The bugaboo you're talking around is this. The Tele is the most simple design electric guitar in the world and can be made by nearly anyone in their garage or basement, either frankensteining parts from other guitars, building a kit, or sourcing good quality aftermarket bodies and necks and components of your liking. So, the question becomes why would anyone pay boutique prices for this kind of guitar? It is the guitar of the people, whether that was Leo's intention or not. When I was a teenager a million years ago I bought a beat up 70's Tele with my newspaper money. Later in my 20's I bought a used Schecter Tele because Pete Townsend had one. I thought it must be better than the Fender, but the reality was it was just the same. A few years ago I turned 50 and decided I'd build a Tele for myself with Warmoth parts and finish and set it up myself. I'll never buy another Tele. My Tele is just as playable as the original Fender from my youth and that Schecter I spent too much on. So, I don't know why anyone spends big bucks on one. Save your money for a ES-335 because that is a guitar you cannot make yourself.
Brown Western Tolex is the material you're looking for :) I've made several Amps and Cabinets with it as a covering with Gold hardware, looks very classy!
Yup. Revv Amps have an interactive custom configurator on their website with dozens of tolex patterns and colours. Save's me needing to remember a tolex name! 👍
I thought so, but after looking at a few close-up shots of several different similar tolex's, they don't look like what's on Ben's case. The pattern on Ben's looks a bit more "cartoony" and less "realistic". I wouldn't be surprised if it was hand-tooled.
Would be really interested in seeing a comparative tear down between different high-end teles to see what you’re actually paying for . Eg custom shop, Maybach, Nash, LSL, Xotic.
Well, I am not into blue (or Miami green), and I am not into "aged" but, by god, for some reason I love this guitar. You have even made me enter one of these draws for the first time.
I've found even cheap tape to still be conductive across adhesive, you just use your continuity mode on to check and if you do need to join them you just put a small amount of solder
👍👍 to these teardown videos. Teles are a great sounding board for building. They allow the luthier to be creative and customize, yet still end up with a great instrument in the end. Perfect for a 1st build (I should know !!) A little success goes a long way towards a lifetime of pleasure(adiction ?? lol !)
I’m a local to crimson guitar builder and every guitar except one I’ve been asked to build has been a t type guitar but I change a fare few things like a tummy cut , I use threaded inserts and a nice shaped heel joint and all natural wood finish from non standard timbers . I love teles just does what it says on the tin and proof it doesn’t have to be complicated to sound and play great as long as it’s plays great that is lol
Nothing wrong with putting a bit of your own "stank" on a classic design! Without a touch of creativity we may as well program a robot to do all the work! After all, a luthier is part artist!
The skill is always on making the instrument as playable as possible. Quality hardware makes a difference, quality of finish feels different. Quality of time perfecting the setup and finish process. Really as a player it doesn’t matter if it’s hand carved with a prison shank, pin router or CNC.. none of of those things feel better or worse if finished properly by skilled hands. So suppose I’m saying what does it matter, how much is actually fully “hand made”-and what does that even mean? Is a router template cheating if you want to take to extremes (how is that better or worse than cnc). I also add I love the simplicity of Teles, it’s a bit like a solo… you don’t need all the notes for it to be right… just the right notes in right place :)
1:11 Fabric store would have something like that. These boutique Teles's are for someone not wanting a fender but who still wants the benefit of a tele. I like both, Fender & Fender style guitars. I especially like the reclaimed barn wood tele style pine body I bought and put a Squire Tele bound neck on it. It doesn't have pickups yet but just playing it unplugged is amazing. I finished with a water-based very barn red type finish, looks like an old barn & came relicd.😂 wish I could send a picture.
Hi Ben. When pondering why Telecasters, reflect that there isn't an engineer on the planet that hasn't outgrown a screwdriver, or indeed a Guitarist who can outplay a Telecaster. There is no shame in building a really nice LP Junior, or Tele, because for some players, that's their tool of choice; others may need a wiggle stick, a million pickup combos and 36 frets, but the final arbiter is the music, and how much the instrument inspires you to be creative, be that Celtic Math-Prog or Memphis Blues or Hungarian Folk or Nigerian oompah music. That Firebird I won is sweet BTW, chur!
It’s not a bad thing at all. It’s attention to detail, magic and wizardry that makes the difference… I think. Magic dust costs are a bit high at the moment but totally worth it :)
Ive used hardware store aluminum dryer vent tape as shielding tape and had great success before. No special glue and multiple pieces. Its not my favorite way but it has worked very well for me.
Yup, second guitar I built was a Tele. (First was a P Bass) To be honest, building a Tele is a good gauge of skill, because everyone does it. It's easy to compare your build to others, to see where you land. Quick ref on the case, I've seen that styling before. It's just a good quality fabric glued down over the whole thing. Very nice, though, as you suddenly aren't restricted in looks.
Don’t know about the copper tape comment, Ben. I bought inexpensive tape on amazon and from one end to the other on a freshly tape-shielded strat, I measure about 1 Ohm impedance. That’s way below anything I would worry about.
Hi and thanks for so interesting videos! Yes I have 5 Maybach and the consistency of they’re guitars is amazing. Have Maybach=5 as: 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 e 2023 / 3 Teles: 54, 61 e 66; 1 Jazzmaster 63 e 1 Les Paul 54 and each of them is superb instrument… I have more then 100 different guitars - no more money spend on G and F sorry no way. And as I live in Portugal - Europe is the land. I miss a 1952 Tele Keith and a Thinline. Done. Cheers and greetings from Algarve sunny south Portugal 🇵🇹
I'm on Team Overcomplication: my first guitar was a five string fan fretted bass. I've still not built a Tele yet. My second was a P bass, and that's my daily driver.
