ScottR

I agree with you about the hardware, I especially do not like the old bridges with the barrel saddles for two strings at a time. I don't even like gold hardware as a general rule.......but this top... in this color....is just begging for it. SR

Thanks Asdrael! It does indeed have personality.....junkyard dog maybe? I'm presuming the choices you'd had made differently are the pickups and tele hardware? The P-rails are nice, quite good even. I like different aspects of them than I expected to. I like them in humbucker mode more than either single coil. The humbucker in series is hot and will push the amp nicely, and in parallel it is sweet and clean with some nice growl with a heavy attack. The P-90 and rail are fine but I've heard better. The green one I just built for example. As far as all the combinations you can get out of both pickups at the same time, I just don't hear enough differences between any of them to make it worth the effort. SR

An axe maybe? If you take another look, you might notice that your images are from opposite edges of the body, which would take be an even larger mishap to create. SR

Aw Biz. These first shots were taken on my back patio table under the umbrella. What you are seeing is the reflection of one of the ribs of the umbrella. No worries and no cracks. SR

And these are noticeably in direct sunlight. SR

Older brother got dragged into the situation. The tops on both of these came from the same board. The bodies are cut from the same pattern. Any subtle differences beyond that are due to the needs of the hardware and the fact that they are hand carved and sanded, so every thing is slightly unique. These shots were taken in full shade, but obviously with plenty of reflected light around. SR

I got my final pix taken. I'm going to post a ridiculous amount, because we are all acting bored and there needs to be more pictures to look at. I'm doing my part dammit! SR

Cheers Scott! The initial verdict is WOWZER! I went very unconventional here, and I guess a bit of an explanation is in order. My original intention was to go with a combo I had tried and liked in the past. Klein fat tele in the bridge and high wind P-90 in the neck. I'd gone to a Steel Woods concert whilst mentally designing this thing and they play a lot of teles with P-90s in one or the other or both positions and I was really enjoying the tone. My nephew now owns my Les Tele I built with that combination, so I no longer had one of my own. I placed my order on line with Klein and they accepted my money. But I never heard back. The website was active and my order is registered with a not shipped yet status. Email inquiries went unanswered, except there is a blurb on the website describing lead times with a notation the multiple emails inquiring will cause the address to be flagged as spam. To be fair, Klein has always had a long lead time, but also has been responsive to email inquiries. And the pick-ups have always been worth the wait,,,,even if the wait caused a several month delay in my build. I've come to the conclusion that the dude succumbed to covid and no one remained that could run his business or manage the website, and it was just functioning on auto pilot. Eventually I gave up and explored Lollar pick-ups, having noted that some of the artists I follow that use Kleins, also use Lollar. Staying with my original plan I put a Lollar tele J street bridge in it https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-telecaster-pickups/tele-j-street-bridge And a Lollar P-90 high wind soapbar bridge in the neck. That is the closest thing to the Klein I had ordered, and I did say unconventional https://www.lollarguitars.com/lollar-p-90-pickups/p-90-soapbar-high-wind-bridge-only The P-90 is fat warm and punchy and pushes the amp pretty good. That's a pretty good description of the tele bridge as well except it doesn't push the amp quite as hard and high attack brings out the tele twang while high attack on the P-90 makes you think more of a vintage PAF tone with P-90 bite. Together in series they really push the amp into a great sounding overdrive. I have an Oak Grigsby four way switch in it so the fourth position is together in parallel which doesn't sound all that different than the bridge alone to be honest. Of course with both pups wound in the same direction/polarity, the humbucking ability is lost (but not that I notice) and supposedly they are out of phase, and so the series/parallel aspect may be all out of whack too. I like what I hear so far, but that hasn't been extensive yet. I could discover something I don't like and replace the neck with a conventionally would neck instead..... I do so enjoy being unconventional though! SR

I agree with @Andyjr1515! SR

Thanks guys! It sure is! Thanks man, that's exactly what I was going for. I'm glad you like it. SR

Wow Andy, how very kind of you to say so. This is my favorite so far as well. But then, my favorite is always the last one I built..... SR

Camera battery died.....and the backup battery was even deader. More pics to come. It's done. It looks great (to me) and sounds awesome ..... sorry I don't have the ability to record and share. It's got two bridge single coils and an Oak Grigsby 4 way switch. I'm sure I have it wired to match the diagram, but not sure it is working exactly as it it should, I was in the same position the last time I tried one of these (Justin's Guitar) and that time I pulled it out and put in a standard tele three way. I always remember loving the way what I did get sounded before I changed it out. Same here. It sounds great regardless of whether it sounds like it's supposed to. SR

SR

I'd love to hear your thoughts on those once you get them. This one is a Lollar, and I can't wait to hear it. SR

Well John, had you gone back and looked, you'd have found all kinds of stuff but not the answer to that question. Yours is actually the first mention of pickups in here at all. The answer is my all time favorite guitar tone is the one made by a big ol' fat, warm, barkin' bitin' growling whisky voiced P-90 in the neck position. SR