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Hi all, Bit of a random question but wanted to see if anyone knows of any makes of vintage telecaster bridge that would fit a player telecaster? From what I have seen the string placement is different on a player telecaster as they have a modern bridge and I was wondering if anyone had found a vintage bridge that would fit this without having to drill new string holes. The guitar is - Fender player plus telecaster And the type of bridge I would like to have is this style - Bridge Thank you

Hah! ON some guitars that are particularly rare to see left handed, they look odd to me too at first glance! I think this is the first Mosritealike I can recall seeing that was actually available left handed - apart from Eastwood, I think they did one?

The little amp has arrived. I opened it just to check that it works and had a very quick play through it. It's very light, but the knobs, buttons and switches all feel fine. It sounds great. I played through the a few of the presets they all sound superb. There's a built in tuner, which will be useful for my daughter. It's all boxed up again until her birthday.

That looks great. I'd forgotten that you are a lefty and it took me a second to work out why the photo didn't look quite right

I think that's the thing, yes - I honestly cannot believe a hellish sweatshop would be able to produce this quality. I suspect it's a case of Thomann having a big enough market to do economies of scale, they're dealing direct with the factory rather than going through a brand, so fewer links on the chain needing to make a profit..... No physical shop, so none of the overheads of running a traditional retail operation. Likely also they're still in the early years of building a brand, and are in the strategy of making a smaller profit on each guitar, so people come back for more. And if they buy a case or two, and maybe an amp, a few leads and the other bits once drawn in to Thomann..... I wonder too if part of the idea is to get people into the notion of buying a new guitar online. I've always stuck to buying in person when I can, guitars being a thing that can vary, but at this price it was low risk....

I really don’t know how HB do it at the money, if it really is nasty sweat shops in the Far East, why is the fret work so good (the overall finish on my recently acquired HB bass is very good)? Thomann really know how to pack an instrument, mine came in a similar 2 box arrangement. Quality score there, congrats.

So it's here! Made a trip into the office this morning. I took some unboxing photos, like the kids on Youtube: Big Box. Tag on the inner box carries the all-important LH designation. I had a nightmare the day after ordering that they'd send me a right hander by mistake... Inner Box, opened: Note they included a hex key for truss adjusments (one assumes) - a nice touch. And here we are.... a real beauty! I know I was put off for a long time by the burst being the only colour option for a left hander. In person, though, it really is lovely. I think - if all finishes were available - I'd put this in order of preference ahead of the black, probably just about equal with the white (unless they did the white in proper Johnny Ramone spec....), and behind the red and blue. So that's a pleasant surprise. Quality of fit and finish is high - shockingly so for £156, and no shipping charge. The guitar has a nice heft to it. Not 70s LP heavy, but enough to feel solid, not something you have to baby. The finish is a little 'plasticky', which to my mind is very much in keeping with the style of the original Mosrites. Too high end a classic nitro finish, for example, wouldn't feel right somehow. Hardware is nice. The machineheads seem good, nice and firm but not sticky. Pots feel good, smooth but again not "loose" or rattly like they can be on some cheap guitars. Very positive, classy feeling switch. Tuned up easily (it was only a step or so out of tune to begin with, and all strings were in tune with each other relatively speaking, which seems positive. The bridge (which I know is a commonly replaced part on the hobbyist market) is the one bit of the hardware that feels/looks a little cheap, but I'm going to leave it on there for now and let the guitar bed in a bit in a bid to let it develop its own mojo and avoid rushing to replace bits because receive wisdom says they need replaced. Once tuned up, I gave it the go-over with a few bars of purple haze and - of course - Blitzkrieg Bop and Suzy is a Headbanger. This guitar LIVES for those big, e-shape barchords. (Root sixths? Root fifths? I've lost my theory...). Acoustically, it sounds good, and I think will bed in nicely. There was a bit of rattle at first - but then I took the plastic off the neck pickup, and that disappeared. I'll have to get an amp into the office and plug it up in coming weeks, but so far signs are all good. This is the first Harley Benton I've actually handled. I've been wary of getting caught up in the hype - across a lot of hobbies and interests over the years I've seen affordable / budget stuff get hyped up only to disappoint. This is of course only one guitar, but if it is indeed typical of HBs output, then I'm ridiculously impressed. Subject to the caveat I've not yet plugged it in, like for like I'd say overall this is on a par with the very best Squiers I've ever played - and a good one of those is great. Discount the cheaper-feeling body finish (which, as I've noted, I see as part of this style of guitar's vibe anyhow, so not in any way a negative). The really big surprise - pleasantly so - is the quality of the neck. Beautifully finished, feels lovely in the hand, not a single sharp fret that I've detected. That was my real worry there. I once bought a £90 Stratalike on eBay (mainly to get a feel for a certain neck profile and style - I sold the bits on a year or two later for more than the guitar cost me, funny old market...) that had so many sharp frets, playing that neck was like playing a hacksaw blade... The closest of all the guitars I have or have owned to how nicely finished this one is is my old American Standard Fender Stratocaster, which I paid £539 for in 1994.... According to the online inflation calculator, the USD50 that Johnny Ramone spent on his first, used Mosrite in 1974 would now be about USD300, or £240 in today's money, and this really is quite the bargain. I could at this sort of price be very persuaded to pick up a second one if HB expanded the colour range in their lefties, though actually what I'd rather they do is, using this as a base, create a Johnny Ramone model based on his customised Ventures II. I've for a long time also been looking at the HB DC Junior in dirty mustard. I see the lefty of the Fat version in red is gone now, replaced by a dirty mustard finish. I'm sort of torn between the two: I hear good things about the fat neck, but the pup in that one being a tapped HB is a real negative for me - the whole point of a Junior is the single p90. It's like putting HBs in a Strat... Maybe into the Summer when I've cleared out more space at home and played a bit more there I'll look at the standard version.... My next purchase really should be a new amp (I'm planning to sell my Vox AD120VT as I just don't use more than a tiny fraction of what it does). I'll probably start with the HB tube5.... I think that'll be all the amp I'll need for the foreseeable. TL/DR - really pleased with this guitar, especially at this price. It's got me excited about playing again, which is good as I've really neglected my guitar for quite a while now, with life getting in the way...

