The affliction continues. My Rossmeisl Tele and (don't hate me) a Wolfgang.
Two New Guitars
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- Rated: 9 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 4:10 p.m. caliban335:
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- Rated: 212 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 5:04 p.m. Proteus:
I certainly understand the Tele...
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- Rated: 25 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 5:05 p.m. Parabar:
Wow --- I've never seen a Tele wth a Charlie Christian pickup before!
How do it sound?
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- Rated: 41 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 5:14 p.m. bwallace1:
that's two very nice guitars, caliban.
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- Rated: 22 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 5:17 p.m. Boyko:
I've never seen a Thinline Tele with a Charlie Christian. Pretty cool. Both are fine playgin machines.
You need a dive-bar on that Wolfgang by the way.
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- Rated: 41 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 5:22 p.m. dubkitty:
that Tele is beautiful. it also has the kind of ineffable presence a guitar has when it's been done right.
what does the Wolfie sound like played clean? and what's the body wood?
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- Rated: 6 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 6:55 p.m. Brandon02:
Cool guitars. I've had a few Wolfgang's and I think they are good solid body guitars.
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- Rated: 10 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 9:21 p.m. Daddy-O:
That thinline knocks my socks off ! I love the CC on tele. That black body with shell guard and maple board is TITS.
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- Rated: 15 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 10:07 p.m. AndyJ:
Double plus on the Thinline w/CC! Dat's purdy!
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- Rated: 7 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 10:12 p.m. googoobaby:
I've never played a Wolfgang plugged in, but they feel really good. Love that Tele, though.
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- Rated: 35 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 11:01 p.m. crowbone:
Awesome Tele! I recently played a Wolfie and the are quite comfortable.
Enjoy both.
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- Rated: 102 ↑
Oct 3, 2008 11:30 p.m. Setzer:
Sweet Peavey! Don't let some of these guys rattle your cage. After all they are just tools...check out my avatar: a mid 80's Fender HM Strat and I love it!
Nice Telecaster too, what kind of body wood is it and what does it weigh?
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- Rated: 19 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 12:31 a.m. The Shetland:
nice guitars? the wolfgang is nice, the tele is the bomb...
congrats!
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- Rated: 15 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 12:00 p.m. AndyJ:
caliban335,
Did you have the tortoise pickguard for the Thinline made custom? I've only seen black replacements for sale.
I never liked the stock mother-of-toilet-seat pickguards on the Thinlines. I'd love to have a tortoise pickguard on my sunburst Thinline.
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- Rated: 42 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 1:53 p.m. JC:
Love that Tele!
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- Rated: 20 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 2:31 p.m. DangerousMan:
Wow... that Telecaster is a thing of beauty - love the CC in the neck too; does it play as good as it looks?
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- Rated: 22 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 3:15 p.m. jazzbo:
Very nice indeed! The Tele is visually striking. And the Wolfgang is a well designed, American built guitar. If it was junk, it wouldn't have sold so well, regardless of the EVH connection.
You never have to apologize for your choice in guitars, caliban. Only small minded people would slag you for owning a guitar you like. They either have a corksniffer mentality or the mental incapacity to separate the guitar model from its common genre and namesake. Seek no ones approval in your choice of gear.
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- Rated: 9 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 5:14 p.m. caliban335:
First, thanks for all the positive comments. I really like both of these guitars, obviously for very different reasons.
Here's some detail on the '69 Thinline Re-issue, answers to the questions posed and a "before" photo. These guitars come from the factory with steel saddles, 1 meg pots and low output, shrill sounding (in my opinion) pickups. I handed the guitar over to a very skilled tech, asking him to replace the bridge with a Wilkinson compensated with brass saddles and to swap out the 1 meg pots for 250k. I also asked him to replace the existing pickguard with the tortoise shell and to replace the pickups with Lollars. The neck is a Charlie Christian, while the bridge is a Special T; much hotter than a "conventional" Tele bridge pickup.
My Thinline is a MIM and the body is mahogany. Fender also offers an ash version from Mexico. There are Japanese versions as well, but I'm not familiar with their specs. I don't know whether the pickguard is custom, but I doubt it. There are a few web sites offering Thinline guards in a variety of colors & materials. I'll send an email to the tech and get back to you AndyJ.
