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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 6:31 pm
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Oops, photos or it didn't happen, right? :)

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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 7:04 pm
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Argh, that took me to the next page. Reposting the (important) text:

So...a bit of an update.

I took a half sick day today (*cough cough*) and finally had some time to gut the guitar. As mentioned previously, there were issues with the wiring, the signal was intermittent when I had played it in the pawn shop (which was good for me when negotiating price!) and I ended up desoldering EVERYTHING. Here's what I found out:

- The whole freaking guitar was wired in SERIES. It was a clever wiring job and I'm sure it has a lot of tonal variety, but honestly, the choices were single coil, HOT humbucker, and WAY TOO HOT FOR ANYTHING 3-pickup series. Didn't make any sense, but who am I to judge?
- Whoever owned this before me decided to install a DPDT on-off-on switch to the humbucker and wire it for normal-off-phase reverse operation. Only, it wasn't like that at all. In off position the humbucker still played. Sigh.
- The other 2 DPDT on-off switches were different brands, and one of them didn't exactly fit the right way.
- The wire leading from the volume knob to the series-run signal was a cold-solder joint and was loose, wiggling in the guitar. I found the source of the intermittent sound (or so I thought, read on...)!
- I finally re-wired the whole thing for parallel operation, with all of the switches either having pickup-on or pickup-off (or in the case of the humbucker switch, on-off-off). I did this by soldering a common hot wire into the center lug of one side of each switch, and the hot of each pickup in the top side of each switch. When switch is up, it closes circuit to the common hot wire, if it's off, there's no connection. Permanently wired the ground of each pickup, and wired the - wire of the humbucker to ground too. Who needs phase reversal when you have the versatility of an HSS anyway?
- After everything was wired up, I reassembled the whole guitar. Wait a second, why isn't the middle pickup working? Checked the obvious, looking at the wiring job I did. I concluded that the issue must be some break in the wire within the insulation, so cut down the wire a bit more and re-soldered. NOPE! Didn't work. Want to know what it was?

...the thin copper wire wound around the pickup itself didn't complete the circuit. One side of it was connected properly, the other must have been severed somehow. I (carefully!) soldered it back to the wiring joint and everything is running smoothly.


I must say, this guitar sounds awesome. It has a lot of a strat sound to it, it's like all the good looks of a tele with the versatile sound of a strat. The HSS configuration is nice too, but that humbucker is NOT hot by any stretch of the imagination. But it sounds like a dream!

My next step is to work on the looks of it. I did a basic disassembly and cleaning of all of the hardware (note: I found out the fine-tuning nut that is missing is missing because the threading is stripped. It will work without a nut but I know a couple machine shop folks that might be able to tap me out a bigger thread. That's actually what apparently happened to another one of the nuts, as it is a different thread and all the other nuts are too small for it. We'll see...this thing is so rock-solid when tuned up I don't think it's necessary!

I plan to go out and get some automotive scratch-removing wax and working on some of the minor scratches. It won't make it look perfect, as there are plenty of substantial dents and finish chips that go all the way to the wood (which is far, there's a THICK finish on this thing!)

Now, what I am going to do with it. I'll admit, it sounds great and everything, but I honestly think I am in need of money more than I am in need of a (third) guitar. I won't be in any rush to sell it, but I'm hoping that there are folks out there who appreciate it who may be interested in owning it. It honestly sounds great, but I feel like I'm more of a blonde- or natural-finished type guitarist, this thing screams rock and belongs with someone who can look the part.

Pictures to follow. Rest assured, this thing will probably gig with me a couple times but unfortunately she's on borrowed time. I couldn't turn down an investment opportunity like this, and I've really liked the time I've put into it. I've put a LOT of time into it over the last week, to be honest. She deserves it!

~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 7:09 pm
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restore it, resale it.
i would keep it though.

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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 2:00 pm
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Ok, quick question for you all...

I'm reading descriptions of the original contemporary tele's and I've come to the conclusion that the on-off-on DPDT toggle for the humbucker is for coil tap (or split) mode or full humbucking mode.

HOWEVER, when I was wiring it all, the humbucker pickup only had 3 leads -- uncovered ground, red, and white (although the white coating had some red on it it was obviously a white wire).

This 3 wire configuration feels to me like red = +, white = -, and silver = ground, but I'm curious if somehow the white wire is some sort of tap instead of a negative. How would I find this out, or test it, etc.? If my assumption here is true, that means I've shorted half the coil and am really only getting half of a coil output (red to hot, white + silver to ground).

Does this configuration make any sense? I could use all the help I can get!