You can get that case material at upholstery shops. I have a Polaroid SX70 skinned in that, as well as a photo album. The red and black one in leather is to die for.
Relic finish vs. natural aging is the difference between a novel and a biography. My guitar’s dents and scrapes tell the story of our time together. The ding on the back of headstock is where I sheared off the top of our bass player’s pint glass for instance. The look on his face is a precious memory. But there’s value in a novel too. Things don’t have to be true to carry meaning. I can see loving the craft of a well reliced instrument, and I can see the fun of making up stories of how it supposedly got that way. I do however draw the line at pretending that the fiction is the truth. After all, I would roll my eyes at someone claiming that The Lord of the Rings is the true history of the world, so….
Hi Bun, as someone - greatly thanks to you - who has learnt and still is, how to make a kit a greatly playable guitar, I believe design and playability is orthogonal. Design and finish is eye catching and a matter of taste but playability is the mastery that makes someone want to play a guitar. The nicely curved one you had shown in an earlier vid looked pretty standard on first sight, but the curves promised pure satisfaction wrt playability. Crimson could make a USP with eg. great neckaccess no matter the body design and finish. Or maybe there could be a crimson catalogue of neck carves ( I mean the C or D shape thing). Hell maybe doing a body scan of the player and using AI to create the plan for the most ergonomic guitar for this player could be a thing. The length of my comment shows it's not an easy thing to accomplish. But it's the journey that is fun. Cheers V
I almost bought their SG Special but I wasn't sure of the neck shape and I really like my LP Junior slim neck so I ended up having a local luthier build a custom SG for me with custom hand wound P90 and I was sure I would have all the specs I want, including the neck shape (copied from my junior). It was really really tempting though to buy the Maybach because I saw and read really nice reviews on them.
I’ve owned a Maybach albatros (sg) junior. One of the best sounding guitars I’ve ever owned but I didn’t like the hardware ageing at all. To me it looked and felt cheap. But the mahogany was beautiful and super light. Sold it however because of insane tuning instability. Finally I settled for two early zero’s Gibson sg’s one being a standard and one black special and both are crazy fine and playable guitars. Necks are pretty fat for sg’s and they both stay in tune like a rock. So, yeah. I think Maybach are building very nice ‘kit’ guitars but still… my Gibby’s are keepers… Anyway, thanks for the vid! Love the channel🤘🏻😎
My first built was a blank kit from Crimson for GGBO2021. Then I built two thinline telecasters with Crimson necks. I’ve expanded to set necks to neck through and now set-through with full scratch builds. What the market buying this guitar doesn’t know is how easy it is to generate a premium parts partscaster. iMO my Ash 4 piece book matched top generated a better finish than this, thanks to crimson water stains and these videos
few things the case is excellent - Tokai use a similar one for their high end stuff i owned a Maybach Lester. it was, and still is, an exceptional guitar. honey/ amber relic'd finish. for their LP type, they use a 2 pc back which allows them more flexibilty in wood selection. which in turn allowed a full size LP std guitar to weigh 3.6kg. they aim for all their LP guitars to be sub 8lbs i bought the guitar used from Andertons and sold it on to a friend who loved the guitar he has since bought a Teleman which is another staggeringly good guitar the company is German, however the guitars are built in Czechia. they claim to have a custom shop there as well. might be worth reaching out and doing a visit to see how they work?
You can enter right handed draws and they'll attempt to find a leftie something of similar value if you win, or award cash value. It did say it explicitly on a couple of draws but it seems to have fallen down a crack lately. They mentioned it verbally a couple of weeks ago. Previous verbal answers about explicit lefty draws were no, because they start with a small lefty audience, then split it further by whatever model they choose, then split it further on colour etc ... by the time they're done they won't sell enough tickets. They've mentioned a couple of times doing a draw for a custom build and lefty could obviously ask for a lefty build on that prize.
Hello, I have enjoyed your work for a while now, I have an idea for what I think would be cool a guitar that looked like a guitar shark "and yes its a real shark "as its shape lends well for for the instrument. the tail fin would make a nice head stalk and scalloped neck would would add to an aggressive look as well....any how great work.
Being in business is about designing a product that the market place wants and then selling it. People like Telecasters and this company builds them well + plus a whole bunch of other classic designs
The visual incongruity with Maybach that once seen cant be unseen, is the body having exquisitely simulated wear/nicks/dings/cracks, but a neck thats factory fresh and shiny new with no wear at all. It wont stop me getting a ticket though 😂
estimado Ben, por favor construye una telecaster vintage, como si fueras el mismo Leo y construye otra totalmente modernizada a tu particular estilo, te vas a sorprender y de paso a todo el planeta, seguramente será delicioso.
Here's where I "fight (you) in the comments". I've purchased copper shielding tape from Amazon, overlapped the pieces and put a meter on it. It's conductive across the pieces. You are correct that it must have the proper adhesive.
if you put the whole body in the freezer the finish should crack evenly all over. To get more control, over smaller areas, I wonder if they used the freeze spray that plumbers use in an emergency to stop a leak?
