Monahan
Attention all planets of the Solar Federation...
In a typical month at our church, I'm scheduled to play guitar every other week. On the in-between weeks I often play bass.
This Sunday there was some kind of scheduling goof where our other guitarist had got called into work, and I had to fill in last minute. Having been scheduled to play bass, I didn't have any of my guitar gear, so I used what had been in the storage room (for the last year or two(!)
The Tele is an old parts-caster with quality stuff-- and it's LIGHT weight(!) The pedal board is mainly a ToneX thing with an HX-Stomp. Honestly, I'd rather have just used the Stomp-- the ToneX didn't sound any better than the Stomp, and as such felt redundant-- one more thing to go wrong (which happened on this very occasion).
My current rig, is one of two PRS Teles, and my Helix:
To put things into context, I'm a Guitar --> Tuner --> Amp kind of guy. At church however, we are forced to have a "quiet stage," so everything goes direct. We have a rotation of three sound-guys; our best is an Army reservist currently deployed to a far-off land, the next is okay, and the third does his best-- and usually gets help along the way.
So typically, much of the house mix is set at the beginning, and we can adjust things from our rigs as we go along.
That on-the-fly tweaking is a piece of cake with my PRS. With this parts-caster on the other hand-- that was a real headache. That guitar was either really LOUD, or barely audible, with a volume control that was either on or off, and a tone control that had a long throw, but not very useable-- and on a Tele with a flat-coil bridge pickup-- control was challenging. It was tough playing with dynamics, which is required in these tunes.
Both guitars reward a confident player, but beware if you're unsure-- everything is transmitted directly-- loud & clear! On the Myles Kennedy, the electronics are a godsend compared to the parts-caster. Christmas Eve for example, I had the Helix on a cranked Marshall setting, then rolled the volume down on the MK, all the time remaining on the bridge pickup, using the tone knob to craft the sound throughout the night, and the volume knob controlling the level of crunch.
At rehearsal I took advantage of the opportunity to run the parts-Tele through its paces. It's setup exactly how I like a Tele, with a humbucker in the neck and a single coil at the bridge. Usually the neck pickup is my go-to, but this one was more of a mud-bucker-- and really difficult to find a pleasing tone (boy, have I been spoiled by PRS pickups!). In my old '52 reissue, the configuration of neck humbucker/bridge single was my favorite. On this guitar however, the only useable setting was the bridge, with the tone rolled back about 25% For a Tele, the neck was quite a bit too shallow (front to back), feeling like the dreaded typical "C" shape. *Rant* Why are so many guitar companies afraid to build guitars with large necks? Why does everything have to be a "C" shape... ugh!!!
Frets on the parts-bunny were flat. Flat like an old 70s Gibson that had been well played. On one hand it was fun re-living those days through this guitar, but man how much more I appreciate the PRS frets! For many years I've worked at developing a light touch with the fretting hand, but these low, flat frets took more effort to play and brother, how my wrist was sore afterwards. The owner of parts-bunny is an acoustic player who squeezes the neck so tightly that he's in danger of getting splinters after the chorus-- as such, he really likes these low, flat frets.
Strings on the borrowed guitar felt like 10s, but had a bit of rust beginning, so I avoided bending notes. Being always mindful of breaking a string, I changed my approach a bit and enjoyed being forced to play differently. Thankfully I made it though without breaking any strings, and volunteered to give the guitar a little TLC before returning it; she's on the work bench as we speak awaiting a new set... probably 8s this time around
Well, this went much longer than I anticipated, so my apologies.
I've been feeling guilty about taking so long to do an A/B review of the Myles Kennedy and NF53, and thought a comparison with the Franken-Tele would be interesting. Also been trying to think of a way to present the A/B in a way that hasn't been done on every other forum LOL! More to come on that real soon~
This Sunday there was some kind of scheduling goof where our other guitarist had got called into work, and I had to fill in last minute. Having been scheduled to play bass, I didn't have any of my guitar gear, so I used what had been in the storage room (for the last year or two(!)

The Tele is an old parts-caster with quality stuff-- and it's LIGHT weight(!) The pedal board is mainly a ToneX thing with an HX-Stomp. Honestly, I'd rather have just used the Stomp-- the ToneX didn't sound any better than the Stomp, and as such felt redundant-- one more thing to go wrong (which happened on this very occasion).
My current rig, is one of two PRS Teles, and my Helix:

To put things into context, I'm a Guitar --> Tuner --> Amp kind of guy. At church however, we are forced to have a "quiet stage," so everything goes direct. We have a rotation of three sound-guys; our best is an Army reservist currently deployed to a far-off land, the next is okay, and the third does his best-- and usually gets help along the way.
So typically, much of the house mix is set at the beginning, and we can adjust things from our rigs as we go along.
That on-the-fly tweaking is a piece of cake with my PRS. With this parts-caster on the other hand-- that was a real headache. That guitar was either really LOUD, or barely audible, with a volume control that was either on or off, and a tone control that had a long throw, but not very useable-- and on a Tele with a flat-coil bridge pickup-- control was challenging. It was tough playing with dynamics, which is required in these tunes.
Both guitars reward a confident player, but beware if you're unsure-- everything is transmitted directly-- loud & clear! On the Myles Kennedy, the electronics are a godsend compared to the parts-caster. Christmas Eve for example, I had the Helix on a cranked Marshall setting, then rolled the volume down on the MK, all the time remaining on the bridge pickup, using the tone knob to craft the sound throughout the night, and the volume knob controlling the level of crunch.
At rehearsal I took advantage of the opportunity to run the parts-Tele through its paces. It's setup exactly how I like a Tele, with a humbucker in the neck and a single coil at the bridge. Usually the neck pickup is my go-to, but this one was more of a mud-bucker-- and really difficult to find a pleasing tone (boy, have I been spoiled by PRS pickups!). In my old '52 reissue, the configuration of neck humbucker/bridge single was my favorite. On this guitar however, the only useable setting was the bridge, with the tone rolled back about 25% For a Tele, the neck was quite a bit too shallow (front to back), feeling like the dreaded typical "C" shape. *Rant* Why are so many guitar companies afraid to build guitars with large necks? Why does everything have to be a "C" shape... ugh!!!
Frets on the parts-bunny were flat. Flat like an old 70s Gibson that had been well played. On one hand it was fun re-living those days through this guitar, but man how much more I appreciate the PRS frets! For many years I've worked at developing a light touch with the fretting hand, but these low, flat frets took more effort to play and brother, how my wrist was sore afterwards. The owner of parts-bunny is an acoustic player who squeezes the neck so tightly that he's in danger of getting splinters after the chorus-- as such, he really likes these low, flat frets.
Strings on the borrowed guitar felt like 10s, but had a bit of rust beginning, so I avoided bending notes. Being always mindful of breaking a string, I changed my approach a bit and enjoyed being forced to play differently. Thankfully I made it though without breaking any strings, and volunteered to give the guitar a little TLC before returning it; she's on the work bench as we speak awaiting a new set... probably 8s this time around

Well, this went much longer than I anticipated, so my apologies.
I've been feeling guilty about taking so long to do an A/B review of the Myles Kennedy and NF53, and thought a comparison with the Franken-Tele would be interesting. Also been trying to think of a way to present the A/B in a way that hasn't been done on every other forum LOL! More to come on that real soon~
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