The 22-fret maple neck on the Telstar is one
of the finest, most advanced features—Baker
has designed a compound radius neck that
has a huge feeling at the nut, but tapers off
smoothly to increase playability at the higher
frets. The taper really allows you to adjust
your playing style between the two designs
as well. Open chords really twang and pop,
while the thinner profile higher up allows
for lightning-fast leads. “Maybe someone’s
never going to go past the third fret, and
just plays cowboy chords,” said Cultreri.
“They’ll love this guitar, too. Someone who’s
going to push the instrument to the extreme
is also going to appreciate this instrument.”
The bridge pickup is one of the few standard
accoutrements on the Telstar: every model
has a Tele pickup in the bridge. “What’s
the strongest trait of the Telecaster?” asks
Henderson. “The bridge pickup. What’s the
weak link on a Strat? The bridge pickup. So
it makes perfect sense to use a Tele bridge
pickup in this guitar.” There are eight different
pickup combinations in all, each using a
Tele pickup in the bridge. From there, any
combination you can think of—and some
you might not, at first—are possible. For
example, how about a Tele/Strat/Tele lineup,
or a Tele/Strat/Humbucker? Notched tones
with two Tele pickups? Sacre bleu! All of the
pickups are made by Jason Lollar specifically
for Underwood’s design.
DAG sent us three different models to
check out, each bringing something different
to the table. Two of the guitars are
Sonic Blue, following in Fender’s fifties
tradition of using automobile colors on
guitars; the third is a blonde. Each one has
been masterfully reliced by Underwood,
who has worked closely on every detail.
The peg heads are tarnished, the paint is
chipped, and the pickup magnets look like
they’ve seen years of playing.
In addition, a two-tone sunburst, a Mary
K greenguard and a butterscotch blackguard
are offered right now. “When we
started messing around, we were like, ‘Man,
wouldn’t it be great to offer the fifties custom
colors!’ ” says Henderson. “All these
colors came from car colors, and we started
looking at colors that were a little more
esoteric. Over the next year, we’re going to
start exploring those colors too.”
Each guitar in our office now also has a different
bridge than the standard options:
one has a Glendale vintage Tele “single cut”
bridge, another has a Glendale “hardtail”
Strat bridge, and the last has the aforementioned
Chimemaster Tremolo, but with
steel saddles. One also has the Tinker Street
pickup option. There are numerous other
options for customization, as well. If you
want a two-tone Telstar with a Tele/Strat/
Humbucker lineup, a Tele-style pickguard,
and Strat-style top hat knobs, it’s yours.
If you’re crazy about a Strat and a Tele,
but wish the (relative) shortcomings of the
one were compensated by the strengths
of the other, the Telstar might just be
your dream guitar. With the list of options
available, you’ve got the ability to dial in
exactly what you want.
“We have Gene constantly working on pickguards,
bodies, necks—there’s always interchangeable
parts and pieces, so that we can
always have a little bit of a backlog,” says
Henderson. “That way, when someone calls
for a specific combination, chances are we’ll
have what we need, unless it’s a complete
oddball. So many people just want to be
done. They don’t want to do any more work,”
he adds. “And that’s what separates us—
that’s what artistry is: following an idea to its
logical conclusion.”
For more information:
Destroy All Guitars