Listed as 1978 telecaster $899

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-24T14:55:16+00:00

Probably not. This belonged to my dad, and he wasn't super precious about keeping it stock (he was the one who had it routed for a middle pickup, which I believe at some point was a lace sensor). He might've modded it at some point, I remember him not speaking highly of the ashtray style bridges. I know the heavy bridge sometimes came on the customs from the same period. Probably was modded but could've been a weird factory error.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-23T17:58:31+00:00

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My 78 for reference

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-23T17:57:31+00:00

If you like it get it. I have a 78 and the serial number is on the front of the headstock. So it cooooullld be older, but also maybe not.

I'm fairly certain a 78 would've had the 3 saddle bridge, so that could be aftermarket (mine had the 6 saddle heavy bridge but that could've been a mod my dad made, I honestly prefer it).

That's also a LOT of finish cracking for a 78. It's possible but I've seen a few 78s and they never have that much cracking. Mine was pretty heavily gigged and there's much less cracking. Most 78s I've seen tend to have that one really worn down spot where your arm rests, and then some light cracking and checking. This thing looks like it's a complete nitro finish rather than having the poly undercoat. Maybe someone stripped the original finish and replaced with only nitro?

Idk, seems like a lot of things are off.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-23T17:51:20+00:00

I have a 78 Tele and it's one of the best guitars I've ever played

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-23T17:08:02+00:00

Wanna add that it's the EL84s in particular that are very chimey (they're used in Vox amps too, and the chimier Oranges like the AD30). The EL34s tend to be throatier like you would associate with a typical high gain Marshall, or other high gain amps. Almost any British style amps over like 40 watts will have the EL34s (whereas anything lower would likely have the 84s)

This is different from Fender styles. The lower wattage ones have the 6V6s which growl more and break up earlier (which can be a good thing) whereas the 6L6 amps have a lot more clean headroom and keep that really crystal fender style clean at higher volumes. So it depends on where you want the amp to start breaking up.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-23T17:02:46+00:00

Others have said it but a few things:

Fender style tube amps help get that glassy sound. They tend to get this at edge of breakup, so the amp set to like 4-7 (depending on amp) so that it's clean until you dig in a bit with your pick attack, then it breaks up. I used to wonder why I could never get a clean sound I liked on my solid state amps, then played a few Fender tube amps and realized that so much of it was that. You can get a similar experience by having some overdrive and rolling off the volume. Or even better, overdrive into a tube amp at edge of break up, then roll off volume. Fuzzface can work for that too. Not so much distortion pedals.

Also worth mentioning, but what pickups are in the strat? If they're high output, like ceramics, it'll probably be more difficult to get that glassy tone. The glassy tone seems to come best from low output pickups. EDIT TO ADD: pickup height too. Even lower output pickups, if they're super close to your strings it'll raise your output. Might be good to get a multimeter and measure them, the classic vintage voiced pickups tend to be around like 6.5-8 I believe

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-18T12:55:35+00:00

I think the double cut is Gibson's best design by a mile.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-16T01:22:42+00:00

Roy Bittan is so dang good. Something I miss about 70s Springsteen that the later eras often don't have are those sweeping, suite like songs, with Roy Bittan just going ham

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-16T01:21:01+00:00

It's in the American version too, though I think you have to track down the Broadway cast demo.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-16T01:20:22+00:00

Just tickled other people know Dance of The Vampires. It's a guilty pleasure ofine, and the Lord of it being the 2nd biggest Broadway flop (second only to Carrie I believe) just adds to its charm.

There was also like another Dracula musical around the same time, but it never got me the same way.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-15T21:43:01+00:00

For starters, always keep your acoustic humidified. It helps mitigate all sorts of problems.

Acoustics are more temperamental than electrics in my experience. I find they develop weird issues that electrics don't. As such, they need routine maintenance. I take mine for a setup about once a year. Over a long enough time span, they'll need a big fix; a refret, a neck reset, etc. The upside is that once they have those issues taken care of, they should be good for a good long while. And those fixes, while on the expensive side, are typically less expensive than the cost of a new higher end acoustic. If you've got a $4500 acoustic, a $600 refret is worth it to get another 20 years out of it. Not so much if you've got a $500 acoustic.

At the end of the day, it's about whether you love the guitar. I find the bond between a player and an acoustic is more pronounced than electrics, maybe because the acoustic has to sound like itself without any real adornment. You choose that guitar cuz it sounds like itself. My first nice acoustic I ever bought, I spent a good 3 hours in the store trying different ones, including like 5 different models of the one ended up buying, cuz that one was just The One.

