J, forgot to tell you what a Stink Hot Player You Truly Are!! And you’re not a one trick pony either. Whatever style you’re laying down, it’s absolutely dead on!!!💥💥💪💪💪👍👍
Stew Mac makes neck shims that are tapered and the full size of the neck pocket. That way you maintain full contact with the wood for the entire neck pocket.
Dude! I wanted to send you a word of thanks for your review of this particular guitar. I bought the blue version (I wanted red, but whatever) as a Black Friday impulse buy. Got it for $119. I watched your vids and my guitar had the same issues as yours. The action on mine, like yours, was a little high, so I did have to shim the neck slightly, and a strip of business card was all it took. I’ve never seen a guitar neck that required all the washers on the neck screws, so I left those alone. Mine had 3 washers on 3 of the holes and 1 on the remaining one. My output jack needed adjusting like yours as it wasn’t clicking in just right. I use Fender Voodoo Chile strings on all my electrics and the gauges are kind of unusual (like Jimi used), so the intonation on all 6 strings was significantly off, but easily adjusted. I even added Telecaster knobs. I agree that original knobs are cool, just not on this guitar. I’ll find a use for them some other time. All and all, for $119, this guitar is an absolute steal. It looks like quality, plays like quality and sounds like quality. I played it for a couple of hours this morning through my old 50 watt practice tube amp with a 12” Celestion, and this guitar sounds as good as any Tele I’ve ever heard. After getting it set up properly, I’d play this one anywhere, any time.
Mr JM this killer intro riff... I know that you play basic licks but like I wrote in the previous episode you've got them under your hands One of these days I'm going back to the very basics (one need to practice and play country every day or there's no chance to master like that!!) Cheers from Italy!!
Nice! I like to put shims in the neck pocket. I like going a tad overboard on the shim because i like the saddles to sit a little high and still get a low action. I like to shim the high side so the neck just tilts a little so the high E saddle can be higher. I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do, but it makes my guitar play a little better. At least, it seems. Thanks for the video. Good information 👍
One fun trick to do, if you are going as far as to remove the neck... Bring the strings up to tension, and very slightly loosen the screws on the back of the neck. That will mate the neck into the pocket perfectly. You'll hear a few cracks as it settles in. Again, you aren't loosening the screws much, just enough to allow it to adjust. Then tighten 'em up and you'll have optimal neck/body contact. 👍
Instead of bending the tab on the jack, tighten the nut on the inside on the cover plate. Or if it's all the way use a thinner one. rethinking it, what I said will not work if the jack is bottomed out on the stem but if it's bottomed out on the outside nut it will work. Looks like yours is hitting the outside nut.
Oh yea. Concerning the nut. I never glue my nut in. Because im paranoid because i did some work on a guitar awhile back. When i went to replace the nut, it was epoxied into the nut slot. What a nightmare that was. I had to recut the nut slot. So now i just use tape on the back side of the nut and just fit it snug in the slot. 👍
Epoxy seems like the nightmare meme of nut placement, lol. Oooph. I've never seen a taped nut (along with a large list of things ive yet to see) but it sounds prety slick if it works, right?
@@Vern859 epoxied? That's a little excessive for sure. String tension will keep it down. The glue, and just a minimal amount, keeps it from moving left to right under excessive bending. Some nuts are not in a slot. They are just butted up against the edge of the fret board. Those especially need glue!
Hey J! Que paso, holmes? You sure do some good with vids like your A-B of this one. I like the TRAIN philosophy. I think it's real helpful. I'm curious on one thing. I tilt the hammer and use the round corner of the hammer head on the close frets, but I use the rubber side to distribute the impact shock and to minimize reshaping the crowns, so I gotta ask. If you consciously decided to use the metal side to test-tamp your high frets, is it presumptuous to ask why? You do good work so I'm really kinda curious. Thanks. And very cool videos, bud.
