Roadworn upgrade, update!

[rhinocaster]

Oh crap, Rhino is blabbing about the Roadworn again.

Well, I've added a Callaham steel trem block, an Alessandro 250k volume pot and Klein '63 pickups.

Let me be clear that I could have comfortably and happily played this guitar in stock form. It was sweet sounding. It sounded like a Strat and everything worked well together. I would say that the only thing that really screamed for and upgrade was the jumpy volume pot.

Now, the reason I decided to swap the block was for the slightly diffused nature of the guitar's tone. The low strings were a bit on the woofy side and there was quite a bit of blend and lack of note separation in stock form. Changing the block brought into light some of the limitations of the Tex-Mex pickups. If you're going to keep the stock pickups, I would suggest keeping the stock zinc block. They work very well together. With the new block, the pickups were now spongy rather than sweet and the inbetween positions really started to suffer. Little quack or personality.

The Klein '63 pickups are just great. These remind me of the Fender '69 Custom Shop pickups, with maybe a little less girth than the '69s. The Kleins have a sharp yet dimensional quality that really suits this guitar with the steel block. The sound compares favorably to a '59 Fender Strat that I fell in love with last year. The neck pickup is not that fat SRV tone. It is brighter than many may be used to based on modern pickups, but these pickups make you understand why they put tone controls on guitars. Roll the volume and tones back just a bit and you get chime, breath and sting. Roll everything all the way up and I feel a bit sorry for anyone directly in the path of the amp. These are pickups that are meant to be played with a band. They want an amp turned up a bit. I can't say enough good things about the Kleins. A wonderful handwound pickup set at a production price. I also ordered a set of pickup covers with the Kleins because I figured that the covers on the Tex-Mex pickups wouldn't fit. Well, they fit perfectly. The guitar has a bunch of upgrades and it looks just the way it did before the changes. Cool!

The Alessandro pot is very good. There was an ON/OFF quality to the stock volume pot and that is gone. The taper is smooth and most of the roll off has occurred by 4 on the knob. A full electronics package would probably be a good upgrade as well, but at this time, I'm awfully fond of the way things turned out. This is the closest that I've been to owning a true '50s Strat.

The Roadworn can be an amazing instrument in stock trim, but with a few upgrades, you may find that you have a world class guitar.

[12guitdown]

I can't wait to try one of these. If it's as good as they say and i like the playability, then it'll be my next purchase.

[Dana Olsen]

Cool John - You're STOKED!

I may try one of those George Allesandro pots someday ....

Thanks for the report, Dana O.

[m@2]

i got the olympic white RW strat with rosewood board. honestly, it's pretty bada$$. no major complaints in stock form. and the even the "relic" job aint half bad. these don't get the crazy board wear like the maple necks...

[rhinocaster]

Originally Posted by m@2

i got the olympic white RW strat with rosewood board. honestly, it's pretty bada$$. no major complaints in stock form. and the even the "relic" job aint half bad. these don't get the crazy board wear like the maple necks...

No major complaints from me in stock for either. I dig the extreme treatment of the maple fingerboard. When I had the strings off for the pickup swap i noticed that I'm already wearing in those ovals under the individual strings. These guitars are going to take on individual character pretty quick. Well, except from the 9th to 12th frets anyway!

[buddastrat]

Cool, and post away on the RW's. I enjoy the threads. Weird about the on/off volume knob thing. The one I tried did nice violin swells like most strats can do. Maybe yours had a linear taper or something mixed up.

How the heck can your fingers touch the board to start any wear with those huge frets? You can't be pressing that hard. I see lots of daylight underneath my fingers when I played the RW's.

[Steve73]

I just got a '60's RW and I agree, they are just fine out of the box, UNLESS you are talking about the lack of proper setup. Mine had some fretsprout and was fretting out up high on the neck. It sounded great though, surprisingly I really like the TexMex pickups. Way better than the 57/62's on my Classic Player. I was planning on trying some boutique-y pickups but now I don't think I need them.

It had no problem keeping up with the CS '56 relic that I tried at the store at the same time, for a quarter of the price.

[jboylan67]

Semi-related:

If I swapped a 50's RW Strat neck with a 60's RW Strat neck, there shouldn't be any fit issues, correct?

[Polynitro]

OT:

I finally tried one of these Teles. My GC kept selling them out whilst the Strats just sit there

Let me start by saying Im not a relic fan. This doesn't mean I make assumptions about people that play relics like their Mommy didn't breast feed them or thier Daddy dropped them on thier head ....they're just not for me.

