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Post subject: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 4:02 pm
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Waay back in October, 2011, one month after I got my 1st Stratocaster and started to learn to play, I decided that I also needed a Telecaster to round out the field. This was going to be used and the cheaper the better - I could always trade-up later.

I was looking on CL and there was a non-descript Telecaster listed for $250. I called the guy and we decided to meet. The guitar was really dirty. The guy said he bought it used from the 1st owner who swapped the pups (for something unidentifiable and poor sounding) and added a phase switch, said he used it mostly for Slide work. The strings were very heavy 13's and the action was really high, but overall, the guitar was in good shape... just needed a serious clean-up. The reason for the sale was to fix wife's car.

I told him $250 was too high, that I'd go $150 on the spot. He countered with $200. I said $175 and he replied that for $200 he'd also throw in a Fender Gig Bag, a Seat Belt strap and a Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Fuzz/Wah pedal (which didn't work). I said $185 (including the Pedal and the Bag) was my best offer and he accepted.

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I took the Tele to my local Git shop and they scratched their heads not knowing what model it was. With some help from Rob and Fender Consumer Relations, it turned out the guitar was a 1999 Nashville Telecaster Deluxe. The middle pup had been removed and the Tortoise PG was swapped for an aftermarket Black one.

I cleaned it up, replaced the strings w/ 9s, reset the action, replaced the control panel (Fender replacement part), polished all the brightwork and put an aftermarket Tortoise PG on it. The Fuzz/Wah pedal just had a cold solder joint and now works great !

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For the 1st year, I played the heck out of it. Even though I had acquired 4 other, better guitars in the meantime, this Tele was comfortable, like a pair of favorite old shoes.

I had a gift certificate from my local shop which going to expire so even though I didn't need anything, I thought I'd use it to load up on sundries (strings, picks, etc.) rather than waste it. When I got there I saw a Fender replacement Tortoise pickguard for the Nashville, so I picked it up thinking one day I may restore it.

This Xmas, I got a gift card from my nephew. I was on ebay one day and saw a set of Telecaster TexMex pickups (NIB) and a new Strat Middle Tex Mex pup, so I grabbed them. All I needed now was a Fender 5-way switch and I could restore it.

Got the switch, wired in the new pups, replaced the PG and now this Nashville is back to it's former glory.

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It plays great and is very versatile w/ the middle pup. Overall, during the past 16 years, the guitar has acquired a nice patina, the Arctic White finish has aged to more of a French Vanilla hue, and the neck has turned a nice Honey-Amber color. It's like a new guitar and at less than $220 total out-of-pocket... I'm lovin' it !! :wink:

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2015 11:37 pm
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Lightnin MN wrote:
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The volume knob appears to have an "S1" push-push crown in the top. The Nashvilles never came with the S1 switch.

Maybe an illusion? :roll:


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 1:18 am
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chromeface wrote:
Lightnin MN wrote:
Image


The volume knob appears to have an "S1" push-push crown in the top. The Nashvilles never came with the S1 switch.

Maybe an illusion? :roll:


Yep... just an illusion.

In fact, those are the original 16 year-old factory knobs, as are the Bridgeplate and Saddles. Just polished them up using Flitz Metal Polish (best stuff I've found for Fender brightwork). The Control Plate has been replaced with a genuine Fender part due to a hole having been drilled into the original to accommodate the phase switch a PO added (you can see the hole in the 1st pic above, between the Volume and Tone knobs).

Here's another couple pics that may give a clearer view:

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cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:43 am
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Congrat , nice guitar and good deal


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:31 am
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Lightnin MN wrote:
The Control Plate has been replaced with a genuine Fender part due to a hole having been drilled into the original to accommodate the phase switch a PO added (you can see the hole in the 1st pic above, between the Volume and Tone knobs).



The PO added the 2-way toggle because he apparently liked the 7-way switching setup from the very early American Deluxes (circa 1998/early 1999).

