Ash

I managed to re-string this one during the CNY holidays. My TL71 has creamed off after four years & the ash grains are beginning to rival my floor laminate. Despite being ash-bodied, it remains light with the typical pronounced lower midrange coming from this wood type. The thing about Japanese Fenders, most of them feature a glossed neck & it might put off the purists. However, I deem mine to be as playable as my other non-glossed necked guitar; it's a matter of familiarity. I bought this one at Sound Alchemy when Beez was still their neighbour at Excelsior Shopping Center. 

That's right, I swapped out the string retainer for this rounded version for this guitar as well. 

Pickups: Hot Stack (b)/ Quarter Pound (n). These Seymour Duncan pickups are really something. So I have the Hot Stack in my TL-Rose as well & I love the stinging tone & it's more pronounced here due to the brass saddles there. The hot neck pickup was intentional just to underscore the fact that I don't do country music with this one - no disrespect to country music proponents out there.

Harmony strings are good albeit under-rated. If you wish for a neutral-sounding set (nether too bright nor too mellow), this is the brand to get. Together with Martin's Darco range, they are absolute value-for money. 

Stacked & pounded

I have always had a thing for Teles but it seems they don't make too many Teles to my liking. The one you see above is something I fancy & it was featured here prior to some make-over: The TL71.

The default string retainer was done away with. In place now is the American Standard version featuring rounded parts to reduce string snapping.

The Gotoh tilt-friendly  saddles are superb in keeping things vintage-looking with a contemporary twist. I didn't know such things exist in the first place until I did some window shopping. The objective here was to keep the tone single coil but I can use something a little hotter. So the pickups on board:

• Neck: Duncan Quarter Pound
• Bridge: Hot Stack

I hear lots of angry distortion coming from both pickups & they don't sound rounded at the top end unlike some other manufacturers' manifestations. All this while keeping the true single coil tones in tact & that's the reason I fancy Seymour Duncan single coils above others.

Wishing everyone a good February :-)

Fender: TL-71

Towards the close of 2014, I managed to grab this Fender TL-71. I had a Strat in mind but felt that a Tele manifests my single coil moments better. The TL-71 has a gloss-finish neck so it feels like a Gibson upon handling but profile-wise, the neck was anything but a Gibson. That ash body is way lighter than my PRS SE 245 but the acoustic sustain is impressive.

The single coils on board were not of vintage specs, it's rather hot-sounding & they both possess a very commanding top end but thanks to the ash body chemistry, we also hear a strong lower midrange response. Despite this impression, I have some replacement pickups in mind, in fact, I'm heading over to Beez's soon.