0:00
on today's episode we have a honest to
0:03
goodness December
0:05
1950
0:07
broadcaster one of the coolest rarest
0:10
you know Daddy of the Telly guitars you
0:13
can find we're going to talk all about
0:16
it we're going to talk about what makes
0:17
a broadcaster broadcaster we're going to
0:19
talk about the really cool blend control
0:22
that they have instead of a tone knob
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well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:36
Zack today's a banner day we have a
0:39
honest to goodness December 1950
0:43
broadcaster we're going to talk all
0:45
about it and we're going to have fun and
0:48
uh I just need to mention you know
0:50
today's sponsor which is a new product
0:52
called cling foil and uh you'll be
0:55
seeing it soon it's exciting you can put
0:57
it on anything and make it cool and hip
1:01
all right also I need to thank my
1:03
patreon members that uh really make this
1:05
show possible of course I appreciate you
1:08
hitting the thumbs up and subscribing
1:10
and uh if you want to support the show
1:12
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information there's super thanks there's
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merch uh yeah and if you want to find
1:20
out about patreon you can find that in
1:21
the description all right I'm I'm just
1:26
yeah can't wait to to talk about
1:27
broadcasters because this this is again
1:29
again this is a banner day this is a lot
1:31
of fun for me cuz uh you know in my
1:34
lifetime of being a Telly you know aican
1:38
a uh I've only had my hands
1:42
on
1:44
probably five or six
1:47
broadcasters and uh they're just you
1:49
know they're they're rare they're cool
1:52
you know they're super collectiable and
1:54
it's like you know they're just they're
1:57
break they broke the $100,000 Mark a
2:01
while ago and they're creeping up higher
2:03
and higher and uh you know wouldn't you
2:06
know bother me at all if they got you
2:08
know in the burst range cuz I think a
2:10
broadcaster is a lot cooler and it's a
2:12
lot rarer than a 58 or 59 or even 60
2:16
less Paul
2:18
sunburst so let's talk about
2:21
broadcasters so it was released in
2:24
October of
2:25
1950 but to really kind of tell the
2:29
story we need to go back a little bit
2:31
and we're not going to get too far in
2:33
the weeds I'm not going to hurt you as
2:35
far as you know information about you
2:39
know what was going on before but I just
2:40
need to kind of set the groundwork so
2:42
you understand you know about the
2:45
broadcaster and the significance of it
2:48
so of course Leo has started working on
2:51
a Spanish guitar or you know a non-steel
2:54
guitar you know it just means a guitar
2:56
played like you know we normally play a
2:59
guitar but you of course back then there
3:01
was steel guitar was very popular so you
3:03
had steel guitar you had Spanish guitar
3:05
so Leo was working on a Spanish guitar
3:09
and in 49 he had made some
3:12
prototypes and had started talking about
3:16
um and had started showing off a guitar
3:20
that was called the
3:21
Esquire and it had a maple neck with no
3:26
truss
3:27
rod it had a white Pig yard single ply
3:31
it had a pine body that was 1 and 1/2 in
3:36
thick now just to kind of put that in
3:39
perspective normally a Telecaster has a
3:41
body that's 1 and 3/4 or
3:44
1.75 Ines thick also the pine was kind
3:50
of pancaked together so instead of being
3:53
like we think of as a multi-piece body
3:55
like this it was multiple pieces that
3:57
were this way um and I don't mean like
4:00
it had it was probably too thick but it
4:04
might have had you know two on top and
4:06
two at the bottom and such so point
4:08
being is that it was Pine it was thinner
4:11
it was painted
4:13
black and that was what Leo and Don
4:17
Randall and the you know kind of radio
4:19
tell guys were showing around to dealers
4:23
and trying to drum up interest and they
4:25
were getting some interest so then comes
4:31
1950 and in July of
4:34
1950 uh they take the guitar to a trade
4:37
show and probably some of you have heard
4:38
this story before but the uh the two
4:41
guitars the two Esquires that they took
4:44
the nexts
4:45
warped so this of course made Don
4:48
Randall look bad made all of them look
4:50
bad but Leo was still hesitant he didn't
4:54
really want to pay for the tooling and
4:57
the expense of putting in a truss rod
4:59
because again he had this detachable
5:01
neck you know was a bolt-on neck and he
5:04
felt like that was a fluke so there had
5:06
to be more guitars that you know over
5:09
that summer that warped and uh before he
5:14
you know finally went over so the uh the
5:18
