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Anonymous
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wox said:
Yes, we had worked that out! But which one?
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Anonymous
Guest
Yeah those are bunbury's guitars aren't they? We already know about those!.
JohnA
Well-known member
Hi wox, and welcome to the forum. 
You seem to know more about these guitars that anyone one the forum, I think we're all still confused about how to tell the difference between a TE80 and a 120, if there is any information you can give us that would help it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
John
You seem to know more about these guitars that anyone one the forum, I think we're all still confused about how to tell the difference between a TE80 and a 120, if there is any information you can give us that would help it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
John
A
Anonymous
Guest
I think the truss rod adjuster decides the date. It's the one thing we know changed over the years.
I've just looked through some pics of 3 older guitars, around 1980, & all had the hex adjuster. Goldies, from 84 or 85 all have the cross head. I'm not sure when the change was made, does anyone have Springys or Breezys from 82 or 83? We might be able to work out when they changed.
I've just looked through some pics of 3 older guitars, around 1980, & all had the hex adjuster. Goldies, from 84 or 85 all have the cross head. I'm not sure when the change was made, does anyone have Springys or Breezys from 82 or 83? We might be able to work out when they changed.
wox said:
... and I didn't put those labels on them. I wouldn't like those pictures to become some sort of standard for future identification.
It think you're correct, but I don't have much to go on apart from the spag logo, which I think is original and makes the the date reasonably certain. As far as I know, the TE 80A only existed at the end of the 1980s (block logo) and the 120 was around in about 1980 (spag logo).
I've seen pictures of 3 or 4 with block logos, all were silver. I've only seen one with the gold colouring, and it's a spag logo - apart from stratman's, which hast lost its logo but appears to be 1980ish. Mark - do you have pictures of the other gold 120/80s you've handled?
JohnA
Well-known member
Thanks Wox, so is the gold binding and darker body colour a definite indication of a early '80's TE-120?
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Anonymous
Guest
Thanks wox, very nice guitar, but how can you be so sure which is which? And could you tell us what sort of truss rod adjuster your guitar has? Hex or cross head?
the_man
Well-known member
I don't know too much about nice bindings: but...
- a single ash body like Mike's is fairly rare and I only see it on my TE120s and TE150s (btw.: pics should still be on the forum); one was from Mark
- a 10 year flat sawn neck (instead of quarter sawn or 15-20 years flat for a TE120) maple does not fit the body
- the hardware and the electronics (especially the cap) point to a 1981 TE150
Rup
- a single ash body like Mike's is fairly rare and I only see it on my TE120s and TE150s (btw.: pics should still be on the forum); one was from Mark
- a 10 year flat sawn neck (instead of quarter sawn or 15-20 years flat for a TE120) maple does not fit the body
- the hardware and the electronics (especially the cap) point to a 1981 TE150
Rup
bluejeannot
Well-known member
Hey Mike check out the hand written n k z in green ink in wox`s pickup cavity,its just like the writing in your control cavity.Gabe.Does your guitar have "clay dots"Wox?wox said:
wox said:
Mine are:
TE-120 .. (gold)
7 digit Serial No: 10****2
Neck Stamp : very hard to read ?=1?K (=10K? =18K?)
Body Stamp : 10=10K
Pickup : 'A' (neck), bridge 'A'
Neck/Board : Rosewood
Spag Logo above rectangular spring tree
6 saddle bridge (bronzed + plate)
White scratch plate and switch button
TE 80A (silver)
6 digit Serial No: 01***9
full Neck Stamp : 3-3
full Body Stamp : 3-3
Pickup code : neither is marked on its base in a way that I can see (I now have a TE-A in the neck).
Neck/Board : Maple, skunk
Block logo below round spring tree
6 saddle bridge (silver + plate)
Marbled scratch plate and black switch button
Wox - your's look exaclty like mine. Even the scratch plates and switch buttons are the same colours. I had thought the white on my 120 was non-original. Looks like I was wrong.
I can't remember if the 120 is hex or crosshead, but the 80 is crosshead. If I can remember my photobucket login, I'll post some more photos of the innards of the 80, ditto the 120 (if I can find them).
I think we're making a very strong case for three 120s here. Altho' if any one wants to up it to three 150s ... well, thank you Rupert!
