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Post subject: MIM Tele upgrades
Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:38 am
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Hi,

Iv decided its time to do some upgrades on the Tele!

I was thinking of sticking a new bridge on it, one with the brass saddles, i love the look of them! Looking around wilkinson seem the most widely recommended and i will prob go for them, but was just wondering if there were any others out there that would be recommended? I must admit i dont like the flat edges on the wilkinson as much as the round ones on an actual fender but iv heard inotation of fenders are a nightmare!!

As for other upgrades i had thought about some new pickups, but no idea what to go for? I have no idea how you know what your buying? I realise you can listen to the sound over the internet on quite a lot of them, but surely the guitar their in, and the computer speakers you have, make a MASSIVE difference to the sound? I would like the tele to have a bright, thin sound, so if anyone has any recommendations i would love to hear!

Other than that im not sure of any other obvious upgrades there are. Does anyone know of any? I had thought about getting a butterscotch body for it, there are loads on ebay. But not sure how easy that will be to fit etc.

As i say, anyone know of any other good upgrades?


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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:21 pm
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A few other minor tweaks would be to change the nut from the plastic nut to something else and maybe replace the string tree. I replaced both on my Tele. I replaced the nut to a Black Tusq XL Nut. I also changed the string tree to a Graph Tech String Retainer. So for a total of around ten bucks I improved the tuning stability of the guitar and greatly reduced the likelihood of breaking a string. They weren't big changings but they help. I also added strap locks. Another minor tweak.


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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:01 pm
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Oh ok, whats the advantage of changing the nut? Any materials or places to buy from you would recommend? I like in the uk if that helps?

also whats the string tree? i havn't heard of that before?! and again say as before, any you would recommend?

thanks


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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:00 pm
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mmrats wrote:
Oh ok, whats the advantage of changing the nut? Any materials or places to buy from you would recommend? I like in the uk if that helps?


There are various materials for the nut:bone,brass, graphite etc each one sounds a little different and when done well will help the guitar stay in tune better then the plastic nut most guitars are shipped with today. As far as store go I'm not from the UK but here in the US I use http://www.stewmac.com/ They also ship internationally.

mmrats wrote:
also whats the string tree? i havn't heard of that before?! and again say as before, any you would recommend?

thanks


The string tree is that little piece of metal on the headstock behind the nut that is parallel to the tuners that the B and E strings pass under. Here's a pic:


Image

as for what I use I use Graph Tech String Retainers on my Tele and Strat. Some people like the stock string tree some don't and in my case I wasn't fond of it so I changed it.


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Posted: Sat Oct 10, 2009 9:36 pm
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Swap out the pickups for some nice Duncans, the wiring, and the pots, and upgrade to a better bridge.

The MIM's are a nice platform to start building a really kick-butt guitar.

They are a good guitar "off the rack" but once you build them up they are killer.

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Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:21 am
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Been looking on the duncan website, the vintage ones look good. Do you know any good places to get them? or just where ever i can find?!

And as for wiring and pots, what sort of upgrades are there? Iv had a look but couldn't really find anything. Am i right in thinking their the same for the MIMs as the MIAs?

And is the wilkinson bridge the way to go if i want a 3 brass saddle, or is there anything better?


thanks


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Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 11:46 am
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mmrats wrote:
Oh ok, whats the advantage of changing the nut? Any materials or places to buy from you would recommend? I like in the uk if that helps?
thanks


The nut material only influences in tone when you are playing open strings. Just get a good bone or corian nut that has well cut string slots and a good set-up (go to a tech, he will fix you up, if needed).

Bright sounding pickups - Fender "Custom 62" (from the American Vintage series, you can find them in Ebay and some online stores), Seymour Duncan STL-1 "54", and Antiquity II, Fralin "stock" Tele pickups. You probably want alnico V and low output.


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Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:34 pm
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Hello Mmrats,

Locking tuners make string changing a breeze. :wink:

Cheers.


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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 4:09 pm
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Hey Tele Vision- How was it changing the nut? Looking into that same nut myself and hope its easy enough to do on my own.


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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:54 pm
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jimbolaya wrote:
Hey Tele Vision- How was it changing the nut? Looking into that same nut myself and hope its easy enough to do on my own.


Changing out the stock nut for the graphite one for me was easy. I used the pre-cut one from Stew-Mac and I just had to sand off the little notch on the bottom of the nut since my Tele didn't have that notch. I might have had to sand the bottom a little to take away a bit of the arch but I don't remember if I had to on my Tele. But like I said for me it was easy. Maybe because I've done it a bunch it's just gotten easier for me. If you're not sure you could always as your local tech to put in a new nut for you. It shouldn't be all that much maybe $25-30 installed but that price could vary of coarse.


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Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:02 pm
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Take a look at Kinman pickups as well. They are a little pricey but folks who spend the money usually have no complaints whatsoever. Kinman does not call his pups humbuckers because he doesn't want people to become confused about the tone of his pups. He uses the term "zero-hum" instead. You may have heard about some undesirable characteristics of noiseless single coils like Fender's "VNs" or Don Lace's "Sensors". Those kinds of complaints do not apply to Kinman pups. They sound like single coils. Good single coils. And no hum. I recommend the AVn-48s. Lots of professional country pickers use them, including Brad Paisley if memory serves. I like mine. Plenty spanky, almost as gritty as Texas Specials when pushed, real chimey in the middle position and none of that annoying honk in the neck position noiseless pups are famous for. The cool thing about a Kinman kit is the no-solder wiring harness. Bolt them in and play. No messing around trying to hold three things at once (wires, iron, solder). No fears about overheating and burning up your volume pot like so many novices do.

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Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 4:38 pm
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For both of my MIM Teles that I've upgraded I swapped the Pickups (SD STL-1 & STR-1 in the Tele and a STL-1b Broadcaster in the Esquire) Swapped the tuners for Grover Vintage deluxe, and the vintage 3 saddle (Fender) as for your fears about the intonation nightmares. I do what Jerry Donahue does. I've used this on mine and have had no problems.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/ch ... e_up_your/


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 7:54 am
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With mine I did the Wilkinson bridge, Graphtech Tusq nut, Schaller lockers, and a set of Bill Lawrence Keystones with a Fender 4 way mod switch. All of those mods cost under $200 combined and made for one hell of a great playing and sounding Tele. Also the new MIM's use CTS pots, so no need to upgrade pots.
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 4:28 am
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Ah that sounds like a good setup Yellowv. Had a look at those pickups online and found the following review which seemed to really like them.

http://www.tdpri.com/reviewpost/showpro ... &thecat=27

Could you tell me your personal take on the tone etc, also where did you get them etc?

thanks

Alex


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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 8:41 pm
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The Keystones are fantastic. The thoughts in those reviews are very accurate. The best way I have heard them described is as a good microphone. They basically just amplify the natural tone of the guitar and in turn they sound IMO just as a Tele should. Clean they sound very pure and sparkling. They do dirty up damn nice though. It's hard to believe they are so cheap. You can only get them directly from Bill and Becky Lawrence.
http://www.wildepickups.com/


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