Another Tele Strat hybrid..

[FrankenWashie]

That looks sick Andy, it’s a great blending of the two styles. Top stuff!

[Andyxlh]

Thank you sir!
Getting close now. Electrics all in and shielding done. Lots of holes in this guitar so it needs lots of tape!
Just strings and string trees to go, and a final polish before I start messing with the setup.

[king casey]

Looks great andy. Didn't take long to get it made.
I guess you've had some practice.
My tele-strat is in the home straight but well behind the field.
cheers, Mark

[Andyxlh]

Thanks Mark,
It's a fair way from done, you know how it is by the time all the fiddling around is finished it will be a few more weeks. Going to polish the body with some furniture wax which I think will look good.

[Andyxlh]

It works! Had a couple of days off so got more done than I thought I might. Had a problem with the blend, it was acting as a master volume. Retired another pot in and now all good. Still lots of setup to do, but intonation is now ok and there's not too much fretbuzz. The extra pickup on the blend seems to work wonderfully, dialling it in shifts from the brittle Tele twang to a much warmer sound. All 3 pickups running together sounds huge. The extra pickup really moves the sound to a humbucker rather than the strat out of phase thing, especially on the bridge pickup. When I have the middle pickup on its own it seems quite bassy, which really helps the sound but doesn't sound super on its own.
Anyhow, happy with it. I'll finish it off next weekend and get a sound sample so you can hear what it sounds like in the different positions, I'll apologise for the playing now...

[blinddrew]

Certainly looks the business!

[Fretworn]

Very noice indeed.

[Andyxlh]

Thanks guys! I'm hoping it will fill the position currently taken by my Korean squier strat and Tele, both 89 models. I don't really play the strat much, I generally play rock so use the LP kit guitar more. But this has some bite with the tonerider pickups and a really nice full sound with the centre pickup in the mix. Got some buzzing 2-6 frets, I'm guessing it is the relief in the neck. Letting it sit for a day or two before playing with the truss rod.
Replaced the stock tone capacitor with an orange one, which really seems to be a good upgrade as the roll off on the tone now seems to be useful, on the strat and the Tele it just kills the clarity.

[Andyxlh]

Ok been held up with this one, trying to get a sound sample up with the different pickup configuration, but I have a crackle on the output. I'm going to strip it and go back through the wiring, I suspect the earth for the centre pickup, that's where I'll look first.
Been fiddling with the frets and truss rod to get the setup as perfect as I can.
The chrome on the bridge and the Tele control plate is horrid so they will need to be replaced at some time... but on the whole I like the look and feel of it.

[Andyxlh]

Sorted the crackling, the ground on the blend knob wasn't wired through to the output which was giving some very strange crackling and output level issues, pretty obvious when I opened it up what was missing. Tests ok now, I'll get an audio demo featuring my bad playing when I get a moment.