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Post subject: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:04 pm
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Hi there,

I'm wanting to customise one of my teles, a 2004 American Deluxe, but it is something I've never attempted before. I haven't decided yet what I want to do, but it's between the following ideas:

- Turn it into a 2013 American Deluxe, new pickups, adding an s1 switch, new locking tuner pegs etc.

- Simply add a humbucker in the neck position, and maybe an s1 switch.

- Turn it into essentially a Fender Select Telecaster HH (minus the finish) - http://www.fender.com/guitars/telecaste ... d-natural/. This would require changing the single coils for wide range special humbuckers, an s1 switch that essentially turns the pickups into fatter sounding single coils, new locking tuners etc.

Any thoughts on these ideas, how achievable they are, likely sound results with an alder bodied Tele etc? I will of course be getting a professional to help with more complicated wiring and stuff, but just wanted opinions on the way to go.

Thanks,


R


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Post subject: Re: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:33 pm
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Hmm - a 2004 American Deluxe should have the S-1 switch on it; that model was updated for 2004 with the S-1 switch and SCN pickups. That being said the easiest things to do on your list would be to change the SCNs to N3s and install the locking tuners.

For option 2 - the body should already be routed for a neck humbucker. It seems like the standard rout for a "modern" (i.e. not a reissue) Tele is a neck humbucker-sized slot, a middle Strat single coil sized slot, and a bridge single coil slot. You should be able to add any standard-sized humbucker.

Changing the guitar to something like the Select HH model with the wide-range pickups is going to involve quite a bit of surgery. I know that the Wide Range humbuckers are larger than a standard humbucker, so that means you would still have to expand the stock neck humbucker rout to fit the Wide Range. Then you would have to completely redo the bridge pickup routing.

Hope that helps.


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Post subject: Re: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 2:41 pm
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That does help John. Thanks. Maybe my guitar was old stock when I bought it in 2004, but it definitely doesn't have the s1 switch. Is that a fairly straightforward change to make?


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Post subject: Re: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 6:07 pm
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The first American Deluxes with the S1 switch came out at the January 2004 NAMM show so there was certainly a good stock of the prior spec models still available in early 2004. Some photos would be helpful to see exactly which model you have. Also while it is only an approximation of the year you should find that a first-generation American Deluxe will have a serial number that starts with a DN8, DN9, DZ0, DZ1, DZ2, or a DZ3 (there is also the possibility that some 2000 American Deluxes just have a Z0 serial number).

The S1 switch on the American Deluxe Teles with noiseless single coils only added one wiring option to the regular 3-way switch - the normal middle position on a Tele is both pickups in parallel wiring; the S1 changes the middle position to both pickups in serial wiring when you push the button down.

I'm not sure if Fender is selling S1 switches as an aftermarket part; I know that a while back the switch was only available as a warranty replacement part. You can add the series wiring to a Tele in two ways without using an S1 switch - you can change one of the pots to a push-pull pot or you can change the 3-way switch to a 4-way switch.


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Post subject: Re: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 7:24 pm
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Thanks for the reply. I'll look into it a little bit more before deciding which road to go down.


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Post subject: Re: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:13 pm
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Post-2010 USA Deluxes and their Select counterparts feature a compound radius fingerboard with black or white pearloid dots.

Your guitar has a standard 9.5"-radius neck with abalone dot markers.

If you really convert your guitar to the 2013 specs, you should also install a compound radius neck.


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Post subject: Re: Customising a 2004 American Deluxe
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 6:15 am
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chromeface wrote:
If you really convert your guitar to the 2013 specs, you should also install a compound radius neck.

Which would forever alter the status of your beautiful guitar from 'modified Tele' to 'partscaster'. Only you can know if that's OK or not. It would not be OK for me but I'm not you.

Just sayin'.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.


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