esquire project...best way to go about it?

[drew_half_empty]

well, what i want is an alder esquire with a rosewood fretboard, 22 MJ frets, hot rail, and special wiring on the 3-way (all foward - tone & volume, middle - volume & no tone, all back - no tone or volume)

and well, esquires are made with ash bodies & rosewood fretboards, not to mention cost $800, and thats what i wanna spend MAX on this guitar, I'd like to get away for $500 or so.

so whats my best/cheapest course of action? buy a mim tele and a warmoth neck & just take out the neck pup & rewire? spring for a highway 1 & do the same minus the new neck? all warmoth? stewmac?

I'm really hesitant to go all warmoth or the highway 1 route, as they are obviously the more expensive ways to go. And for buying used, well, only guitar i ever bought used, i took home & noticed it had a ridiculous ammount of fretwear. If i went with the MIM i wouldn't feel so bad cuz i'm gonna end up replacing the neck & electronics anyways, but highway 1, eh, i just don't know

[ArtieToo]

You know me . . . I always start in the cheap seats.

If you can find a local dealer that stocks one, these Johnson Tele's are surprisingly nice:

Johnson Del Sol

Edit: The new ones have improved both the headstock and the Johnson logo.

[drew_half_empty]

I'd rather have a real fender

[Pierre]

Buy a MIM and get a new pickguard and your pickup. Ask the tech to wire it whatever way you want, and then save up for a warmoth 22 frets neck? It seems the most sensible solution.

[drew_half_empty]

screw the pickguard, i can put a piece of electrical tape under it, save $40

I'd rather do it all at once though, i have a rep of royally screwing up intonation when i try to do it myself

[Pierre]

if looks don't matter then...
Well doing it all at once will be out of your budget it seems. hotrails will be 70 dollars, MIM Tele will be about 400, the warmoth neck 150... You're already at over 600 there. If you are ready to shove in 700, you can get it all. But for 500, I doubt. Not with the neck.

[drew_half_empty]

well i can save

i make about $500 a month

so in 6 weeks i could have it all

plus i can haggle with local people, i dunno where the hell you're seeing mexican teles for $400, but they go for $350 TOPS here, and i can usually haggle down to $300, so with tax that's...$320

[Pierre]

Oh... damn you in the US with cheaper guitars
Well I still say get the MIM in the color you want, order a 22 fret replacement neck from warmoth, get the hotrail at a shop and get the shop to wire it for you.
If you do have the money though why not get another pickguard? It'll look kinda weird with a tape instead of the neck pickup.

[drew_half_empty]

not if you put it under the pickguard, it'd look fine

[Pierre]

Wouldn't there still be a visibile hole in the pickguard?
Or you could leave the neck pickup there and just not wire it.

[drew_half_empty]

yeah theres a hole, but electrical tape is black, so it wouldn't be obvious unless you looked at it close

i'd rather not just leave the neck in there, seems kinda dumb, and the magnet would pull down the string just a TINY bit & not give the full effect of a one pickup guitar

[Pierre]

Then keep the cover on and take the pickup out? If it's possible...

[FretFire]

i'd rather not just leave the neck in there, seems kinda dumb...

But putting tape over the hole is just fine

[drew_half_empty]

shh, it makes sense to me

don't defame my opinions with your logic

[XSSIVE]

check your PMs...

-Mike