Create a ' Report'; that'll get the attention of the Admins here. ('Report' can be accessed from the 'three little dots' button, top right of every post...).

I'd say quite a few people started playing on guitars they didn't actually like to play, because their favourite guitarist played on one. Another one I've just thought of is Billy Duffy, from The Cult and his white Gretsch. Wiki does show him playing that, but the first picture on the page shows him with a black Gretsch.

All of the above is assuming the use of IEM, or having a decent-enough foldback monitor system on stage. Small groups/pub bands don't always have this luxury; not all PA systems will accept much more than voice. Just sayin'.

I would say it is actually a genuine Ibanez Monteclaire. Possibly this version? https://reverb.com/item/39298717-ibanez-montclair-1965-3903-2103

Wow...! Just been reading this through. Looks like an amazing project and done with such skill. I would like to do something like this when work and family pressures begin to take less of my time. Just for myself really. I have built several 'custom' guitars but always been 'partscaster from a variety of bits' type projects, so nothing as major or personal as this. Most I have done on the woodwork side is using a complete body blank (strat) to add a hardtail tele bridge and pickup cavities, and that was scary enough! Fantastic job.

Only access to the 19th fret? That’s way high enough IMO. Plenty of notes lower down to make a statement, without annoying the local dog population.

Please accept my sincere and humble apologies! To make up for my schoolboy error, please accept 2 for the price of 1, the Epiphone and the Hohner acoustic I bought back in February. Now I am shopping for an amp, as per my post elsewhere on the forum.

I'd leave them alone. It is not uncommon to have rusty or discoloured pole pieces. Unless it's shedding rust onto the pick guard and into the pickup housing, it's just aesthetics. Adds a bit of mojo to the look for me. I'd be more into rubbing those frets over with some 1000 - 2000 grit paper and a micro mesh cloth.

Yes, that would work although WD40 (depending on what it really contains...) seems a bit excessive. A slightly-damp lint-free cloth (old tee-shirt..? Kitchen roll..?) will pick up any tiny traces of powder that might result from scrubbing the pole pieces, and would be a standard 'wipe-down' procedure in any case, at least once in a while. Being a lazy so-and-so, and not suffering from over-fussiness, explains why I don't bother with such niceties, myself, but your procedure won't damage the guitar beyond repair, so why not..? Hope this helps. Douglas

Yes, this is normal for many guitars. The pick-ups have been designed to follow the curve of the fretboard, so as to have the same height between magnet and string. Is it important, or critical..? Not at all; it's just the way that particular manufacturer thought would sound (or sell..!) better. The traces of rust are normal, too, as the pole pieces are made of ferrite (so iron...) material. A brisk rubbing with a Scotch-brite pad, or a brass wire brush will remove it, and applying a little varnish (clear nail varnish..?) over them will help keep them rust-free. It's purely a cosmetic thing, though; personally I just accept it and leave 'em alone.

Well, more or less done apart from the knobs not being right. It's so nice being able to play it again. It just feels right in my hands. The neck is perfect for me. Sounds nice and fat as it always did. It's not the lightest guitar but one I won't part with as it was my first electric. Not bad for a 50 year old axe.

I had a 'Shaftsbury' version of that guitar back then (well, I say 'I'; in fact I bought it for John Mac, our 2nd guitar at the time, as he couldn't afford one himself. It ended up in my parent's attic, and goodness knows what happened to it...). I'd not recommend a paint job, prefering to let it wear its battle scars with pride, whilst keeping it from gathering more. It's possible, and relatively easy, to touch up the bouts, but it'll be difficult to match the black's lustre. Let it age gently and peacefully.

Found one, thank you, turns out the switch is knackered, new one coming tomorrow