I think I posted earlier that I didn't know the pups in the 120 ... sorry, I was away from home and getting a bit doddery and confused. Nothing that can't be explained by age and alcohol. It's the 80 that has the unidentified pups.
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Anonymous
Guest
OK, after a long period of getting to know the guitar, I've finally replaced the Fender vintage type bridge with a Tokai 6 part bridge - many thanks to bobtastik for selling it to me at a fair price.
Before:
After - much nicer These are excellent Tele bridges.
The previous owner seemed to want to hide the guitar's Tokai ancestry - I'm moving things back in the other direction. I can't say I noticed any difference in tone after changing the bridge, but the Tokai bridge is far more comfortable to rest your right hand on, & it's nice to be rid of the annoying raised edges, which don't seem to contribute anything.
So that should have been it. Except that I wondered about that big rout under the scratchplate, & thought that maybe the time had come to try a humbucker or P90.......
The HB seemed to be more fiddly to fit, so I used the neck pickup I had previously removed from my LS85S. It's a rough job (it's a rough rout! :-? ) & I know the P90 isn't yet mounted straight, but it works. I think I like it. There's quite a big difference in tone between the bright bridge pickup & the warm & fat neck P90, but I think it might stay like this for a while. But what should I do about the looks?
My first thought was just to get a new scratchplate made with a P90 sized hole, but I was looking at it yesterday & I'm wondering if there's another way round it. Because it doesn't have a visible channel for the neck pickup wiring (like many Fenders have), it seems a shame to cover up the gorgeous sen with a bit of white plastic, so I'm wondering how feasible it is to get the roughly done rout patched up to leave just a P90 sized hole so I can keep it without a scratchplate. I don't imagine it would be easy to patch up a hole like that so that it isn't very obvious though.
What do you think?
Before:
After - much nicer
These are excellent Tele bridges.
The previous owner seemed to want to hide the guitar's Tokai ancestry - I'm moving things back in the other direction. I can't say I noticed any difference in tone after changing the bridge, but the Tokai bridge is far more comfortable to rest your right hand on, & it's nice to be rid of the annoying raised edges, which don't seem to contribute anything.
So that should have been it. Except that I wondered about that big rout under the scratchplate, & thought that maybe the time had come to try a humbucker or P90.......
The HB seemed to be more fiddly to fit, so I used the neck pickup I had previously removed from my LS85S. It's a rough job (it's a rough rout! :-? ) & I know the P90 isn't yet mounted straight, but it works. I think I like it.
There's quite a big difference in tone between the bright bridge pickup & the warm & fat neck P90, but I think it might stay like this for a while. But what should I do about the looks?My first thought was just to get a new scratchplate made with a P90 sized hole, but I was looking at it yesterday & I'm wondering if there's another way round it. Because it doesn't have a visible channel for the neck pickup wiring (like many Fenders have), it seems a shame to cover up the gorgeous sen with a bit of white plastic, so I'm wondering how feasible it is to get the roughly done rout patched up to leave just a P90 sized hole so I can keep it without a scratchplate. I don't imagine it would be easy to patch up a hole like that so that it isn't very obvious though.
What do you think?
DaveWW
Well-known member
Hi Mike,
Your getting adventurous :wink:
How about a dog eared P90 pickup cover and then you could fit it to a very small rectangular plate just big enough to cover the rout but equi-spaced to the cover all the way around.
Dave
Your getting adventurous :wink:
How about a dog eared P90 pickup cover and then you could fit it to a very small rectangular plate just big enough to cover the rout but equi-spaced to the cover all the way around.
Dave
A
Anonymous
Guest
I don't think that would fit Dave. The hole is just that little bit bigger than a humbucker mounting ring, so there is unlikely to be a plate available that would fit. Anyway, a dog-ear P90 would look wrong on a guitar like this, it needs to be the soap bar shape (IMHO).
I was just wondering whether a skilled woodworker could patch up the hole with suitably coloured (or stained) pieces of wood to leave me with a hole just big enough for a soap-bar P90? If so, it could look good. But it wouldn't be easy.....
I was just wondering whether a skilled woodworker could patch up the hole with suitably coloured (or stained) pieces of wood to leave me with a hole just big enough for a soap-bar P90? If so, it could look good. But it wouldn't be easy.....
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