Essentially better

Spent time with the AZES31 today. Ever since I owned it, I find the default single coil pickups in this guitar above average but there's one thing it's unable to manifest well - twang. 

The main suspects were the default 500K pots & 22uf capacitor as evident in this entry: CLICK Took it down to Beez today to swap them out for 250Ks & a 47uf capacitor. That humongous Orange cap happened to be the most proximate when I was looking for a replacement capacitor. Verdict: It went from good to great. I still believe that single coil pickups match well with 250K pots. Some of us might enjoy the extra crispy tones of the 500K ones but they will take away some twang factor, that's what I noted.

Gave it a fresh set of EB Primo set (.0095s). I bought this pack about a month ago & intentionally kept it away for some time to see if rust spots would appear on the strings but none were seen here. However, due to the delayed use, the 'slinkiness' were not as apparent as those coming from a fresh pack. Not a bad Tuesday after all. 

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.