summer of 1950 is really interesting
5:21
because of course you know you had the
5:23
Esquire that was a single pickup and it
5:25
was a black pine body non-trust Rod
5:28
guitar but in the summer you also get
5:30
the development of the two pickup
5:32
Esquire so exact same guitar but it had
5:36
you know of course the Chrome covered um
5:39
you know neck pickup and that cover was
5:41
you know for shielding and also to kind
5:43
of reduce some of the artifacts
5:46
harmonics to give it a little bit more
5:48
of a fundamental
5:49
sound so also during the summer of 1950
5:55
you have the first experiments with
5:58
using Ash
6:00
as the body wood so in the summer of
6:04
1950 you have some two pickup Esquires
6:08
that are black with a pine body
6:10
non-trust Rod neck and you also have
6:13
some Esquires that are single pickup and
6:16
dual pickup that have an ash body and
6:20
with the black pick guard and with a
6:22
butterscotch
6:24
finish uh finally more of the guitars uh
6:29
have the the next warp on them and
6:31
finally Leo you know gives in and so
6:36
finally in October of
6:39
1950 he gets the parts he gets the
6:42
tooling and everything that's needed to
6:45
both make the truss rods and install
6:47
them in his necks and at this time it's
6:51
when they decide because of the past
6:55
drama that's happened with The Esquires
6:57
and the Warped necks and the fact that
7:00
they're going to charge more for this
7:02
guitar because it's no longer single
7:04
pickup and also it uh it has a trust Rod
7:09
they decide to come up with a new name
7:11
and here's where they went wrong uh they
7:14
come up with the name
7:15
broadcaster but it's obvious because of
7:18
what's going to happen soon they didn't
7:19
do their due diligence in uh in coming
7:22
up with a new name and it always blows
7:25
my mind when a company doesn't do this
7:30
because they're asking for a lot of
7:33
trouble because if you launch a product
7:37
and you don't have a trademark and
7:39
someone else does have a trademark on it
7:42
then you're going to get some type of
7:44
cease and desist you're going to and and
7:46
it's going to cost you money you know
7:49
the the least of it is just stopping and
7:52
then you know changing the name and such
7:55
but I mean Fender had already created
7:58
ads that they were doing out they had
8:00
ordered what we think at
8:03
least 1,000 to 2,000 water slide decals
8:07
that said broadcaster on it and who
8:11
knows what else they had you know time
8:13
money energy uh you know talking about
8:16
the broadcaster name so but okay we're
8:19
going to leave that there and we're
8:20
going to go
8:21
on so they they decide to go with the
8:24
name
8:25
broadcaster and they come up with a set
8:28
of features and and they start building
8:30
the guitar in again October of
8:34
1950 so the original broadcaster first
8:38
month of production had a maple neck
8:41
with a truss rod there's no broadcasters
8:44
that don't have a truss rod all
8:46
broadcasters have a truss rod they have
8:50
no Channel route they don't have the
8:52
cigar route in between the pickups uh he
8:55
have an ash body you know 1.7 5 a 1 and
9:00
3/4 in thick uh you have a uh a bridge
9:06
pickup that has a zinc plated steel
9:11
elevator plate okay
9:14
so this is an elevator plate uh this and
9:18
and that's how you know you get the the
9:19
bridge pickup to go up and down
9:21
sometimes we call it a base plate but
9:24
you know it's an elevator plate because
9:26
that's what was used toh to make it
9:28
where it was easy to to raise and lower
9:30
the pickup and you wouldn't be
9:32
destroying um you know the bobin itself
9:36
so you had something for the threads of
9:38
the screw to work in and out of so again
9:40
the first ones were steel that was Zinc
9:43
plated and so they kind of look kind of
9:46
like a dull gray look now this is a a
9:48
Seymour Duncan pickup uh it's actually a
9:51
Seymour Duncan broadcaster pickup which
9:53
is funny because it does not have the uh
9:57
you know steel with zinc plating this is
9:59
a copper plating which of course is the
10:01
later design but you know oh well say
10:05
love
10:06
you um then of course the other thing
10:08
that was really uh interesting is the uh
10:11
the bridge pickup has 43 gauge wire
10:14
which is smaller than what they would
10:16
later use they would later use 42 gauge
10:19
wire and so that's part of the
10:21
broadcaster sound is you have this small
10:25
wire that again they would fill the
10:28
bobin in a when they're winding it and
10:30
so when you're filling it with a smaller
10:32
wire well you end up with higher uh
10:35
resistance rating so you know so a
10:38
broadcaster you know Bridge pickup you
