My Frankenstein Telecaster & Why You Need One Too- ASK ZAC EP 10

Well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zach thank you so much for
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for joining me again these are so much
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fun to do and hope you will keep you
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know watching today I wanted to talk
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about Frankenstein Telecasters and how
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fun they are and the reason they're fun
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is because you can mess around with them
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and change parts on them and do whatever
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you want to them and not feel like
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you're devaluing it so you know I have
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some nice you know I have a you know
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vintage telly and I have some tellys
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that were made by some great builders
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and you know maybe you change out
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pickups and stuff like that but kind of
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the freedom to really mess with it it's
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not there to a degree so I wanted to
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tell the story of my Frankenstein telly
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so way back in 1996 after I'd graduated
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from Belmont University I I was playing
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with a band and you know was an unsigned
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band and we were playing well we were
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touring in a minivan with the trailer
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behind it and playing six nights a week
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five hours a night and it was tough but
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it was a lot of fun and you know we were
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staying three to a room and we were
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eating you know we were eating cereal
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and the cheapest white bread and the
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cheapest you know sandwich meat and
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cheese that we could find and we were
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just you know scraping by you know
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playing covers and and but it was a lot
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of fun and while I was out there I
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bought a 1982 52 reissue Telecaster and
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so that was though that I think they've
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made some in 81 but I haven't seen many
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so but 82 is really the first year of
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the 50
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to reissue that fender made and so I
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played everyone regardless of year that
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I could find and this was the best one I
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found it at guitar res in Austin Texas
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and I had had the guitar for literally a
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month and I had gone to the Ryman to go
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see a taping they did a Ricky Skaggs
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used to do this show called Monday night
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concerts it was also called CMT concerts
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and CMT at the Ryman it was called a
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couple different names but basically it
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was Ricky Skaggs with an all-star you
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know session player band so it'd be
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Brent Mason or Brent Rowan and Paul
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Franklin and Jeff King and all these
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cats I mean it was it was killer and it
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was free to go to so of course I would
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go every chance I could and you know
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they needed a full audience for that for
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the taping so I went and Brent Rowan was
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a guitar player that night and I went up
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to him and was chatting with him and he
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was very nice to me and I ended up later
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doing a vintage guitar interview with
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him you know for print and that was a
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lot of fun but so after meeting him I
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drove home and there at my apartment is
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a you know police car with the lights on
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well guess what my apartment had been
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broken into and my 52 reissue telly
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that I had lovingly picked out and
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played dozens of them and this was the
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best one it was stolen so I needed
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another Telecaster and so you know of
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course this is pre internet or Internet
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very young at this point in 97 at this
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point so this was January of 97 service
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there was this thing called the traders
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post and I looked through there and I
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saw a listing for Kubicki Telecaster now
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immediately my mind went racing back to
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I had this star licks video of Albert
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Lee and in it he plays his old you know
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his original blackguard and then he
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pulls out this you know blonde telly
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with like a humbucker and a strap pickup
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in the middle that has a Dave Evans pull
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string on it and
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he said the guitar was made by Phil
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Kubicki and so from that video I knew
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wait a second
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this could be something interesting also
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was 375 dollars maybe was 400 bucks
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something like that so I went and
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checked it out and yeah I bought it so
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this is the body so this is a Phil
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Kubicki Telecaster body that he made in
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in 1982 or 83 and until it it's single
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bound
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you know it doesn't have no binding on
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the back single bound and the binding is
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is multi-layered you know more like an
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acoustic so it's not like the binding
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that you would see on like a regular
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telly custom it's ash it's kind of stout
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ash it's and what I mean by that is it's
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not it's not light so the whole guitar
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weighs 8 pounds even which is a little
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bit on the heavy side for what I like
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but it's a great guitar so and
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originally it had a Phil Kubicki neck on
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it but it had an ebony fretboard and had
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gigantic frets and I didn't really like
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the neck but the first thing I did was
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it was originally had you know of course
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a Tele bridge
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Tele you know kind of a regular tele
