'Dantecaster!'

I've always been a fan of the frankly, slightly loony design of Danelectro™ guitars. Nathan Daniel, the founder of the company cut production costs to the bone to supply rock and roll twang machines to the masses via the Sears catalogue. To that end 'Dannos' were built with ply, poplar or just plain 'scrap' wood frames ... clad front and back with Masonite (that's good old hardboard to the UK reader). I wanted to get some of that vibe and sound while opting for a slightly more traditional Telecaster™ body shape. Here we have the result ... still in primer ... a dead standard Tele™ body made with a pine frame and a Masonite top and back. I will be fitting this with a nice neck and some of my 'Thames Delta' pickups ... so watch this space.

One term comes to mind when making Telecaster™ neck pickups: fiddly! Okay so the slim chrome covers look kinda cool and retro, but Leo was working near the limits in trying to fit a decent output pickup into such a tiny space. My new vintage Tele™ neck pickup uses every available millimetre of bobbin space to come in at about 6.5k … just a tad hotter than average, but well still balanced and open.

When I order our next consignment of custom magnets I will include some longer than standard alnico 5 slugs to make a ‘hotter’ bobbin that can hold more wire. Then I will have the option of winding a ‘traditional hot’ with 43awg wire or a warmer, more Strat™ like pickup with 42awg wire.

Mudbuckers

Above: a late seventies DiMarzio X2N 'Power Plus' pickup. Mud personified!

I’ve got nothing against humbuckers … right? I’ve played, and gigged many guitars fitted with them and got the job done just fine. The problem for me is that they are a compromise … and for some … not all types of music they simply lack something. Okay, if I want the easiest route to smoking, full bore, metal grind and scream I’d take humbuckers pretty well every time … at least as a bridge pickup. Trouble is, I have a Telecaster™ fitted with my Oil City ‘Hardman’ Bridge single coil, that, given the right amp setting will produce gallons of grinding, doomy ‘dropped D’ chord work. Or face melting picked harmonic squealage for that matter. Okay so the ‘Hardman’ is over 9k of evil mutant force, but wound back it will do blues or even country quote happily. Try that with some ‘Metal’ humbuckers and you will get the sonic equivalent of drowning in lukewarm, unsalted porridge! Those who are interested … go check out the fantastic lead and rhythm work of Steve Zodiac guitarist and frontman of ground breaking metallers Vardis from the late seventies/early eighties … barefoot on stage … with a Telecaster™ and a groaning vintage Selmer valve amp. Pure magic!

The problem is, that in taking out hum you take out some of the good stuff too: harmonic sparkle, attack, twang. And simply having the ability to shut off one coil and make a limp, ‘pseudo single coil’ isn’t enough. And the hotter the humbucker is wound the more soulless and muddy it becomes if you try any subtlety with it. I firmly believe that about 9 or 10k is as far as you can go without making the whole thing pointless … Just stick a pedal in dude!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Peter Green or Gary Moore’s tone from a PAF Gibson™ pickup. But remember, the PAFs that gave the sound we all love ... the really early ones ... were not wax potted. That made them brighter, more dynamic .... and a total squealing bitch in high gain situations.

Now I have every intention of offering vintage style PAFs in my pickup range (8k or so, with Alnico 5 magnet). They should sound much better than mass produced 'buckers,' as they will get back most of their brightness and 'openness' through being scatter wound (the early Gibsons™ were all machine wound I believe).

For myself ... when all’s said and done, with a little tweaking I can get similar from my Strat™ fitted with my ‘Triple Blues’ set of single coils. Too much noise? Fit a noise gate. If you only buy one guitar, gigging or ‘bedroom hero’ … buy one with single coils … you will get loads more mileage from it. Remember … this is my opinion only!

Necking! Oh and Happy New Year!

Some thoughts on necks … now it looks as if we will be producing them as well as pickups! Right, the biggest con out is the ‘double acting’ truss rod … it’s completely pointless. In all my years building and repairing guitars I have never seen a guitar with a neck that wants to bow back of its own accord: away from the pull of those six strings. Necks bow forward due to string tension; they twist due to either poor sawing/seasoning of the timber, and the do get curved backward by a poor fret job ‘wedging’ open narrow fret slots. But they don’t just take it into their grain to go against physics! A ‘dual acting truss rod won’t help a twisted neck so it’s inly use is after a poor fret job or to correct a manufacturing defect. So the point of a dual acting truss rod was what exactly? It’s a marketing ploy … simple as that.

Now I’m often asked about fretboard material and fret height. Well for the look I adore a one piece maple neck/fingerboard on a Strat or Tele … but beware of modern high gloss poly finishes on a maple fingerboard … they drag can the fingers like nitro never did, and are so hard that you will never wear a comfortable patina on them. Big old frets can help … kinda gets you up and away from the board like a mild form of scalloping … but vintage frets and a poly coated board will stickkkkk. I would chose a ‘rosewood’ board on a low end neck to do away with the problem. By the way, very few guitars have real rosewood fingerboards these days … the wood’s too rare and expensive. There are a number of ‘rosewood like’ woods in use that masquerade as the real thing, and in truth are every bit as hard wearing.

As for frets … well I personally like big-ass ‘railroad track’ fretwire … can cause heavy players to have intonation problems … but I find most people play faster and cleaner on big wire.