10:41
know the uh you know is usually if you
10:44
were to measure it it would be in
10:46
between 7 and
10:48
9k so and then the the neck pickup is
10:51
usually between five and 7K so there and
10:56
the and the neck pickup you know has a
10:58
uh it has a brass cover that is Chrome
11:02
plated and which
11:04
creates a certain sound because again
11:08
that cover was done specifically to kill
11:11
some of the highs in the harmonics and
11:13
so it gives it more it's a duller sound
11:17
than you know of course a lot of people
11:19
prefer a nickel silver You Know cover
11:22
you know with chrome plating you know on
11:24
the uh on the neck pickup but it's a
11:26
it's a cool
11:27
sound um let's see what else is
11:31
interesting of course all of them are
11:33
single slot screws there's no Phillips
11:36
or you know cross slot or whatever you
11:39
want to call um you know the later
11:42
screws uh the first month so the ones
11:45
made in October have steel Saddles now
11:49
this is a December model so it has brass
11:51
on
11:52
it let's see what else um well let's oh
11:59
the blend control so the
12:02
original uh wiring scheme for the
12:05
broadcaster was this so the front
12:08
position you get the uh the mud sound
12:13
and uh or what Leo Fender called Deep
12:16
Rhythm
12:18
and yeah whatever
12:38
or if you
12:53
prefer um yeah basically it's a really
12:57
you know low output study sound that was
13:00
designed for either playing Rhythm on or
13:03
replicating the sound of an upright
13:12
Bas um yeah so that's position number
13:16
one on the uh selector switch position
13:19
number
13:20
two and again in this position only this
13:23
knob works this knob does not work uh
13:26
position number two you get the ne
13:29
pickup by itself and again this knob
13:32
doesn't work only the volume control
13:33
works so here is the neck pickup which
13:36
of course this has a brass cover that's
13:40
in Chrome plated so it is a you know
13:43
darker neck pickup but it's a really
13:45
beautiful sound
14:08
I mean really what's not to like with
14:10
that yes it is a darker sound it's not
14:12
stratty sounding at all but it's really
14:16
gorgeous
14:38
okay now we get to the uh you know the
14:41
business end of of a broadcaster which
14:44
is the uh the bridge
14:46
pickup and uh it has a unique sound and
14:51
uh part of it is that it's never going
14:53
through a tone
14:55
control so because there is no tone
14:58
control it just has a blend knob back
15:01
here then you have of course the fact
15:03
that it has the 43 gauge wire on it has
15:06
higher you know uh you know resistance
15:09
readings and such and so you get a uh a
15:13
pretty assertive hot in your- face sound
15:16
again because of the the the the
15:19
windings and then of course there's no
15:20
tone control which is going to make it a
15:23
little hotter
15:48
now here comes in the magic of it is
15:52
that you can blend in so this this knob
15:56
is turned all the way up so as I turn
15:59
this knob down which you think of as the
16:02
tone control and it was even called the
16:04
tone control in the ads what it's doing
16:07
is it's blending in the neck pickup so
16:09
I'm just going to hold a chord and I'm
16:12
going to start blending it in
16:29
so this is fulled down where you have
16:32
the two pickups together now here's the
16:34
really funny thing is that people
16:37
complained to Leo about this and they
16:39
because they wanted a real tone control
16:41
and Leo basically took away the ability
16:44
to have the two pickups together that
16:45
you wouldn't
16:47
get really uh from Fender until 19 mid
16:51
1967 when they Chang it to Modern wiring
16:55
so the you know the kind of the 52 Telly
16:58
wiring you get an actual tone control
17:01
but you lose any kind of Blended sound
17:04
or you know you lose these pickups
17:06
together unless like on a strat you
17:09
carefully balance the three-way switch
17:11
in between the number two and the number
17:13
three position so anyway uh here is the
17:18
uh the two pickup sound doing you know
17:20
just a little uh a little playing you
17:23
know as it
17:25
were got to turn the volume up
17:56
yeah pretty nice dual pickup sound I
17:59
have to say that's that's one of the
18:00
best I've heard you know just having
18:02
that really dark or darker neck pickup
18:06
and then a more assertive Bridge pickup
18:08
really makes for a great dual pickup
18:11
sound and then the great thing about it
18:12
is that you can just kind of back it off
18:14
some and you have kind of a fattened you
18:17
know Bridge pickup thing you know so you
18:20
can go
18:37
or you can get even
18:46
more and then you can go back to your