Maybach builds quality clones of the other classics too, and seems to get them kind of right (I'm very particular about the Gibson SG body shape, so no comments on that), so the kit aspect doesn't occur to me.
No, obviously not - but Ben's question remains valid: why yet another Tele? And like he says: this one was very well assembled and finished. Certainly hat you'd expect at that pricepoint too, I'd add. But again: why yet another Tele? If I were a luthier I wouldn't want to just copy the familiar shapes - be it a Tele, Strat, Les Paul, SG... All that stuff. I'd much rather focus on creating new shapes, particularly more ergonomic and versatile than what we've seen for the last 6-7 decades from the major builders in the US 🤣🤣🤣 And yes: I have a Tele. It's seriously well built, it's gorgeous (*very* heavy relic), it sounds and plays beyond I'd ever thought a Tele to be capable of, I've had it up against some old Teles (an all-original '62 and another late 60something...) and it was as good or better. And it's totally a fake 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Made in the Maybach factory in the Czech Republic, the instruments of the Classic Series are expertly built by qualified guitar makers - for the most part, from certified woods of European origin.
Isn't it amazing that something designed in the late 1940s is still being produced fundamentally the same over seventy years later? There are very few other items you could say that about, Leo may not have known how to play the guitar, but he certainly know how to build them! Incidentally, it was his birthday yesterday. I think this is what he might have intended for the Tele but wanted to keep the cost down a bit.
I can see the bridge pickup cavity appearing under the side of the bridge... that's not 'great attention to detail' in my book. And i agree, what's the point in another telecaster by a 'boutique' brand?
i have a maybach strat of the old serie before the cases came out and custom tele in red they absolute destroyed my fenders i sold my fenders now i have a shit ton of gibsons 2 maybach and mex tele for experimental tuning
A Telecaster Killer eh. I have a T54 but i have better Fenders. However i have a 1974 Hohner Madcat, similar to Prince's. It's a Tele Killer. It's Lolar Pup's are far beyond Fenders own. On my quest to find a T type to top Fender, it was the Madcat that made me stop looking.
I got into guitar building because I wanted something different. Everything I've built was unique, even when inspired by an existing guitar there are some pretty big differences. I'm not saying people should stop making copies of classic designs, but that's not for me
Unless you carve your own bodies and consider ergonimic design, so much out there is sorta kit building. From there its all about the finish. The word kit makes it sound cheap but it's not that at all because a finish will make or break a guitar
Ben, IMHO if you're not putting the "tools to the wood" you are just an assembler and not a builder. True builders are the folks who get the glue and sawdust under their fingernails!
Beautiful guitar but does it have or hold the same value that a fender custom shop demands? If you keep guitars forever then it's fine but I seem to change every 5 years or so for something else..
So the next line in the question after "when is a guitar maker just a kit builder?" could be, "at what point is someone a luthier versus an assembler?" 🙂 what do you have to be able to do to consider yourself a luthier? Is it building an acoustic guitar from raw materials using only hand tools, or is it buying a kit of parts and assembling/setting up correctly? 🤔
Fender's original concept was for the guitar to be a tool and completely modular. Every part is easily replaced including the neck. That's why they lend themselves to becoming "Partscasters" so well. Shit look at the famous Strats from Clapton, Stevie Ray, David Gilmour, etc... They're all Partscasters. So for other builders and hobbyists like me, Fenders are just easier to build. Even as a Gibson/Epiphone guy, I've built 5 Fender style guitars.
True, to make a tele type guitar is not that difficult, to make a tele type very good takes skill, to make a guitar when you're called Ben Crowe you take that skill and then some and you make a beautiful guitar...sorry not trying to suck up
I really dislike artificial aging and relicing. Someone asks, "Where did it get that scratch", and, if you're honest, you have to say, "I paid a guy to put it there for me". It's going to get beaten up soon enough. Like...what's the hurry? And why is it worth paying for? However...for a fee, I will happily offer my own relicing service. Guitars, cars...you name it. Send me your shit, and I'll use it for you.
Interesting conflict.. I mean, why make a tele? You may as well buy a fender tele. But then they are not has well made now a days. I'm thinking of getting a kit and upgrading the hardware. It's a tele, so basically, it's a simple guitar anyway. Interesting video, thank you.
I am a kit builder because i cannot choose anything. Even if i can choose the wood of the body or some characteristics of the neck i have no control of the quality of the routing or the glue to use or the piece of wood itself. If a custom shop can decide all of this detail they are something different.
There are three words I detest in Instrument and furniture making in general. They are - Relic, Ageing, and Distressing. Keeping an original patina is fine but deliberately denting, chipping and scratching to give something an artificial age just seems a bit of a cheat to me. I know thousands will disagree with me on this but hey, such is life.
I mean, there does seem to be a convention in violin building, where they smudge it up a little bit… And that antiquing is part of the look. So, a lot of violins lined up with a kind of artificial patina… But I do think that’s different than the relicing that has becomes so widespread in the guitar world. That said, I’m saving up for a custom shop signature Jasha Heifetz violin. Only $102,000. Case not included…
Interesting isn't it - such a polarising thing to do to an instrument. I don't think I've heard anyone say that they didn't care either way! It's certainly not something I'd ever consider for sure.
