The JB with the original white
pickguardThe "Mutt-Caster"
James Burton Standard Fender Telecaster (tm)
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When I got the urge to upgrade my electric guitar, I originally thought I wanted a Tele (tm), but the Jimmie Vaughan Strat showed up and I bought it instead. Then during a trip to Denver, I played almost every Strat and Tele model made. The two Teles that impressed me were the '52 Reissue and the James Burton Standard. Back home, I mentioned this to an on-line friend (Thanks Eric!) who said he knew of a used James Burton. I ended up working on his guitar in exchange for this Tele and thus had both a Strat and Tele! The stock neck is huge and thick and has a "reverse" taper. On a Martin guitar, the neck is thinnest at the 1st fret and gets thicker as you work up; the James Burton is the other way around! It's massive up at the 1st fret, but thinner at the 12th. I've made a lot of changes to this guitar, most of which are detailed in chronological order below.
The JB with the original white
pickguard
and now...
With the stock Texas Tele pups, I never got the high E string to ring well. I tried a lot of combinations of capacitors, pots, and pup heights and never got it right. Plus, the Texas Tele pup is a bit hotter and less twangy than I like, so I bought a '52 Reissue pup and 3-position brass saddle bridge. Ever the experimenter, I replaced just the bridge first, and that helped a lot- gave the guitar a lot more "sass" and the high E came up a bit. Then I replaced the pup, and there it was! The Sound. The '52 RI pup gave it a very twangy sound. The Texas Tele neck pickup sounded fine, so I left it alone. And BTW, I later put the TX Tele bridge and pup in the FotoFlame Tele (sold!) and it sounded fine there! Even later, I put the TX Tele pup in my Nashville Tele and it likewise sounds great there. Both the FotoFlame and the Nashville are alder bodies, making me wonder if the TX Tele might prefer them.
Later, I experimented a lot with the wiring and currently have settled on a 500k volume pot, 250k tone, .050 mf cap in between, and no .001mf treble cap. I wired the stock 3-pos switch so that the middle position give the neck and bridge in series, which is a hotter and warmer sound. I ran this for awhile and liked it in that I could get 3 distinctly different sounds: the warm jazzy sound of the neck pup, the hotter biting sound of the middle, and Twang City on the lead pup, all without touching the volume or tone. After awhile, though, I went back to the stock configuration of parallel wiring and liked the cleaner sound it offers, for this guitar. After trying a bunch of strings, I'm using either D'Addario .0095-.044, or D'Addario .009 - .046.
And finally, I installed a Parsons/White B-bender in this guitar (THANKS, TROY!!!). I did the installation myself and it came out sloppy, but functional. The Bender really adds another dimension to the sound and I use it quite a bit.
Closeups of the headstock. The James Burton signature is on the right tip.
Closeup of the great sunburst:
Stage 2 of "The MuttCaster"
I tried and tried to come to love the stock neck and I just couldn't, especially after playing the FotoFlame '62 RI. The FotoFlame proved to me that I liked the slimmer neck. So, I went to good ol' Ebay and found myself an Allpart nitro '52 RI copy neck, bought it, and put it on the Burton. That means that there's nothing left of the original guitar now but the body, the tuners, and the control plate! I recently sold all the parts from this guitar for enough money to buy all but $50 of my 60's Reissue Stratocaster! (sold!). This guitar is now using the stock TX Tele neck pickup, a '52 RI bridge pup and bridge, and the pots and caps detailed above. I've run other pups in this guitar and immediately went back to this configuration- in this guitar, those are the settings that work. Of all my Teles, this one is still my favorite and the one I've kept. Of course, once you commit to a B-Bender, you're pretty much committed! <g> But still, this one has the warmest, twangiest tone and the overall most versatile sound. The TX Tele neck pup is really outstanding and the '52 RI bridge nails the twang, for me. And there's no getting around that it just looks sharp!
Here's an updated shot (3/01) of the MuttCaster. Oh...and it looks like it's got an official '52 Reissue Bakelite pickguard now, too.. Compare the neck color with the top picture.
Here's the new headstock with new decal
Here's a shot of the B-Bender exposed. The black plastic cover shown above started to bother me- it's just 1/8" thick, but... so one day, I inlaid the cavity with kerfing and made a clear Plexiglas insert which sits flush with the body. Now it feels cool!! And I can show people how the bender works! (Yes, and I know that you can see the photographer reflected....<g>). Sharp eyes will notice that the B-Bender is set for a "medium-long" throw by moving the arm to the top hole and re-routing the spring to the bottom.
And finally, I added this! A sticker of Clarence White himself. Thanks, Mike!
Now if I could just get a gig.....<g>
Been awhile since I did anything to this guitar...has it really been SIX YEARS?? That's gotta be a record for me not modifying a guitar. Anyway, here's the most recent additions. The Muttcaster now sports an El Dorado pickguard. I really wanted one of these and ended up doing some swapping for one. I kind of like it, in a flashy rodeo-shirt kind of way.
The really sharp-eye Tele-connoisseur will note that I'm now running a set of Fralin underwound pups from Callaham. Again, I did some swapping for these. I installed the neck first and it gives a cleaner more balanced sound than the TX Tele pup that I've been running since forever. It sounds very Strat-like, actually. So, after running it awhile, I decided to go ahead and try the bridge pup. I have no problems with my microphonic '52 RI pup, and I kind of liked the clicking noises it picked up, but the Fralin sounds really good. The trebles jump out and the overall response is excellent. I'm going to leave it in for awhile.
After running a neck humbucker on my Nashville Tele, I decided I liked it so much that it was time to move that setup to the Bender. I took a lesson with guitar great Brad Davis and he suggested the same thing. At the same time, I was kind of interested in playing with the stock Nashville setup, so I fired up the soldering iron and got to work. This meant, of course, that the El Dorado pickguard wasn't going to work. Oh well.
I don't think the white looks as bad as did originally! It looks like a 50's Strat.
The guitar is now running the same pups as were in the red Nashville- a Fender Nocaster bridge and Stew Mac Golden Era neck humbucker, wired to a 5-way switch which is set: (front) full hum, hum/Tele, Tele, Tele/single, single.
Very shortly after doing this, I won a relic'ed Allparts body. The Allparts neck that's been on the Bender since '01 is probably my favorite vintage neck, but I've been wanting to run a 10" radius for some time. And since I put the Nocaster/humbucker combo in the Bender, the excellent Fralin underwound pups were sitting in a drawer. That's just not right. So, I decided to move those parts into the incoming relic body and put a new Allparts 10" radius neck on the Bender. Ordered! The new neck needed to be finished and so I did something I've been wanting to do for along time. A new decal:
I finished the new neck using Reranch dye and nitro, with a very light coat on the neck shaft. I then finished over that with French polished shellac. The new neck came with .055" tall frets, but after playing it awhile, I refretted with gold Evo wire that's .040" tall. I just don't get along with tall wire.
Another change! Compensated saddles. I needed the straight saddles for the ultra-traditional new relic and got these from Stew Mac.
And so the sum of the guitar as of Dec '09 is: Allparts neck with 10" radius, shellac neck shaft, custom headstock decal, staggered height Gotoh tuners, B-bender, Fender Nocaster bridge pup, Stew Mac neck humbucker, 5-way wiring, white pickguard, compensated saddles, '52 RI bridgeplate, original body, original neckplate, original control plate.