18:48
you know
19:06
all
19:06
right so that's what's special about a
19:11
broadcaster another thing that's
19:13
interesting about the broadcaster is the
19:15
finish on them so the
19:17
Finish tends to be especially on the
19:21
early ones is really really brittle
19:25
so to the point that on a number of the
19:28
broadcasters that I've seen the Finish
19:30
is just flaking off like crazy and if it
19:33
was played a lot usually most of the
19:36
Finish is gone and you just have little
19:37
patches where there's some finish
19:40
left um then they seem to kind of you
19:44
know as you got into December January
19:47
you tended to see you know finishes were
19:50
a little lighter not so dark and uh they
19:54
tend to get more opaque so to me it
19:56
seems like the broadcasters you you tend
19:59
to see a little more Grain on them and
20:02
you know maybe that's just the the
20:04
examples that I've seen but it seems
20:06
like broadcasters you see a little more
20:08
grain but yet it's a darker finish and
20:10
then when you get into the nocaster
20:13
Telecaster thing it seems like the
20:15
Finish gets lighter but it gets more
20:17
opaque where you see a little less of
20:20
the
20:21
grain so in February of
20:27
1951 they get the cease and desist order
20:31
from Gretch who of course had a
20:32
trademark on their broadcaster drum kit
20:37
of course it was broadcaster with a K
20:39
and I think they might have used it for
20:40
other things too maybe you know some in
20:43
other instruments but you know what this
20:46
really showed was that Leo and Don
20:48
Randall did not do their homework in uh
20:52
in giving the
20:53
broadcaster uh in really checking things
20:56
out they should have hired a Patent
20:58
Trademark you know attorney and they
21:00
should have had uh had that looked into
21:03
maybe they didn't have the money at that
21:04
point I'm sure that was a a learning
21:07
opportunity for them so they ended up of
21:10
course having to uh change up all the
21:13
advertising that they had done uh they
21:15
did a press release uh you know showing
21:20
uh that they had changed the name and of
21:21
course you know they had probably a
21:24
thousand or more um of these you know
21:28
slide decals said broadcaster and so of
21:31
course they just uh clipped them off
21:35
they clipped off the broadcaster part
21:36
and we get the nocaster of course the
21:40
first noters are identical to a
21:43
broadcaster but then you start getting
21:46
some changes some changes happen um
21:49
during
21:51
1951 uh you get the addition of the uh
21:56
what I call the cigar route you know
21:59
that's done in here and that's so that
22:00
you can you get the wires for the neck
22:02
pickup to the uh control cavity easier
22:06
you know you get um let's see you get
22:10
you you get the switch over on the
22:11
bridge pickup where it where it gets the
22:14
uh you know 42 gauge wire instead of 43
22:17
you get the switch over on the elevator
22:19
plate from being steel with zinc coating
22:21
to Steel with a copper plating uh the
22:25
knobs you know end up changing where
22:27
these are kind of tall and nural and
22:29
they get a little shorter and the neurl
22:31
gets less
22:33
severe
22:35
um yeah but they came up with the name
22:38
Telecaster right away so that's one of
22:41
the things that's really funny is that
22:42
in February so when the the same month
22:44
they got the ceas and assist from Gretch
22:47
they came up with the Telecaster name
22:49
right then and there and started using
22:51
it but the guitars that they sold just
22:54
said fender on them but it was a
22:55
Telecaster so cuz they weren't going to
22:59
throw away a thousand or more you know
23:02
water slide decals so it's just really
23:05
funny so you don't you don't see guitars
23:08
with except for one or two that were
23:10
done for for trade shows or ads you know
23:14
in 51 you know in mid 51 you really
23:16
don't see you know telecasters in Mass
23:20
until the end of
23:22
51 so and uh yeah and so then in you
23:28
know of course in 52 you you also you
23:30
lose the uh you know the blend control
23:33
which to me is a a a huge loss and uh
23:37
yeah and then of course you get a Litany
23:39
of changes as you uh you know you start
23:42
seeing you know the Phillips head screws
23:46
and you know you know the Finish gets a
23:49
little honey you know wheat colored at
23:52
different times and you know by the time
23:55
you get to 54 you've got a white scratch
23:57
plate and all sorts of stuff stuff going
23:58
on but these are really really cool
24:03
guitars really really rare guitars the
24:06
broadcasters these were made for five
24:09
