Orange Amps Forum

I'm possibly doing a straight up trade with someone:

My Fender American Deluxe Ash Telecaster for someone's American Vintage Series '52 Telecaster.

The mods he made are:
SD Hot Rail in the bridge

and a Plek Treatment

I have no idea what that is and can't find an answer by googling it. Does anyone know what this is?

Its a computer completed fret dressing, neck and nut adjustment.

Nice. Thanks.

He also said that he removed the "dark circuit". So much jibberish, I don't know what that is either. Any answers?

This is a total guess about the dark circuit but it may be referring to making it less dark and more trebly...or it could mean that since the dark circuit is gone your guitar shoots out bright light

The 52' reissue comes with vitage pickup wiring.

3-Position Blade:

Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Neck Pickup with Tone Control (Bright Vintage Circuit)
Position 3. Neck Pickup with No Tone Control (Dark Vintage Circuit)

He might have replaced it with the modern wiring, the tele actually comes with a wiring diagram for it.

Which would be your standard neck, both and bridge.

Pleked guitars are meant to be really nice - never tried one though.

If you do a search for 'plek' it should pop up. I think it was Corky who posted some rave reviews a while back.

I recently had a fret dress so I made a few enquiries about the plek process in the UK.

It seems it is very good at sorting out problem necks, but is more expensive than a 'by hand' process, and not many places have the kit (nearest to me was London).

I went with the 'by a luthier' option, which works for me!

I'm excited - he sent me a photo, it's beautifully worn in with that nitro finish. That's one of the things I hate about my current one that I'm trading to him, it has that modern glossy finish that never really wears through. That, and mine has that stupid modern bridge on it made for 6 saddles and has those SCN pups that I've grown to really dislike. His has the classic ashtray, 3 saddle bridge.

I guess we're planning to meet Wednesday to try out each other's guitars and possibly make a trade.

I would definitely do the trade. Definitely. I like the "vintage" wiring, personally, but the modern style is great too, and I don't think it's too hard to get switched back if you want to give it a try.

For the stuff you said you were playing in the AC30 thread, I imagine you're going to spend 90% of your time set to the bridge pup anyways, so I wouldn't stress about it!

Don't know if it matters to you, but the frets are vintage sized on the 52 RI (small) versus medium jumbo on the American (large by comparison). Also, anytime frets are dressed a little is taken off the height of said frets. I had a 72 RI tele dressed (due to buzzing, fretting out, etc) and the frets are very low now. It's still playable, but I find myself losing control when playing while standing. It is my open G / slide guitar now. Also, the 52 RI will have the smaller 7 1/4" radius vs the 9.5" radius on the American. All the 52 RI's I've picked up were heavy to me too. Bottom line, if you like it, do it. Hope this helps.

Yes, I stay the entire time on the bridge pickup anyway...

And I actually don't mind smaller frets. I'm just gonna see how it feels and give it a good play through. If it plays like butter, I'm definitely in.

chimpboyjay1 wrote:The 52' reissue comes with vitage pickup wiring.

3-Position Blade:

Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Neck Pickup with Tone Control (Bright Vintage Circuit)
Position 3. Neck Pickup with No Tone Control (Dark Vintage Circuit)

He might have replaced it with the modern wiring, the tele actually comes with a wiring diagram for it.

Which would be your standard neck, both and bridge.

Pleked guitars are meant to be really nice - never tried one though.

+1

I own a 52 Reissue and and it came with a wiring diagramm and some capacitors (?) and a bit solder-tin.
A six-saddle bridge and an ashtray was also included. Also the cleaning cloth, vintage strap and the certificate.

As blackcloud said, it has a 7,25" Radius. Works great for me but I know some guys who dont like this radius. It also has vintage frets (spaghetti frets) ! it is not made for big bendings. The neck is very fat and chunky...i like it !

Sounds like you've got a great setup for a great deal going Phil, play it and see! If wiring is the only thing that bugs you, I'd still do the deal, wiring is a small thing to fix if you dig how a guitar plays and sounds.

Thanks guys - I'll let you know if the deal goes through or not.

I'd love to have a guitar Plek'd or at least play one that's been Plek'd.

bclaire wrote:I'd love to have a guitar Plek'd or at least play one that's been Plek'd.

Same here. I'm all for developing machines that can help out in guitar production (electrical engineering side of my brain I'm afraid).