Telecaster with full rosewood neck?

[afterosmosis]

In my mind this is combination makes sense, the bright twangy nature of a typical tele body/bridge/pickup combination with the fuller, warmer tone of a rosewood neck. Does that translate to the real world? How does a tele (let's say alder body, for example) with a rosewood neck sound compared to one with a maple/rosewood or maple/maple neck?

Also, feel free to post photos if you have such a beast, I'd like to see how it looks.

 

[gunnar1104]

I'd like to know the answer to this too. I love the feel and tone of solid rosewood necks, but have never tried one on a tele before.

 

[benjammin420]

hmm, ive only ever seen teles that were rosewood neck and body. never played one though

 

[Dashface]

Harrison rosewood tele, anyone?

I guess that doesn't technically have an alder body or anything.

 

[benjammin420]

yeah, i can picture his tone with that guitar (one after 909) but its hard to judge how a guitar sounds without playing one yourself

 

[XKnight]

I have an all Rosewood Tele like Harrison's and it's a much warmer and beefier tone than a typical Ash/Maple Tele, but it still sounds like a Tele if that makes sense.

 

[benjammin420]

awwww man im drooling

 

[baimun]

Rosewood neck... Ash body. Fender bridge... aftermarket compensated brass saddles.

I don't play country, so I had no use for anything that twangy... but I'm a big fan of the Police and Prince, and found the "jangley" and "funky" sounds that a tele could bring relatively appealing.

After trying several Teles and Esquires, I ended up with this one and it's my favorite of all of them I tried... even the $7,500 Jeff Beck Esquire that inspired these contours.

The rosewood doesn't make the guitar dark... it just increases the sustain and curls off the ice-pick top end. Guitar literally rings like a bell.

To add one more level of versatility, I replaced the Fender bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Tele Lead pickup. It's over wound for that big fat P-90-ish overdrive sound (still single coil) but has a coil cut that reduces the single coil pickup to a more vintage wind single coil.

When cut it sounds much more like the stock tele pickup, but I use the overwound setting the most. It's not quite as thick or growly as a humbucker, but it can go toe to toe with one.

 

[benjammin420]

more sustain you say?

 

[baimun]

more sustain you say?

Teles and hard tails tend to sustain well anyways.... I'd say that the notes "blossom" really wonderfully... but then it really sustains.

 

[benjammin420]

you dont have any soundclips do you? id like to hear the 1/4 pounder too

 

[afterosmosis]

Thanks for all the comments so far, very very helpful. I've never played a rosewood neck and am considering one for my tele parts build. It's an alder body with a Glendale bridge w/ brass saddles. I'm going to start out with the DiMarzio Area T pickups. baimun, that's a phenomenal looking example of an Esquire you've got there!

 

[DustBusterB]

I'd like to know the answer to this too. I love the feel and tone of solid rosewood necks, but have never tried one on a tele before.

Me too. I was just pricing out a Warmoth neck in rosewood to go with my Warmoth white korina Tele body. It currently has a Peavey all maple neck on it and sounds great, but the neck needs a re-fret. I really really want a rosewood neck for it!!!

 

[baimun]

I don't currently have any soundclips... but I'll see if I can't record some soon...


... I've got a super-strat on the way with a rosewood neck and mahogany body. I'm planning on transplanting the humbucker in a Charvel and putting a combination of Quarter Pound pickups in all three strat positions.... so I can use a regular strat 5 way and switch all three pickups from overwound to vintage.

Dustbuster..... Rosewood neck with a Korina body would be killer.

I've got a luthier build that's based on PRS dimensions that's all black limba (korina).

 

[benjammin420]

does the 1/4 hum like a reg single coil, or more?

 

[baimun]

In theory, it's still a single coil and should hum... but my rig doesn't really hum much at all (Orange Rockerverb, Mesa Cabinet, Visual Sounds H20, MXR Phaser and Morley power wah). I think the Duncan Alnico Pro II's are noisier. Maybe the metal from the tele bridge shields it some.

I'll let you know after the super strat gets here and I can A/B them. If I have to, I'll get a metal pickguard instead of a plastic one.