So having now got the Bananacaster neck all fixed up fitted to the carved body and complete, I now found myself in the position of having a spare Telecaster neck. Not being one to let an opportunity pass by, I set off on the hunt for the next body to go with it.
I was looking for the unusual, and came across AG Custom Guitars up in Burton on Trent who make custom Telecasters from old recycled timber floorboards. Ably assisted by Jon at the office, we persuaded them to make a one off left handed body with a single bridge only pickup and a single knob.
All of the hardware was around in the Shed , funnily enough, including a very odd humbucking Telecaster bridge pickup that came from China (as if). Pretty much every other Tele I have has got a real Fender bridge pickup on it, usually a Broadcaster, but this was all that was left in the box so on it went along with a Fender pat bridge and some nice brass saddles.
So all strung up and plugged in and it did sound a little odd, very quiet and the pickup was as microphonic as hell. Not to be dismayed, I pulled it out and discovered that it had two 4 ohm coils in out of phase mode, so a quick series wiring job sorted that out, and a quick trip up to Seb's - the sage who fixes eveything for 15 mins in his wax potting bath and all was good to go - levels restored and a pleasing character all of its own with no whistles.
Another unusual one and number 8 in the Tele collection