I bought a relic guitar and I'm ok

[laxu]

I've been wanting a Telecaster for a while. To me a Tele needs to be a bit rough, worn, and not super pricy considering how simple it is. With most "relic" finish guitars being several grand, this is of course in opposition to what I was looking for, considering real wear doesn't happen quite like this. But by a stroke of luck, someone was selling one styled very much like what I was thinking. I got this at a very fair price considering the builder is not well known.

This is a handcrafted Tele built by KDC Guitars from Slovenia. They don't seem to have anything but a Facebook page and Instagram, it's apparently one dude building these.

Specs:

• Pine body from a pre-WW2, 80 years old barn.
• Flamed maple neck.
• Grenadillo fretboard, 21 fairly narrow frets.
• Custom KD hardware.
• Gotoh staggered tuners.
• DiMarzio Pre B1 bridge pickup.

This has had a few mods from a previous owner: the tuners, removing the neck pickup, switch and changing the bridge pickup.

The neck is pretty chunky in a good way, the guitar plays well and the bridge pickup sounds nice.

My plan is to restore this to its former glory, I need to contact the builder and ask if they can sell me an aged metal neck pickup ring it originally had. The previous owner should send me the original neck pickup later.

The Dimarzio Pre B1 is darker and beefier than a typical tele bridge pickup, not sure if I will swap it or not as it's just right with tone on 9 or 10, but gets a bit too smooth too quickly for my tastes. Maybe a higher value tone pot would work? I haven't cracked it open yet to see what's there now.

The relic finish is very nicely done. The surf or mint green body looks worn in a nice way, it doesn't come through in pictures how it sinks into the grain and how it's worn through in the right places. The aged hardware and how the neck looks play well into the whole aesthetic. The vibe is like an old barn in the countryside that's been eroded by wind and rain. "Rustic" is a great word for it.

Extremely pleased with this find.

 

[fretworn]

 

[TubeStack]

Looks great! Love it.

I had a heavy-relic Friedman Tele that was a fantastic guitar. I actually really liked the relic look, but especially the feel. That worn wood can feel so good in the hands. It's also nice to not care about adding more dings or scratches.

Enjoy!

 

[Stone]

Wow!! Thats Awesome, dude looks to be a real craftsman, known or not Congrats

 

[Warmart]

Wow, that's hitting it out of the park! LOVE the hardware finish, can't wait to see it when you get the neck ring! May you love it long time.

 

[eggpl@nt]

Looks like the kinda instrument that would be salvaged from a (relatively recent) shipwreck, and I say that in the most complimentary way. I think it looks cool.

 

[DrewJD82]

Hell yeah!

I’d just play it as is, it looks awesome!

 

[itchyfingers]

That's an awesome looking guitar, but how do you sleep at night with all that stolen valor sitting in your music room?

Totally kidding. Love finding craftsmen who can create functional art like this. Congrats on the score!

 

[spawnofthesith]

I dig it! Congrats!!

 

[fretworn]

I get the whole teles that show a little age/wear sex thing … I agree. Mine was a light relic.

 

[JT]

LOVE it \m/

 

[laxu]

That's an awesome looking guitar, but how do you sleep at night with all that stolen valor sitting in your music room?

Totally kidding. Love finding craftsmen who can create functional art like this. Congrats on the score!

The Tele fits nicely between my pre-ripped hobo-chic jeans, eBay Purple Heart and framed Master's degrees from Harbard, Y'All and Mississippi Institute of Technology.

 

[James Freeman]

It's beautiful.

 

[holoholo]

 

[TSJMajesty]

• Pine body from a pre-WW2, 80 years old barn.

THAT'S Cool!!

 

[eggpl@nt]

THAT'S Cool!!

I glossed right over that. Love the barncaster thing.

 

[gearJunkie]

Looks like the kinda instrument that would be salvaged from a (relatively recent) shipwreck, and I say that in the most complimentary way. I think it looks cool.

This is Blackbeard, built by Kip Elder @ Starr Guitars. He created this with the idea of a sunken pirate ship.

Extremely pleased with this find.

Beautiful guitar! Congratulations.

