The final winner of several bare-wood prototype contenders for the ultimate super-tele title. To become the T3.

Over the past year several customers have remarked that although Rees guitars have a wide range of voices that can mimic several different popular guitars, the one guitar that they have not been able to get near is the Fender Telecaster. We can split the coils of humbuckers to sound like Strats, but not Teles. Tele pickups, at both bridge and neck, are unique in their construction and sound. We set about developing a guitar using Seymour Duncan's vintage '54 replica tele pickups.

Prototype 1 used a traditional steel ash-tray tele bridge, traditional tele pickups and controls. The guitar offered the traditional 3 tele voices as expected. The Rees body of Korina provided better sustain than the softwoods used by Fender, but the guitar had inferior sustain to any other Rees guitar. I thought it must be due to the flat top mounted bridge.

Prototype 2 used our usual wrap-around bridge, with traditional tele electronics. This sounds great. Vintage tele sounds, with longer sustain and more articulate playing response, and a more comfortable body shape for stage use. This becomes the T2 model.

. . . fantastic! . . . but how do you make a super-tele?! To deserve a super-tele title, a guitar must be able to do everything that a tele can, and a lot more . . .

Many years ago I added a strat pickup in the middle of a tele with a 5-way switch. It added the middle strat voice, but took away the middle tele voice. It did nothing to cover humbucker voices. Not really a super-tele then.

Prototype 3 used the wrap-around bridge, tele bridge pickup, humbucker neck pickup, controls of volume; tone; 3-way pickup selector; rotary mode switch. Various humbucker pickups were tried, and various mode switch wirings of combinations of pickup coils. Some very nice guitars were assembled with some fantastic humbucker sounds. The tele bridge pickup adds a nice bit of grit and bright punch to humbucker voices. Single coil sounds were available, but it was never possible to accurately recreate the vintage tele neck and mid voices. A neck humbucker on a tele is a popular customization, but effectively it becomes a different-tele rather than a super-tele (which needs to add, without subtracting, voice range).

Prototype 4 (this photo) used the wrap-around bridge, tele bridge pickup, two tele neck pickups, controls of volume; tone; 3-way pickup selector; rotary mode switch. Eurica! This is a true super-tele, and all modes sound fantastic. Mode A is wired exactly as a tele with vintage correct neck and bridge pickups. The 3 vintage voices are authentic. Mode B provides 3 out-of-phase special effect voices. Mode C provides 3 humbucker voices. The extra neck pickup is RWRP which is used along with with either the neck pickup, or the bridge pickup, or both, to make a humbucker. Dig in with the pick on the bass strings and this pup with bark and growl with extraordinary power. Caress the strings and you have the enchanting sweet clear magic of the tele. The responsiveness and dynamic range of these humbucker voices is awesome! This is the T3.