Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Check out the new "Vintage Vibe" Tele

Certainly a much cheaper alternative than Glendale Guitars' pine bodies and guitars...

"Of course pine is not a foreign wood to guitar making or Fender� history for that matter."

HUH?

dpowell wrote:"Of course pine is not a foreign wood to guitar making or Fender� history for that matter."

HUH?

I think some early Esquires had laminated pine bodys.

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fender2.html

Another. . .

http://www.glendaleguitars.com/Bodies.htm

Fender's first guitars called for pine, but I think it was changed to Alder for cost reasons, then Southern Ash for weight/cost reasons.

Tone had nothing to do with it, which might be why it was such a great idea.

They work real hard to counteract the negative image that pine has as a "tonewood". If it's good quality pine, like sugar pine, I'll bet that it does "resonate" nicely. Why not, on a low-cost solidbody?

Gotta feel a bit strange. Only the lightest grades of ash are as light as pine; this must feel like balsa over an ash-bodied Tele. I remember picking up my first Tele--a '53--and thinking how heavy it felt back then (1964).

Looks interesting, hard to tell from the photo but I think it shows the vintage 3 saddle bridge. A tinted, finished neck is a nice touch as well. At the $300 price point though, it's moving into new MIM Std tele range and towards the lower end of the used Classic series Teles, which would be much more "familiar" choices to Tele fans I'd think.

I've got an '07 Squier Std tele, vintage blonde, that's now a partsocaster, with a MIM Std neck (I couldn't seem to keep the Squier neck straight, even in my climate-controlled room), and a set of S-D Five Two Tele p/ups. It's really a nice little telecaster. The Squier bod is Indonesian made, agathis I think--it feels considerably lighter than my Ash-bodied Baja, though I haven't weighed them to compare.

Are these specials for Sam Ash? I didn't see them at some of the other retailers, nor on the Squier page.

Bill

Quality pine is supposed to be great for building resonant speaker cabinets with, so I suppose it might work well. I can't remember ever playing a guitar made of pine, but I wouldn't mind giving it a try.

There's actually been a bit of buzz about pine lately on The Gear Page, and I think that pine-bodied Teles are something of a hot trend right now, in certain guitar geek circles. Unfortunately this Squier is probably too far downmarket to get their attention. But I think there are definitely people out there who'd be all over a Fender Custom Shop pine-bodied Tele reissue.

Pine is not a bad tone wood and it has a complex sound.
Fender music master basses were pine.
I have a barritone guitar that I made out of hoop pine and it suits the barritoniness really well.

Pine sounds fine but is just plain nasty to work on its endgrain (hard and soft bits)

I recently made a body out of camphour laurel. It's easy to work, sounds good and really looks special!

emac.

weemac wrote: Fender music master basses were pine.

Eden - was this from their inception in '70 or was it phased in later?

I have two '71 Musicmasters and for a short-scale budget bass with very ordinary pickups, they are fantastic. I had always thought they were alder for some reason.

chuck_king wrote:There's actually been a bit of buzz about pine lately on The Gear Page

On other forums too.


Yeah, Fender and pine apparently go back a long way.

antipodean wrote:

weemac wrote: Fender music master basses were pine.

Eden - was this from their inception in '70 or was it phased in later?

I have two '71 Musicmasters and for a short-scale budget bass with very ordinary pickups, they are fantastic. I had always thought they were alder for some reason.

I think Mine was from the early to mid 70s........

First owner photo's of new Squier "pinecaster" taken by guitarbuilder of the Telecaster forum: