Love telecasters, HATE the cutaway - what to do?

[JWK]

Title almost says it all. I almost tited this thread, "Why I will never find a guitar, Part II". But I figured most of you wouldn't remember and a lot of you weren't around then, anyway.

A tele fits me perfectly. I hate belly cuts. The upper horn on a strat puts everything in the wrong position for me. Les Pauls are too heavy for my back. A tele is good...except for the cutaway. My hand hits the horn when playing the upper register. This bugs me to no end. :BITCH

And before anyone can bring it up; yes, I am kicking myself for not snatching that Melancon that was in the emporium a while back. If I could afford a regular Melancon, I would have one already.

How do you guys deal with that narrow cutaway on a tele?

Just ranting. There's really no answer to this. Thanks for listening.

 

[eurotrashed]

cut the horn off with a bandsaw and if you ever need to sell it just say it is a heavy relic.

 

[benjammin420]

joking aside, if youre not interested on resale value, you could have the cutaway 'scooped' like on a Santana PRS

 

[tildeslash]

Have a luthier install a neck plate like this - problem solved.
I wish every body had this neck plate - it's awesome.

 

[benjammin420]

its more than just the plate, the body would still need to be modified

 

[Tone_Terrific]

I don't have that problem with tele's and strats fit me better anyway, but I do know what you mean.
If that is all that is holding you back from the perfect guitar, it would be very easy to do a partscaster with a narrower horn for more hand room or just sand away the offending portion of your guitar with an oscillating drum-type sander.
Maybe practice on a Squier first, you need a spare, too

 

[getbent]

I thought nobody made any money above the 5th fret...

 

[sahhas]

other option is take a look at how steve vai cut away the lower horn of his 80's original green charvel-it was really cut away.
he said he had it done b/c his hands were so big he had a hard time getting to upper frets.
always loved the look of that guitar.

w/ his ibanez both horns are super cut away-and hence they look a bit pointy-which i've never been a fan of-but his original green charvel-i always thought was cool.
the other thing you could also bevel the top side of the cutaway also-to make access eaiser (or prs-it like someone suggested).
good luck.
s---
www.myspace.com/scotthansen
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=235503632389016121
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5791548553161416906&hl=en

 

[guitarpkr67]

Have a luthier install a neck plate like this - problem solved.
I wish every body had this neck plate - it's awesome.

You still have to shave the heel.

 

[HHB]

I'd cut it, not off but make the cutaway thinner, why not if thats the only issue, crazy teles are the best teles IMO

 

[duckbunny]

-db

 

[baimun]

Sounds to me like someone needs an Ernie Ball Axis

As for the heel....

 

[benjammin420]

crazy teles are the best teles

that should be a t shirt or something

 

[DamianP]

Title almost says it all. I almost tited this thread, "Why I will never find a guitar, Part II". But I figured most of you wouldn't remember and a lot of you weren't around then, anyway.

A tele fits me perfectly. I hate belly cuts. The upper horn on a strat puts everything in the wrong position for me. Les Pauls are too heavy for my back. A tele is good...except for the cutaway. My hand hits the horn when playing the upper register. This bugs me to no end. :BITCH

And before anyone can bring it up; yes, I am kicking myself for not snatching that Melancon that was in the emporium a while back. If I could afford a regular Melancon, I would have one already.

How do you guys deal with that narrow cutaway on a tele?

Just ranting. There's really no answer to this. Thanks for listening.

Several builders offer guitars designed to address this issue.

Here`s one: http://www.ricecustomguitars.com/index2.html


Damian.

 

[RL in Fla]

Go "Jaguar" with it . Nothin' in the way to prevent it , re-cut the pickguard to fit .
Or round off the upper also & make a Lesscaster .

 

[Joe324]

 

[Member 995]

Sounds to me like someone needs an Ernie Ball Axis

That's what I came into the thread to recommend.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

I'm having difficulty imagining precisely how your hand makes contact with the horn. If it is the inside of the contour and not the end of the horn, this might work:

http://www.groshguitars.com/products/r_class/rclass_vt.htm

Doesn't hurt at all that these are fine fine guitars.

Otherwise, yeah, see what Rice Guitars can do for ya. The model is called the "Osprey".

 

[Mudder]

Carvin's TL-60 is a neck through tele style with lots of upper fret access.

 

[Rich Rice]

Thanks for the mention, fellows. I have the same problem with the horn, it's even worse on SG's.. That's why we did these Ospreys like this-