Question: Tele or Strat, or both?

[Pine Apple Slim]

I bought and finished a new pine body for my parts Tele to replace the pawlonia wood almost 2 years ago. But I can’t seem to be arsed to switch all the guts over. Fiddling with that stuff has just become a chore and work instead of a fun learning experience. I kinda want to scrap the thing and just get a vintage style blackguard- an Am Vintage, something boutique like a Kirn, or possiby a Vintera II. I want a 7.25 neck that’s beefy but not a baseball bat, nocaster style pickups, brass saddles, etc. My Allparts partscaster neck is really good, finished out by a good luthier w rolled edges, nitro, great fretwork, but it’s massive, a real baseball bat. It’s a 9.5, sounds great, awesome for chord work, but slows me down on the single note stuff, I really want to go to a traditional Fender 7.25 that’s on the beefy side but not as massively over the top huge as my Allparts TMO Fat.

And…

Despite my longstanding love/hate relationship I still want a good traditional spec Strat. I love that neck pickup. Also I love how nothing works better with a Fuzz Face and vol knob than a Strat. I had a heavy ash a 99-00’ Mex for a while back in the day that was pretty good and shoulda kept it. I’ve had a couple of cheapies, partscaster and an Affinity that just didn’t do it for me. I had an Am Pro briefly but I moved it on. Just couldn’t bond with the huge frets, maple bite, and modern sounding pickups. Just too modern a vibe for me.

I’m thinking that like my preference in Teles, I need to go trad. 60s style Strat w rosewood and 7.25 neck. The Vintera Iis are tempting but I’m not gonna bite without playing one.

For the price of a really nice vintage spec nitro Blackguard, I could get both in the Vinteras, but I need to play some. Nitro is nice but I can live without it if I really like everything else about the guitar(s). My local GC sucks and selections are hit and miss. I need to go to a bigger town and play a bunch. My closest option is Nashville, but Id travel furthe for the right shop, used stuff or new. My one local vintage/used shop just doesn’t have anything close to what I want. I keep checking in but nothing close has turned up there in the last year or so.

You guys in the south know of another option, a shop, or city w several good shops, that might have what I looking for?

 

[baimun]

The best thing about a strat, even if you choose to tighten the springs so the bridge doesn't float and you simply use it as a hard tail....


.... the interchangeable pickguard!

Whether you use little butt connectors for the output jack, or screw one of those little terminal end blocks into the control cavity, you can have the bridge ground and the pair of output connections just sitting there waiting for a connection from various pickguards. If the body has a swimming pool or HSH routing, you've got LOTS of options where you can have a pickguard sitting to the side with different pickup options.

I'm currently doing this exact thing... one of the pickguards is going to have a P90 bridge pickup and either a strat or tele neck pickup (no middle) while another is looking like H_H with various series/parallel options. You could do one with a Tele pickup mounted in the bridge position of the pickguard (start with a blank pickguard with no pickup holes) and put a strat single in the neck.

It will be nice to again have a "Test Mule" where I can swap out the guard in a few minutes and A/B different pickups.

 

[xStonr]

Nashville Tele with n/b mod.

 

[jrockbridge]

Both. More is better.