No, no no. Telecasters absolutely were not made with pine bodies. That is a myth. A few prototypes were produced, but leo Fender used swamp ash until they could not get good enough quality wood in sufficient quantities. They then went to alder, Even though the tele is simple by design, to make one well still requires some skill. These days though with cheap CNC machines available, anyone could make one quickly and with well fitting necks. My classic vibe tele was cheap and well made, why pay thousands for one?
Stop doubting, yes you can get kits and make them sound great, but there is always a place for the finer thing in life. Also blues out on the guitars, stop repressing !!! I want to hear the guitar so go for it, trust went back to Bass and dropped the i not this or that, remember why you picked it up 1. Fun, 2. Thought you get girls (not happen that way). 3. we fell in love. 1 and 3 are the most important. If playing bass, you have a pick, "Don't be weak"! Fingers or tongue. So life lesson as well as true playing. THANK any god for me! You are welcome.
If you are 'automating' all your repetitive 'busy work' for example using a CNC machine to do 90% of the shaping/carving etc and you are just doing the 'finishing', then probably yes, you are pretty much close to a kit builder and I don't think you can ethically charge anywhere near as much as someone who painstakingly hand/machine builds something from scratch. The difference between a CNC and using other machines/electrical tools is that you still have to use your hands/arms to guide the wood through those machines, or guide the tool around the wood (often at physical risk of losing a finger or three if you're not careful), while with a CNC, once the wood is held in place, you do nothing, you touch nothing, you guide nothing. you just passively watch. I'd pay good money for a luthiers skill, expertise, knowledge and time in hand crafting something. I would not pay the same for something that was 90% CNC'd I don't think. Possibly that is an emotional framework of thought rather than rational, but to my mind based on this video, I'm paying for workmanship and the luthiers passion and skill for the work.
If you take Fender & Gibson designs away you're not really left with a lot of electric guitars that have sold well consistently year after year. Ibanez designs like the S & RG range can arguably be traced back to a Strat. Early PRS designs were inspired by a Les Paul with the aim of improving it while also appealing to a Strat player. Now they're releasing straight up Strat & Tele based models. The McCarty is clearly a direct take on a Les Paul. Anything in the electric guitar market that isn't based on a Strat, Tele, Les Paul or 335 tends to be be classed as quirky or niche. It's much easier to copy the tried and tested designs and try and carve a niche within the existing market than it is to create something bold, different and new and take customers away from that market. I'm not generally a fan of copying for the simple reason that research and development costs. How much that applies to a 70 year old guitar design that has already been copied multiple times I'm not too sure about. There is only so much you can do with a guitar design anyway. It needs a fretboard, a neck, a body and either a cavity and sound hole or pickups. Change the design too much and it's no longer a guitar! Some say being copied is possibly the greatest form of flattery one can have. It's perhaps not how the original designers look at it though. At least Maybach make a good instrument. Fender probably wishes they didn't.
I swear relicing is to guitars, as chocolate diamonds are to jewelry. somehow, they have convinced people that aspects that typically devalue a product. are now somehow considered to be adding to the value. it is mindboggling to me how gullible, and prone to herd like behaviour humans can be. I am well aware of the time and labor involved in relicing. it doesn't change my outlook one bit. hours and hours spent on such a pointless endeavor, is deserving of no extra money whatsoever. think about it, there are b stocks, scratch and dents etc etc, sold at significant discounts. but, because relicing is done with intention, we the consumers should pay more. absolutely lunacy.
My problem with another company building ‘just a Tele’ is that the original builders are doing just that, so this is basically plagiarism. If you want just a Tele, buy a bleeding Tele.
The bugaboo you're talking around is this. The Tele is the most simple design electric guitar in the world and can be made by nearly anyone in their garage or basement, either frankensteining parts from other guitars, building a kit, or sourcing good quality aftermarket bodies and necks and components of your liking. So, the question becomes why would anyone pay boutique prices for this kind of guitar? It is the guitar of the people, whether that was Leo's intention or not. When I was a teenager a million years ago I bought a beat up 70's Tele with my newspaper money. Later in my 20's I bought a used Schecter Tele because Pete Townsend had one. I thought it must be better than the Fender, but the reality was it was just the same. A few years ago I turned 50 and decided I'd build a Tele for myself with Warmoth parts and finish and set it up myself. I'll never buy another Tele. My Tele is just as playable as the original Fender from my youth and that Schecter I spent too much on. So, I don't know why anyone spends big bucks on one. Save your money for a ES-335 because that is a guitar you cannot make yourself.
Brown Western Tolex is the material you're looking for :) I've made several Amps and Cabinets with it as a covering with Gold hardware, looks very classy!
Yup. Revv Amps have an interactive custom configurator on their website with dozens of tolex patterns and colours. Save's me needing to remember a tolex name! 👍
I thought so, but after looking at a few close-up shots of several different similar tolex's, they don't look like what's on Ben's case. The pattern on Ben's looks a bit more "cartoony" and less "realistic". I wouldn't be surprised if it was hand-tooled.
Would be really interested in seeing a comparative tear down between different high-end teles to see what you’re actually paying for . Eg custom shop, Maybach, Nash, LSL, Xotic.
Well, I am not into blue (or Miami green), and I am not into "aged" but, by god, for some reason I love this guitar. You have even made me enter one of these draws for the first time.
I simply love telecaster guitars, repaing, making and playing they are simply the best. My opinion ❤
Great video!
I would be interested in your opinion on the Maybach Lester 59!
