Rules Are Made To Be… Repaired

I recently broke one of my own rules and bought a guitar sight unseen from a private seller over the internet, which always carries the risk of disappointment when the guitar arrives (if it arrives…). Happily, the guitar, an American Vintage ’52 Telecaster, proved to be a nice instrument. There were a few niggles, though, which explained its very tempting price.

The guitar’s original case was AWOL, the switch tip fell off, and the nut around the shaft of the jack socket had worked loose, meaning the whole assembly was loose and crackly. The guitar also came strung with nines, which I felt didn’t really deliver the full twangy majesty of that Tele tone. A sliver of gaffer tape wrapped round the end of the pickup selector solved the loose switch tip and the loose jack socket was fixed in the ordinary way, holding the socket from the inside to stop it rotating while I tightened the nut. The nines were replaced with a set of Curt Mangan That Pedal Show ‘Mick Here’ 0.010.5 to 0.050-gauge strings – the signature set of the illustrious former editor of this tome, Mick Taylor.

With these quick fixes and a good clean, the Tele felt much better and sounded great. True, there are one or two trickier things I’d like to tweak, too – more of which in future instalments of Mod Squad – but those small changes alone were enough to put a proper ‘New Guitar Day’ grin on my face. The moral, if there is one, is that a little goes a long way when it comes to maintenance and setup, so don’t be afraid to get stuck in. We hope this month’s hands-on guide (see p50) helps you on the way to getting satisfaction from your Tele, Les Paul, Strat or whatever your main squeeze may be. Enjoy the issue and see you next month.