Grateful Dead Music Forum

I have a real nice custom shop tele that has Bardens in it. I would like to at a minimum put an OBEL in it. Its easy enough to drill an additional hole for the jack and IMO the less obtrusive of Jerryfication of my fav guitar. Has anyone done more than that in a stock tele. My thoughts are with the OBEL and perhaps Waldo's buffer pedal than that could be a nice hybrid until I can build my Wolf.

The tele will be slightly harder, IMHO, than a strat. First, the tele has it's output jack on the side of the body, as opposed to the strats top, so you can't really just use a new jack plate. Second, you'll need somewhere for the battery to go, in strats we typically use the trem spring cavity for quick access, but the tele has a much smaller area to work with.

You might be better putting a buffer in a pedal and using that as your OBEL. Granted, this means that you have to control the volume of your guitar with your foot instead of with the volume pot on your guitar, but it's a start.

Tbrogit wrote:I have a real nice custom shop tele that has Bardens in it. I would like to at a minimum put an OBEL in it. Its easy enough to drill an additional hole for the jack and IMO the less obtrusive of Jerryfication of my fav guitar. Has anyone done more than that in a stock tele. My thoughts are with the OBEL and perhaps Waldo's buffer pedal than that could be a nice hybrid until I can build my Wolf.

IMHO - if it's a guitar you're never gonna sell and you think the buffer/OBEL is how you want to go, start drilling. It'll devalue the guitar if you ever want to sell it so if that might be in its future then I'd think about the pedal buffer. I have a custom frankentele that I gig with that was never routed tele-style so it wasn't too difficult.

Bardens are awesome pickups, I've got 3 Barden humbuckers in my Warmoth guitar and I love them. I went to high school in Northern Virginia and used to go to Washington Music & Arts where Joe started selling them.

Here's my tele:

I did that to a Warmoth Tele that was straight up a real, stock-like Fender. What I did for the Waldo buffer was to remove the pickguard and dig (route) out a small cavity to fit it. From that cavity I made a small channel for the wires. Then the cavity is instantly hidden with the pickguard on. The battery fit under the tone pot in the normal Tele cavity. I drilled a second hole for the second output jack, the OBEL send/return. It worked out great.

B

Excellent idea Brad. I've already routed for a middle PUP so its setup like a strat. Might be tight with another area routed but if theres a will theres a way. I will never sell this guitar as it has the nicest neck I've ever played. I traded it for a straight up PRS one of the earlier ones so economically not the smarter decision I ever made but I never felt comfortable with the PRS (Too Pretty) and I haven't put the Tele down in 15 years.

BTW, Got your pre amp a few weeks back and could not be more pleased:)

I grew up in Herndon and still live in the area. Haymarket. I would see Danny Gatton all the time in these little dives, especially the Bayou. One of the best.
Joe sold his company and they are built down the street from me in Manassas now. Still same quality I might add.

BTW If I just do the OBEL then I dont need the battery. The external pedal would eliminate that need. As far as Know;)

If you really want to go with the OBEL, I'd definately have the buffer too... I can build you a strap mounted, external buffer if you'd like, that way you can have a really short run to the buffer and your signal won't suffer. There are a number of possibilities that way. PM me if you want to talk about it...

Thanks Milo. I'll keep that in mind:)

Brian (aka milobender) did the work on my Tele - he's awesome all the way around. He squeezed all the electronics in the rear-rout cavity. Brad's stuff is awesome. too I love this message board, my savings account . . . not so much

Lol - we probably bumped into each other at the Bayou. I think the last time I saw The Humbler was at Zaxx's in Springfield late 80s i think. I'm a Prince William Co kid - Dale City. I got my Bardens right at the end of the original run. I almost sold them when he closed up shop and they were going for $3-400 each on eBay. I'm glad quality has held up and glad I kept mine.