I've found even cheap tape to still be conductive across adhesive, you just use your continuity mode on to check and if you do need to join them you just put a small amount of solder
Yup, I use the garden centre copper tape that's for keeping slugs off stuff and it works a treat!
I believe the case covering material is "Black Western Tolex". It appears on guitar cases and amps.
Guitar Fetish has nice cases using the same pattern, and they call it "hand tooled" - only $99 for a bass case!
👍👍 to these teardown videos.
Teles are a great sounding board for building. They allow the luthier to be creative and customize, yet still end up with a great instrument in the end. Perfect for a 1st build (I should know !!) A little success goes a long way towards a lifetime of pleasure(adiction ?? lol !)
I’m a local to crimson guitar builder and every guitar except one I’ve been asked to build has been a t type guitar but I change a fare few things like a tummy cut , I use threaded inserts and a nice shaped heel joint and all natural wood finish from non standard timbers . I love teles just does what it says on the tin and proof it doesn’t have to be complicated to sound and play great as long as it’s plays great that is lol
Nothing wrong with putting a bit of your own "stank" on a classic design! Without a touch of creativity we may as well program a robot to do all the work! After all, a luthier is part artist!
The skill is always on making the instrument as playable as possible.
Quality hardware makes a difference, quality of finish feels different. Quality of time perfecting the setup and finish process.
Really as a player it doesn’t matter if it’s hand carved with a prison shank, pin router or CNC.. none of of those things feel better or worse if finished properly by skilled hands.
So suppose I’m saying what does it matter, how much is actually fully “hand made”-and what does that even mean? Is a router template cheating if you want to take to extremes (how is that better or worse than cnc).
I also add I love the simplicity of Teles, it’s a bit like a solo… you don’t need all the notes for it to be right… just the right notes in right place :)
1:11 Fabric store would have something like that.
These boutique Teles's are for someone not wanting a fender but who still wants the benefit of a tele. I like both, Fender & Fender style guitars. I especially like the reclaimed barn wood tele style pine body I bought and put a Squire Tele bound neck on it. It doesn't have pickups yet but just playing it unplugged is amazing. I finished with a water-based very barn red type finish, looks like an old barn & came relicd.😂 wish I could send a picture.
Hi Ben.
When pondering why Telecasters, reflect that there isn't an engineer on the planet that hasn't outgrown a screwdriver, or indeed a Guitarist who can outplay a Telecaster.
There is no shame in building a really nice LP Junior, or Tele, because for some players, that's their tool of choice; others may need a wiggle stick, a million pickup combos and 36 frets, but the final arbiter is the music, and how much the instrument inspires you to be creative, be that Celtic Math-Prog or Memphis Blues or Hungarian Folk or Nigerian oompah music.
That Firebird I won is sweet BTW, chur!
It’s not a bad thing at all. It’s attention to detail, magic and wizardry that makes the difference… I think. Magic dust costs are a bit high at the moment but totally worth it :)
That case cover is pretty awesome. I love that finish color.
Ive used hardware store aluminum dryer vent tape as shielding tape and had great success before. No special glue and multiple pieces. Its not my favorite way but it has worked very well for me.
Yup, second guitar I built was a Tele. (First was a P Bass)
To be honest, building a Tele is a good gauge of skill, because everyone does it. It's easy to compare your build to others, to see where you land.
Quick ref on the case, I've seen that styling before. It's just a good quality fabric glued down over the whole thing. Very nice, though, as you suddenly aren't restricted in looks.
Don’t know about the copper tape comment, Ben. I bought inexpensive tape on amazon and from one end to the other on a freshly tape-shielded strat, I measure about 1 Ohm impedance. That’s way below anything I would worry about.
Awww it's so nice I've bought a ticket fingers crossed
Hi and thanks for so interesting videos! Yes I have 5 Maybach and the consistency of they’re guitars is amazing. Have Maybach=5 as:
2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 e 2023 / 3 Teles: 54, 61 e 66; 1 Jazzmaster 63 e 1 Les Paul 54 and each of them is superb instrument… I have more then 100 different guitars - no more money spend on G and F sorry no way. And as I live in Portugal - Europe is the land. I miss a 1952 Tele Keith and a Thinline. Done. Cheers and greetings from Algarve sunny south Portugal 🇵🇹
I'm on Team Overcomplication: my first guitar was a five string fan fretted bass. I've still not built a Tele yet.
My second was a P bass, and that's my daily driver.
I hear you. I Build 6/5/4/8-string basses first with and wihout fanned frets, then started on through/setneck guitars, now I want to buid a Tele 😀
Go on👍 Build a super standard one.
You can get that case material at upholstery shops. I have a Polaroid SX70 skinned in that, as well as a photo album. The red and black one in leather is to die for.
Would love to see you build a case !!!
Relic finish vs. natural aging is the difference between a novel and a biography.
My guitar’s dents and scrapes tell the story of our time together. The ding on the back of headstock is where I sheared off the top of our bass player’s pint glass for instance. The look on his face is a precious memory.
But there’s value in a novel too. Things don’t have to be true to carry meaning. I can see loving the craft of a well reliced instrument, and I can see the fun of making up stories of how it supposedly got that way.
I do however draw the line at pretending that the fiction is the truth. After all, I would roll my eyes at someone claiming that The Lord of the Rings is the true history of the world, so….
