Rash

It's Tele Tuesday! Got this out for a re-string & some playing time. I like the tones from the Duncans here (Hot Rails / Hot Tele). Despite being a hot humbucker, the Hot Rails still manifests good twang at lower distortion settings. The neck pickup is one of the clearest sounding in all my Teles, perhaps it's benefitting from the 500K pots. A set of D'Addario 9s, of course.

This is kinda strange; I didn't know a rusty screw would leave a rash mark on the pickguard. It's like the surrounding area was infected by the rust. As you can see, I've replaced it with a new one. In fact, I  replaced all pickguard screws today. Confession: I'm actually not into the sunburst finish but when I saw this on a Tele, I just had to have it. This American Standard Tele is my first ever Fender bought in 1998 when Swee Lee was still located at the rear end of Level 3, Bras Basah Complex. The unit is now occupied by Art Friend's extension space. I simply favour the Tele more than the Strat when it comes to Fender - the reason why I have more Teles in the mean time. 

Lil' hot

The weather- it's been a little too hot lately. I suspect even my cat is affected by the heat. But really, I'm talking about my Ibanez Talman TM302 here which is a little hot as well, as in: 

• Bridge: Lil' 59 (ST59-1)
• Neck: Hot Tele (STR-2)

The Lil' 59 is a little hotter than its full humbucker counterpart & doesn't sound as scooped; that's what I like about it. The STR-2 is really an overwound pickup with the right amount of poke & warmth, nothing too 'hot' as suggested by the label. Paired up, I get the benefit of a hum-cancelling bridge pickup so tremendous amount of drive isn't an issue here. This one retains its inherent '59 voicing- a good PAF tone without the charged character of a modern pickup. The STR-2 has no issue keeping up with the '59 in terms of voicing; it's as biting but stays put in its single coil territory. It's also very dependable in clean mode.