Learn me about road worn teles

[Boudoir Guitar]

Alright, here is where I’m at. I actually really liked the look of that purple road worn body, much to the chagrin of many. The neck on neither the road worn nor the Baja is going to live up to the one on my K-Line and thus I’m likely to either snag one or (gulp) try to make one that comes closer to my K-Line (challenge in snagging one rather than trying to make my own is the 6125 frets on the k-line are )

I also preferred the hardware on the roadworn - the relic on the woodwork was awful, but the hardware was a nice sort of raw nickel vibe. And I really liked the bridge pickup on the roadworn. Which is to say, eyes remaining peeled for a sub-$1k road

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I didn't know the original highway ones had 6100 frets, that's great. No wonder you can't find them now with that spec.

Used Fender Used Fender Highway One Telecaster Midnight Wine Solid Body Electric Guitar Midnight Wine | Guitar Center

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[Eagle]

Used Fender Used Fender Highway One Telecaster Midnight Wine Solid Body Electric Guitar Midnight Wine | Guitar Center

For greater savings check out our Used Fender Used Fender Highway One Telecaster Midnight Wine Solid Body Electric Guitar and get a great deal today!

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The description is a different guitar

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

The description is a different guitar

That's Our GC (TM)

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Put in an offer on a purple road worn tele yesterday; last night decided maaaaybe a classic series 50s would be a neck I MIGHT stick with and was set to wait out the 24 hours on offer to end and then offer on the road worn was accepted while sipping coffee this morning. Which I’m alright with. Stayed under a grand after taxes and shipping.

Will probably hit the neck with sandpaper as I can’t imagine that negatively impacting value. That might be enough for me to stick with this neck for a while.

 

[Eagle]

Put in an offer on a purple road worn tele yesterday; last night decided maaaaybe a classic series 50s would be a neck I MIGHT stick with and was set to wait out the 24 hours on offer to end and then offer on the road worn was accepted while sipping coffee this morning. Which I’m alright with. Stayed under a grand after taxes and shipping.

Will probably hit the neck with sandpaper as I can’t imagine that negatively impacting value. That might be enough for me to stick with this neck for a while.

Good choice. 800 grit up should do it. The neck is quite good if you get the relief right. .

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Good choice. 800 grit up should do it. The neck is quite good if you get the relief right. .

I find 6105 to be rail road tie-ish, but can adapt. This one will be set up with round wounds and a bit more aggressive tonally (considering a neck humbuckers) so easier context for me tolerate them in.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Put in an offer on a purple road worn tele yesterday; last night decided maaaaybe a classic series 50s would be a neck I MIGHT stick with and was set to wait out the 24 hours on offer to end and then offer on the road worn was accepted while sipping coffee this morning. Which I’m alright with. Stayed under a grand after taxes and shipping.

Will probably hit the neck with sandpaper as I can’t imagine that negatively impacting value. That might be enough for me to stick with this neck for a while.

Good score. Love the colour of those.

 

[Dave Lewis]

This Fender Joe Strummer Road Worn Tele is my favourite factory road worn guitar.
I bought it on Christmas Day 2023 in a Andertons sale
I added the stickers .

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Out for delivery

 

[Chocol8]

Out for delivery

Nothing slows time more effectively than an out for delivery notice!

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

So the pickups are very different than I remember - like the neck a lot; bridge is okay, but not the mid pushed higher output affair I remember (it could come up some and might play around with that some tomorrow). The neck feels better than mine (mine was brand new; this one is six years old now, so might just be six years of playing). Could still stand a little massaging, but shape and frets are both fine. Will see where things land after a string change to my preferred stuff, but maaaay need to swap steel saddles for brass, but otherwise I this will do fine as is for some time.pics tomorrow - it is like a Gap spring collection window installation or something this pair.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Having loaded it up with my preferred round wound strings and tweaked the setup quite a bit, raised the bridge pickup a bit and compared to the K-Line with same strings:

- I think my initial thought of setting the K-Line up with big flats and making this one a liiiittle more blackguard/aggressive/forward tonally is the right move.

- Saddles are fine on this thing.

- Neck is fine. In an ideal world I could blink and 6150 fret wire would sub in for the 6105, but not a deal breaker at all. A little thinner than I prefer, but both of those things add up to begging you to go for the minor 3rd bend rather than sliding up to it which works a treat even with the 7.25 radius. Definitely feels just a tad slinkier than the K-Line due to whatever slight variation in geometry I wind up with when they're both setup similarly.

- Pickups ... might need to swap both out? Which is fine. Want something fairly aggressive in the bridge -- doesn't need traditional tele twang, but I do want it to be identifiable as a tele and not an LP junior, if that makes sense. I have a twisted tele bridge pickup in the bin (that I've never used) but I think that is not what I'm looking for? Maybe a Fender CS Blackguard. Maybe could go Fralin Hot tele with a Humbucker in the neck and 500k pots?

 

[la szum]

Man, that is sweet! Love Telecasters, and it only seems to increase and grow with age.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Man, that is sweet! Love Telecasters, and it only seems to increase and grow with age.

I find them to be the easiest platform to setup to have a very wide but integrated dynamic and high degree of responsiveness to my playing, neither of which I would have appreciated probably even ten years ago the way I do now. The more my technique increases -- not speed (I'm probably slower today than 10 years ago) just articulation and control -- the more relevant it becomes.

HSS Strats obviously give a wide dynamic range, but I always feel like I'm playing two different guitars put into one body rather than a single guitar that covers the entirety of the dynamic spectrum.

4-knob HH Gibsons come close, but you have to stay on top of the volume/tone knobs and use them a lot more to get the same kind of coverage you can get from a tele with just a liiiiiittle bit of use of its volume knob.

I want a whole wall full of them, all different colors and slightly different setups.

 

[la szum]

Well said, BG! Well said.

I find them to be the easiest platform to setup to have a very wide but integrated dynamic and high degree of responsiveness to my playing, neither of which I would have appreciated probably even ten years ago the way I do now. The more my technique increases -- not speed (I'm probably slower today than 10 years ago) just articulation and control -- the more relevant it becomes.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Wider angle shot. This is my primary trio these days and they do the business. '56 Gibson is played mooooostly acoustically and occasionally bring it out to the office to plug it in.

 

[laxu]

That's a sweet set of guitars.

I can't stand the traditional Tele pickup switch though. It's just too close to the volume knob in the bridge position. I'd rather have one of the plates where it's angled like I have on my KDC Barncaster. I used to bend the switch on a Tele I had but that didn't work as well either.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

That's a sweet set of guitars.

I can't stand the traditional Tele pickup switch though. It's just too close to the volume knob in the bridge position. I'd rather have one of the plates where it's angled like I have on my KDC Barncaster. I used to bend the switch on a Tele I had but that didn't work as well either.

Well I’m glad you have something you like. God only knows how the rest of us have gotten on with that poor bit of ergonomics the last 75 years…