Hi Bun, as someone - greatly thanks to you - who has learnt and still is, how to make a kit a greatly playable guitar, I believe design and playability is orthogonal. Design and finish is eye catching and a matter of taste but playability is the mastery that makes someone want to play a guitar. The nicely curved one you had shown in an earlier vid looked pretty standard on first sight, but the curves promised pure satisfaction wrt playability. Crimson could make a USP with eg. great neckaccess no matter the body design and finish. Or maybe there could be a crimson catalogue of neck carves ( I mean the C or D shape thing).
Hell maybe doing a body scan of the player and using AI to create the plan for the most ergonomic guitar for this player could be a thing. The length of my comment shows it's not an easy thing to accomplish. But it's the journey that is fun. Cheers V
Guitar Fetish in FLorida are selling those cases, for all major guitar shapes, Strats, Tele, Les Pauls, 335s... you name it
I almost bought their SG Special but I wasn't sure of the neck shape and I really like my LP Junior slim neck so I ended up having a local luthier build a custom SG for me with custom hand wound P90 and I was sure I would have all the specs I want, including the neck shape (copied from my junior).
It was really really tempting though to buy the Maybach because I saw and read really nice reviews on them.
I’ve owned a Maybach albatros (sg) junior. One of the best sounding guitars I’ve ever owned but I didn’t like the hardware ageing at all. To me it looked and felt cheap. But the mahogany was beautiful and super light. Sold it however because of insane tuning instability. Finally I settled for two early zero’s Gibson sg’s one being a standard and one black special and both are crazy fine and playable guitars. Necks are pretty fat for sg’s and they both stay in tune like a rock. So, yeah. I think Maybach are building very nice ‘kit’ guitars but still… my Gibby’s are keepers… Anyway, thanks for the vid! Love the channel🤘🏻😎
My first built was a blank kit from Crimson for GGBO2021. Then I built two thinline telecasters with Crimson necks.
I’ve expanded to set necks to neck through and now set-through with full scratch builds.
What the market buying this guitar doesn’t know is how easy it is to generate a premium parts partscaster.
iMO my Ash 4 piece book matched top generated a better finish than this, thanks to crimson water stains and these videos
few things
the case is excellent - Tokai use a similar one for their high end stuff
i owned a Maybach Lester. it was, and still is, an exceptional guitar. honey/ amber relic'd finish.
for their LP type, they use a 2 pc back which allows them more flexibilty in wood selection. which in turn allowed a full size LP std guitar to weigh 3.6kg. they aim for all their LP guitars to be sub 8lbs
i bought the guitar used from Andertons and sold it on to a friend who loved the guitar
he has since bought a Teleman which is another staggeringly good guitar
the company is German, however the guitars are built in Czechia. they claim to have a custom shop there as well. might be worth reaching out and doing a visit to see how they work?
Is there any chance to put a left handed guitar in a daily guitar draw. That would be freakin" awsome
You can enter right handed draws and they'll attempt to find a leftie something of similar value if you win, or award cash value. It did say it explicitly on a couple of draws but it seems to have fallen down a crack lately. They mentioned it verbally a couple of weeks ago.
Previous verbal answers about explicit lefty draws were no, because they start with a small lefty audience, then split it further by whatever model they choose, then split it further on colour etc ... by the time they're done they won't sell enough tickets. They've mentioned a couple of times doing a draw for a custom build and lefty could obviously ask for a lefty build on that prize.
Hello, I have enjoyed your work for a while now, I have an idea for what I think would be cool a guitar that looked like a guitar shark "and yes its a real shark "as its shape lends well for for the instrument. the tail fin would make a nice head stalk and scalloped neck would would add to an aggressive look as well....any how great work.
Being in business is about designing a product that the market place wants and then selling it. People like Telecasters and this company builds them well + plus a whole bunch of other classic designs
The visual incongruity with Maybach that once seen cant be unseen, is the body having exquisitely simulated wear/nicks/dings/cracks, but a neck thats factory fresh and shiny new with no wear at all. It wont stop me getting a ticket though 😂
I think Gator do that finish on some of their aftermarket cases.
estimado Ben, por favor construye una telecaster vintage, como si fueras el mismo Leo y construye otra totalmente modernizada a tu particular estilo, te vas a sorprender y de paso a todo el planeta, seguramente será delicioso.
Hey Ben and the fabulous team at Crimson! Any info/update if there will he any other pick-up courses in the future?
Here's where I "fight (you) in the comments". I've purchased copper shielding tape from Amazon, overlapped the pieces and put a meter on it. It's conductive across the pieces. You are correct that it must have the proper adhesive.
if you put the whole body in the freezer the finish should crack evenly all over. To get more control, over smaller areas, I wonder if they used the freeze spray that plumbers use in an emergency to stop a leak?
Maybach builds quality clones of the other classics too, and seems to get them kind of right (I'm very particular about the Gibson SG body shape, so no comments on that), so the kit aspect doesn't occur to me.
This and many cool other tolexes are sold e.g. at tubetown in germany.
On that existential question, I think you have to come at it from where Leo Fender came. What if Ben was kicking around in 1951?
Sugar Pine = Pinus lambertiana, I've built guitars from pine for 35 years!
go to a fabric shop for that tolex
I'd absoutely love it if Ben filmed himself building an absolutely standard (and I do mean *absolutely standard*) telecaster-style guitar.
i agree. i think an exactingly built vintage style tele or LP jr would be a real challenge
I suspect Ben's been working on his standard Telecaster build since 1998. It's ALMOST done.
