Cheap-Ass Rondo Tele Clone (is tits)

[hbombgraphics]

very cool! can't wait to hear about the results.

[culturejam]

So I got the new Esquire-style pickguard and new blade bridge pickup from GFS yesterday. The pickguard fits fine, but a few of the screw holes don't line up, so I had to drill 'er. The pickup, however, is slightly wider than the cavity on the left side, so I will either have to Dremel the cavity a bit or shave down the edge of the pickup. But it should be easy either way.

Good times. With cheap guitars!

[ratrod]

Just did some work on my Rondo tele this week. Blank control plate,Texas Special wired straight to the jack. Sounds and plays incredible now, it was always a very resonant guitar but with a good pickup it's a monster.

I had previously installed Gotoh tuners and Citristrip'd the neck.

[tuj]

Today, took the pick guard and dremel'ed it for the neck pickup. only needed to remove about 0.5mm from each side to get the new pickups to fit.

however, I encountered a new problem. Rondo used narrow-pitch metric screws on the pickup height screws, so I had to order a set of traditionals from StewMac. Just angry cause I thought I would get to play it this weekend.

Interesting notes:
-The Onamac Windery pickups measured neck = 7.59k, bridge = 7.46k. Very balanced.
-The stock pickups are a lot weaker measuring neck = 4.92k, bridge = 6.45k.

[goroth]

Rondo mentions (somewhere) that these guitars are available in Europe via another brand name. This thread has me gassing super hard - does anyone know
a) if rondo does anything special to make theirs extra rad and
b) What the euro brand could be?

their selection of lefties is surprisingly good!

[tuj]

Agile?

[goroth]

Agile?

Just googled it and I think I caused the Internet to inception. Yes, that is a verb.

[doommeow]

SX stuff is available in Spain - http://www.sxguitarspain.com/sx_electric_guitars.htm

[tuj]

the old bogus pickups with the cheater magnet glued to the bottom:



And my new set...

[Obulus]

Is that comic sans on those stickers?

[tuj]

Finally got my screws from StewMac to mount the PU's. If you recall, Rondo uses metric pitch pickup height screws and they tap the pickups for the narrow pitch. Standard tele pickups like the AWESOME Vintage Tele's I scored on Onamac Windery aren't tapped and use a standard pitch screw. The Rondo neck pickup cutout in the pick guard is also a little narrower than a standard Tele neck pickup; I had to just *barely* Dremel out part of it. Bridge pickup fits fine but the string spacing is just slightly wide; if I had to do it over, I would ask Onamac to wind me a custom job with narrower spacing.

The pickups sound fucking awesome, as I kind of new they would comparing the measurements from the stock pickups. The new Schaller locking tuners are great and went in without any issues at all. This is a great way to get a guitar with a really good action and make it sound even better and stay more in tune for still cheaper than a Fender. And that's coming from a Fender-head.

[culturejam]

Esquire conversion is complete!

I decided to go with a single pickup and convert to an Esquire look, but it's definitely not a vintage setup. I went with a GFS Lil Puncher humbucker and set it up so the pickup switch gives Series / Split / Parallel. To keep the split and parallel modes as loud as possible, I got the 15K version of the pickup, and I'm sure glad I did. With some dirt, there's not all that much volume drop, and the parallel mode sounds really good (sort of like a P90).

But as usual for me with Tele projects, the road to the finished project was fraught with bumps and challenges. One of the stock tuners shit the bed, so I got a new cheap but decent set (vintage looking). Then I got a new Esquire pickguard, and most of the holes lined up exactly but a few didn't. Then the new pickup was slightly wider than the cavity space on one side, so I had to file down the edge of the pickup base. Then I had to get a new switch because the stock one was so different from anything I could find a picture of that I couldn't figure out the wiring. Then the new switch was too tall for the cavity, so I had to bust out the Dremel and route the front part of the cavity about a 1/16 of an inch.

But she's done now! And even with the extra parts I bought, my total project cost is still less than $125.

Well, the new switch is American-spec and all my tips are for import junk, so it will have to remain tip-less for a while. But other than that, it's done!

[PeteeBee]

I think I need to get one of these. I only have one guitar, which is scary for gigs and attempting to act professional. Also sad to work on it when it means I can't play til it's done.