The Mod Squad - 2001 American Series Telecaster

Modifying guitars can be a great way to turn the guitar you have into the guitar you want.  Be careful though, because the definition of "the guitar you want" changes from week to week.  Last week's Tobacco Burst Les Paul quickly turns into this week's Pepto Bismol Pink Kramer.

Because Hair.

Pickups are normally where most people start, and with options at every point on the price scale, there are a ton of great options out there.  Here are some important things to keep in mind:

Learn How to Solder

If you can't install your own pickups, you're either shutting the door on a world of great tone or demonstrating that you have more money than brains (because you'll pay someone 50 bucks an hour to do it for you instead of learning yourself).  For $30 you can get yourself basic soldering iron, some rosin core solder and some wire.  With tons of resources online to teach you how to do it properly, and Seymour Duncan's excellent collection of schematics, there's no reason no to learn.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes - that's how you learn.

It isn't a Value Add

Adding $300 worth of pickups to a $200 guitar doesn't mean you now have a $500 guitar.  You have a $200 guitar, period.  Deal with it. Those pickups might add some fractional value to your instrument if you do decide to sell it, but in reality you're better off stripping the pickups out and selling them and the guitar separately.  Very rarely is a modification seen as a positive on the used market.

Learn From Others

You aren't the first person to own that type of guitar, and you're not the first person to want to mod it.  There are thousands of forums out there that discuss all kinds of pickup swaps.  Find people with similar experiences/gear and learn from their stories.  Sometimes it will take you down roads you would have never considered on your own, with much better results.  Even checking out what manufacturers are doing can lead you to interesting places in terms of tone.

Know the Limits

You are not going to make your guitar sound like another guitar.  You can get close, but it will never be the same thing.  Your strat will never sound like a Les Paul.  Your Les Paul will never sound like a Tele.  That shouldn't dissuade you, but accept that if all you really want is to sound like a Les Paul, you should probably just go buy a Les Paul.

Willing to Admit You Were Wrong

Nobody is perfect, and that awesome mod you spent time and money on just didn't turn out. There's no shame in it, and no replacement for experience.  You should go into any mod knowing that you may not like it, so keep in mind what you are spending, and how much of that you could reasonably expect to recover (if you are so inclined).  Learning what you DON'T like helps you zero in on exactly what you DO want.

2001 Fender American Series Telecaster

This was my first American made guitar.  When I first got it, I told myself that I'd never change anything, but years of ownership and experience eventually got me looking at replacing parts.  After reading a bunch of information online, I started with the bridge, since there were a lot of people who said it was a fix all.

After doing my research, I went for the Callaham American Standard Replacement Bridge.  I chose the brass saddles because I found this guitar too shrill sometimes and brass was supposed to smooth that out.  It was a relatively easy install, and while I was satisfied, it was not the cure all I had hoped for. (It was an immediate, noticeable, and positive difference, but hoping that the bridge would make a weak pickup better was a little hopeful).

The next modification was purely cosmetic - a paisley pick guard to replace the parchment white that came standard.  Not exactly a traditional look, and no I'm not a big Brad Paisley fan, but I dig it.

Despite being told that the bridge pickup would be smoothed out by the new bridge, I still wasn't happy.  As a big Pete Anderson fan, I decided to not only replace the bridge pickup, but also order a new Nashville pick guard from Guitar Fetish along with the 63 Telecaster Pickup for the bridge and some 1959 Stratocaster pickups for the middle and neck.  Obviously a 5 way switch was in order, and I ordered a replacement control plate too (which didn't fit).

Installation was relatively easy, though I'm not sure why Fender needed to ground the circuit in three different places.  I ended up wiring the middle and neck pickups in reverse the first time around, so eventually I had to open it up and fix my mistake.  Lesson learned - double check everything before sewing the patient up.  

Almost immediately I was unhappy.  The pick guard was too blue, the white pickup covers create too much of a contrast, and the whole thing screamed "I AM A TELECASTER FROM THE EARLY 1990s".  It just wasn't doing it for me.

My God.  What have you done?!?!

The pickups weren't fairing much better.  Having strat sounds available on the Telecaster was cool, but since I have strats, I began to miss the Telecaster's stock neck pickup (which is a well regarded stock pickup for good reason).  The bridge pickup, on the other hand, was a winner.  Still sharp and twangy, but with more gravitas.  The opinions on GFS seem to be all over the place, but in most cases you'd be hard pressed to find better stuff for the price.  I'm not thrilled with the Canadian Dollar tanking and effectively making everything there 20-30% more expensive, but I still think they offer great value.  

It didn't take long before this Telecaster was back on the table, to have it's guts ripped out again.  Back to a three way switch, back to the paisley pickguard, back to happy. Plus, I was able to sell the Strat pickup set for my purchase price, so I was only out the cost of the pickguard.

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