That tolex looks like western brown
Dang... now i need to take the pickguard off mine, to see if there's any picks underneath....😂
surely there is nothing wrong with "just a telecaster" :)
No, obviously not - but Ben's question remains valid: why yet another Tele?
And like he says: this one was very well assembled and finished.
Certainly hat you'd expect at that pricepoint too, I'd add.
But again: why yet another Tele?
If I were a luthier I wouldn't want to just copy the familiar shapes - be it a Tele, Strat, Les Paul, SG... All that stuff.
I'd much rather focus on creating new shapes, particularly more ergonomic and versatile than what we've seen for the last 6-7 decades from the major builders in the US 🤣🤣🤣
And yes: I have a Tele. It's seriously well built, it's gorgeous (*very* heavy relic), it sounds and plays beyond I'd ever thought a Tele to be capable of, I've had it up against some old Teles (an all-original '62 and another late 60something...) and it was as good or better.
And it's totally a fake 🤣🤣🤣🤣
I think the case is covered in "Lincrusta".
Made in the Maybach factory in the Czech Republic, the instruments of the Classic Series are expertly built by qualified guitar makers - for the most part, from certified woods of European origin.
So, the Maybach is the Mercedes of guitars…😂😂😂
It sure has that twang sound down pat...nice.
Isn't it amazing that something designed in the late 1940s is still being produced fundamentally the same over seventy years later? There are very few other items you could say that about, Leo may not have known how to play the guitar, but he certainly know how to build them! Incidentally, it was his birthday yesterday. I think this is what he might have intended for the Tele but wanted to keep the cost down a bit.
I can see the bridge pickup cavity appearing under the side of the bridge... that's not 'great attention to detail' in my book. And i agree, what's the point in another telecaster by a 'boutique' brand?
i have a maybach strat of the old serie before the cases came out and custom tele in red they absolute destroyed my fenders i sold my fenders now i have a shit ton of gibsons 2 maybach and mex tele for experimental tuning
A Telecaster Killer eh. I have a T54 but i have better Fenders. However i have a 1974 Hohner Madcat, similar to Prince's. It's a Tele Killer. It's Lolar Pup's are far beyond Fenders own. On my quest to find a T type to top Fender, it was the Madcat that made me stop looking.
I got into guitar building because I wanted something different. Everything I've built was unique, even when inspired by an existing guitar there are some pretty big differences. I'm not saying people should stop making copies of classic designs, but that's not for me
What a killer. Ever so beautiful too…..
Fender uses a similar tolex on some blues Jr's
American Professional (Standard) Teles are £1700.
I think warwick used to use that tolex on cases
Unless you carve your own bodies and consider ergonimic design, so much out there is sorta kit building. From there its all about the finish. The word kit makes it sound cheap but it's not that at all because a finish will make or break a guitar
Ben, IMHO if you're not putting the "tools to the wood" you are just an assembler and not a builder. True builders are the folks who get the glue and sawdust under their fingernails!
Beautiful guitar but does it have or hold the same value that a fender custom shop demands? If you keep guitars forever then it's fine but I seem to change every 5 years or so for something else..
Actually they do hold their value, at least here in Germany 🙂
😮 cool like it 😁😎🎸🎸
So the next line in the question after "when is a guitar maker just a kit builder?" could be, "at what point is someone a luthier versus an assembler?" 🙂 what do you have to be able to do to consider yourself a luthier? Is it building an acoustic guitar from raw materials using only hand tools, or is it buying a kit of parts and assembling/setting up correctly? 🤔
That really is the question.. in my mind right now it is.. well, still so difficult to define..
Fender's original concept was for the guitar to be a tool and completely modular. Every part is easily replaced including the neck. That's why they lend themselves to becoming "Partscasters" so well. Shit look at the famous Strats from Clapton, Stevie Ray, David Gilmour, etc... They're all Partscasters. So for other builders and hobbyists like me, Fenders are just easier to build. Even as a Gibson/Epiphone guy, I've built 5 Fender style guitars.
What about lucky dog guitars?
True, to make a tele type guitar is not that difficult, to make a tele type very good takes skill, to make a guitar when you're called Ben Crowe you take that skill and then some and you make a beautiful guitar...sorry not trying to suck up
I really dislike artificial aging and relicing. Someone asks, "Where did it get that scratch", and, if you're honest, you have to say, "I paid a guy to put it there for me".
It's going to get beaten up soon enough. Like...what's the hurry? And why is it worth paying for?
However...for a fee, I will happily offer my own relicing service. Guitars, cars...you name it. Send me your shit, and I'll use it for you.
Guitar Fetish sells them
A new Maybach Teleman is reasonably priced at €2000-ish...
Interesting conflict.. I mean, why make a tele? You may as well buy a fender tele. But then they are not has well made now a days.
I'm thinking of getting a kit and upgrading the hardware. It's a tele, so basically, it's a simple guitar anyway.
Interesting video, thank you.
Real cowboys play telecasters that have that case finish on the guitar itself! 😂😂😂
I am a kit builder because i cannot choose anything. Even if i can choose the wood of the body or some characteristics of the neck i have no control of the quality of the routing or the glue to use or the piece of wood itself. If a custom shop can decide all of this detail they are something different.
There are three words I detest in Instrument and furniture making in general. They are - Relic, Ageing, and Distressing. Keeping an original patina is fine but deliberately denting, chipping and scratching to give something an artificial age just seems a bit of a cheat to me. I know thousands will disagree with me on this but hey, such is life.