~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Sun May 08, 2011 3:26 pm
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to bad our resident electrical guy martian is off busy handle other issues at the moment.
he can tell you just about any wiring issue you have need of. hang out until he gets back or shoot him PM. great guy and knows what hes talking about. :D

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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:31 am
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Thanks for that. I got in contact with Martian, and he believes the wiring is as follows:

Red: Full humbucking hot lead
White: Split/single coil lead
Silver: Common ground

This certainly makes sense and I'm eager to get home to do the solder work and see how it turns out.

On an unrelated note, I have done some thinking about this guitar and am strongly thinking about making this guitar work for me. I think the cosmetic part that I like the least on this guitar is the absence of a pickguard, which can be remedied. Obviously a big change like that is going to make this less appealing to collectors, so I need to decide whether this will be my "forever" guitar or not :)

Furthermore, it's pretty tough to find a tele pickguard made for HSS configuration and no control plate, but they're out there. Just trying to figure out what look would be best on this guitar. I want to move away from the "shredder guitar" feel of this as I am more of a classic rocker. I know everyone has their preferences, but I'd love to hear your ideas for a pickguard finish/color. Some of my favorites:

Black/silver paisley (I really like this but it's ~$50, in other words I couldn't order it quite yet)
Image

Flat black bakelite paisley (I also really like this but the seller told me he's too busy for the next few months to make one)
Image

Purple pearloid (I think this is a bold look but I'm afraid it doesn't say "classic vibe" so much as it says "HEY THIS IS A PURPLE PICKGUARD!" Also the easiest and least expensive to get, from Warmoth, without any additional modifications needed to make it fit the humbucker)
Image

Black pearloid (from GuitarFetish, they have it available and can be bought the cheapest. Just not sure if I like the black pearloid on black look. Also available in white pearloid which would probably look awesome too)
Image
Image

Aged white (also from GuitarFetish, so same price, just not sure if an aged look would look right on a black tele, maybe I'm wrong. Hard to visualize)
Image


Any tips would be great, like I said I like all of them, so I wont' be offended if you prefer one or think one sucks.

~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 10:17 am
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i like the blk/silver paisley idea. you can get places like warmouth to make any pickguard you want.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 9:52 pm
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Ick, it's not going to be that easy. I finally got some straight answers on pickup spacing and it looks like the neck pickup of the Contemporary is closer to the neck than on standard or even Nashville Teles. Unfortunately I'll have to get a custom pickguard!

~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 6:15 pm
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you can always arrange to send the body to warmouth. ive done it. that way they know exactly what they are dealing with and you will know what they send you is exact.

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"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 9:39 pm
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Very true, but you underestimate my frugality.

Went to Jo Ann Fabrics today and found a pretty nice black/white/gray paisley fabric and some craft foam for designing a mock-up...this was just to see if I should continue on and pursue making one with some clear acrylic with the fabric glued in underneath.

Image

I personally think the pattern looks awesome on this guitar. I'm going to extend the end of the pickguard a little further into the humbucker so it's not just a straight line extending all the way down. My wife rightfully pointed out that it makes the pickguard look too "pointy" to have all that straightness going down the guitar, so I'll add an inch or so to the length of the pickguard.

What do you all think?

~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 9:51 pm
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extend it.
just knit you one. :lol:

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"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Thu May 12, 2011 1:36 pm
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way cool jr wrote:
extend it.
just knit you one. :lol:


LOL. Have myself a Mitten-caster.

I am SUPREMELY excited by this pattern and the way the pickguard might turn out. I just tested the glue+fabric+acrylic application with a small swatch of fabric and acrylic and it looks phenomenal. Now to carefully cut out the (unfortunately quite brittle) acrylic to shape, sand and smooth. I wish I had a scroll saw.

My artsy wife is going to work on some interesting embellishments in the traditional shape of the tele pickguard, and I think it's going to turn out rather nice! :)

~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 10:10 pm
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Sweet.

I will be making a new thread to introduce what I personally think is one of the best looking Teles around, but wanted to share with y'all who have helped me on this first!

Image

Image

I'll take better, more high-quality pictures later, but I'm just too excited to let it rest.

~Mo


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 10:47 pm
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now, polish up that guitar to get the prints off before final pics, and be greatful
you kept it all for yourself.

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"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."


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Post subject: Re: MIJ mid-1980s Contemporary Tele
Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 7:47 pm
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Updated pics:

Polished 'er up (sorry, still isn't a perfect finish but I did my best! Had to touch-up some spots where the black finish was completely gone...on a related note, automotive touch-up paint is BRILLIANT on black guitars!)

New pictures reflect a couple changes -- I dremeled the pickguard a bit more to capture the true tele pickguard shape -- you'll notice in earlier pictures the pickguard had a straight edge on top, with a real sharp line, and real tele pickguards have more of a smooth curve to them. I got a bit of that.

Here ya go!

Image
Image
Image

~mo


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