neck/Bridge)
(AP=Alnico Pro).
• Controls: Master Volume, Master Tone.
• Bridge: Vintage Style with 3 Brass Saddles.
• Pickup Switching: 3-Position Blade:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups
Position 3. Neck Pickup
• Hardware: Chrome.
• Strings: FENDER® Super 250L, Nickel Plated Steel, (.009 to .042).
• Pickguard: 1-Ply Black.
• Scale Length: 25.5" (648 mm).
• Width At Nut: 1.625".
• Introduced: 1/2004.

[Spudman]

They are high quality. The 2 I played sounded real nice, all the controls worked great and the action felt good. Much better product IMHO than the Lite Ash Strats.

[Bloozcat]

They are high quality. The 2 I played sounded real nice, all the controls worked great and the action felt good. Much better product IMHO than the Lite Ash Strats.

Yeah, I was kind of surprised to read all the great reviews on the Lite Ash Tele, when there are so many bad reviews on the Lite Ash Strat. Must be a different production line or something.

BTW: I thought about you last nite Spudman, while I was watching the Boise State vs. Southern Miss game on the blue carpet. I though as I watched, "Hey this is up in Spud's neck of the woods."

[rkwrenn]

I got both a Strat and Tele in the natural finish. Great players. Loud too. They come with 500k pots instead of the normal 250k. At least the ones I got did. I got them in December 2005.

Nice neck on the Tele, C shape and a little thicker than my American ones. Very comfortable.

Soft V Shape neck on the Strat. NICE. Once I played it I couldn't leave it at the store.

So far I have put Schaller mini tuners on both. I have the same tuners on all my Fenders so they'll all feel the same. I also installed b/w/b Fender pickguards on both of them too. Didn't like the single ply ones.

Fender Tele pickguard fit well under the 22nd fret neck extension but some screwholes didn't line up. No problem. It did require a little Dremel action to accomodate the control plate. The control plate is little oversize. There were some minor differences in pickguard shapes too.

Strat PG was a little more difficult. It needed 'significant' Dremel action for the neck. I used machine screws to bolt the two pickguards together and used the original as a template. And, of course, more than a few screwholes didn't line up. Result looks great.

Installed a new nut on the Strat and plan to do so on the Tele. The original one in the Strat is hollow plastic. I remember thinking that unamplified, compared to my other guitars, these sounded a little 'not so piano like' if that makes sense. So far, the new nut is a big improvement.

Both guitars have two string trees and they're not aligned that well. More noticable on the D/G pair. The Tele B/E pair looks good. I left the string slots deep enough on the Strat nut so I don't need either tree.

Installed 10's on both and did a setup. I still plan to replace the pots and switches. I use CRL pots, CTS switches and Switchcraft plugs in 'everything'. I got all the parts but just need to get the time. But I am a 'tinkerer'. With a good setup both of these guitars are fine 'right off the shelf'.
:Dude:

I'll try to take some pics and post them later this weekend.

Cheers and HTH,

Bob

[Bloozcat]

"I use CRL pots, CTS switches and Switchcraft plugs in 'everything'. I got all the parts but just need to get the time. But I am a 'tinkerer'. With a good setup both of these guitars are fine 'right off the shelf'."

Ah, a tinkerer after my own heart, there rkwrenn...:D

[rkwrenn]

Some additional notes:

The Tele is a bottom loader but the bridge is also drilled so it can be a top loader.

Necks are 4 bolt with no micro tilt.

Glued on fretboards.

Whammy bar on the Strat is a larger diameter than other MIA, MIM and MIJ.

HTH

Bob

[gtrwrks]

Dig what this cat did with his Lite Ash Tele:

http://www.multi.fi/~nproject/51Caster/

Beautifully detailed website.

[Bloozcat]

Dig what this cat did with his Lite Ash Tele:

http://www.multi.fi/~nproject/51Caster/

Beautifully detailed website.

He certainly went through a lot of work on that project, but it seems to have turned out well. It probably would have been easier to have just started with an unfinished body....but I guess he wanted to go with what he had. And although MIK, it's still Fender.

[Bloozcat]

I'm looking at this one too, The G&L Tribute ASAT Classic. It's an even better deal than the Fender, and it's designed by Leo himself as well. I like the bridge better on the ASAT also. It gets great reviews.
http://www.glguitars.com/Tribute/instruments/pics/large/GLTS_ASAT_Classic_NAT_MP.jpg

[Bloozcat]

Well, it always seems to end up like this...

I decided that I wanted a Tele, so I've been looking around at what's available that suits my criteria. I like the looks of the Lite Ash Tele, but not everything about it. I like the looks and features of the Agile TC-1000 Tele clone, but there won't be any of them until "sometime in 2008" according to Kurt at Rondo. I also like the G&L Tribute ASAT, but I don't see many of them around in natural ash at a price I'd like to pay.

So, I ended up doing what I've done so many times before - I ordered a body and a neck - and I'm just going to build one myself.

Here's what I ordered:

A 2-piece ash body made to vintage 50's Fender specs.

A vintage spec 1-piece maple/maple neck with the following:

1-11/16" width at the nut
21 - 6150 frets
9-1/2" radius
1952 soft V neck back contour
5/16" tunning key holes for Kluson type tuners

I plan to use a Wilkinson bridge with the three compensated brass bridge saddles, Wilkinson Kluson style tuners, a GFS 1960's Repro bridge pickup and a Vintage Vibe custom wound 7.0k, 43 ga. wire neck pickup with a nickel silver cover. Of course, I'll use the usual CTS pots, Orange Drop caps, and vintage cloth wiring. But on the selector switch, I plan to use a Yamaha 5-way switch that I'll wire for an extra two options.

I'm going to finish the neck and body in a vintage amber tint with a black pickguard, so it'll end up looking like a vintage Fender Tele, with a little extra under the hood...:AOK:

I ordered the body and neck from this company, B. Hefner, who some of you undoubtedly know of:

http://www.guitar-alley.com/

This is probably project # twobazillion in line now I think...:D