Lek GUITARS of Manchester
Back in 1994 I was still playing my original '66 Fender Telecaster and my '90 Squier Telecaster. The Fender was a 21st present from my brother years ago. It's a great guitar but I was looking for a different sound. I reckoned it would cost me over £500 to buy a new Telecaster. I then realised I would probably be unable to find one with a different sound anyway. That's when I decided to make one. I finished up making 3 'Teles' by 1996.
For the first one, I bought a body from Brandoni and took the maple neck off my Squier. Pickups were supplied by Kent Armstrong and an engineering friend made the metalwork This worked a treat but it was always sounding like a Tele and I was still looking for something different.
I hand carved a slab of Brazilian mahogany for the second one and bought a maple neck from Brandoni. The rest of the kit was the same as before. What a sound. The warm tones that comes with mahogany really did complement the brightness inherent with the ashtray bridge plate.
The third was made from all mahogany (the neck as well) with a rosewood fret board. Rather than use single coils I got 2 humbuckers from Kent Armstrong. I routed a cavity underneath a single f-hole to give it a semi-solid look. That was it. I could get great bluesy sounds, bright country sounds or whatever I wanted in between.
Following that, I did some fixes for Keith Roberts (bass player with Herman's Hermits 1990-1995) and Red Vinyl Fur.. Everything went well and as the jobs didn't seem too difficult, in February '99 I decided to set up fixing guitars for friends around the Stockport area. That's it really. Not very exciting but I did finish up with 3 extra guitars which cost me a bit more than the £500 I intended to save. C'est la vie.