Teles
Beautiful guitar Trev. Looks a lot like my Peavey Gen Ex Vintage I got for 176 with price matching from uncleikes.com, at a local store; except mine has a vintage humbucker in the neck nickel plated and a standard Peavey really good sounding bridge pup.
My G&L ASAT Classic Tribute tele I recently acquired has standard tele pups but made by G&L in the states and sound fantastic and are different from other pups in their design specifics but yet are still single coils. The G&L you might be interested to know, has six brass barrel saddles; pretty cool saddle set up. The G&L is great. I said I'd post pictures and I will.
The Peavey tele's are really really really nice looking, feeling, sounding, playing, and are selling at some great prices; like 149 for a triple single Gen ex from siglermusic.com . Standards, too, for 149. The Custom has two humbuckers and a piezo acoustic bridge saddle pup system and is a tele style and sells for 200 at sigler I believe. The store by me will match the price. I want one but have some other stuff I want first.
The humbucker, Guitar Gal, on my Peavey Gen Ex Vintage is in the neck and is vintage voiced and not real real hot like a Seymour Duncan JB, but I like the vintage tone and it blends in with the bridge pup really well so that both are approximately the same volume and match really well. Peavey makes a really nice tele. I, too, think that they will be disappearing soon and I got two standards; one antique burst that is called a three tone burst, and a butterscotch that I really love the looks of. You can see the wood grain thru it and some people aren't thrilled by the way the softer part of the grain absorbs the color and makes it a darker tone of color in those grain areas. At first I didn't like it either. I now really love it. I like the way the color differentiates with the grain and it is a really nice butterscotch but not like paint, not one solid color.
Those Peavey's are some great tele's Guitar Gal. I don't like to give advice, but I would in this case advise that you find one somewhere to play thru a good amp like a Peavey Delta Blues or Classic 30. I play mine thru my Crate V8 straight up and it sounds great and sometimes I put a Korg AX5G in between and wow. I also play it thru my Fender SCXD and my Vox DA5 (what a great and under recognized amp); usually straight up with the DA5 because it has such really cool settings, like three separate blues amp emulations plus crunches and drive and cleans; on top of that some great effects like autowah and a really nice highly adjustable reverb.
I would say if you play one of those Peaveys you will want to buy it and you'll be thinking, "How can they sell these this cheap?". Plus the Peavey's have vintage style tuners, Kluson style and most have locking tuning machines that are different from the usual ones I see. These have a split tuning post with a hole in the center that you push the end of the string down into and then wind down toward the face of the headstock.
The Peavey tele's are really well thought thru and designed guitars that work really really well. They are definitely in G&L ASAT Tribute territory for a fraction of the price and have some common features like great necks.
Hope some of these observations help.
Duffy
Winfield, Pa
Ps: Although I'm by no means an expert guitar tech, I have learned that to get a really good solder joint like on the ground on the pot or other solder joints, it is essential to use paste flux that you brush on before you apply the solder. The flux burns off impurities and allows the solder to form a superior joint. Also, using as little solder in the joint as possible for a solid joint is best. Huge piles of solder with a bunch of grounds on top of the pot is not the mark of a professional and a huge pile is not necessary and may be hiding a poor solder joint at the bottom of it. I'm not a professional solderer and have a few piles on top of some of my pots, but I'm trying to keep the solder joints small and clean, using plenty of flux and getting a good solder joint.
It is the quality of the solder joint that is important, not the quantity of solder massed on top of the connection. Like I indicated earlier, it's what's at the bottom of that mass of solder where the wires contact the surface of the pot or other connection and it is at this contact surface that you want to have a good clean solid joint, free of solder slag, etc.
I always keep the tip of my iron cleaned off. I even scrape off the slag if I need to and then tin the tip. Tinning is applying a small coating of solder to the tip of the iron. Apply a little paste flux first then apply the solder to the tip. This helps ensure a clean tip and results in a better chance of getting a clean solder joint. It's an art.
I don't mean to sound like I know it all, but I hope some of my observations help others in their quests for improvements. I know I learned a lot from people on this net.
I really like that tele Trev. I bet it can twang big time.