Picked up a yellowish one with a white guard. Cool color! Weighed about 7.5lbs, which is perfect for a Tele IMO. PLugged into a Tweed Deluxe. Straight away this thing needs a set up, bad. It would not stay in tune...The nut looked halfassed and the frets were ok (too big for me though) but Ididn't notice any sharp edges or anything.

The neck is AWESOME! Its fat, not Nocaster fat but fat nonetheless, just as fat as my US52RI I believe. This is where the relicing is good, the lack of finish makes the neck fast! I was so impressed I went home and took some 0000 steel wool to my 52RI, nice improvement.

The pickups though they look like POS sound pretty good. LOts and lots of twang! Maybe its the steel saddles but in the bridge pos you get that classic steely slinkyness...Like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8rAA8K2718

(check out the solo at 0:58)

The neck PUP was kind of dark but very usable. Again the setup was keeping this thing from shining, I would have lowered both PUPs and rasied the action but thats just me.

The price is the only issue. For a little more one can get a 52RI...Im not sure if these even come with a case but they better for $1000. If I needed a Tele to bang around and play some honky tonk I wouldn't hesitate to buy one if I could score one off the bay for around $700-800.

[rhinocaster]

Originally Posted by Polynitro

OT:

I finally tried one of these Teles. My GC kept selling them out whilst the Strats just sit there

Let me start by saying Im not a relic fan. This doesn't mean I make assumptions about people that play relics like their Mommy didn't breast feed them or thier Daddy dropped them on thier head ....they're just not for me.

Picked up a yellowish one with a white guard. Cool color! Weighed about 7.5lbs, which is perfect for a Tele IMO. PLugged into a Tweed Deluxe. Straight away this thing needs a set up, bad. It would not stay in tune...The nut looked halfassed and the frets were ok (too big for me though) but Ididn't notice any sharp edges or anything.

The neck is ASWEOME! Its fat, not Nocaster fat but fat nonetheless, just as fat as my US52RI I believe. This is where the relicing is good, the lack of finish makes the neck fast! I was so impressed I went home and took some 0000 steel wool to my 52RI, nice improvement.

The pickups though they look like POS sound pretty good. LOts and lots of twang! Maybe its the steel saddles but in the bridge pos you get that classic steely slinkyness...Like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8rAA8K2718

(check out the solo at 0:58)

The neck PUP was kind of dark but very usable. Again the setup was keeping this thing from shining, I would have lowered both PUPs and rasied the action but thats just me.

The price is the only issue. For a little more one can get a 52RI...Im not sure if these even come with a case but they better for $1000. If I needed a Tele to bang around and play some honky tonk I wouldn't hesitate to buy one if I could score one off the bay for around $700-800.

Thanks for the review!

For comparison though, the $950 street price for the Roadworns compares to the new $1,840 street price for the '52 reissue. Really not even close. Also, the '52 and the the Roadworns have different features with the Roadworn actually offering thin nitro on the body with out poly undercoat on the '52.

My thoughts after all of this is that people should make sure to always take the time to play gear with an open mind. I've heard for years how great the MIMs are and yet not one of them ever spoke to me. Finally with the Roadworn, I found one that I really like.

[rhinocaster]

Just a bit more of an update on the Klein pickups. I think that there is a new player in the handwound pickup game. The '63s are as musical as any pickups I've used and I'm thrilled to have found a set of great Strat pickups that only cost $140!

I don't know how familiar Klein is to those around here (I hadn't heard of him), but I'm just as happy as can be with these pickups. Frain was always my go to guy for Strat pickups and I still love his 5% underwounds, but I'm glad I took the chance on Klein. Great vintage tone at production prices!

[Polynitro]

Originally Posted by rhinocaster

Just a bit more of an update on the Klein pickups. I think that there is a new player in the handwound pickup game. The '63s are as musical as any pickups I've used and I'm thrilled to have found a set of great Strat pickups that only cost $140!

I don't know how familiar Klein is to those around here (I hadn't heard of him), but I'm just as happy as can be with these pickups. Frain was always my go to guy for Strat pickups and I still love his 5% underwounds, but I'm glad I took the chance on Klein. Great vintage tone at production prices!

Ive never heard of Klein...I know that Fralin makes great Tele PUPs.

[rhinocaster]

Originally Posted by Polynitro

Ive never heard of Klein...I know that Fralin makes great Tele PUPs.

I had never heard of Klein until I saw a set of pickups that he was selling here on the Manufacturer's Emporium. I liked the specs and I check out his web site and decided to take a chance. Obviously I'm glad I did.

http://www.kleinpickups.com/