@@wasteddude9387 hey thanks man! Good to hear from you😃. To answer your question, stainless steel or nickel silver frets, are harder and less malleable than brass, so a light tap should not flatten the crown. Secondly, any fret I address, whether reseat or file, I always recrown anyway and then repolish along with the others... Again I'm not a luthier, I just share what I do with my stuff... Do what works for you😃
@@j-man9457 Thanks. Always good to hear from you. I appreciate it. You're right, of course, stainless steel is next to impervious. Keep up the good work. For what it's worth, I notice that you often declare you are not a luthier. And I suppose it's prudent to say because it's true that we are not luthiers in that woodcrafting sense. But we aren't crafting acoustic guitars, so that level of woodworking will never even be relevant in our chosen field of electric guitars. However, that fact in no way devalues the knowledge, instinct, insight, and skill, it takes to excel in our field. And conversely speaking, most of them will never need to master the intricacies of electronics; pots and pickups; amps and pedals; impedance and capacitance; how to keep it all working together. I'd like to believe some significant woodcrafting talent is required to shape electric guitars and to do proper neck and fret work. Also, considerable industry-wide effort goes into the search for that universally acceptable new shape. And a remarkably few electric guitar players will even think about doing their own fretwork. Furthermore, it's kind of surprising how many won't even change out their own pots or pickups. Alhough it may be prudent to distance ourselves from luthiers, I don't think it's as much "disqualifying" as much as it is simply contextual. Let's not dismiss the fact that some people who build exclusively electric guitars, from blank blocks to plug-in playable completion, do refer to themselves as full fledged luthiers, even if CNC machines and teamwork are involved. I'm just saying, I think the only difference between your current set of skills, and those of a luthier might simply be time and experience at some generally accepted level. And that's not just smoke. If you think about it, you keep adding to your TRAIN station; in terms of both, the details you address, and the tools required for them. I like your StewMac gauge tools for filing the nut (in the first video). Frankly, I think you'll go as far as you choose to go, simply because you can. Just sayin...
It would be nice if the neck pocket were tighter and tidier-that sounds like the biggest issue on this model so far. It’s kind of a shame, because the roasted maple neck and that rounded neck heel on the back of the body look really nice… Maybe Westcreek hasn’t started their second run yet. At this price point, I’d say this is perhaps the nicest looking Telecaster clone out there right now, since Firefly and Musi both seem to have disappeared. 😔
@@zuperdee wow firefly too? Interesting! Yeah great guitar for the price for sure. Yes a tighter neck pocket would be nice, but I have seen and worked on fenders that were worse. Once seated and properly torqued, they don't move😀
@ Yeah, Firefly at the moment seems to have sold out their entire stock on a lot of their mainstay models, including the FF338, FFST, and FFTL, which has me a little worried. I kind of wonder if Firefly used the same factory as Musi for some of their models. The FFSP (Les Paul copy) seems to be virtually the ONLY model that they have an abundance of stock of now. I really loved the last batch of FFTLs they made-those were (along with Musi) some of the best Telecaster clones anyone has ever made, in my opinion.
Hey J-Man, I just bought the blue version of this West Creek telecaster copy. Any idea which locking tuners would work with this guitar. I don’t want to buy the wrong ones. Thanks, Jamie 🙂🇨🇦
@@jamieremus277 hey yeah I have used these and they are direct fit no mods required! Musiclily Pro 6 inline Guitar Locking Tuners Tuning Pegs Keys Machine Heads Set for Fender Stratocaster Telecaster Electric Guitar,Chrome a.co/d/0epBt5M 🤘
That is a one of a hell gorgeous guitar!!
@@makrealubit8888 yeah they have a very unique look to them for sure!😀
J, forgot to tell you what a Stink Hot Player You Truly Are!!
And you’re not a one trick pony either. Whatever style you’re laying down, it’s absolutely dead on!!!💥💥💪💪💪👍👍
@@guitarzan0515Ahhh thanks!just trying to keep up to you my man!😊
Stew Mac makes neck shims that are tapered and the full size of the neck pocket. That way you maintain full contact with the wood for the entire neck pocket.
SoloMusic also sells them - Solo is much more affordable for we Canadians. ;)
I TRAIN-ed my guitar, but it's incorrigible! Doesn't even sit or stay! Nice picking, J! Really nice guitar once given some tlc.
@@calbrockocat8728hahaha send it back lol!
Yeah they really are. All guitars are once given a proper set up 😃
Dude, you rock. i set mine up after watching your video, and i love it now. The only problem I have now is i need to learn to play like u, lol.
@@bruceregister hahaha thanks! As far as playing goes, aim higher than me... You'll thank me later hahaha!
Thanks for sharing the follow up video. Always fun to watch you work and hear you play. Rock on!
@@TedTalksGuitars 😊 thanks brother!
Dude! I wanted to send you a word of thanks for your review of this particular guitar. I bought the blue version (I wanted red, but whatever) as a Black Friday impulse buy. Got it for $119. I watched your vids and my guitar had the same issues as yours. The action on mine, like yours, was a little high, so I did have to shim the neck slightly, and a strip of business card was all it took. I’ve never seen a guitar neck that required all the washers on the neck screws, so I left those alone. Mine had 3 washers on 3 of the holes and 1 on the remaining one.