months get that in your head five months
24:12
these were
24:13
made October of 1950 through February of
24:19
1951 and it was early February and then
24:22
these are gone there's no more
24:24
broadcasters they estimate there's maybe
24:27
250 of
24:29
them this is a rare cool guitar and I'm
24:33
you know really glad that I could uh get
24:35
the chance to show it to you I really
24:37
like the wear on the back of the neck
24:40
and the front of the neck on the on this
24:43
thing it's really a be and this one's
24:46
light and uh and just a real joy to play
24:50
it has been uh refereed so it's a of
24:55
course it's a little easier for for me
24:56
to play I don't like the the manage
24:59
Frets so yeah so that's kind of what
25:02
happened with the broadcaster that's
25:04
what's cool about them so let's say that
25:07
you want the broadcaster sound okay
25:12
one don't get a pickup that has copper
25:15
plating on the bottom uh sorry uh get
25:21
one that's steel with zinc plating make
25:24
sure it has 43 gauge make sure it's kind
25:27
of a reasonable you know 7K to 9k and
25:30
not some crazy thing above that because
25:33
some people have just decided that
25:34
broadcasters are 11k or something like
25:36
that and uh then I really think a key to
25:41
the broadcaster sound is the blend
25:44
control and both in the tonal variation
25:48
that it offers and in the fact that you
25:51
don't have a tone control on the guitar
25:53
at all which is loading down and kind of
25:56
reducing highs in general just adding
25:58
more capacitance so yeah so if you're
26:02
searching for that broadcaster sound get
26:05
as accurate of a broadcaster pickup as
26:08
possible and then uh yeah get a blend
26:11
control and I will find a blend um you
26:15
know kind of schematic as it were
26:18
schematic starting to sound like Sean
26:20
connory um and I'll put it in the link
26:23
to the description so one of the things
26:26
because there aren't that many broadcast
26:28
out there we don't think of that many
26:30
players as being famous broadcaster
26:33
users you know probably you would think
26:35
about Mike Campbell and uh I don't know
26:39
what that guitar was like when Mike got
26:41
it in the 70s but now it's had a lot of
26:44
things changed on it including like the
26:46
bridge pickup the bridge itself the logo
26:49
in a weird place it's obviously a super
26:51
cool guitar and uh that I'm not saying
26:54
it's not a cool guitar or he doesn't
26:56
make it sound amazing but
26:59
probably the recordings that feature a
27:02
broadcaster the most are probably Jimmy
27:05
Bryant's work with Speedy West so on
27:08
like two guitarist country style that's
27:11
probably mostly a broadcaster because a
27:14
lot of that was recorded in 50 and 51 so
27:19
and uh really really cool stuff and I
27:23
think uh a big part of the Jimmy Bryant
27:26
sound besides being the uh the Woody Pro
27:30
you know the the single you know the you
27:33
know the field coil 15-in speaker you
27:36
know Woody Pro that he used was also the
27:38
fact that he played a broadcaster and
27:41
I'm guessing he he played on the neck
27:43
pickup you know a fair amount but also
27:45
he used the bridge pickup and blend it
27:47
in which is just a different sound and
27:50
this this guitar even the Blended sounds
27:52
are unique they're really cool it's a
27:54
different sound from a a later you know
27:57
nocaster or Telecaster I needed to make
28:00
a quick addendum to the episode one I
28:04
needed to uh add in this photo so this
28:07
is a photo that I took of a real rare
28:12
opportunity to get to check out a uh
28:16
Real Deal Black Pine body non-rust Rod
28:21
Esquire so that's what this
28:24
is
28:26
then you know you know I really need to
28:29
give uh credit for uh you know a lot of
28:32
the information from this episode was
28:34
called from my own experiences with
28:38
broadcasters but a lot came from
28:41
Nacho uh specifically of course the
28:43
blacku book which you know of course all
28:46
of that's also in the uh the pinecaster
28:48
stuff so if you really want to go down
28:51
the rabbit Trail and if you want to do
28:54
you know research on this and you want
28:56
to learn more then you need to check out
28:58
the pinecaster
29:00
books and are they cheap no but they are
29:04
so worth it and uh what is it the cost
29:06
of two pedals at this point but uh it's
29:09
great the other book that was helpful
29:11
and that I learned a lot from was
29:13
Richard Smith's book uh Fender the sound
29:16
heard around the world so really great
29:19
book and really helpful so all right
29:23
back to Zach I hope you've enjoyed
29:25
today's episode and we'll see you next
29:27
time time bye-bye