Rock-Halloween Telescapades.....10-29 Update

[MichaelW]

Since "Rocktober" was already taken

This build was totally motivated by a pickup.

I've been looking at the Cavalier pickups, in particular the "NoCaster Holy Grail" he makes.
I wanted to try it and it prompted me to build yet another Tele to test it out.

This will be a little bit different. A few years back I almost bought a Ron Kirn Barncaster. I was just taken by the idea.

I never did, which I regret because his prices were half of what they are now.

But the notion of a BarnCaster or a PineCaster has been hovering around my consciousness ever since.

I had an extra Tele maple neck from Ebay (yes one of the cheap Chinese ones, but so far this one feels pretty good).

So I grabbed a body from NoMoonLaser who makes these really rustic, simple but cool vibe pine bodies.
This isn't an MJT body by any means, it's supposed to look like lumber, and it does heh.

I think all he does is stain then shoot a very thin coat of nitro to seal the wood. It's essentially as close as you can get to no finish at all.
I'm very interested in seeing how resonant it is when I get it strung up.





I worked on the neck this past week. Did a full fret level, crown and polish. The frets seem to be behaving but we'll see when I get it under tension.



The plan is to use the Cavalier NoCaster Holy Grail Lion with Eldred wiring.

Waiting for the pickups and some parts at this point.

Stay tuned......

 

[almondcity]

I have this pickup in a nomoonlaser body. I like it

 

[MichaelW]

I have this pickup in a nomoonlaser body. I like it

pics or it's a Harley Benton........

 

[fig]

Tele-brate, Tele-brate,
Mich-ael's new rig,

I wonder how many barncasters are uniquely named 'Barney'?

Great stuff Michael!

 

[almondcity]

pics or it's a Harley Benton........

I would warn you the wood on mine is very soft. I'm scared to undo the screws on the control plate anymore

 

[MichaelW]

I would warn you the wood on mine is very soft. I'm scared to undo the screws on the control plate anymore

Ya, I've got a few pine guitars. For sure the wood is something to be careful with. On the plus side, plugging them is pretty easy with some toothpicks and wood glue if you strip it out.

 

[Feral Feline]

I believe you have wayyyy more Teles than you're willing to admit!

I'd call this one Honey-Gold.

 

[MichaelW]

I would warn you the wood on mine is very soft. I'm scared to undo the screws on the control plate anymore

Dude, you know what? YOU are the reason I built this hahahahah, I just recalled your original post, I had to think about it a bit to remember where I saw it.

I had never heard of Nomoonlaser until your post! Hahahahaha.........

@almondcity 's NGD post

 

[MichaelW]

Ok, got her strung up, and did a set up on it.

So far so good, Playing pretty sweet.

Now we're just waiting for the pickup to show and I can wire it up, woohoo!

(Still smells like the lumber department at Home Depot though.......heh)

 

[MichaelW]

As mentioned in the Mailbox thread...my Cavalier "NoCaster Holy Grail" pickup arrived for this guitar.

Super happy with Cavalier. He's pretty much focused on only winding Tele and Esquire pickups now but he'll still do Strat and P90's on request.
This is an awesome pickup and a perfect Bridge pickup for a Blackguard build.

So far I'm loving how it sounds in this Esquire with the Eldred wiring. Surprising amount of usable sounds out of a single pickup.











For my wiring I used a .033 PIO tone cap. For the "Eldred" cap I used a pair of 2200pf CDE caps in parallel to get 4400pf.
The most common values for this seem to 4700pf and 3300pf. I expected to do some experimenting on this cap but damn, it sounds good at 4400pf. Definitely has that "cocked wah" effect.

Surprising amount of usable tones out of a single pickup. I'm LOVING this guitar!



Doesn't hurt that it's light and resonant.




Stay tuned for a demo.....

 

[almondcity]

I'm so happy you used the modified control plate with the knob moved over. I really love Rob's A3 bridge pickups. I have the Oildale as well and love it

 

[MichaelW]

Yah, I've been mulling it over for a while now, I like the notion of the slanted pickup selector but it just doesn't look right to me on a vintage inspired instrument. This seems like a decent compromise. It doesn't look too out of place but there's a LOT more room now.

I've put them on 3 of my Tele's now. I have two more coming.

Sorry! Something went wrong!

I have not tried his A3 pickups. I'm not a huge fan but my experience is pretty limited. I find that it's a softer attack than either A2, A5 or even A4.

I just bought yet another of his bridge pickups for an upcoming project. I got the Nashville this time.

 

[almondcity]

The nocaster is A3, isn't it?

 

[MichaelW]

The nocaster is A3, isn't it?

Dang your right.

 

[MichaelW]

So is the 51/52 I got.

Well I like them!