Hey all:

Tele lust won't quit, so I pulled the trigger when this great deal came along. It's the first production tele from builder John Mayes, better known for his acoustics:



The gold hardware is gone now, thank god. Has a callahm bridge, budz saddles. The body is chambered ash, with a quilted maple top. The neck is outstanding, a gorgeous birdseye maple, 1 11/16 wide, 12" radius, with a thick braziian rosewood fingerboard. Pickups are now Frailins. They seemed a bit harsh at first, but I have to say this guitar has quite a kick to it. Loud, big sound. No lack of low end either. I've owned one chambered tele, which was mahogany, with a spruce top. And really appreciated what the construction did for the sound. It was warm, on the jazzy side, and would feedback easily.

This one is different. Less jazzy with that maple cap, a heavier sound, but softened and warmed up by that wonderful rosewood fingerboard. I might swap pickups, maybe a Don Mare 0038 in the bridge (as it's one of the finest tele pickups I've heard), maybe a minihumbucker in the neck. We'll see. This is a really nice instrument.
MD

That thing is gorgeous! I am glad to hear the gold hardware is gone as well. I never heard of Callaham hardware. I might have to try them. Nice Tele.

talking guild about teles - this is a tele:

Very nice. Those are hard to find.

Update on this red tele:

It's a cautionary tale on the vagaries of gear preferences. My tele hunt started when I sold (my idea too) an orange partscaster tele to a good buddy, who needed a good electric. The partscaster has a chambered, spruce top body, Don Mare 2324 pickups, glendale bridge and saddles. We're talking sweet ... with just about perfect neck feel and action.

So I do the right thing (it seemed), then realized I still wanted that type of tele. So found this red one. Which in every way is a better guitar (it seemed.) Upgraded it with another set of Mare pickups, glendale saddles, already had a callaham bridge. Then realize I'm just not comfortable playing it. The neck is 1 11/16" wide, with a 12" radius. Pretty much the same as suits me so well on other guitars, but here it's not working. As good as it sounds (and it certainly does), the red one is not getting played.

So I called up my buddy and begged. He'll trade me back the orange one for the red. He'll get the better of the deal, but I will be so relieved to have the orange tele back. Lesson learned. Sometimes you gotta listen with the guitar talks to you.
MD