This is a textbook case of buyer's remorse begetting buyer's remorse. A couple of years ago, some of you might remember I became obsessed with the latest, updated Epiphone Sheratons, until I bought one from Sweetwater and it was so heavy it gave me muscle spasms in my back when I played it standing up. So I exchanged it for the Tele Custom (the next guitar down on my GAS list). I had played them and I knew the fake WRHB in the neck position sounded like shite, but I already had a pickup in mind to replace it with (Brandonwound), and I figured I'd give the stock "Duncan Designed" bridge pickup a chance, but I ended up replacing it with a pickup from an American Standard Tele that I happened to have. I believe Seymour's ex-wife when she says that the Korean made Duncan Designed pickups are identical in specs and construction to the American-made pickups they're modeled after, but I've never even tried an American SD pickup that I've liked. And I've had quite a few... Both bass and guitar pickups. I've often found GFS to be an improvement over SD.
Anyway, the Brandonwound sounds awesome! A very exciting pickup! And I'm not going to entertain any debates over CuNiFe magnets and how it can't possibly sound like the original WRHBs, because I don't care. I was three years old when the originals came out, and I've never played a vintage one in real life, so I have absolutely zero frame of reference, and I won't lay awake at night feeling inferior because it's not "authentic" enough for internet snobs.
All I care about is that it sounds GOOD. And this pickup does. Unfortunately, that's the only thing about this guitar that sounds good. Once again, this reinforces my belief that humbuckers and single-coils are just not a good combination. The Fender pickup in the bridge sounds good by itself (though weaker sounding when compared to the WRHB), but I rarely solo the bridge pickup, and the two don't sound good together at all. I don't like one-trick-pony guitars, so I've been thinking about selling it and keeping the pickups and upgrades for another project (preferably involving another Brandonwound), but then again, I like the neck. It's girthy. Probably slightly chunkier than my Furrian (my favorite neck profile of all my Teles), but it's not a baseball bat either.
It also has some crazy grain and figuring on the fretboard...
...and it's a one-piece neck so it continues around the back of the neck:
So then I thought; maybe I should get another Brandonwound pickup for the bridge position, and basically convert it to a Tele "Deluxe"? Of course, I'll have to get a Deluxe PG that surrounds the bridge pickup and a hard-tail bridge, but I think it can be done without anything looking amiss, except it will say "Custom" on the headstock instead of "Deluxe"
:My other option is to part it out, keeping the neck and all the upgrade parts and sell the body loaded with the stock parts. Then get a Tele Deluxe body and another Brandonwound for the bridge position. I can't say I'm 100% thrilled with this body. It's made of Basswood, which, that in itself I don't care about too much, except that it dings easily, but I think they used too many pieces of wood of multiple sizes and shades for a trans finish. I particularly never cared for this one, thin piece of darker wood:
I have thought about painting this a solid color in the past, but painting is a drag. If I got an unfinished body, I could do a dye finish, and that's more fun than painting.
Part of me wants to just sell it and have done with it, but I'll probably never get the idea of a Tele Deluxe out of my head for as long as I have this pickup. I just don't know if I want to add another project to my list, and I know that once I start down a rabbit hole, I'll probably just keep on going all the way.
Another part of me probably just wants an excuse to buy a Tele Deluxe!
(this is satire, not expression of views)