My output jack needed adjusting like yours as it wasn’t clicking in just right. I use Fender Voodoo Chile strings on all my electrics and the gauges are kind of unusual (like Jimi used), so the intonation on all 6 strings was significantly off, but easily adjusted.
I even added Telecaster knobs. I agree that original knobs are cool, just not on this guitar. I’ll find a use for them some other time.
All and all, for $119, this guitar is an absolute steal. It looks like quality, plays like quality and sounds like quality. I played it for a couple of hours this morning through my old 50 watt practice tube amp with a 12” Celestion, and this guitar sounds as good as any Tele I’ve ever heard. After getting it set up properly, I’d play this one anywhere, any time.
@@tomgoodson345 Awesome man! Glad I could help in some way! Sounds like you got that dialed in! Rock on and enjoy!
Mr JM this killer intro riff... I know that you play basic licks but like I wrote in the previous episode you've got them under your hands One of these days I'm going back to the very basics (one need to practice and play country every day or there's no chance to master like that!!) Cheers from Italy!!
@@mr.beaver2822 your too kind! Thanks my friend. Much appreciated 😊
Hey J-Man, nice to see you shred that tele, love the setup process. Rock on my friend.
@@leblancmarcel Thanks buddy! Always nice to hear from you!😊
Very nice great guitar
Great video that guitar turned out nice!
@@Libra1059 thanks man! Yeah cool little guitar!
Nice! I like to put shims in the neck pocket. I like going a tad overboard on the shim because i like the saddles to sit a little high and still get a low action. I like to shim the high side so the neck just tilts a little so the high E saddle can be higher.
I'm not sure if that is the right thing to do, but it makes my guitar play a little better.
At least, it seems.
Thanks for the video.
Good information 👍
@@Vern859 cool Vern! If it works for you and your playing style, then keep doing it. Rock on!
One fun trick to do, if you are going as far as to remove the neck... Bring the strings up to tension, and very slightly loosen the screws on the back of the neck. That will mate the neck into the pocket perfectly. You'll hear a few cracks as it settles in. Again, you aren't loosening the screws much, just enough to allow it to adjust. Then tighten 'em up and you'll have optimal neck/body contact. 👍
@@Sammywhat yup 👍
Did that my man! Got edited out as I had 87 minutes of video lol!
super tutorial film bro!
that one is gonna make the new owner stoked woo woo woooo!!
@@birdman316 turned out pretty good. He's happy!
Instead of bending the tab on the jack, tighten the nut on the inside on the cover plate. Or if it's all the way use a thinner one. rethinking it, what I said will not work if the jack is bottomed out on the stem but if it's bottomed out on the outside nut it will work. Looks like yours is hitting the outside nut.
Polishing, polishing, polishing. - Mr. Ted Woodford 😉
@@Sammywhat the key to friction free frets!😃
Maybe they don't glue the nut in because they just expect you to replace it.
@@AnnoyingCritic-is7rp nah these are bone nuts. They are good. There were signs of glue residue in the notch but just not enough 😃
Good evening JMan!😊🎸🫶🫶👍
@@estenray5385 good evening to you 😉!
Oh yea. Concerning the nut. I never glue my nut in. Because im paranoid because i did some work on a guitar awhile back. When i went to replace the nut, it was epoxied into the nut slot. What a nightmare that was. I had to recut the nut slot.
So now i just use tape on the back side of the nut and just fit it snug in the slot.
👍
Epoxy seems like the nightmare meme of nut placement, lol. Oooph. I've never seen a taped nut (along with a large list of things ive yet to see) but it sounds prety slick if it works, right?
@@Vern859 epoxied? That's a little excessive for sure. String tension will keep it down. The glue, and just a minimal amount, keeps it from moving left to right under excessive bending. Some nuts are not in a slot. They are just butted up against the edge of the fret board. Those especially need glue!
Hey J, how did you know that, that’s exactly what I’m gonna do to mine when I get around to it 😱always good stuff going on in the basement!💪💪💥👍
@@guitarzan0515 great minds think alike! 😉
Hey J! Que paso, holmes? You sure do some good with vids like your A-B of this one. I like the TRAIN philosophy. I think it's real helpful. I'm curious on one thing. I tilt the hammer and use the round corner of the hammer head on the close frets, but I use the rubber side to distribute the impact shock and to minimize reshaping the crowns, so I gotta ask. If you consciously decided to use the metal side to test-tamp your high frets, is it presumptuous to ask why? You do good work so I'm really kinda curious. Thanks. And very cool videos, bud.
