NGD - My first 'burst, and not a Guild

For the first time in two years I own a guitar that is not a Guild. :lol:

A friend of mine in DC had one of these, and playing it reminded me how much I like Fender necks and maple fretboards, so I decided to grab one. After looking into them I found out that the black and walnut finished ones were alder while the sunburst finish came with an ash body. Snagged this one through eBay and had a friend pick it up for me in the Atlanta area.











What I really want is a Jazzmaster but that will require a little more money and will have to wait until I find the right one, probably a MIJ. Although I had the chance to play a vintage one (circa '68 I think) and if I had that kind of money I would definitely go vintage!

Anyway, I haven't had much time with it but it seems to be well-made and the pickups are decent. There's nothing really "tele" about it except the body shape, but I dig the Strat neck and oversized headstock. It came with a gig bag which is fairly decent, gig bag candy, a couple wrenches, and a tremolo bar. That's right - I have a guitar with tremolo. :lol:

It may be an '09, but I haven't really looked into serial number information. Besides a bunch of pick marks on the pickguard, it's pretty much mint. Also has a Graph Tech nut, which the seller made a big deal out of. Too bad they covered up so much of the finish with that gigantic pickguard.

\m/-_-\m/

Man that's a nice piece of ash! Of course, I'm a sucker for a nice 'burst. And I bet that maple neck & fingerboard are smooth as butter.

I just spent a little time with it and I gotta say I'm fairly impressed. Not bad at all for a MIM Fender. The p'ups aren't too powerful, but the tones hold up over a nice range. Definitely a humbucker sound, which is good because I'm not really into single coils or the Tele twang. Although it does have more of a Fender tone than I thought it would, especially through the bridge pickup. The tremolo is a bit awkward (maybe I'm just not used to it) but when I use it there's a nice surf twang and dive. Very Fender-ish.

Yeah, I think this is a nice addition to the stable. I'm diggin' the maple and the scale length.

Is that stock?? Most '72 Deluxe Tele's I've seen are hardtail, both original and reissue. Interesting..

jcwu said:

Is that stock?? Most '72 Deluxe Tele's I've seen are hardtail, both original and reissue. Interesting..

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Yep. Stock. When I did some research I saw both. IIRC the walnut and black ones were alder with hardtails and the sunburst ones were ash with tremolo.

Nice.

Qvart said:

Too bad they covered up so much of the finish with that gigantic pickguard.

\m/-_-\m/

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My thoughts exactly. Pretty cool guitar, though, and you're right, it does make a nice addition of the Qvart stable.

Qvart said:

... Too bad they covered up so much of the finish with that gigantic pickguard.

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Nice Geoff! I'm with you on the pg ... my MIM has a needlessly large white pearloid pg too.

Qvart:

That looks like a good one. I lusted after these a long time. Ended up trading for a partscaster tele recently. Rather deluxe-ish, with a strat neck, big pickguard. But pretty unique after that, humbucker hard mounted to the body in the neck position, standard single coil in the bridge. Bridge plate is a high tech Babiczs. Never seen it before. Two volumes, one tone, split coil on the neck. I got replacement p/us from Tom Short, an "undercover mini" for the neck, somewhat overwound single coil on the bridge. The neck p/us is a minihumbucker in a full-sized HB housing. And sounds amazing. If I had your guitar, I'd be emailing Tom Short right now. His stuff is on sale. That is, assuming they'd fit in those routes. Are they oversized?

MD

Looks sweet

That looks like a really nice guitar. I had an original:



Back in the band days... recording a demo tape.

Dave

mad dog said:

Are they oversized?

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I have no idea. They do look large, but that may be because of the covers and how the poles are spaced in sets of three. I haven't measured them and I won't be taking the pickguard off anytime soon - it's attached with FIFTEEN screws. Yikes! :lol:

By the way, my luthier gave it the thumbs up. He said Mexico is producing much better guitars now, and that they always had skilled people but were short on supplies and equipment. He also said that he has seen this model from the '70's with both hardtails and tremolos.

Cool pic, dapmdave!