I have a 2004 MIM tele that is all stock. I don’t want to get crazy buying the most expensive parts since I only play at home, but I do want to do some upgrades. I’m looking at the Wilikenson 3 brass saddle compensated bridge. But I also want to upgrade the pickups and do some wiring mods. I’m thinking about going to a 5 position switch and removing the tone circuit. I am thinking of doing something similar to the esquires where certain positions on the switch are set for specific tones, and also have positions where the pickups go straight to the jack with no tone circuit in between. I also very rarely use my tone pot, so I am thinking of two volume pots instead. I never use the tone pot on the neck pickup, so this one might just get wired with no tone circuit at all. this would leave me with 4 more positions. One with the bridge pickup straight through, one with both pickups and then two with set value caps. What do you think?

My goal is to get really nice clear, ringing clean tone with plenty of definition and sustain. I can always add more dirt when I want it, but I can’t add clean. I’m considering going with the GFS fatbody pups, or possibly one of their rail sets. They have all the other parts I’m looking at so I can do everything in one order. I’m also looking at this preamp they have, but not sure about it yet. They mention that with it and a 50k pot you can make it a low impedance guitar and they say that it makes a big difference, anyone know anything about that?

I never use the tone control on the neck pickup, and very rarely use it on the bridge pickup. if I want more bottom and a fuller tone I switch to the neck pickup, more treble and bite, the bridge. So at most for some things I’d want to take a little treble off the bridge pickup, without it sounding muffled. I don’t need a pot to do this a cap would do the job perfect and hit the same tone every time without fiddling with a knob. I also don’t think the stock neck pickup is clear enough, its not bad, but its not great. The bridge pickup is pretty decent, but could be better.

Many guitar player wish they could have more guitars in thier collection but can’t afford it. I know when I had just a strat I wished I had a tele and a les paul, among others. But I couldn’t afford to buy all the guitars I wanted to play. So what I did was I started getting decent less expensive versions and modifing them to suit my needs. For example, I went to the local music store and I wanted a tele, I started playing every Fender Squire tele they had until I found the one that played the best, had the best feeling neck and the looks I was after.

\Once I got it home I played it for a few days, adjusting it as I went to siut my needs and making notes about what I wanted to upgrade. I only had about $149 invested in the guitar so far so I had a good inexpensive base to start with. The first thing I did was pull off the strings,replace the pickups with a good set of AlNiCo magnet pickups, polish the frets with some very fine steel wool and then replace the strings with my favorite brand. I then adjusted the neck a little more for the new strings and had a tele that played and sounded better than any fender telecaster I played that was under $1,000. I had less than $300 in a guitar that was blowing away guitars that would have cost mre more than triple what I had invested. The best part was I could play it and not worry about scratching an expensive guitar.

I’ve even had friends play it, and they all were blown away by how well my guitar played and sounded. One of them even sold his American made Tele and used the money to buy a couple squire teles and a strat along with all the parts he needed to upgrade them with great pickups. For what he sold that one guitar for he was able to have 3 great playing guitars where one once stood. Now he was able to have guitars setup in different tunings, or diifferent tone.

I’ve had friends that were guitar snobs that would only play American Made Fender Stratocasters, Telecasters, or Gibson Les Pauls come over. I’ve blindfolded them and had them try and tell me if they were playing one of thier expensive guitars or one of mine. In almost every case they picked mine as the one that tey thought was their more expensive guitar. It shut them right up! I’ve had more than a few ask me to build one for them. I went out, hand picked the best guitar I could find, modified it with good pickups, polished the frets and set it up for them giving them a guitar that played and sounded better than anything they could find at 3x the price. it’s got to the point where I am building a custom guitar for someone almost every week now.

Real guitar players love the fact that for a few hundred dollars they can have guitars that play and sound better than $1,000 guitars - guitars they can play on stage, at band practice and not worry about if they get a scratch or dent. Of course some people want high end guitars that they know will go up in value, investments. But that only makes this concept even better! You can afford more expenisve guitars, keep them on the side so they stay perfect and still have great guitars to play on stage.

One of my favorite guitars is my Fender ShowMaster. It is a 24 fret strat with a set neck and Semour Duncan pickups. This is one incredible guitar! Its like the rolls royce of stratocastors with these top end features. It is the only strat made with a set neck, and one of very few that have 24 frets. These guitars are sleepers, not many people even know they exist and they are without a doubt one of the hottest deals on a superb Fender Stratocastor.

The Semour Duncans in mine are both full sized humbuckers. The bridge pickup is a Semour Duncan Pearly Gates and the neck pickup is similar to a good PAF. The neck plays incredibly smooth and fast. Bends are easy even for this long scale guitar. The rosewood fret board is beautiful and a joy to play on. The over all finish of the guitar is nothing less than stunning. The wood grain on the top is a real eye catcher. Everyone that has seen this guitar have complimented it on its beauty.

Keep your eye on these, right now you can pick one up fairly cheap, but once more people catch on these will take off in price. After all where else can you find a set neck, 24 fret real fender strat with real Semour Duncans for under $500? I think these blow away any of the american made strats and I’ve tried quite a few. The Fender ShowMaster is a guitar worthy of owning and playing. Check one out at any local music store and see for yourself.