Tone Machine 
by David Turner from Spoakne. WA, April 2007
Music Background:  Musician, budding recording/mixing engineer, self producer.

Playing a strat as my primary instrument, I've always regarded the Tele as a second class instrument to the Strat. Was I ever wrong in tht assumption - my mind was changed once I obtained this guitar. Despite 2 pickups vs. the 2 of a strat, this guitar had some incredible tones. The bridge pickup is really hot. I use to think the neck pickup was a little too tame, until I purchase and played it through a Fender Blues Jr. with Billm modifications. Now that Tele sound every but as good as my strats. I like the way the ash body sounds compared to the Alder body of my 2 strats. I love the neck shape, it's big but comfortable. The workmanship on this guitar is excellent. The tweed case is nice. I haven't changed the pickup selector switch yet, I just put it 1/2 between bride and neck to get the 2 pickup selection. I may keep it this way, it sounds good like it is. I had my reservations about the 3 saddle setup and achieving good intonation - not a problem and I'm sticking with that too. Between my Blues Jr. amp and this guitar, I have a very versatile setup for recording - I can get the cleanest sounds to bluesy distortion and everything in between. It is an awesome setup fpr recording. Here's wht I've tried so far:
1)SM 57 off axis at the top edge of the speaker 3 inches away - to a Vintech X81 Pre/EQ to an 1176LN (all button mode and 4:1 ratio)
2)Room mic -Rode K2 8 feet away from the speaker, bewteen omni and cardiod into a Universal Audio 610 Pre into the EQ /dynamic sections of a Focusrite 430 MKII.
Then you can blend the 2 tracks for alot of variability in the sound, and effect plugins/etc. Awesome sound, easy to use.

I love this guitar and this setup.

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