@@wasteddude9387 hey thanks man! Good to hear from you😃. To answer your question, stainless steel or nickel silver frets, are harder and less malleable than brass, so a light tap should not flatten the crown. Secondly, any fret I address, whether reseat or file, I always recrown anyway and then repolish along with the others... Again I'm not a luthier, I just share what I do with my stuff... Do what works for you😃
@@j-man9457 Thanks. Always good to hear from you. I appreciate it. You're right, of course, stainless steel is next to impervious. Keep up the good work. For what it's worth, I notice that you often declare you are not a luthier. And I suppose it's prudent to say because it's true that we are not luthiers in that woodcrafting sense. But we aren't crafting acoustic guitars, so that level of woodworking will never even be relevant in our chosen field of electric guitars.
However, that fact in no way devalues the knowledge, instinct, insight, and skill, it takes to excel in our field. And conversely speaking, most of them will never need to master the intricacies of electronics; pots and pickups; amps and pedals; impedance and capacitance; how to keep it all working together.
I'd like to believe some significant woodcrafting talent is required to shape electric guitars and to do proper neck and fret work. Also, considerable industry-wide effort goes into the search for that universally acceptable new shape. And a remarkably few electric guitar players will even think about doing their own fretwork. Furthermore, it's kind of surprising how many won't even change out their own pots or pickups.
Alhough it may be prudent to distance ourselves from luthiers, I don't think it's as much "disqualifying" as much as it is simply contextual. Let's not dismiss the fact that some people who build exclusively electric guitars, from blank blocks to plug-in playable completion, do refer to themselves as full fledged luthiers, even if CNC machines and teamwork are involved.
I'm just saying, I think the only difference between your current set of skills, and those of a luthier might simply be time and experience at some generally accepted level. And that's not just smoke. If you think about it, you keep adding to your TRAIN station; in terms of both, the details you address, and the tools required for them. I like your StewMac gauge tools for filing the nut (in the first video). Frankly, I think you'll go as far as you choose to go, simply because you can. Just sayin...
@@wasteddude9387 thanks man! Much appreciated! It's just something I love to do. Take something rough, and make it a great player!🤘😉😀
Fantastic🎉🎉🎉🎉
@@knowglobal-Redwoman thanks!
It would be nice if the neck pocket were tighter and tidier-that sounds like the biggest issue on this model so far. It’s kind of a shame, because the roasted maple neck and that rounded neck heel on the back of the body look really nice… Maybe Westcreek hasn’t started their second run yet. At this price point, I’d say this is perhaps the nicest looking Telecaster clone out there right now, since Firefly and Musi both seem to have disappeared. 😔
@@zuperdee wow firefly too? Interesting!
Yeah great guitar for the price for sure. Yes a tighter neck pocket would be nice, but I have seen and worked on fenders that were worse. Once seated and properly torqued, they don't move😀
@ Yeah, Firefly at the moment seems to have sold out their entire stock on a lot of their mainstay models, including the FF338, FFST, and FFTL, which has me a little worried. I kind of wonder if Firefly used the same factory as Musi for some of their models. The FFSP (Les Paul copy) seems to be virtually the ONLY model that they have an abundance of stock of now. I really loved the last batch of FFTLs they made-those were (along with Musi) some of the best Telecaster clones anyone has ever made, in my opinion.
@zuperdee hmmmm guess time will tell 🤔
Hey J-Man, I just bought the blue version of this West Creek telecaster copy. Any idea which locking tuners would work with this guitar. I don’t want to buy the wrong ones.
Thanks,
Jamie 🙂🇨🇦
@@jamieremus277 hey yeah I have used these and they are direct fit no mods required!
Musiclily Pro 6 inline Guitar Locking Tuners Tuning Pegs Keys Machine Heads Set for Fender Stratocaster Telecaster Electric Guitar,Chrome a.co/d/0epBt5M
🤘
@@j-man9457 Thanks J-Man. 🙏🏼😀
@jamieremus277 no prob man! I put Musiclily parts on many of my guitars. Great quality and very well priced!
Let me know how it turns out!
@ just ordered them. Thanks 🙂
TRAIN your guitar looks like it works geat. Now if I could only get the guitar to TRAIN me
@@rainerjaschke5216 hahaha! Good one! I would like that too😃
I can play a few licks but I have no Idea what I'm doing lol