I see people complain about this a lot, but Iāve personally never had a problem with it.
Far from unplayable, but I did accidentally rolled my volume few times.
I am going to build a body. But I will remember the 4 way switch.
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Man I do enough still that I am going to make it stiffer. I also start hitting my middle pickup a bit when I try to avoid that volume knob. I need to find 1 or 4 sweet spots.
Itās all very, very subjective. And I post these only because you asked, and some are hardly issues at all.
Strat - cons
- tremolo bridge if you donāt want a tremolo
- position of volume knob (accidental striking)
- āsub-optimalā sounds from some of the 5-way switch selections
- only one volume control
Tele - cons
- intonation compromise with 3-barrel saddles
- pain from long rhythm stints whacking against the ash tray bridge
- weight
- rib-bruising from the slab body
- only one volume and one tone control
That said - both are amazing, supremely versatile and have been the first choice guitars for many of the most revered guitarists across the ages. I have owned and played several types of each.
My own preference is a Tele.
My ideal Tele would be:
- swamp ash body with a mild burst allowing the grain to show
- a comfort cut body carve on the rear
- the bridge from G&L ASAT Special
- a 4-way switch and pickups from Fender Baja or a 3-way switch with single G&L MFD bridge pickup & splittable humbucker neck pickup
- maple neck
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Hey take it easy Richard, just got a nice new guitar and are already fishing for a custom made one ā¦ 
probably for meJust a little more weight to lose on the guitar and Iāll join in 
Greetings
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@Richard_close2u , I did ask and you did deliver. Those might be nits and not actual cons. I did get a chuckle out of a few of them. LOL
Iām going to stick with the potential for 60 cycle hum being the main issue. Unless your house has really old/bad wiring or you live under major power lines or a cell tower, this should not be a show stopper. 
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Richard you could get all those components and get yourself a dream. You will have to find the time though. 
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Thank you all for such a big open talk about your preferences. I really enjoy reading about that. 
Little update about my built Tele. It is really cheap set and when I inspected some buzzing from higher notes fretted I found out there must be big compromise with action or you cant play it. I found there are some frets higher and I cant set the guitar properly. So I already ordered some tools from Temu (yeah 
) and now I am learning more and more about luthiering. I am about to do some file on top of frets and also I would love to change steel saddle for brass ones. After that I will make its action to my standard, then I am gonna play it.
Interesting āhackā I saw in one videoā¦ when you have saddle boltā¦ you can āangle breakā it a little, so you have better spots about finding perfect spot for intonation. Never though about that.
I got lot of space doing anything on this guitar, because it was cheap, but I still take it as serious instrument, that I wanna make playable and great.
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Hi Michal,
If you want any advice for upgrading your tele donāt hesitate to ask. I just did the one I mentioned above, and Iāve improved the frets on 3 guitars.
If you look there are loads of videos about fret levelling. If you have more than 2 or 3 that are the wrong height then I would really recommend a complete fret level rather than doing individual frets - otherwise itās really difficult to get everything level. You can check it with a fret rocker.
For my recent tele restoration I bought parts on Amazon.de called Musically. They are made in China and a reasonable price but were quite good quality - I got brass saddles and locking tuners and they were fine.
Wilkinson parts are good too. I donāt think you need to spend a lot.
BTW, if you do the fret levelling you must first make sure the truss rod is working fine and straighten the neck so the fingerboard is flat before you level. And before you do any adjustments of action etc you need to check the neck relief first. Then try to set the action and listen for fret buzz. Donāt start levelling frets before you have checked everything with the neck set first for the correct relief. You might level frets for nothing.
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@Prof_Thunder Thank you very much, I already watched lot of Stew Macs videos and lot of others. In past I did some work on my acoustic and electric too, I just did not touch fret repairā¦ yet.
I purchased some few bucks set which also include fret rocker.
I am awared about having neck straight as much as I can. It was the point when I diagnosed there is something bad with frets. I have 30cm steel ruler and it can help too, but fret rocker is more specific.
If I need any help I will contact you for you. I am glad for having you all around.
I am sharing pictures of my order below and also the part of YouTube tutorial about āthat boltā which I saw first time ever. What do you think about that as someone who did some work on Tele?
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