A Black Tie Affair Telecaster

This project is an amalgamation of a few different ideas.
I sold the Fender Player II Modified Telecaster Electric Guitar – Dusk in Single Coil Humbucker configuration. The person I sold it to did not like the stock pickups and had me install a new set for him. He did not like the tone even with the new pickups, so I replaced the wiring harness and all was good. He let me keep the Fender Noiseless pickups I had pulled. It gave me an idea though. I did not like the sound I got out of the Player II Modified telecaster and even said that in the video I did on the guitar. I started to suspect though that the pickups were okay, and the problem was the circuit that was in the original Player II Tele. I decided that I would install them in a future build and would combine them with my own wiring harness.
All-Parts makes good necks, but I had never tried any of their bodies. I was on Sweetwater’s website and was happy to see they had a pretty good selection of different colors and some had binding. I really like telecaster bodies with a black finish and binding. This makes for a very classy looking guitar. Whenever I wanted to buy one they were always out of stock but would say they would be back in stock soon. Recently I got an email alert saying the body I was watching was back in stock and a few minutes later I had one coming my way.
I have an American Channel-bound Telecaster Neck that I was shipped by accident when I ordered a much cheaper neck an Amazon told me to keep it. When I say cheaper the neck is $755 dollars. I have installed it on several guitar and two things keep happening. 1) I do not like how it looks on the guitar I installed it on and pull it off, or 2) I sell it on a guitar and the first thing the buyer says is – do you have any other necks…
It is a great playing neck. It is too bad it has the channel which makes it look like it has Gibson style binding. It just clashes with a Telecaster body in my opinion. I have been determined though to find a forever home for this neck where it somehow looks proper on the guitar it is installed on. When the All-Parts black body with white binding showed up, I thought – this may be the opportunity for this neck!
Before putting this guitar together, I kind of stood back to look at all of the individual parts that would make up this guitar and realized this guitar would be seen by the 1951 style telecaster crowd as not a telecaster.
• It does not have a 7.25” radius neck but instead has a 9.5″-14″ Compound radius neck.
• The channel neck looks like it has binding.
• It has a humbucker pickup in the neck.
• The pickups are noiseless.
• I could go on but you get what I mean.

Here are the parts in the build and their specifications and costs.
PRiMO Replacement Tele Body – Black Onyx w/ White Binding
Body is made of Alder with a Poly based Black Onyx finish with White Binding on the top only.
Neck: Humbucker (can accommodate most pickups)
String Ferrule Diameter: 5/16″
Built for 25-1/2″ scale length necks
Heel Pocket: 2-3/16″ (squared for Telecaster style necks)
Shielding paint on pickup and control cavities to reduce RF interference/hum
$249
PRiMO Replacement Tele Body – Black Onyx w/ White Binding
American Channel-bound Telecaster Neck
Made of Maple with a Finish of Satin Urethane (Neck), Gloss Urethane (Headstock)
Neck Shape: Modern C
Radius: 9.5″-14″ Compound
Fingerboard Material: Rosewood
Number of Frets: 21, Medium Jumbo
Scale Length: 25.5″
Nut Width: 1.6875″
Nut Material: Synthetic Bone
$755.99
Fender Player I| Modified Telecaster Tele,
SH PICKUPS SET Noiseless
Official Fender Player II Telecaster Modified SH- Noiseless Single Coil (Bridge) & Modified Humbucker (Neck) Pickups- All original w/ screws
$169.99
Wilkinson WTB Brass Compensated 3-Saddle Guitar Telecaster Bridge Assembly for Fender Tele
$24.99 on Amazon
Wiring Harness
I decided to base the circuit on two CTS 450 series 500k pots. One for the volume and one for the tone. I installed a Mallory .022 uF capacitor and a 470k resistor so the bridge pickup would see a 250k pot for the volume instead of the 500k.
I did not offer any extras like coil splitting on the neck or series for both pickups. I wanted to keep it simple to really check out the pickups.

Outcomes
I really like the look of the combination of the binding on the body and the channel bound neck. I think it works because of the black finish. My wife said it looks like it is wearing a tuxedo, and I agree. The guitar looks like something you would take to a black-tie affair event. That is if there was a black-tie event that required you to bring a matching guitar with you. That would be cool.
The guitar seems heavier than you would expect of its 8.3 lbs. or 3.735 kilos.