My "New" Tele

Tomorrow I'm picking up my Dave Swisher Custom Relic Telecaster. Its been sitting in my company's mail room locker for 2 days! I've been traveling for the past few days and haven't had the chance to go in the office to grab it.... but tomorrow I'll stop in on my way to LA.

It's taken a little over a month and a half since I first corresponded with Dave @ This Old Guitar Vintage Reproduction Shop about having him build it. I sent him pictures and specs of a Fender Relic that I had played at Buffalo Brothers, but foolishly didn't buy because of the cost ($3400) even though it was one of the best guitars I've ever played. Dave claimed he could make one as good if not better for much less (~$1400 with a tweed case and delivered). I was originally shopping for a Bill Nash Timewarp, like the one my buddy has (that is absolutely incredible), but Bill doesn't do custom builds anymore, and has a long waiting list for his instruments. Dave swayed me with his no-risk guarantee and his attention to detail.

Here's what it's modeled after:


I know that most of the parts are Fender parts that he's aged with the addition of the Seymour Duncans, and he's applied a Nitrocellulose paint job on an ash body, that he's also relic'd. It has a humbucker in the neck position, and there was some custom wiring he had to do to make that combination work. Along the way there were some minor changes because certain Fender "logo'd" parts weren't available. Also the ash body will be approximately a 1lb heavier.... but the rest of the guitar should be exactly to the custom shop spec. Back in the 80s, I had a custom Charvel built for me, and at the time it was a spectacular guitar (Floyd Rose, EMGs, etc.).... It's still a good "modern guitar"... but now dated for a hard rock sound. This is my first investment in a vintage feeling/sounding instrument, but based on the success my friends have had in the studio & live with them, I'm feeling good about it.

If all goes well. I'll have it in my hands by this time tomorrow. I should have a review up here soon after.

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adaptable,

I will be very interested to read your review of the guitar. I love the relic tele you've modeled it after...

OK folks...here it is:



There are some things I love about it, and there are also some issues that I hope we can resolve.

First off, the guitar looks fantastic. The "smokey" paint job looks like a real vintage Fender instrument, and the hardware is nicely aged. My friends at Buffalo Brothers said that the Relic'ing is at least as good as the Bill Nash instruments they have come across, and the instrument definitely has a true vintage feel. Everyone's first reaction is "it's heavy" but ultimately they like the feel of the body and neck. Through a Twin Reverb, it sounded nice and bright with a fast twangy attack on the bridge pickup. It sounds fat, but not too rounded with the humbucker. That's the sound I was going for. I'm looking forward to running it through my rig this weekend.



On the downside, at the moment, the intonation is really terrible. All of the few frets on every string are nearly a semitone sharp (compared to open tuning). I did some quick bridge adjustments (I needed to move the saddles almost all the way back to match at the 12 fret harmonic). It helped a bit, but it's still off. I corresponded with Dave, and he wants me to send it back. He knows exactly what the problem is, and I am going to send it back to him to fix on Monday. Apparently he got a bad batch of strings, and that threw off his adjustments.



The neck feels good (good width and frets), but it has a lot more finish on it that I expected. When I compared it to the Relics they had at Buffalo Brothers (mostly Strats with the thicker necks), they seemed like the finish on the back of the neck was sanded down in comparison. It's not bad....it just doesn't look or feel like the neck on the Fender Relics. I might grow to love it though... It feels better than my MIM tele and American Deluxe Strat. It does feel close to the original tele it was modeled after (which is long gone from Buffalo Brothers).

All in all, I'm happy with the instrument, and Dave has been great all the way through the process.... I'm hoping with the adjustments he'll make over the next few weeks really put it over the top for me. We've even discussed putting my Line6 Variax 500 electronics on a similar guitar.

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Update on the Tele.... It's on it's way back to Texas for Dave to make some adjustments. I'll take better pics and update my review when it returns.

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Quick update.... I spoke with Dave yesterday, and he has corrected the intonation. He's also made some changes to the neck to give it that "less finished" feel that I loved from the Fender Relic.

It should be on it's way back to California soon!

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I finally got my tele back this week, and I'm happy to say that it's everything I expected. The intonation is right on and the neck feels like butter. The action is superb, and the fat frets make it so easy to play. It sounds more authentic than my two newer Fender instruments (more thud in the twang!), and has the added fatness of the humbucker in the neck position for fat upper register lead tones and a jazzier clean comping tone.

Is is as good as the Fender Relic it was modeled after? I think it's a really close call....and probably more of a psychological thing on my part because it's not an exact looking copy. I'd need to have the both accessible at the same time to really compare. It does not have the baseball bat style neck of the relics currently in stock at Buffalo Brothers or Guitar Center, so it's the closest I'll come to the original without doing an all out search. It does have all of the characteristics I loved about the original at less than half the price, so ultimately I think its an outstanding value. Sure, it won't have the resale value of an original Fender, but I wanted this guitar to gig with and not have to worry about it so much. Mission accomplished.

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