How many of us are still chasing those childhood dreams? It struck me the other day that my professional and hobbyist pursuits today are a direct reflection of my interests in my teenage years. In some ways so little has changed. Still love to make music, diving deep into dissecting the sounds that tickle my eardrums. Still love to be creative. For decades now there's been a lot of programming and electric guitar. So here we have it, last post was about programming, and now, electric guitar. On brand!
The quest for a guitar that can do it all has been ongoing (as this recent post can attest), and the latest iteration has brought about a transformation of my first partscaster into what I'd describe as The Nashbronitacaster. A tele style, 3 pickup tone machine, with a combination of filtertron and single-coil style pickups.
The inspiration came from researching the guitars being used on many of today's most popular worship songs. As I contribute some sounds to the worship team on Sundays or Friday-nights, I like to try to emulate what many well-known artists have produced. Using a Kemper profiling amp to match amplifier tones and effects has been a key ingredient, but that's a topic for another time. When it comes to electric guitars, there were a few popular choices that stand out. One is the venerable Telecaster, which for many years has been my go-to instrument. Another increasingly popular choice are Gretsch-style guitars outfitted with some flavor of Filtertron pickups.
For example, the Gretsch Duo Jet appears to be used by the following well known guitarists (based on various rig rundown articles and observations from recorded worship performances): Jeffrey Kunde - Jesus Culture, Nigel Hendroff - Hillsong, David Liotta - Elevation, Cory Pierce, Julian Gamboa - Upperroom. In addition, the semi-hollow Gretsch guitars like the White Falcon or other solid-bodies like the Gretsch G6134 Penguin also appear in the stable of these same musicians. Seems these Filtertron pickups are a key ingredient with their relatively cleaner and brighter sound, compared to more prevalent humbuckers - which I've always found a bit too muddy/dark. For a brief introduction to these pickups, check out videos like What is the Filterton Sound.
With this new tonal destination to explore, I set out to experience what these Filtertrons could do, landing on TV Jones Classics as a well appreciated option. My first try with them involved buying a used Gretsch Electromatic Jet and swapping out the stock pickups for a set of TV Jones Classics. It was sonic bliss at first strum.
For a few months, I brought my tele style partscaster and this upgraded Gretsch to all my gigs, but the thought continued to itch - what about having one guitar with the best of both worlds. While the TV Jones Classics had great drive and a very present sound that could occupy just the right slot in a mix, there were still times that the clarity of a single coil was a better fit for a particular song or segment. Having greatly enjoyed the noiseless single-coil-style Dimarzio Area pickups for my tele partscaster, I wondered if something like a strat-inspired Area 58 could be incorporated into a guitar along with the TV Jones pickups. Since I was almost never using the first Partscaster I had put together, I decided to repurpose it to see if it could satisfy this itch.
First it needed a spot for a middle pickup
With 3 pickups, this is becoming something like a Nashville Telecaster, in which pickup selection is typically done using a strat-style 5-way blade switch. While this provides a lot of versatility in enabling different combinations of the pickups, I was interested in being able to have a neck+bridge pickup combination, similar to the original 2-pickup Gretsch. For support this combination, I decided to include a two position slider switch (the kind often found in a Jazzmaster). Here I paint it sonic blue to match the guitar's color scheme:
This would be placed in the control plate, which would have a single volume control and no tone knob. I found I basically never touch the tone control on the guitar, relying instead on using different presets in the Kemper amp. To create a slot for the 2-way switch, I drilled+cut a long slot and drilled screw holes to attach the switch.
Here's the wiring diagram:
With the two position switch up towards the neck of the guitar, the 5-way blade switch cycles through the following pickup combinations:
1 - bridge
2 - bridge + middle
3 - middle
4 middle + neck
5 neck
When the slide switch is toggled to the other position (towards the lower bout), the middle and neck pickup positions are swapped in the 5-way switch, leading to the following combinations:
1 - bridge
2 - bridge + neck
3 - neck
4 - neck + middle
5 - middle
This unlocks the bridge+neck combination which would otherwise be impossible with a 5-way blade switch and 5 pickups. Another option would have been to use the two position toggle to make the neck pickups always engaged, a popular mod for strats. This would also make it possible to have all 3 pickups engaged at once. Personally I don't anticipate a need for all 3 at once, but to each their own.
Here it is wired up:
One other item worth noting, is the inclusion of a treble/tone bleed circuit that allows some of the high end frequencies to continue to cut through as the volume is turned down. This is a favorite mod I include on just about all of my guitars after learning it was included in my 2015 American Standard Telecaster.
The final pickup selection was TV Jones Classics pickups for the neck and bridge positions and a DiMarzio Area 58 (stacked noiseless) pickup for the middle slot.
There we have it, an amazingly versatile electric guitar:
With Filtertron style pickups in the neck and bridge positions, it's somewhat reminiscent of a Cabronita tele, while the third pickup makes it look a bit like a Nashville tele, hence the Nashbronitacaster. This was a rewarding build and it's been my go-to guitar since completing it a few months ago.
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