Photo 1 — Photo courtesy of singlecoil.com
Players who don't want to change guitars onstage often ask us if we can cross a Stratocaster with a Telecaster. After exploring this Strat-Tele concept for many years in our shop, we came up with a custom model called the Riptide (Photo 1). The ideal “crossover" guitar combines both electrical and physical attributes, and I'll describe both in case you want to build your own Riptide-inspired guitar. That said, simply implementing Riptide wiring into your own standard Strat will bring you closer to a crossover guitar than anything you may have tried before.
Before I describe how to do this, let's summarize what most players seek from merging these two worlds. They want the comfort and playability of a Strat with its deeply contoured body, neck profile, and balance, as well as its parallel-wired, bridge-plus-middle and middle-plus-neck pickup combinations. For the Tele, the appeal lies in the twangy, snappy sound of its bridge pickup, a dedicated bridge tone control, the “boxy" tone of the neck pickup, and the guitar's distinctive bridge-plus-neck pickup combination (again, wired in parallel).
Physical construction. Our basic platform is a Stratocaster body plus a maple neck with a soft V-profile and rosewood fretboard. For the body, we use extremely lightweight swamp ash, which was what Fender typically used for early Telecasters. (There are vintage swamp ash Strats, but Teles were more common.) For a classic Tele look, we finish the body in butterscotch blonde. String-through-body construction plays an important role in Tele tone, so we skip the tremolo, opting instead for a hardtail Strat bridge with 6 individual saddles. On a Tele, the bridge pickup mounts directly into the metal bridge—another key ingredient in classic Tele tone—so we use a metal Strat pickguard to place some steel around the pickups. We powder coat our pickguards, but alternatively you can paint them.
Electrical layout. The main goal is to cram as much Telecaster vibe into the Strat wiring as possible without overwhelming those signature Strat tones. Balancing the pickups is tricky: You want a bold Tele bridge tone, yet also the clucky bridge-plus-middle Strat sound. And you want the boxy character of the Tele neck pickup, yet it should look like a Strat pickup and have some of its sonic glory.
To allow the bridge and neck pickup to work together in parallel à la Tele, we connect an on-off (SPST) switch to the neck pickup. This is nothing new—it's the good ol' Stratocaster “7-Sound" mod. (The subject of our September 2008 column.) We altered the layout of the two tone controls so one knob works with the bridge and neck pickups (as on a Tele), while the second one controls the middle pickup.
The bridge pickup is constructed like a Telecaster bridge pickup, yet it's shaped like a Strat pickup so it fits the latter's pickup covers and pickguard. It has the typical Tele metal baseplate and is custom wound to emulate an early '50s Tele bridge pickup. We offer all the Riptide pickups individually or as a set for a decent price, but a viable alternative is the Seymour Duncan Twang Banger Strat APST-1. Simply adjust it a tad lower than usual for a good Strat tone when paired with the middle pickup.
The Riptide middle pickup has the same winding direction as the bridge pickup—it's not a reverse-wound, reverse polarity (RWRP) model designed to cancel hum when combined with the bridge or neck pickup. We did this to emulate the beautifully open, defined tone of vintage Strats. Because the middle pickup has to compensate for what the bridge pickup lacks in Strat character, we had to tweak its construction to create classic bridge-plus-middle Strat tones. As an alternative, I recommend a Fender Custom Shop '54 Strat or Fender Texas Special middle pickup, but the latter is RWRP, so be careful not to end up with an out-of-phase ensemble.
Fig. 1 — Wiring diagram courtesy of singlecoil.com
The neck pickup has a Strat shape, so it too fits a Strat pickup cover and pickguard. It sounds like a typical Tele neck pickup when combined with the bridge pickup in parallel, but like a Strat neck pickup when played solo with the tone control wide open. Depending on the tone cap you use, the neck Tele tone emerges when you roll the tone knob back about 30 percent. We've never found a pickup like this on the market, but there are metal covers (open and closed) available for Strat pickups, and if you put one on your existing Strat neck pickup, this will get you into the tonal ballpark. For extra shielding, you can run a wire from the metal cover to ground, just like on a real Telecaster neck pickup.
