Really nice. I first got into Wilkinson because of Harley Benton and started upgrading my cheat Affinity Squier with a few bits. Bridge and Machine heads. They're cheap, but you can guarantee quality.
I asked my technician to replace the pickups on my Glarry tele. He strongly suggested against it. The Glarry pickups had the exact ohms as his Fender customshop tele. He plugged it in and wailed on it after pleking the guitar. He convinced me to leave it as-is, other than nut and tuners. Even the pots were clean. We were both shocked. I also bought 2 Donner teles from the estate sale when my guitarist passed away. He had them set one of them up so nicely. The other was left untouched. So its easy to judge before and after playability. The Donner was definitely the easiest to set up, and stays in tune nicely with zero mods. (I do plan to swap tuners, pups, and add a bone nut in the future). The Glarry took 2 days to get right. It was HORRIBLE to play before pleking. Conclusion? The Donner is a slightly better (but heavy) built guitar, and easiest to set up, as the Glarry was more of a basket case. (Two other techs had already given up on it as being impossible to set-up.) But after proper pleking, the Glarry plays and sounds like a professional custom tele. The Donner plays like an open box Squire. Ive been offered big money for my pleked Glarry.... its that nice now. My fear is the Glarry may change in wintertime.... we shall see...(Yes I keep steady humidity at 45%) Whereas the Donner seems to hold its tuning and set-up very well.
I bought a monoprice tele for like 66$ just to have something a little different that I can mess with, was playable noticed that it was a little difficult to fret at the first fret, did some research and ended up getting a torch tip cleaner so I could file the nut, the difference was pretty amazing, felt like an entirely different guitar
I replaced the bridge pickup and it sounds great, I may just end up replacing the neck pup too. Planning on replacing the tuners, the nut, and the saddles. It's a fun guitar to play since the bridge pickup replacement.
Really interesting ideas. I have a Glarry that I'm thinking of upgrading (not my first rodeo), I've built my own guitar in the past, and have done tons of setups - 20+ guitarist/musician. The cheap stock tuners seem to hold up - I use luthier knots, I know there's some disagreements about them, but that works for me on cheap tuners. I never considered doing a 4-way install on this. I think a decent nut would help, but again, the cheap one is working fine for now. Also, maybe I got lucky, but the intonation is holding after the first setup and is pretty dead on. BTW, not knocking any of your ideas! I think that was a great install/ideas. Oh, and also cheap nylon straps work amazingly well (I've had the permanent installs too, many times - for comparison). I had considered those pickups too, how do you like them?
@@pawnshopguitarguy okay cool, thanks for that! I was thinking of potting these stock pups to see if it helps with microphonics, but I'm guessing the Tex Mex ones would need it as well.
@@rickraydubs It's hard to say, but if the Fender Tex Mex ones are made in the same factory that makes the Tonerider pickups I would say they're probably not terribly microphonic. I have the Hot Classic toneriders and they are pretty sweet sounding.
@@pawnshopguitarguy I tried potting those pickups lol, they were basically what you'd expect, poorly put together and basically fell apart during the process. I have built my own guitar in the past and like I said I have worked on guitars for a long time now, so definitely going to be upgrading the bridge pup lol
Enjoyed the video good suggestions here's my 2 cents, play the guitar for a bit if you are not having tuning issues don't bother to replace them with locking tuners, in most cases (at least for telecasters) they are not necessary, maybe on Gibson type head stocks or if you are a heavy handed guitarist or if you use a whammy bar alot. The other thing I would suggest concerns the strap locks I personally use Fender rubber washer ones, here again they would satisfy most players except for highly mobile players who run around swinging their guitar like a baseball bat
Awesome video, but I think one of the most important upgrades on a cheap guitar is better strings. If you just change the strings and nothing else, you will tell a huge difference alone.
Really nice. I first got into Wilkinson because of Harley Benton and started upgrading my cheat Affinity Squier with a few bits. Bridge and Machine heads. They're cheap, but you can guarantee quality.
