"Micawber-ized" '06 Tele Standard

[stingx]

I have always liked Keith Richards' Micawber tele - a modified '52 - but I'm not a fan of vintage spec necks so I thought that modifying a regular MIM Tele Standard would be the best route to go. I could have ordered the Keef model that's in production from Fender Japan and changed the neck to a modern spec'd one but that'd been more $$$ and a shame to bastardize such a nice guitar. The '06 used here has the 9.5" radius and medium-jumbo frets that I prefer. This guitar was given to me by a friend so the choice was pretty easy.

The nice thing about the MIM Tele body is that it is made of alder and comes nicely routed in the neck area for either a full-sized humbucker or P90 - no need for any additional routing at all. I ordered a GFS '59 neck humbucker and B/W/B humbucker routed pickgaurd from Guitarfetish. I had spoken with the owner to try an ascertain if the pickguard was a perfect replacement and if the pickup cutout in the scratch plate would cover the cavity routing perfectly. I could get no such definitive confirmation so I rolled the dice and ordered. Total cost was about $60 including tax and shipping.

I received the package the very next day - I don't know how Jay does it but this is the third order from them and I always seem to get next day shipping even though I select ground. Pretty damn fast.

The donor tele had 11 gauge strings on it so I clipped them off, removed the P90 that was installed (it was being used without a pickguard) and cut the wires. I heated up the soldering iron and went to town on my installation. I restrung with D'Addario XL 10s, tweaked the truss rod a bit, and re-intonated.

So here's pretty much the look I was going after:



Keef's Micawber is a honey blonde '52. He, like I, prefers individual saddle adjustment bridges. You can see the bridge was replaced with a gold, modern style. I guess if you're going to slap a humbucker into a tele then there's really no need to concern yourself about losing that tele "twang" by changing the saddles Also, Keef uses a trim ring around the humbucker. This is because the original pickguard was hacked to accommodate the larger pickup and the ring hides the hack job. He's pickup is actually upside down too but I am not sure if that was intentional.

Anyway, here's my creation. The only thing I'd like to do is add vintage tuners to the neck, if possible. I really love and prefer them to modern tuners.

[Spudman***]

You guys are killing me. Those are awesome!

[SuperSwede]

Really nice Tele Pete! We want to hear it

[Fingers]

Love 'em...here's my 2.......

[stingx]

Love 'em...here's my 2.......

Awesome! You even went the whole 9 and removed the E string too! Both look fantastic.

[sunvalleylaw]

Man, I love all three of those! And I guess Keef's too of course. Let's hear 'em! Straight into the Peavey C-30 like normal, Pete?

[Fingers]

Ya gonna need some of these........................


....and some o' this........

[duhvoodooman***]

All the pix are beautiful, except that last one with Keef on the Jack Daniels label.

Beautiful axes, guys--well done!!

[stingx]

Man, I love all three of those! And I guess Keef's too of course. Let's hear 'em! Straight into the Peavey C-30 like normal, Pete?

Here's a short clip that gives a nice example of, what I think, is a beautiful clean produced bt the new neck humbucker. Very lush and full sounding to my ears - hopefully you'll agree. I used my C30 amp which I mic'ed with my Marshall V57M condenser mic. Phantom powered supplied by my Alesis mixer then straight into my Zoom multitracker (it lacks phantom power, hence the use of the Alesis). I applied only minimal effects and that being 'verb on the vocals. Speaking of which, singing is NOT my forte so please keep than in mind when you listen to this I panned the guitar mostly to the left speaker for a little separation.

http://www.box.net/shared/zag9un5scp

[sunvalleylaw]

All the pix are beautiful, except that last one with Keef on the Jack Daniels label.

Check out Fingers's myspace page, linked in the myspace thread. there you can see all sorts of fun Keef stuff!

[Fingers]

Nice one Pete.......sounds lovely. What is the output of that '59'?

A Boring story......................

Last christmas was my birthday, which ended in a '0'.....My wife had said, earlier in the year, "I want to buy you a guitar...." I had always fancied a 'Keef' tele.........so I located a MIJ 52ri at Charlie Chandlers Guitar Experience in Kingston, London........asked them to fit a Lollar Imperial Humbucker......this was in August, Charlie said it would be ready late October....no probs, it is for my B/day close to christmas..........