 

[Whizzinby]

View attachment 13475View attachment 13474

I've been wanting a Telecaster for a while. To me a Tele needs to be a bit rough, worn, and not super pricy considering how simple it is. With most "relic" finish guitars being several grand, this is of course in opposition to what I was looking for, considering real wear doesn't happen quite like this. But by a stroke of luck, someone was selling one styled very much like what I was thinking. I got this at a very fair price considering the builder is not well known.

This is a handcrafted Tele built by KDC Guitars from Slovenia. They don't seem to have anything but a Facebook page and Instagram, it's apparently one dude building these.

Specs:

• Pine body from a pre-WW2, 80 years old barn.
• Flamed maple neck.
• Grenadillo fretboard, 21 fairly narrow frets.
• Custom KD hardware.
• Gotoh staggered tuners.
• DiMarzio Pre B1 bridge pickup.

This has had a few mods from a previous owner: the tuners, removing the neck pickup, switch and changing the bridge pickup.

The neck is pretty chunky in a good way, the guitar plays well and the bridge pickup sounds nice.

My plan is to restore this to its former glory, I need to contact the builder and ask if they can sell me an aged metal neck pickup ring it originally had. The previous owner should send me the original neck pickup later.

The Dimarzio Pre B1 is darker and beefier than a typical tele bridge pickup, not sure if I will swap it or not as it's just right with tone on 9 or 10, but gets a bit too smooth too quickly for my tastes. Maybe a higher value tone pot would work? I haven't cracked it open yet to see what's there now.

The relic finish is very nicely done. The surf or mint green body looks worn in a nice way, it doesn't come through in pictures how it sinks into the grain and how it's worn through in the right places. The aged hardware and how the neck looks play well into the whole aesthetic. The vibe is like an old barn in the countryside that's been eroded by wind and rain. "Rustic" is a great word for it.

Extremely pleased with this find.

That’s a badass axe and a very nice couch!

 

[la szum]

Wow! She's a real Beaut, laxu! Congrats!

 

[laxu]

Took me all damn day, but it is now restored and upgraded.

Found many positive reports on various forums for Cavalier Pickups. Shot them an email with a few questions, they answered in about an hour. Ordered, the pickups arrived promptly in my mailbox. Overall good experience, so big thumbs up for Cavalier from me! Don't let the "straight outta Geocities" website fool you, the pickups are good stuff!

I also contact the builder of the guitar on Facebook. Seemed like a nice dude, who then sold me a pickup selector switch + hat + aged neck pickup mounting ring + aged neck pickup cover for a very good price shipped. Luck would have it that both the pickups and the parts arrived on Friday and I spent Saturday working on the guitar.

I had to do a bunch of repairs, which is why it took all day:

• Widen the pickup mounting screw holes on the neck pickup ring. I guess they are for metric measurements and the screws supplied by Cavalier are imperial.
• Widen the bridge pickup cavity. It was a few millimeters too tight for the bridge pickup, so I took my Dremel out and carved it up. It is not pretty in there, but the modification is entirely invisible when the bridge is on.
• Widen the control cavity. The control plate would not fit flush with the new switch in there, so I had to carve the cavity a bit as well. Thankfully another invisible mod.
• Wire it all up. It took me a bit of time to understand how a 3-way switch works as I haven't touched guitar wiring in years.
• Put on new strings. I'll let it rest overnight and set it up properly tomorrow.

I didn't want to try changing the neck pickup cover so in the picture it's the "raw nickel" option from Cavalier. I think it looks fitting, so I'll probably leave it as is.

I feel like I have now made this guitar mine by putting in the money and work to make the most of it. I think it has a high fret somewhere in the middle of the neck on the A string so I will have to take it to a tech (don't have the tools to fix it) but until then, I'll play the hell out of it.

So what did I get with all this?

The new pickups are Cavalier "Nocaster Holy Grail Lion" in the bridge and "Lion King" in the neck.

The stock bridge pickup was a DiMarzio Pre B1, which is a higher output Tele pickup with no bottom plate and a darker character. I liked how it sounded, but my tone pot was not particularly useful as it would get too dark too quickly.

The Nocaster Holy Grail Lion (that's a mouthful!) fixes that well. It's less output, and a lot brighter, but it's still nice and thick sounding. Turning the tone knob down a lot more gets me into similar territories as the Pre B1.

I also wanted a neck pickup, and the Lion King sounds very sweet but still has a good clarity to it. This one did not kill Mufasa!