Over the years I’ve had too many guitars to count. Currently I have five Gibsons (two Firebirds, an SG Classic, a Les Paul Traditional, and an SG Standard bass), three American G&L’s (a Legacy, SC-2, and Doheny), a US Music Man Valentine, a Fano Alt de Facto MG6, a few upgraded/modified Fender MIJ Jazzmasters (as well as a Mustang PJ bass), and then a Korean Casino and a Gretsch with HiLo’Trons… And, despite the Valentine basically being a Tele Custom of a different shape and that my SC-2 has some Tele DNA (it’s like a slightly smaller ASAT Special (which I’ve had too)) I had a strong want for a more traditional Tele. The Valentine, while great, is a little hot and feels and looks modern (and I hate the boost circuit), and the SC-2, while slightly similar, doesn’t do it. For quite a while I was looking at Nash offset Teles and their wide range thinlines and, since I have so much stuff and limited space (between guitars, amps, and three pedalboards), I couldn’t justify spending that much. So one day while working I browsed Reverb and stumbled on a loaded MJT body in fiesta red - a color I’ve always had a thing for and have never possessed. The thing had a set of Sunday Handwound pickups - a builder I am quite a fan of as I have a set of his Iola’s in a short-scale Jazzmaster. It also had Callaham compensated saddles, an Electrosocket jack, and the body was already shielded. The pick guard is a poorly cut aged parchment guard which will, one day, need to be replaced, and the pots will eventually be swapped out as well - as it stands I believe they are import pots from StewMac. So I bought it. I also picked up a finished AllParts 50’s Telecaster neck that has medium-jumbo frets and a Graphtech nut (this neck is amazing - rolled fingerboard edges and the perfect amount of chunkiness without being a baseball bat), along with some aged/relic Gotoh vintage locking tuners (due to them not being staggered I still do a few wraps around the post to increase break angle over the nut), and I swapped out most of the chrome parts for aged nickel (strap buttons, control plate, knobs, string tree are all either aged Kluson or Gotoh parts). I am over the moon with this thing - it’s easily, along with my Firebirds, in my top three guitars I’ve ever owned. I’ve come to realize, after somewhat recently going down a rather expensive Jazzmaster rabbit hole, that when it comes to single coil guitars I am a Tele guy. I used my G&L Legacy over the years more than anything and I always thought I was a Strat guy but it would, depending on how I played, take a toll on my hand (people either love or hate the intrinsic fight with Strats). But this thing rings like a fucking bell and the entire thing vibrates from the headstock to the body. The bridge pickup is Sunday’s Jaggy-Leggs:

Broadcaster and Jaguar DNA, a 50's/60's cross with extra chime and twang on top of the early throaty tone, mid 60’s Jag vintage beveled magnet stagger is a direct nod to the genius of the late Mr. Florance/Voodoo Te 60, but made up from .195” diameter Alnico 3 magnets rearranged out of the stock I keep on hand for ‘54 Strat repros.

The neck pickup is, I believe, Sunday Handwound’s “Rodeo Sweethearts” (despite the seller stating that it is a “’54 StraTele neck pickup”):

Alnico 3 '54 Strat neck pickup under a Tele neck pickup cover and a clone of Mr. Gene's real deal one owner '52 Tele bridge with a unique and random mix of Alnico 5 and Alnico 3. Great set to put in a G, B, or palm bender Tele to do the Parsons/White B-Bender stuff and cop the Byrds twangy Tele tone! Chicken Pickin' heaven, and full enough to play all manner of classic rock, funky soul, and twangy blues.

I doubt I will ever buy a “manufactured” guitar again. A lot of people despise relic guitars but I find them, not only to feel great and broken in, to be freeing; I don’t need to worry about it - if it gets a ding, chip, of scuff who cares. I am one of those people that when I get new shoes I am OCD about them - the same goes for some guitars like my Les Paul or that Valentine - I feel like I need to baby them. In the end, while I waited for all the parts to arrive, I worried as I had no idea what the end result would be - and it could literally, outside of the guard, not have turned out any better. Maybe one day I will build a short scale (Gibson scale length) Strat using an MJT body. I basically have what I would have got if I bought a Nash T Master for less than half the price (and the relic job on this finish is miles better than a lot of Nash finishes that are way over done).