Guitarbage Trashocaster

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

I have a Tele-type guitar (using the term loosely) which was an experiment just to find out what a guitar made from lumberyard junk woods would sound like. I had a then-local guitar builder bookmatch a plank and laminate a thin piece of maple to the top, cut it out and make it look like a Tele. It has sat for 15 years with no finish in my closet in Vegas and through a summer with broken air conditioning (it was over 120 degrees in the house!), got wet once and came partially apart. My dad re-glued it a put a thin coat of laquer sanding-sealer on it. Finally I slapped some junk cheap strat type pickups in the neck and middle, and put a Tele-type bridge pickup in it, made from other junkbox parts. I cut a control-plate from a piece of electronic junk the TV station I worked at was trashing, the jackplate I made from water-bottle caps. (I could afford real parts, was just being "creative"....OK, cheap.) I put a Warmoth neck on it that I bought for my Strat and didn't like. The neck holes didn't quite line up and cracked part of the body where the neck boltholes are. Here's the crazy thing; just for laughs I took it to a gig. It sounds GREAT. I took it to a couple other gigs, sounded great there too. I can't get anything else to sound like it. It looks like (and is) a P.O.S. What would you do, play this ugly-looking cracked piece of (literal) junk? I've been trying to get my other Teles to sound like it and can't. I've been thinking about trying to have another body like it made by Warmoth, hopefully to get the same sound and not have the body fall apart from the cracks but maybe the 15 years of drying and aging give it the sound and another body wouldn't get it. What do y'all think?

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

P.S. In case you think I'm kidding, see it here: GUITARBAGE

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Jim, I never live anywhere longer than two years, let alone have something sit in the same place for fifteen!

I do however have a friend who used to live in a lovely rual area and he managed to claim some sections of a very old hardwood tree that was cut down about twenty years ago. He kept sections of it hidden in his parents shed and a few years back knocked up a Tele style body, although he bought a Fender knock-off neck and parts, it's a really fine looking guitar and sounds like a beast. His old butchered Fender (someone had tried making some sort of Bender device on the cheap, real bad!) doesn't sound as good as this other sucker.

erik · Posted 1 Jan 2002 6:20 pm

From my vantage point i think the guitar looks nice. I like the dark wood. Is that neck Mahogany? Why not just keep pickin' on that sucker.

Donny Hinson · From: Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.

Nice Lookin' axe! (From a distance, anyway.)

I'll never forget a trip I made to the music store about 30 years ago. I'm lookin' for a steel and in walks this hippie-type dude. Long hair, beard, raggedy bleached holey Levis', and a guitar in a duffel bag! And what a guitar!!! Looked like it had been rode hard, beat with snow chains, and put away wet. The pickup switches were ordinary wall-type light switches (complete with the wall plates...held on with band-aids!) Said he was "cruisin' for a new amp". Well, when this guy plugged in to a big Vox, and started playin', my jaw 'bout dropped to the floor! This guy played like Lonnie Mack and Jeff Beck all rolled into one!

Ever since then...I judge a player by how he plays (forget what his gear looks like!)

David Pennybaker · From: Conroe, TX USA

It looks OK to me.

And if you think it's got the right sound, I say "go for it".

Michael Holland · From: Nashville, Tennessee, USA

That sounds alot like what Leo Fender did about 50 years ago. The Esquire (original name of the Telecaster) was conceived as a 'throw-away' instrument. No one had ever made a guitar with a bolt on neck and Leo's idea was to make the cheapest guitar he could, and if the neck warped (the first ones had no truss rod) or if the electronics broke, the owner could just buy another neck or pickup and pop in on.

It matters not what name is on the headstock. Each instrument has its own feel and sound, and if you got a good one don't question what it's made of or where it came from.

Lincoln Goertzen · From: Taylor, British Columbia, Canada

Jim, I'd say, if You like it, PICK IT!!!!

If the other people watching you don't like it, they don't have to look at it. It doesn't look like a piece of junk, from the front, anyway.

Lincoln

erik · Posted 2 Jan 2002 3:27 am

Another question:
You say that is a Srat neck. Is the scale longer on a Srat, and if so, is that the reason it may sound better (or different) than other Teles? I think that neck looks better than the standard Tele neck, myself.

Bill Crook · From: Goodlettsville, TN , Spending my kid's inheritance

Boy, You'r right.... thats about the ugylst ax I've ever seen.....

But, If it playes good, other folks like the sound of it, and you're not ashamed of it, Play it and enjoy the music !!!

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Isn't it interesting; some say "looks pretty good to me" and others, "Wow, UGLY!". Sure shows you how everyone has different tastes. For the questions, the neck is one-piece solid rosewood, normal strat scale. It sounds lousy (thin) on my strat but sounds pretty good on my Fernandes Tele. I've tried other necks on the GuitARBAGE and it always has the same basic sound. I don't mind playing an ugly guitar but wonder sometimes about the way many people "see with their eyes". I'd bet if I went to a jam session where no one knew me and brought this guitarbage, if they would even let me onstage? Probably best play it on gigs but not at auditions/jams.

Pat Burns · From: Branchville, N.J. USA

...Jim, it's a POS, don't embarrass yourself with it on a gig, get rid of it...donate it to a worthy cause...

...now, it just so happens that I know a worthy cause that could use that old POS, so if you'll just give me your address, I'll send you the shipping and you can unload that thing for free, just leave it to me!!...

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

HA! That's the best one yet, and I'll keep that in mind, who knows?

BDBassett · From: Rimrock AZ

I thought I had the only one.
Mine started out 30 years ago as a piece of maple plank which I glued together and cut into the shape of a Tele. I used a drill press and a wood chisel to 'route' the holes for pickups, controls and neck pocket. The neck is authentic Fender made 10/67. I found it hanging on the wall at a little music store and traded a beat up nylon string guitar for it straight across. The first pickup was an old De Armond and then over the years several different types from humbuckers to strat pickups.
Eventually I took the whole thing to a pro and had it remanufactured into a stunning work of art. I treasure my "Telebastard" to this day.
BD

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

Hey BD, got a photo of it? I built the body of mine initially as an experiment, and then later finally put it together as sort of a joke, I'd been getting lots of shiny new expensive guitars that sonically didn't turn me on. I started telling the band that I was beginning to think "the uglier and crappier the guitar, the better the sound!" Maybe there's something to that....!

Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

When you had yours fixed up did it still sound as good? Just kidding now....I've thought about doing that too, maybe will one of these days.

Bill Bailey · From: Kingman, AZ

Jim,
You could make a Broom sound good, are you back in Vegas? By the way I think the guitar is perty. Take care man and say hi to Alicia.
Bill Bailey

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Jim Phelps · From: Mexico City, Mexico

HI BILL!! Great to hear from you. We're still out here in Kansas, we're gonna be here a while, maybe stay here. I still have Las Vegas beside my name cuz of that "maybe". I'm still thinking about it. Alicia says "Hi Bill!"