Couldn't agree more, it's an absolute nonsense.
Agree.
I mean, there does seem to be a convention in violin building, where they smudge it up a little bit… And that antiquing is part of the look. So, a lot of violins lined up with a kind of artificial patina… But I do think that’s different than the relicing that has becomes so widespread in the guitar world. That said, I’m saving up for a custom shop signature Jasha Heifetz violin. Only $102,000. Case not included…
👍
Interesting isn't it - such a polarising thing to do to an instrument. I don't think I've heard anyone say that they didn't care either way! It's certainly not something I'd ever consider for sure.
I thought Mayback were to do with cars. 🤔👍
Why does anybody else makes telecasters? - you’re paying for the builder and their skills and the quality of the components
No, no no. Telecasters absolutely were not made with pine bodies. That is a myth. A few prototypes were produced, but leo Fender used swamp ash until they could not get good enough quality wood in sufficient quantities. They then went to alder, Even though the tele is simple by design, to make one well still requires some skill. These days though with cheap CNC machines available, anyone could make one quickly and with well fitting necks. My classic vibe tele was cheap and well made, why pay thousands for one?
thats deffo duck egg blue lol
Why a Tele ? Because it can be used to play absolutely anything.
Stop doubting, yes you can get kits and make them sound great, but there is always a place for the finer thing in life. Also blues out on the guitars, stop repressing !!! I want to hear the guitar so go for it, trust went back to Bass and dropped the i not this or that, remember why you picked it up 1. Fun, 2. Thought you get girls (not happen that way). 3. we fell in love. 1 and 3 are the most important. If playing bass, you have a pick, "Don't be weak"! Fingers or tongue. So life lesson as well as true playing. THANK any god for me! You are welcome.
I think the material on the case is called “country western floral” tolex.
As far as I know Maybach guitars are a German brand but they are made in the Czech Republic.
Maybach, same company that makes the high end Luxury cars?
Maybach cars is a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz AG. I'm not aware of Mercedes having any ownership of a guitar company.
I’m sure that case came from guitar fetish. They’ve been out of stock for a while now. I’m trying to get one myself.
If you are 'automating' all your repetitive 'busy work' for example using a CNC machine to do 90% of the shaping/carving etc and you are just doing the 'finishing', then probably yes, you are pretty much close to a kit builder and I don't think you can ethically charge anywhere near as much as someone who painstakingly hand/machine builds something from scratch.
The difference between a CNC and using other machines/electrical tools is that you still have to use your hands/arms to guide the wood through those machines, or guide the tool around the wood (often at physical risk of losing a finger or three if you're not careful), while with a CNC, once the wood is held in place, you do nothing, you touch nothing, you guide nothing. you just passively watch.
I'd pay good money for a luthiers skill, expertise, knowledge and time in hand crafting something.
I would not pay the same for something that was 90% CNC'd I don't think.
Possibly that is an emotional framework of thought rather than rational, but to my mind based on this video, I'm paying for workmanship and the luthiers passion and skill for the work.
If you take Fender & Gibson designs away you're not really left with a lot of electric guitars that have sold well consistently year after year.
Ibanez designs like the S & RG range can arguably be traced back to a Strat.
Early PRS designs were inspired by a Les Paul with the aim of improving it while also appealing to a Strat player. Now they're releasing straight up Strat & Tele based models. The McCarty is clearly a direct take on a Les Paul.
Anything in the electric guitar market that isn't based on a Strat, Tele, Les Paul or 335 tends to be be classed as quirky or niche.
It's much easier to copy the tried and tested designs and try and carve a niche within the existing market than it is to create something bold, different and new and take customers away from that market.
I'm not generally a fan of copying for the simple reason that research and development costs. How much that applies to a 70 year old guitar design that has already been copied multiple times I'm not too sure about. There is only so much you can do with a guitar design anyway. It needs a fretboard, a neck, a body and either a cavity and sound hole or pickups. Change the design too much and it's no longer a guitar!
Some say being copied is possibly the greatest form of flattery one can have. It's perhaps not how the original designers look at it though.
At least Maybach make a good instrument. Fender probably wishes they didn't.
I swear relicing is to guitars, as chocolate diamonds are to jewelry. somehow, they have convinced people that aspects that typically devalue a product. are now somehow considered to be adding to the value. it is mindboggling to me how gullible, and prone to herd like behaviour humans can be. I am well aware of the time and labor involved in relicing. it doesn't change my outlook one bit. hours and hours spent on such a pointless endeavor, is deserving of no extra money whatsoever. think about it, there are b stocks, scratch and dents etc etc, sold at significant discounts. but, because relicing is done with intention, we the consumers should pay more. absolutely lunacy.
Nothing special to see here. Move on. I mean, its just a tele knock off. Dime a dozen. i do like the case.
They torally are glorified kit builders and always have been. What Fender calls "custom shop" is a partscaster
My problem with another company building ‘just a Tele’ is that the original builders are doing just that, so this is basically plagiarism. If you want just a Tele, buy a bleeding Tele.
It’s a copy fender telecaster. No matter what you say it’s still a copy not original. Fender still rules
I will probably never understand the appeal of an artificially reliced/aged guitar.
Of course you can.
Just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean you can’t understand why someone else may. Go on, have a little imagination time 👍