Whilst waiting for it..............I went to see the Stones, on the Bigger Bang Tour, it was awesome and I could not wait until christmas to get into 'Keef' stuff.........my local guitar emporium had got Squier Butterscotch Tele's for £100........Well, GAS erupted, I got one threw away the white pickguard, fitted a black one, which I had taken the shine off with a bit of wire wool.....routed out a humbucker sized hole and fitted a 'Seth Lover' h/b.....fitted an appropriate set of strings, 5 only and tuned to 'G'.........it is fantastic.......I chose the best out of 6 or 7 guitars.......and through my Vox AD50 it is uncannily close to the current Stones sound.

Come late October I picked up my 'pressie' from Charlie Chandler.............Aaaahhhh........what a beauty......virtually a one piece body..............and it sounds and plays like it looks...........the only thing is I don't have the heart to turn it into a 5 string 'G' tuned Micawber/Malcolm so it stays in standard tuning..................

The twist is, that when I drove down to pick it up and was having a cup of coffee with Charlie, it came out in the conversation that amongst many 'Guitarists' who send their stuff to him.............Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood send their stuff to him to look over both before and during touring...................so my Tele has been modified by the hand that looks after 'Keefs'...................ah, hero worship

Sorry to hijack the thread a little.

[stingx]

Awesome story, Fingers. Honestly, would you say that Squier plays as well as any other Fender you've tried? I never owned a Squier but I have read some reviews where people rave about the Affinity butterscotch model. Just curious I guess.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Great axes all. I LOVE the tone that you get outta that neck 'bucker Pete!

Droool...

[Fingers]

Hmmmmmm......I am the worst person to answer this really......to me guitars are bits of wood and string....and if I don't like something then I will change it.......Forgetting tone...I find certain guitars feel better playing certain types of music...........my 335 HAS to play rock n' roll or late night blues..AC/DC it ain't...even if it didn't feed back it just would not feel right playing out of genre...........sorry to waffle but I'll get there...........my Brian May guitar, although versatile......well there is only one style for that...........I can get the 335 to sound like BM...but it doesn't feel right.............now my Lil' Squier........to me it just comes alive doing Stones stuff...........the body is fractionally narrower than a Fender Tele.......don't forget it says "Squier by Fender" on the headstock...........the neck is interchangeable with a Fender tele neck.......same with the pups..........the electronics and hardware are not quite of the same quality as a 'real' Tele.........and there are one or two minor finishing issues that I had to sort with a bit of sandpaper..........But with a set up and knowing what I want out of it, it fits the bill perfectly.

The neck is ideal for the barre open 'G' banjo chords........for widdlers and shredders it probably wouldn't do........it has a very light finish on it, no lacquer here...........sustain is fine, even though it is not a 'through the body' bridge................

Would I change anything?...........only when needs, you know, dirty pots, intermittent switch, that sort of stuff...................Sounds, well through my AD50 it is awesomely close................I will put up a soundfile on this thread tonight which is Stones/Bridges to Babylon tour/live to which I have recorded Keefs part...............to my cloth ears it is difficult to tell which is Keef and which is the Lil' Squier....................On the headstock I sandpapered off the 'Sqier' logo and stuck an enamalled 'Stone Lips'..............when I have gigged with it, I always get asked what type of Tele is it and what mods......LOL.....I don't have the nerve to tell them it is a 'cheap/Happy Shopper/Spar' type of Tele.

All of the above really states why I won't be changing my genuine Fender 52ri into a Micawber..........cos my Lil' Squier does it just as well........

I would say, forget the name on the headstock.....play a few and you will find the best bang for your buck..........in fact isn't Robert into his Squier Strats?

[sunvalleylaw]

Pete, I commented on your clip last night but somehow didn't get it posted. Sounded absolutely great! I love the clean tones. Like you said, phat and full cleans. I think you hit it right on how you put this guitar together. I liked the idea of your approach with what guitar you were starting with, neck choice, etc. and am glad to hear it. It turned out great by the sound of it!

[Fingers]

Here is the Lil' Squier..........Jumpin' Jack Flash, Bridges to Babylon tour.......I played along, mixed the guitar in but left it loud enough to sound like I was in there with 'em..........

Not bad for a cheapy guitar?..........No effects at all apart from a little reverb so it sounds in the mix............Vox AD50 on Fender Twin mode....
http://media.putfile.com/Stones-n-Me

[stingx]

Update.

I've since returned the guitar back to my good friend. After acquiring the latest guitar, my custom shop Schecter PT, I really had to start thinning out the collection. Just too many guitars taking up too little space. I have two "tele" sytle PTs now, my two Strats, two Ibanez, and my old Kramer. Oh, and the Ibanez acoustic. I plan to get rid of at least three more.