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pickup it had a strap pickup in the
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middle and then it had a tele neck
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pickup and I had a black pickguard of
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course the ebony board and so I started
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kind of taking it apart and I saw the
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name Mike McAdam in there and I was
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like wait a second I know who Mike
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McAdam is and so for those that don't
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know Mike McAdam played guitar with
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Steve Earle
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so back in the in the time period of
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guitar town again this is like mid mid
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to late 1980s
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you know when guitar town so so you know
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later on I found clips of Mike using
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this of course it's just the body at
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this point with Steve Earle on both
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Austin City Limits and some other like
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promotional videos um I'm sure that this
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you know guitar played then
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[Music]
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so you know played the guitar town thing
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that was originally played by Richard
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Bennett on a Danelectro six string bass
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but anyway so I tracked down Mike
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McAdam because I had I'd seen him on
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television playing with Mary Chapin
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Carpenter and Foster and Lloyd and
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Radney Foster and a great great player
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and so yes he confirmed that he had
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gotten the body and neck from Phil
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Kabuki back in the early 80s after a
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guitar was stolen from him so I then
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started you know modifying this thing
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like crazy so the first thing I did was
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I had Joe Glaser put a b bender on it so
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of course it also got this heavy this is
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a Gotoh brass bridge that's
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chrome-plated and this was what Glaser
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used at the time you know when he
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started doing these benders back in the
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late 70s all through the 80s and 90s he
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used this type of bridge and this type
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of bridge really makes the guitar sound
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different it does not really have the
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super traditional Telecaster sound by
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putting one of these bridges on here you
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get more mids you get more bass you get
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more sustain that can be a good thing or
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a bad thing you know to me it makes it
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makes this guitar sound more steel
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guitar ish it doesn't have as much twang
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it's still 20 but it doesn't have kind
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of the dinky twang that that the the
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thin bent metal bridge does so so anyway
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so that was one of the modifications
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then of course Brent Mason was
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absolute king at that point and I wanted
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to be Brent Mason so I found a mini
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humbucker put it in the neck had one of
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those strat stack Seymour Duncan pickups
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that had Joe wire it where it was it had
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a blend control here instead of a tone
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control she had volume and he had the
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blend for the for the middle pickup and
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the you know course had the b bender and
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then I started changing the necks on it
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so this thing has had five or six
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different
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the first neck was put on by buddy down
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in Kingsville and Chip Thomas and I had
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this beautiful warmoth flame maple neck
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I mean it was gorgeous it was stunning I
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mean it just had an amazing amount of
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both stripe and curl to it and I
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insisted that chip put a very thin
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finish on it
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because I wanted it to feel almost like
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natural wood well guess what that
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flaming neck did not respond well to
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that and I had the guitar with me when I
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was living in France and of course the
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place I had didn't have central air and
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heat and so when the seasons would
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change the neck would just go completely
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crazy so at some points it was
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unplayable like a dobro and then at
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other points then the the frets would be
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against the strings and you couldn't
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play it at all yeah either way so I
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ended up having to jettison the neck and
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in France and one of the guitar shops in
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Paris they had an old Schecter and
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Telecaster neck that wasn't really what
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I wanted but it was all they had so put
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the Schecter neck on there then I got
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back to the States and yeah then I got
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another neck
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I found a warmoth boatneck with a big
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thick slab board you know rosewood
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fingerboard and turned it into an
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Esquire for a while and then I had
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another neck put on it and on and on and
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on and finally I stopped playing this
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guitar altogether and I took the all the
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parts off of it and I just had it
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sitting around and finally I felt bad
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about it and so I I'd you know become
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friends with with Dan Strain and he was
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you know he was local and I said can I
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give you this body with a bender on it
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and will you you know put another neck
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on it and kind of rehab this thing to
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make it a guitar again from instead of
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just being an old beat-up body and Dan
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agreed and I'm grateful so he put one of
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his you know soft V necks on here and
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and put a pick guard and kind of wired
