November Telescapades #2 - GOLD FOILS! 11-19-23 update

MichaelW

MichaelW

Well-known member
Here's my second November Tele build.......and my last build........at least for a while. heh.

I was originally planning to do another NoMoonLaser body for this project but I just happened to be checking MJT's ebay site and saw this one with 8 minutes to go on the auction, so I sniped it.

Another pine body with a lighter butterscotch finish. Medium relic.
3lb 15oz.
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Here's the neck for it. Another one from samsguitarshop / GuitarFlow

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I was mulling over whether to spend the dollars for a set of Lollar Goldfoils when I found this winder on Reverb. Victory Pickups.

He specializes in Gold Foils and makes them the correct way with ferrite rubberized magnets. I've found out that a lot of so called Gold Foil pickups available only the market are just plain old Alnico pickups with some gold screening for cosmetics.
I wanted the "real" Gold Foil sound and wanted an authentic wind. After chatting with Wade at Victory I was pretty confident this guy is legit and winds these to the same specs as the old cheap Japanese Teisco/Dearmonds. So I'm rolling the dice. Also, they are very affordable, less than 1/2 the price of the Lollars/Novaks.
I also looked at Gemini pickups that someone had started a thread here but the 2 month wait time just wasn't gonna work for me. heh.

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I had to do some routing to make them fit. Marking out the pickup locations.

Edit: I forgot to mention that the bridge pickup is another Cavalier pickup. I think these might be my favorite Tele pickups right now.
Such fantastic toanz, such ridiculously low prices.

The"Nashville Lion":

"Nashville Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 10000 42AWG over A5 rod magnets, lots of country twang with a hefty dose of mid-range, think "Broadcaster plus", this is the original Cavalier Lion that's quite at home for country, rock, pop and bluez - a classic higher turn count 50's Tele® bridge pickup. Smooth treble that's hardly shrill, good midrange and some bass end, good fat twang, arguably the most sought after Tele® bridge pup for country and lots of other genres. Black or ivory/parchment wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing."


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I used my P90 template for the routes. It didn't need to be very deep as these pickups are super thin.
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Oh and I recently upgraded my router to a Bosch Colt. Man, this thing is a machine! I love it. So much smoother than my Harbor Freight Bauer (Although that one has served me well)

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First pass, I thought this would be enough but it wasn't. It was enough depth for the pickups but did not leave room for the shielded cable he uses. I wound up making a few more passes and making it deeper.

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Continued in next post.....
 
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Incidentally, the reason I got the new router is because it's on sale right now for $79 on Amazon.
That's stupid cheap for a pro level palm router. I think I paid more for my cheap Harbor Freight router.
 
That looks awesome already.

If I remember right Brent Mason's primer grey tele still has a three way switch and it has a separate volume control for the middle pickup and it's always on. That way he still had the bridge and neck pickup together or he can blend in the middle pickup on any setting. There's just no way to pick the middle pickup on it's own. I have a tele electronics plate with the extra volume hole, but I never ended up putting the strat pickup in the middle of mine.
 
cdwillis said:
That looks awesome already.

If I remember right Brent Mason's primer grey tele still has a three way switch and it has a separate volume control for the middle pickup and it's always on. That way he still had the bridge and neck pickup together or he can blend in the middle pickup on any setting. There's just no way to pick the middle pickup on it's own. I have a tele electronics plate with the extra volume hole, but I never ended up putting the strat pickup in the middle of mine.
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Yes, Mason's wiring has a push pull on the tone pot.
I was just watching a video of Joe Glaser installing one.

 
I’ve done a few different takes on the Nashville wiring before. As above Brent’s typical wiring is with a three way switch, dedicated volume control for middle pickup, and a push pull on/off for the middle pickup as well. The reasoning I’ve heard… you could have it set to bridge pickup and dial in just a little bit of middle pickup with it “on”. Then can push the push/pull down and it’ll be just straight bridge pickup. That way you can switch between middle sounds without having to constantly mess with the middle volume.

