The Ghost Tele
Okay, this should be a fun project. I've been playing some
guitar synth lately and I've decided to put together a USA Deluxe Telecaster with
the Graph Tech Ghost Hexpander system. A nice Roland ready Telecaster if you will...
I called the good folks at Graph Tech and they set me up with everything
I'll need to make this thing a MIDI monster. I'll document the whole process for you.
My big shop still isn't finished but hopefully I can do this out in the garage.
Here's a rundown of the Graph Tech parts:
PN-8101-00 Ghost Saddle Pickups Offset USA Telecaster
PK-0440-00 - Ghost Hexpander Preamp Kit
This kit includes:
PE-0111-00 Quick Switch
PE-0440-00 Hexpander Plus Preamp
PE-0181-00 Hexpander Volume Pot
PE-0180-00 Momentary Switch
Here's the willing patient, a Black USA Fender Deluxe Telecaster:
Since I'm going to run the piezo leads through the bridge, the first thing I do put some masking tape
on the bridge under the saddles and draw a line around the stock saddles before I take them off. Notice I also
draw a line where the string comes off of the saddle. Doing this will ensure you have a good idea where the new
saddles will be when they're intonated. This is very important because you don't want to drill a hole in the
bridge for the piezo leads and drill it in the wrong place. You want to make sure the saddle height adjustment screws
don't fall in the piezo lead holes and that the holes don't stick out in front of the saddle.
Next, I put a dot where I'm going to drill the piezo lead holes and then center punch it.
Here you can see where I used a center punch. Everything looks good and the holes should be
directly under the new ghost saddles when they're intonated.
Holes are now drilled for the piezo leads. An 1/8" hole is plenty big enough.
I also de-burr the holes on the top and bottom to make sure there's no sharp
edges that could cut the piezo leads.
I have now installed the Ghost saddles and you can see how the wires pass under the bridge.
TIP - You'll need to remove the tiny connectors on the piezo leads in order to fit them through
the 1/8" holes you drilled. Use an ex-acto knife and carefully lift up on the tabs holding the wire in the connector.
Now the fun part! You get to rout some cavities for the piezo leads and the Graph Tech Hexpander board.
I'm really picky about this kind of thing and I like to use templates so the cavities are nice and straight
like they would be from the factory. I know that the bridge and pickguard will cover everything, but I know
what's there and I want it to be as clean and professionally done as possible. Here I'm using a humbucker pickguard
pickup template (from StewMac) with a template router bit. You need the pocket under the bridge so the
piezo leads have room to pass though. You don't want to smash the wires when the bridge mounting
screws are tightened up. The cavity doesn't have to be real deep. An 1/8" or so will be plenty.
Cavities complete.
Since this is a Tele, it's going to be a bit more challenging because you have to drill some holes
for the ribbon cables and such that pass through. You don't want to
blow out the whole area like you would on a Strat. You have to have something left to attach
the Tele control plate to. I used a 12" long 1/4" aircraft bit and drilled three holes
side-by-side that pass through into the control cavity. Then, I opened them up with a file.
Next comes the output jack. I'm not going to use a 1/4" jack at all on this guitar, so I opened up the stock
7/8" hole to accommodate the 13-pin jack. I use an Axon MIDI controller and I use pin-7 on the 13-pin for my
magnetic pickup output feed. I don't like using both the 13-pin cable and a 1/4" cable live. Too many cables.
13-pin jack finished.
All the routing is done and it's time to start putting this puppy together! Notice the ribbon cable
from the Hexpander board to the output jack.
One Seymour Duncan Little '59 installed!
You can see that the piezo wires will rest in the pocket and pass through into the bridge pickup cavity.
Piezo leads and bridge pickup get routed through into the control cavity.
Now I mount the bridge. I remove the adjustment screws on the saddles so it's easier to
get to the bridge mounting holes. I just hold the saddles out of the way while I'm tightening up
the bridge screws.
Bridge is ready to go!
Here's a trick I do on Tele control plates in order to get the right placement of extra switches.
I put some double-stick tape on the control plate and I mark a center line between the volume and tone pot
mounting holes. You could spend a lot of time measuring and measuring again and still not get it right. Too much work!
Now I stick the knobs on the tape where they'll be located when the pots are installed. Make sure
they're centered with the pot mounting holes.
Now I stick the mini-toggle face washers on the plate where I want them. Notice the center
line goes through the center of the washers. Now, I center punch the center of each washer
and drill with a 1/4" bit. If you do it this way, you'll be sure that your switches
will be in the right location. Plus the double-stick tape helps keep you from scratching the plate!
Pots are installed and switches are in. Since I want to keep this Tele looking stock as possible,
I'm using a 250K stacked concentric pot for the volume and tone. The other pot (where the stock tone used to be)
is now the synth volume and gets plugged into the Hexpander board. The center mini-toggle is my
series/parallel switch for the Seymour Duncan Little '59 bridge pickup. The toggle on the right is
MIDI program up/down and the switch on the left is to switch between magnetic pickups, synth or both together.
I connect the Ghost piezo wires to the extender ribbon cable which plugs into the Hexpander board.
She's getting there!
Since I want my passive pickup output going through the 13-pin cable, it's necessary to connect
the pickup output (from vol & tone) to the Hexpander board instead of connecting to a 1/4" jack
like you normally would.
Now I'm feeding the rest of the control switch cables through to the Hexpander board.
She's just about ready to fire up!
1/08 UPDATE 1/08
She's all finished! Everything works pretty well. It took a while to get the sensitivity settings
adjusted in the Roland GI-20 to suit my claw and scratch playing style lol, but I'm getting there...
I'm really happy with the results. I'd like to thank the folks at Graph Tech for helping me with my
bazillion questions. Thanks guys! :-)
Here's a demo test of Ghost Tele on Who's Cheatin' Who. Just jamming through
trading solos with the Tele tone, piano and some steel I did on Ghost Tele too. All parts with the
exception of the bass and drums were done on Ghost Tele. Audio quality
is not the best.