It’s Tele time! Welcome to the first segment of GuitarNiche’s Six Part Guitar Setup Video Series: How To Setup A Telecaster!
Part 1 of How To Setup Fender Telecaster
Welcome to GuitarNiche’s Six Part Authentic Guitar Setup Video Series: How To Setup A Classic Fender Telecaster.
Introduction and Assessment
Ever have Tele troubles? Or even just guitar troubles?…
No guitar is immune to climate changes, accidental falls, misuse and neglect. Even pro level instruments benefit from a good setup before they live in the hands of their owners.
This is why the Guitar Setup Video Series exists.
That, and to share some of the nuggets and interesting history I’ve picked up over many years of working with guitars.
What’s covered in the video:
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Assessment
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Things to watch out for with Telecaster setups
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A little background on how the Telecaster was inspired
Video: Tele Setup Tutorial Part 1
Transcript:
Introduction and Assessment
Hey everybody, Steve from GuitarNiche here. We have a fine example of a ’52 Reissue US-made Tele here that we’re going to do a tip-to-toe setup on.
As far as I know it has never had any work done to it since the owner first purchased it and, first order of business will be assessment – looking at what if any problems exist and what we’re up against as as far as just getting it tip-top.
That’s the order of the day and I’ll be back momentarily. See you in a sec!
We’re going to have a little look-see at how this puppy sounds with a little bit of grind on it. I have the amp set up kind of ah pretty moderate, pretty spanky.
The guitar’s on the back pickup there. The action is kind of stiff.
My first impression is this: it doesn’t quite feel right across the fretboard – action is a little bit high which can be typical with seven and a quarter-inch radius fretboards from the early Teles and early Fender products etc.
The other thing, just as an aside here, is this has the old-school wiring in it where it’s all bass as you go forward on the switch so you can comp bass lines and stuff like that. It did have a purpose but that’s a story for another time.
As far as the assessment goes here, again I said that the strings are a bit high, particularly on the treble side. I’m gonna have a quick look at the relief on the neck – which needs some improvement.
I can tell just by looking at the saddles, they’re just all over the place down here okay. They’re slightly intonated for a string length but the action across the radius at this point is just… not there – it’s kaki so it’s just destroying the feel so it needs some tweakies and stuff like that.
This particular reissue, US made and all that, has slots crews around the the pickguard. Five screw pickguard slot screws – you’ve got to be careful when you’re working with slot screws around the instrument because, you know, one little slip with the screwdriver and… they’re really problematic. So just be careful, exercise some extra attention to your tools if you’re gonna do this okay – slot screws are just nasty.
Anyway, we’ll be able to deal with that. Other than that, the neck angle and everything else seems to be pretty cool. It’s a fairly new instrument so I’m not too worried about wear and tear items. The controls are pretty clean, the jack is not scratchy or anything although I will give it an inspection.
One final thing I’ll have a look at before we bust out the tools, first off this nut is out to lunch – that needs to be recut in the worst way. String installation is okay, there’s a lot of extra string around these posts here which can potentially cause tuning problems – I’ll discuss that as we dive into it
The pickup height is moderate, it could be better and of course, part of this whole process is to go around and “batten down the hatches” and get things in good order
Anyway, that’s my assessment of it. We’re going to have to take the neck off – while we have the neck off we should be able to see some marks where it’s been branded – as far as a date stuff like that.
We’re going to tweak the neck out, we’re going to recut the nut, we’re going to reset the intonation and the saddle height down here, and try to get everything in balance. Of course we will deal with the pickups themselves, that’ll be one of the last jobs.
One thing I want to mention though in terms of this style of instrument, they’re really bare-bones, utility sort of things to work on. They’re actually quite quite a joy to work on because they were designed to be a workingman’s instrument that was affordable – you get replacement parts easily. Let’s say the neck broke, you could put on another neck. But it had to be dependable.
The original intent was to build an instrument that was robust, all things considered, slot screws included. It’s actually pretty cool, they’re a lot of fun to work on and of course play and all that good stuff.
Anyway, I’m going to just take a break for two seconds here and we’ll bust out the tools and have at it. First order is… the teardown. I’ll be right back and we’ll get at it.
Okay, thanks.
Telecaster History
I’ve had the very good fortune of working on a good number of these ’52 Reissues and they never fail to wind up as real charmers. Bullet proof workhorses you can count gig after gig, night after night.
After the launch of the Esquire in 1950 and it’s siblings, Clarence Leo Fender finally had a “Spanish” guitar in form and name that set the bar very high for future iterations. It had also caught the attention of Gretsch, Gibson and others.
With it’s entrance into the market in the summer of 1951, this original and iconic instrument maintained it’s Bakelite pickguard, serviceable bolt-on neck and signature tone cut wiring through 1952.
In this first segment of our six part series, I do an assessment of a mint Fender ’52 Reissue Telecaster and point out some of the intricacies involved in setting up one of these fine instruments.
For a complete detailed guide to eliminating your own guitar problems and maximizing it’s playability, check out our page: How To Set Up A Guitar.
If you have a Fender American Original ’50s Telecaster, a reissue, or any other Telecaster model for that fact, you know how much fun they are to play and how versatile an instrument they can be.
The simplicity of design, execution and tonal vibe are iconic for a reason. Please stay tuned and watch for upcoming series instalments covering this fantastic time machine of a guitar. It was a pleasure to work on and I hope you enjoy the series.
Cheers!
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