That said I found this to still be too fiddly for my purposes. I like just a regular 5 way better as i never found much use for the “in between” sounds as Brent apparently likes. What have landed on for the time being is to basically wire it up like a “7 way” Strat layout. 5 way switch, push/pull for Neck ON, and I had holes for three already drilled so I have master volume, neck+middle tone, and bridge tone. It’s kind of unnecessary tbh, but looks cool to me lol. With the push-pull off it’s typical Strat wiring: Neck, Neck+Middle, Middle, Middle+Bridge, Bridge. With the push pull on its Neck, Neck+Middle, Neck+Middle, Neck+Middle+Bridge, and Neck+Bridge. Obviously a couple of those positions end up being redundant but the added two are nice.

Do note that depending on pickups with Nashville wiring you may run into some phase issues, generally it’s not hard to get to where your 2/4 are either in phase or hum canceling but hard to get both without a set designed for it (or having your middle pickup rewound or something lol)
 
Joben Magooch said:
I’ve done a few different takes on the Nashville wiring before. As above Brent’s typical wiring is with a three way switch, dedicated volume control for middle pickup, and a push pull on/off for the middle pickup as well. The reasoning I’ve heard… you could have it set to bridge pickup and dial in just a little bit of middle pickup with it “on”. Then can push the push/pull down and it’ll be just straight bridge pickup. That way you can switch between middle sounds without having to constantly mess with the middle volume.

That said I found this to still be too fiddly for my purposes. I like just a regular 5 way better as i never found much use for the “in between” sounds as Brent apparently likes. What have landed on for the time being is to basically wire it up like a “7 way” Strat layout. 5 way switch, push/pull for Neck ON, and I had holes for three already drilled so I have master volume, neck+middle tone, and bridge tone. It’s kind of unnecessary tbh, but looks cool to me lol. With the push-pull off it’s typical Strat wiring: Neck, Neck+Middle, Middle, Middle+Bridge, Bridge. With the push pull on its Neck, Neck+Middle, Neck+Middle, Neck+Middle+Bridge, and Neck+Bridge. Obviously a couple of those positions end up being redundant but the added two are nice.

Do note that depending on pickups with Nashville wiring you may run into some phase issues, generally it’s not hard to get to where your 2/4 are either in phase or hum canceling but hard to get both without a set designed for it (or having your middle pickup rewound or something lol)
Click to expand...
I had him wind the GF's as RWRP. I forgot to mention in the original post that the bridge pickup is another Cavalier I ordered. It's the Nashville Lion, and he'll wind it whatever polarity or direction you want when you order it. So matched it to the Gold Foil set. I should have hum cancelling as well as some quack in the 2 & 4 positions. We'll see:)

The main reason I did not go with straight strat wiring is that I don't like 2 knob strat wiring, AND I didn't want to add a 3rd knob to the control plate. After looking at a lot of pictures of 3 knob Tele control plates, I decided against it.

I toyed with the idea of a concentric pot for the tone with strat wiring and putting the bridge on it's own dedicated tone control like I do on all my Strats. But I decided to try the Nashville wiring first. Mainly to get the Tele "middle" position. (Neck & Bridge) setting.

I've never done it before so who knows if I'll like it heh.
 
There maybe one more tele you haven't built yet, you got close with the thinline:
Watch Lindy & then watch same guitar with a different pair of Hands!
 
music6000 said:
There maybe one more tele you haven't built yet, you got close with the thinline:
Watch Lindy & then watch same guitar with a different pair of Hands!
Click to expand...
That Tele is getting a refresh. I'm not feeling it with the Mini Hum in there. It's probably getting a P90.
The the other Thinline that HAD the P90 in it is getting a pickup refresh as well, not sure what yet.

BUT........you just gave me Partscaster GAS for a dual Firebird Tele........sigh........
 
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