This guitar is both elegant and beastly, with the warmth, fullness, and percussive cut of the Wide Range design. These pickups are very articulate, while still having humbucker girth and power. The instrument is also lightweight at only 7lbs 4oz. Professionally setup here at Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar and strung with 11-50 strings, this Duo Sonic is dialed in and ready for stage and studio use. The maple neck retains its original gloss nitro lacquer finish, with a C shaped neck profile that's slender at the nut, with notably more girth and shoulder as you travel up the fretboard. The neck has been cleanly refretted with vintage-style fretwire, currently showing only a touch of wear on the crowns on frets 1-4, with virtually now wear further up the board. ![]() A new hand-carved bone nut has been cut, measuring 1 1/2" in width, and the scale length is 22 1/2". Official gear from icons like Fender, Mesa/Boogie, Orange, Slash. The headstock face retains the original Duo Sonic decal, and the guitar has been fitted with a set of new Kluson Deluxe single line tuning machines with white buttons. They can be used alongside any gear models you own to build custom signal chains. ![]() On the neck heel, the original 3-59 grease pencil date is intact. The electronics consist of the pair of Lollar Regal humbuckers, which are mounting to the anodized pickguard with custom made thick aluminum wings with rounded edges. The potentiometers are brand new CTS parts which are the proper spec for Wide Range humbuckers, with a 1M Volume pot and 500k Tone pot. The body routes are extremely clean, with the pickup routes enlarged to accommodate the humbuckers and the original switch and control routes intact. The Bigsby actuates easily for dives and warbles, working in concert with the Mastery M1 bridge. A new aluminum tension bar has also been added to the forward edge of the Bigsby to ensure the optimal break angle from the bridge to the vibrato.Ĭosmetically, this guitar shows a healthy amount of honest playwear from nearly six decades of use. The aluminum pickguard has some soulful wear through the gold plating in the pick path too, and it's the kind of true wear that every modern "relic" attempts to duplicate but somehow falls short. The mounting holes for the original bridge have been cleanly filled and touched up with matching Desert Sand nitro lacquer and the neck profile exhibits just a few inconsequential scrapes, but nothing distracting to the palm. This Duo Sonic is one of a kind, with a feature set that's versatile and simply fun. The original tan hardshell case is included and complete with original latches and handle.Additional mods included routing for the aforementioned humbucker and toggleswitch, a replacement pickguard, an additional pickguard on the upper horn (bringing it more in line with the aesthetics of the Tele Deluxe) and new Schaller tuners. The guitarist does not detail the function of the switch, though popular speculation among Howe geeks is that it’s a phase switch or coil-split for the humbucker. “At the time I had no second thoughts about. all this irreversible work,” says Howe in the book. But today, I can’t say I’m entirely without guilt.” “I wasn’t really thinking that I'd done anything particularly corrupt, because my style had always been to do what the guitar is telling you to do. Howe apparently paid $500 for the Tele in 1974. Even adjusting for inflation that would be equivalent to around $3,080 in today’s money – and still represent a good deal.įor comparison, a Fender Custom Shop recreation of a 1955 Telecaster will set you back the best part of $4,000-$5,000, depending on finish, and an original ’55 Blond Tele is currently listed on Reverb for over $35,000. Regardless of whether Howe regrets his Tele’s modifications or not, it’s fair to say that the instrument has done the job required of it since the ’70s. As such, it has seen continued rotation in Howe’s recordings and performances – even if it doesn’t have the profile of his beloved Gibson ES-175. ![]() ![]() See it at work in the opening section of the montage below.
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