Your guess might be as good as mine on this one. Nonetheless, it fits the bill here. Funky, off brand, lesser known, off the beaten path instruments. As far as I can tell this is probably a Japanese Tele copy from the 60's or 70's. Maybe a Greco. By the looks of it, it just may have floated here from Japan!! Its because of that fact that I love it. Once I got this thing set up, all my other electrics have been sleeping soundly in their cases.
This guitar carries like a Les Paul. Big, heavy chunk of wood. To misquote Robert Duvall in an old cowboy movie - "I always liked a shooting iron with a bit of heft to it."
You can see that someone went wild with a router at some point behind that bridge pickup. But somehow the original pickup stayed on it. Some of these Japanese Tele's came with a bridge pickup that had a pickup cover instead of the uncovered biting bridge pickup. That's the way they came stock. A little electronics work had to be done on this. The switch was where the volume control now is. It was a very inconvenient spot as you would often inadvertently hit the switch on a down strum, changing your pickup selection. We moved the switch to the rear and though still a bit more flimsy than your classic Tele switch, it does the job.
You can also notice that the neck pickup is pushed more towards the center of the body, making it way less muddy and more useful than many Tele neck pickups. There is a little out of phase situation when you select both pickups. This gives you a funky kind of AM radio sound that I am sure will come in good use at some point in my life. A varnish stripped body along with some long ago graffiti add to the charm.
No comments:
Post a Comment