I had considered adding a B5 into the mix but chose not to. This Tele is designed somewhat like a 335 with a plank of wood installed down the middle, but extending only far enough to give the strings something solid to pass through on their way to the ferrules on the back of the body. The tech and I agreed that there was probably not enough wood at the "bottom" of the body to safely accommodate a B5. There is an aftermarket device that allows you to mount the B5 on a plate which is in turn mounted on the guitar, but I decided against it.
Given the way these are constructed, there is a fair amount of air inside the body. According to my un-scientific get on the bathroom scale with and without the guitar methodology, the guitar weighs in at approximately 6 lbs. It's borderline to being neck-heavy, but on the right side of the border.
I can coax a fairly convincing jazzbox tone out of the Charlie Christian when I back off the tone and volume. As I wrote earlier, the Special T is hotter than a traditional Tele bridge pickup. Both pickups distort nicely when I overdrive the amp (Blues Junior). The middle position was a pleasant surprise, as it delivers a very full and gritty tone. The necks on these '69s are great. Maybe the best.
The Wolfgang is a fine guitar. I'd fooled around with one that had a Floyd Rose setup and really liked the feel of the neck and the body. As some of you have pointed out, they are "comfortable"; very well balanced and light weight for a guitar that sustains quite well. The Floyd is not for me, however. It's not my style and, besides, I'm too lazy to pull out an allen wrench every time something needs adjusting or changing. So I was pleased to learn these were offered in a hardtail version and kept an eye out for one.
The body on my Wolfgang is basswood. There are higher end versions with a flame maple cap and some pretty wild finishes. I prefer my basic black. The pickups seem refined to my ears. When I first picked up one of these I was expecting some incredibly hot, overwound beast, but that's not the case. I guess I'd have to say the Wolfgang is my version of a Les Paul with punchy humbuckers and lot's of sustain, but without the weight and the high price tag. I tried to fill this "space" with a New Jet, but it just didn't work out.
The Wolfgang is a fine guitar. I don't know how much (or little) Eddie contributed, but it's a comfy design that sounds great to me. Despite the name and EVH connection, it's a lot like wearing "sensible shoes", to mix a metaphor. At any rate, I'm confident most folks would like the Wolfgang if they had the opportunity to plug one in and take it for a spin.
Here's the before photo.
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- Rated: 6 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 5:54 p.m. Brandon02:
Eddie worked with Peavey on the Wolfgang. I've got a book called "The Peavey Revolution" that has some pictures of Eddie working with Hartley Peavey on the first prototype.
I think there is supposed to be a new Wolfgang coming out in the EVH series from Fender. It looks a lot like the Peavey. I saw one in a video from the 2008 NAMM show on youtube. I posted a link to the video below, the Wolfgang is at the end.
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- Rated: 9 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 6:49 p.m. caliban335:
Does the book provide any information about the pickups in the Wolfgang?
Thanks,
Chris
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- Rated: 42 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 8:04 p.m. seadevil:
I bet that tele sounds awesome! Jason Lollar is a monster pickup winder. I've shown this before, but here's a Lollar CC in a "stealth" Warmoth thinline. At the time, Warmoth didn't hollow out the area behind the bridge, so the Bigsby is fine. The neck is quartersawn bloodwood with an ebony fretboard, BTW, and also from Warmoth. I use it with a Blues Junior quite a bit myself, but it really shines with a 15" speaker.
The device that mounts a Bigsby without holes in the top of the guitar is the ZZ Guitarworks EZ-Mount Kit.
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- Rated: 6 ↑
Oct 4, 2008 8:23 p.m. Brandon02:
The pickups were custom made to get the tone that Eddie wanted.
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- Rated: 20 ↑
Oct 5, 2008 8:15 a.m. DangerousMan:
Has anybody used the EZ-mount on a guitar? It's kind of pricy... I'm not sure I'd want to spend $250 on a bigs that's only attached with a single screw. Although I am intrigued by the idea of not having to modify the guitar; that is quite appealing indeed.
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- Rated: 66 ↑
Oct 5, 2008 8:20 a.m. Walter Broes:
I think the EZ-mount manages to make one of the coolest looking pieces of guitar hardware look terrible.
I do like the idea of that other Gizmo that mounts a B-5 on a guitar with stop-tail holes, but that doesn't work on a tele.
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- Rated: 12 ↑
Oct 5, 2008 8:34 a.m. Chonny:
Nice guitars!
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