Telegothic Rex Details

This guitar started life as a Fender Squier Telecaster Deluxe Reissue guitar — not much relation to a regular Telecaster, but a great old axe.

The P90-style pickups are real screamers and the neck is great for heavy blues playing and/or slide. When I bought the guitar I was looking for something chunky and resonant and this guitar was better than most of the American Stratocasters and Telecasters that I played. I guess it was just luck of the draw.

Because of its searing tone this guitar earned the nickname of "Kraken." It was time to release the Kraken when I wired this up to my old Bogner Alchemist and upped the gain. All this inspired the current transformation into what I'm calling "Telegothic Rex." The idea being part pre-historic reptile, part goth tone machine. Anyways, I thought it was clever.

In the intake photos you'll see that I'd already gotten naughty with this guitar a few years back with a Sharpie and some black acrylic paint. It was fun and looked OK, but there was no concept, the execution wasn't great and it kept wiping off. I figured radical surgery was necessary. Judge for yourself and please do let me know what you think.

My faithful friend, my standard axe for several years before I bought my Parker Maxxfly earlier this year, this telecaster has seen its share of art experiments already. This was my first prototype and now will be one of my first projects in this venture.

Don't look down your nose just because this is a Squier and not a Fender Telecaster. This is one hefty-hunk of burnin' funk and the P90 pickups really scream. We nicknamed it the Kraken because it just breathes fire. It's not subtle or precise, but it is effective. This, more than anything else, is the inspiration for the concept of this project, which I'm calling "Telegothic Rex". Here are some of the before pics.

The last picture is from Fender and shows what the guitar looked like before I started getting naughty with it.

Yes, this ferocious looking beast was once just a humble Squier Telecaster Special. Here are some photos of the completion of the project. I'm not crazy about the pictures, but couldn't wait to post the work. Here's the presscard description in its first draft.

Lying beneath the hard, black exterior of this tone monster is the blood and guts and beating heart of a monster destined to appear in Tim Burton's band. The flat black of the finish, the pickups and headstock keep your focus to the scars as evidence of a fight long ago that this beast just barely escaped. We'd hate to see the other guy.

The hardware keeps its original chrome finish and top hat buttons, the pickguard was treated to its own special torture under the sander and steel wool. The maple neck was left untouched (front and back) to retain the already chunky but smooth profile. This armored bad boy is just dying for some super-saturated tube-driven mayhem. Are you up for the task?

This guitar is not for sale.