1st tele build- Catalpa body-hence called "The Cat"

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GONZO-X

GONZO-X

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cat-front.jpg


T57Strat, Travis Franklin of Franklin Guitars (Ft. Worth area) put this together for me; provided custom finish and did all contours and further neck shaping.
This is my first Telecaster style guitar, and it plays like a dream.


*Catalpa body with contours: Tummy Contour, Forearm Contour, Contoured Heel (Woodtech via reverb)
*1-piece flame maple 2A- thin neck, black top markers, rolled edges, 6150 size frets, modern tuner holes, hipshot locking tuners, truss rod at headstock, gibson scale length conversion (Musikraft)
*Gotoh Modern Bridge
*Rock Rabbit control plate, master vol/tone 500k.
*Fralin tele split blade bridge, blues output.; Fralin P-92 humbucker sized p-90 in neck.
*push pull vol with series wiring on pull



cat-back.jpg


cat-headstock.jpg
 
It is a very nice guitar, but, I must say, if it has a humbucker in it it is not a Tele.
 
dogooder said:
It is a very nice guitar, but, I must say, if it has a humbucker in it it is not a Tele.
Click to expand...
thanks for checking it out, dogooder....

it's not a humbucker.

It’s essentially a P90, made with 2 coils
but actually, isn't that either..
it's a noiseless single coil,
split in half,
with 3 poles on the low end, 3 poles on the high end;
the coils are separated, and one is high, one is low.

www.fralinpickups.com

Fralin P-92 Guitar Pickups- Hum-Free P-90 Tone In A Humbucker Size.

The Fralin P-92 Guitar Pickup gives you noiseless P-90 tone in a humbucker cover and size. The P-92 will give you big, bold, and beefy P-90 tone!
www.fralinpickups.com www.fralinpickups.com

p-92 guts.webp
 
a different view of the body with a black background:
 
I was in a store the other day in Kingsport Tn. I have about ten guitars, none with single coil pickups and I have been looking for a decent deal
on a Tele. They probably had fifteen tele style guitars, not one with a two single coil configuration. The gent behind the counter asks if he can
help me, I know I got him now. I tell him I am looking for a Tele. He asks if I want to play any of the ones hanging on the wall. I tell him you don't
have any telecasters in here. He says there's some hanging. I said none of them are Teles, they all have a humbucker in them. I don't think he
realized, he walked around an looked at them. I left the store in search of a bargain on a tele style guitar. I have a nice one, two humbuckers in it
lol.
 
dogooder said:
I was in a store the other day in Kingsport Tn. I have about ten guitars, none with single coil pickups and I have been looking for a decent deal
on a Tele. They probably had fifteen tele style guitars, not one with a two single coil configuration. The gent behind the counter asks if he can
help me, I know I got him now. I tell him I am looking for a Tele. He asks if I want to play any of the ones hanging on the wall. I tell him you don't
have any telecasters in here. He says there's some hanging. I said none of them are Teles, they all have a humbucker in them. I don't think he
realized, he walked around an looked at them. I left the store in search of a bargain on a tele style guitar. I have a nice one, two humbuckers in it
lol.
Click to expand...
yea, there is a lot of snootery in the guitar world!! LOL,
but i don't care.
i make music.
 
yea, the P-92 is in my mind, and improvement over a straight p-90, tho it is noiseless, it still sounds very similar.
for my guitars, they have to be noiseless, so going with a single coil p-90 was not an option.
but the sound was!
 
dogooder said:
I was in a store the other day in Kingsport Tn. I have about ten guitars, none with single coil pickups and I have been looking for a decent deal
on a Tele. They probably had fifteen tele style guitars, not one with a two single coil configuration. The gent behind the counter asks if he can
help me, I know I got him now. I tell him I am looking for a Tele. He asks if I want to play any of the ones hanging on the wall. I tell him you don't
have any telecasters in here. He says there's some hanging. I said none of them are Teles, they all have a humbucker in them. I don't think he
realized, he walked around an looked at them. I left the store in search of a bargain on a tele style guitar. I have a nice one, two humbuckers in it
lol.
Click to expand...
Even Fender, who happens to have rights to the name Telecaster or Tele, produces models with humbuckers in them.

So yeah, it’s a Tele.
 
From 1950 to 72 Tele's only had single coils. It could be said that those were the real Tele's
 
i don't think there is any glory in having 'real' tele.

only in having an instrument that you like to play, and that sounds good.
 
markmann said:
From 1950 to 72 Tele's only had single coils. It could be said that those were the real Tele's
Click to expand...
I guess this isn’t a real Jaguar. No wire wheels. :D
1668725851081.webp

Still....... badass!

But yeah, I’d rather own a 60s XKE. (With wire wheels)
 
I was never a fan of the tele, didn't have one until about 10 years ago. I ran across one built by Gerard Melancon from Louisiana. It was at a shop in Greenville SC. Very nice guitar, played like a dream, but it was too much money for me to spend. Gerard ran a one man shop from a small building, doing all the work himself. These weren't partscasters, where you buy a body and a neck, spray the paint and add the electronics.

Then, after having a bout with cancer, surgery and treatment, and coming through on the other side, I was in the shop some 8 months later and the guitar was still there. Screw it all, I took it home with me. It's one of 4 guitars that I will keep to my grave. It still plays like a dream. It changed my feelings on Tele style guitars.

Melancon 3.webp

Sadly, Gerard passed away a few years ago from cancer. I had hoped that if I ever took another trip to New Orleans, I would make a side trip to his shop. I would have enjoyed meeting the man.
 
I am both a Tele fanatic and a LOVER of P90's. You be checkin all the boxes.
 
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