Number 4 was designed to be my take on the famous Telecaster. 

I wanted to make it hollow, but had an idea to make the body with four pieces of ash, carved out before assembly. The four pieces join in the centre, which you can see in the photo looking up at the lower strap button. The neck is maple with birdseye maple fingerboard and has a 25″ scale.

Of course, the wiring had to be a bit different too. The five way selector chooses 1 – bridge, 2 – both out of phase, 3 – both in parallel, 4 – both in series, 5 – neck. But that’s not it. The scratchplate is swappable with two male/female connectors making the pickup change simple and solder-free.  I can go from lipstick single coil to Alnico III humbucker, mini humbucker (my hand made build with Alnico V magnets) or P90 in a couple of minutes.  

The bridge pickup is a Fletcher custom with Alnico V magnets for the lower three strings, and Alnico II magnets for the upper three. It’s also coil tapped, so with the mini switch I can go from vintage spec (7k) to modern (9k). It’s subtle, but beautiful.

 

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