I asked my technician to replace the pickups on my Glarry tele. He strongly suggested against it. The Glarry pickups had the exact ohms as his Fender customshop tele. He plugged it in and wailed on it after pleking the guitar. He convinced me to leave it as-is, other than nut and tuners. Even the pots were clean. We were both shocked.
I also bought 2 Donner teles from the estate sale when my guitarist passed away. He had them set one of them up so nicely. The other was left untouched. So its easy to judge before and after playability.
The Donner was definitely the easiest to set up, and stays in tune nicely with zero mods.
(I do plan to swap tuners, pups, and add a bone nut in the future).
The Glarry took 2 days to get right. It was HORRIBLE to play before pleking.
Conclusion? The Donner is a slightly better (but heavy) built guitar, and easiest to set up, as the Glarry was more of a basket case. (Two other techs had already given up on it as being impossible to set-up.)
But after proper pleking, the Glarry plays and sounds like a professional custom tele. The Donner plays like an open box Squire.
Ive been offered big money for my pleked Glarry.... its that nice now.
My fear is the Glarry may change in wintertime.... we shall see...(Yes I keep steady humidity at 45%) Whereas the Donner seems to hold its tuning and set-up very well.
Decent tuners , a good setup, decent strings, nut slots cut well and you can find out #5 for yourself.
I bought a monoprice tele for like 66$ just to have something a little different that I can mess with, was playable noticed that it was a little difficult to fret at the first fret, did some research and ended up getting a torch tip cleaner so I could file the nut, the difference was pretty amazing, felt like an entirely different guitar
Thanks great video. I put 9-42's strings.
I replaced the bridge pickup and it sounds great, I may just end up replacing the neck pup too. Planning on replacing the tuners, the nut, and the saddles. It's a fun guitar to play since the bridge pickup replacement.
Really interesting ideas. I have a Glarry that I'm thinking of upgrading (not my first rodeo), I've built my own guitar in the past, and have done tons of setups - 20+ guitarist/musician. The cheap stock tuners seem to hold up - I use luthier knots, I know there's some disagreements about them, but that works for me on cheap tuners. I never considered doing a 4-way install on this. I think a decent nut would help, but again, the cheap one is working fine for now. Also, maybe I got lucky, but the intonation is holding after the first setup and is pretty dead on. BTW, not knocking any of your ideas! I think that was a great install/ideas. Oh, and also cheap nylon straps work amazingly well (I've had the permanent installs too, many times - for comparison).
I had considered those pickups too, how do you like them?
They were hotter and more "Tele" sounding than the stock ones, but were a little noisier as well
@@pawnshopguitarguy okay cool, thanks for that! I was thinking of potting these stock pups to see if it helps with microphonics, but I'm guessing the Tex Mex ones would need it as well.
@@rickraydubs It's hard to say, but if the Fender Tex Mex ones are made in the same factory that makes the Tonerider pickups I would say they're probably not terribly microphonic. I have the Hot Classic toneriders and they are pretty sweet sounding.
@@pawnshopguitarguy I tried potting those pickups lol, they were basically what you'd expect, poorly put together and basically fell apart during the process. I have built my own guitar in the past and like I said I have worked on guitars for a long time now, so definitely going to be upgrading the bridge pup lol
Enjoyed the video good suggestions here's my 2 cents, play the guitar for a bit if you are not having tuning issues don't bother to replace them with locking tuners, in most cases (at least for telecasters) they are not necessary, maybe on Gibson type head stocks or if you are a heavy handed guitarist or if you use a whammy bar alot. The other thing I would suggest concerns the strap locks I personally use Fender rubber washer ones, here again they would satisfy most players except for highly mobile players who run around swinging their guitar like a baseball bat
Awesome video, but I think one of the most important upgrades on a cheap guitar is better strings. If you just change the strings and nothing else, you will tell a huge difference alone.
I know, and I see a lot of guitars that the strings are completely worn out and corroded and someone is still trying to play it.