I just paid for the shipping on my old telecaster custom that I put together from bits when I was 16 or 17. I removed the stock wide range pickups (I%u2019m not a fucking square) and put in a high ohm set from a friend%u2019s Gibson Marauder that he didn%u2019t want any more (lunatic).
What colour is it? Glad you asked - the body was from a stock early %u201800s Fender tele custom reissue in black - naturally I used a belt sander I nicked from my dad when he wasn%u2019t looking and took the finish off the front and back (but not the sides) so it was refinished maple, with the original black finish around the edges.
Naturally as a 17 yr old I played in a terrible punk band and used this to smash cymbals towards the end of shows in awful pubs in and around the post-industrial west midlands. This left terrible welts in my guitar that I covered over with black electrician%u2019s tape. The logo on the headstock was almost completely destroyed in a cigarette/cider incident after a show at the Wheatsheaf upstairs room in Walsall (do look for it, it is still there).
As I grew older and more refined, so did my guitar. In my early 20s I spray painted the whole body white. The tape warped revealing small cracks of the original maple/black finish. I changed the neck pickup for a PAF humbucker I got cheap on eBay that was a similar output. I replaced one of the tone knobs that was getting a bit shonky.
During a period of being incredibly poor prior to the age of around 23 or so, I sold 6 or 7 guitars as well as 2 synthesizers and all of my effects pedals. Annoyingly the %u201880s Japanese fender mustang & Jaguar, along with the two-pickup Gibson melody maker and the fender fuzz/wah reissue that went out the door (to pay for some mundane bullshit like gas or whatever) are all now considered collectors items and can%u2019t be replaced because they%u2019re quite rare and no prick will sell them to me. I%u2019ve tried buying them back. The tele custom that I built myself was the one guitar I couldn%u2019t bring myself to sell. It%u2019s lived in the UK for about 10 years while I%u2019ve roamed around the world, playing it once or twice a year if I%u2019m lucky while visiting my parents.
It%u2019ll be here in two weeks. I%u2019m so excited.
THAT%u2019S ROCK AND ROLL.