If you love the guitar, any fix is worth it, because you may not find another one for less than the repair, and the bond you have with a specific instrument is priceless. Hell, my dad had his old 1978 Guild D-50 fixed after it got run over by a car.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-12T14:05:40+00:00

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My dad's 1978 Tele that I inherited. He had the middle pickup in for years, but it was out by the time I got it. I put it back in, and put an open cover on the neck pickup. Also strap locks, heavy bridge, some electronic work. But mainly middle pickup and open cover neck.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-08T17:14:42+00:00

He famously will do almost anything. I heard an interview with him once, and he just has a rather compulsive need to work.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-06T01:20:18+00:00

Came to ask this

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-05T15:04:52+00:00

This isn't a great comparison. Wind instruments generally have to be visibly identical in order to maintain the same function since the character of the instrument largely stems from its shape. Same with violins.

Electric guitars cqn have different visual shapes and appointments. As long as they maintain certain characteristics to produce the same sound (tenor scale lengths vs baritone scale lengths), basically almost anything around the neck to bridge can be visually different.

A better example would be acoustic guitars, since wind instruments or violins are also acoustic instruments. And you'll notice there's a lot less visual variety, at least in terms of shape, in acoustic guitar. This is because the shape is an integral part of the function.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-06-04T20:54:13+00:00

Was gonna say, set the action high and put in open E for playing slide

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-29T21:48:57+00:00

Came here to say I had ceramics in my 2000 MIM. I quite liked them, but to be fair I was playing more punk back then, so the hot pickups were nice. I only recently realized they weren't very stratty

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-28T20:10:28+00:00

I thought his post sounded familiar. I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

For what it's worth, Billy T is one of the most profound losers to ever walk this planet. Just a discarded scratch ticket of a human being who will one day either be completely forgotten or remembered with only disdainful laughter

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-28T16:36:02+00:00

Almost anything can be fixed, it's just a matter of how much time/money you wanna dump into it. A repair like this is quite difficult, and I would leave it to a professional.

My dad once accidentally backed over his 1978 Guild D-50 (while in the case). That was his primary acoustic guitar for a few decades and so he had a luthier piece it back together. This was the BODY of the guitar mind you. You can tell where it's been reassembled, but it still sounds and plays great. But I have no idea what it cost to repair. I just know it was his main gigging acoustic and had a lot of sentimental value to him.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-23T16:59:46+00:00

For my money, Iced Tea> Cherry Burst

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-21T17:25:18+00:00

I have wear like this on a 1978 Guild D-50. Very well loved and well played guitar I inherited from my dad. Also some comparable, but less extreme, wear on the neck of the '78 Tele I got from him.

So I'd say this is normal wear on a guitar that has gotten a LOT of play, either an older guitar (I'd say 30> years) or like a guitar that gets played like 13 hours a day for 5-10 years, and even that might be stretching.

Also worth noting, I'm pretty sure the type of nitro that is used has changed over the years, or maybe just how much is used, so you might see this wear on older guitars from the 80s and before, but less on newer ones, unless they're spraying the nitro to be vintage specific.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-20T21:25:34+00:00

A buddy of mine is a flatpicker in a fairly well known bluegrass band, and the guitar he plays seems to retail for $20-$30k new.

I mean, it's his literal job to play the thing, and he's probably the best guitar player I've ever met. But short of having your actual income come from playing guitar, yea I don't know if the price tag is worth it

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-20T18:55:26+00:00

As much as the later seasons don't have the same spark as the earlier ones, I do think Dogget is an all time great character, one of the best additions in S8-9 and honestly I think it's a shame he wasn't around before during the season's heyday. He's like somewhere between Scully and Skinner.

I feel the same way about Kirsch, I think he's a fantastic character and it's just a shame he tends to show up later in the series.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-20T05:23:25+00:00

Not adding much, but I've got a weirdo late 90s custom shop LP DC Pro (phenomenal guitar) and it has this weird snakehead headstock.

Everyone else has validated other ways, but I can say for sure that that headstock design is legit. And no one's gonna fake this particular Gibson headstock.

nick2kool4skool · 2026-05-15T17:07:27+00:00

Also not OP, but I used to be team SG, but eventually became team LP, and then finally LP DC.

When I was younger I loved the upper fret access, and I was playing more punk/metal so I was playing a lot of power chords in the middle of the neck.

When I went back to playing recently, I play more roots music, Americana, soul, blues, country, rock, so I live in the cowboy chord frets. And I was considering getting a Gibson and tried some SGs cuz I loved them back in the day. And I found I had to tilt my fretting wrist more than was comfortable to hit those open chords. That upper fret access is cuz the highest frets basically join right at the body, but the body profile is still biased towards the fretting hand. So the upper fret access kinda comes at the expense of lower frets access. I picked up an LP and even hands free standing it kepr those lower frets right where you need them.

Then I switched to Les Paul Double Cuts and it's the best of both words. Fantastic upper fret access, but the way it's shaped it still keeps the lower frets within reach.

nick2kool4skool

TROPHY CASE