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up put some knobs and everything on it
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right now this is an ad or neck pickup
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it's another one that I had and this is
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a Ron Ellis 60 T bridge pickup and it's
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wired kind of normal Telecaster style
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except the tone control only affects the
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bridge pickup so and the reason I do
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that is because I like to set my amp
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sound with the neck pickup and then I go
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back to the bridge pickup and then I can
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roll it down you know however much any
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because that's what you're probably
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going to need to do is just take some
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treble off and so that's what I do and
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so that way I have a great you know what
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I think is a great you know next sound
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and then I can go to the bridge pickup
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and and kind of darken it so yeah so
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this is the bridge pickup then I'll kind
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of bring it up slow
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get it to where I you know kind of like
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that
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[Music]
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and of course you got the bender so
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let's go bender crazy
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[Music]
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benders are a lot of fun they're kind of
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addictive and so I kind of stopped
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playing this guitar for a reason because
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I had gotten to where I was so dependent
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on the bender it can become part of your
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playing style and that can be good or
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bad it can be bad and that you can get
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to where if you go to a jam session or
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something like that you're not
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comfortable playing a guitar that
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doesn't have a bender on it so I kind of
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stopped playing this guitar for a while
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and actually for a couple of years and
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then I started playing it again and I
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enjoyed it more and I don't you know I
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play it some but I don't play it you
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know all the time and also playing a
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beat vendor can influence you know some
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of your playing because you hear you
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know you were doing some things with the
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bead bender that now you want to figure
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out how to kind of approximate without
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it so but it is it is addictive
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especially when you can play you know
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those those bender you know kind of you
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know licks that you know that it's going
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to be in ten every time and even if
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you're gonna play something like the
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lonesome fugitive you know
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[Music]
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you know it's nice when you know you can
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do that and still see I kind of kind of
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flubbed that first bend you know it's
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it's hard to play that that just you
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know perfect and it's it is nice when
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you have something that does the Bend
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perfectly so yeah so you know love love
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the be bender it's a lot of fun here's
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the the neck pickup with the adder
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[Music]
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[Music]
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both pickups always think about like
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Chet Atkins
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[Music]
15:33
[Music]
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that's uh that's from my old wonderful
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guitar teacher Pat Grogan he was a he is
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he is still alive and kickin and I love
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him and miss him I don't get to see him
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very much anymore down in Corpus Christi
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Chet style finger finger style player
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and he tried to get me to play with a
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thumb pick and and he taught me some of
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those licks and things like that I I
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kind of butcher but I love that and
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grateful for his teaching and and
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mentorship so Thank You Pat so that's
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kind of the guitar it you know it's been
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through a lot I've played it you know on
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the Grand Ole Opry with Brad Paisley and
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Steve Warner you know played it with
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Buck Owens at bucks Crystal Palace took
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this guitar all over the world and it's
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fun to have a guitar that you've had for
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a long time and also one that you just
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kind of feel the freedom that you know I
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can change the pickups out I can put a
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be bender on it I can do whatever I want
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to it and it's just it's just my guitar
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you know because I mean you you know if
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you have a plug of my 67 tele back there
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it's like you know if I start jacking
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with it you know you know ruin the value
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you know the only it doesn't ruin the
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value is if you're Vince Gill or Brad
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Paisley they can modify a guitar and it
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just makes it you know more theirs so
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but you and I are not them so
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anywho I hope you've enjoyed this
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episode I was using this Mirage
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compressor by FX Engineering and the
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boss dm3 analog delay with just a single
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repeat we've got deluxe reverb now this
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one up here I'm not actually using
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funnily enough I'm using a second one
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that I have down on the floor because I
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think it sounds better on the floor but
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I kind of like to look at the amp up
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here so I've got two of them so I know
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it's crazy it's just it's a sickness so
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I hope you've enjoyed this episode I
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hope you will subscribe I hope you will
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share it with others and I hope you have
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an amazing week see you later bye bye