In his place I would keep that toggle and add an S1 cap in the volume knob for more knockout tonal combinations. Beautiful restoration job, though! :P


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 9:23 am
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MIM teles are generally not bad - very playable guitars for a small amount of money. My white standard cost $290 used from GC, and by used I mean not having any signs of wear at all. A quick change to the tone control, and it was just what the doctor prescribed.
MIM teles are very usable guitars for the money. Certainly money better spent than on a Squier or Modern Player.

That said, I also have a Thinline '72 RI, which came with a bunch of problems from the factory. It took a lot of time and effort to restore it to what it should have been to start with, and wasn't due to shoddy QC.
But the Standard? Far better than you'd think.

Good job restoring the Nash.
(Which, incidentally, is what my grandfather told me a lifetime ago.)


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:48 am
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chromeface wrote:
Lightnin MN wrote:
The Control Plate has been replaced with a genuine Fender part due to a hole having been drilled into the original to accommodate the phase switch a PO added (you can see the hole in the 1st pic above, between the Volume and Tone knobs).



The PO added the 2-way toggle because he apparently liked the 7-way switching setup from the very early American Deluxes (circa 1998/early 1999).

In his place I would keep that toggle and add an S1 cap in the volume knob for more knockout tonal combinations. Beautiful restoration job, though! :P


You've mistaken me for someone who can actually play... The one thing I don't need right now is endless Tonal possibilities... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The PO dedicated this guitar to Slide work (which kept the frets nice and fresh at least). He removed the middle pup, removed the Neck/Bridge Tex Mex pups in favor of some nasty sounding things, replaced the 5-way switch w/ a 3-way and used the added phase switch to wire the two pups in series or parallel.

It sounded awful, had maybe 40db of HUM. When I got it and 1st inspected it, the solder joints looked to weigh a pound each there was so much solder, yet most of these solder joints were cold solders making more noise than a 5kW radio station. It quieted down once I redid all the joints properly.

At first, the no-name pups sounded OK to me. That was because I didn't know any better. But once I got my other guitars, I realized how poor these were by comparison. From that point it was always my intention to replace them.

Always thinking I needed a Telecaster in standard two-pickup configuration, I planned nothing more than keeping that while just switching the pups. It's only when I got my other standard config Tele (Telebration Empress Telecaster) that I decided to go 'back to Nashville'.

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 1:17 pm
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I like what you did to your guitar


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 1:31 pm
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Your Tele looks very nice. I like the tort pickguard on white guitars.

Jerry

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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 2:36 pm
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jmallard wrote:
Your Tele looks very nice. I like the tort pickguard on white guitars.

Jerry


Thanks ! :)

If you look at the 5th pic in the 1st post, you'll see this was an aftermarket PG and it's really too Red for realistic Tort. It didn't look bad, just not right.

The later pics are the genuine Fender Nashville PG and the Tortoise PG is a much more realistic Brownish color which I think is more appealing.

The Arctic White poly aged quite a bit to what I best describe as a French Vanilla. You can really see the difference under the PG where it almost matches the White Strat pickup cover. Personally, I like the aged hue it's taken on.

cheers!

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'11 FSR Am. Vtg. Ltd. Ed. CAR '57 Stratocaster (SN# LE02639)
'14 American Deluxe Ash Stratocaster
'12 Telebration Empress Telecaster
'99 Deluxe Nashville Telecaster
'12 FSR Telecaster HH
'10 Heritage H-535
'99 Martin DC-1E
'13 Lanikai Tenor Ukulele


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:45 pm
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Good looking guitar. That pickguard looks great!

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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:45 pm
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Brytam wrote:
Good looking guitar. That pickguard looks great!


+1


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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2015 5:39 pm
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Great job and returning it to factory spec +1K!

T2

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Post subject: Re: Back to the way God intended...
Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:07 pm
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Awesome guitar at an awesome price!

I'd like to get something with Tex Mex pickups.

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