We use an open-frame 5-way switch, three 250k audio pots with a vintage 60:40 ratio, NOS 0.05 µF ceramic disc caps from the early '60s, and cloth-covered wire. The Riptide wiring diagram (Fig. 1) shows all the other changes compared to a standard Strat wiring. That's it!
Next month we'll try to stuff as much Stratocaster goodness as possible into a Telecaster. Until then ... keep on modding!
Gibson originally launched the EB-6 model with the intention of serving consumers looking for a “tic-tac” bass sound.
The Gibson EB-6 was announced in 1959 and came into the world in 1960, not with a dual-horn body but with that of an elegant ES-335. They looked stately, with a thin, semi-hollow body, f-holes, and a sunburst finish. Our pick for this Vintage Vault column is one such first-year model, in about as original condition as you’re able to find today. “Why?” you may be asking. Well, read on....
When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye. The real competition were the Danelectro 6-string basses that seemed to have popped up out of nowhere and were suddenly being used on lots of hit records by the likes of Elvis, Patsy Cline, and other household names. Danos like the UB-2 (introduced in ’56), the Longhorn 4623 (’58), and the Shorthorn 3612 (’58) were the earliest attempts any company made at a 6-string bass in this style: not quite a standard electric bass, not quite a guitar, nor, for that matter, quite like a baritone guitar.
The only change this vintage EB-6 features is a replacement set of Kluson tuners.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
Gibson, Fender, and others during this era would in fact call these basses “baritone guitars,” to add to our confusion today. But these vintage “baritones” were all tuned one octave below a standard guitar, with scale lengths around 30", while most modern baritones are tuned B-to-B or A-to-A and have scale lengths between 26" and 30".)
At the time, those Danelectros were instrumental to what was called the “tic-tac” bass sound of Nashville records produced by Chet Atkins, or the “click-bass” tones made out west by producer Lee Hazlewood. Gibson wanted something for this market, and the EB-6 was born.
“When the EB-6 was introduced, the Bass VI was still a glimmer in Leo Fender’s eye.”
The 30.5" scale 1960 EB-6 has a single humbucking pickup, a volume knob, a tone knob, and a small, push-button “Tone Selector Switch” that engages a treble circuit for an instant tic-tac sound. (Without engaging that switch, you get a bass-heavy tone so deep that cowboy chords will sound like a muddy mess.)
The EB-6, for better or for worse, did not unseat the Danelectros, and a November 1959 price list from Gibson hints at why: The EB-6 retailed for $340, compared to Dano price tags that ranged from $85 to $150. Only a few dozen EB-6 basses were shipped in 1960, and only 67 total are known to have been built before Gibson changed the shape to the SG style in 1962.
Most players who come across an EB-6 today think it was a response to the Fender Bass VI, but the former actually beat the latter to the market by a full year.
Photo by Ken Lapworth
It’s sad that so few were built. Sure, it was a high-end model made to achieve the novelty tic-tac sound of cheaper instruments, but in its full-voiced glory, the EB-6 has a huge potential of tones. It would sound great in our contemporary guitar era where more players are exploring baritone ranges, and where so many people got back into the Bass VI after seeing the Beatles play one in the 2021 documentary, Get Back.
It’s sadder, still, how many original-era EB-6s have been parted out in the decades since. Remember earlier when I wrote that our Vintage Vaultpick was about as original as you could find? That’s because the model’s single humbucker is a PAF, its Kluson tuners are double-line, and its knobs are identical to those on Les Paul ’Bursts. So as people repaired broken ’Bursts, converted other LPs to ’Bursts, or otherwise sought to give other Gibsons a “Golden Era” sound and look ... they often stripped these forgotten EB-6 basses for parts.
This original EB-6 is up for sale now from Reverb seller Emerald City Guitars for a $16,950 asking price at the time of writing. The only thing that isn’t original about it is a replacement set of Kluson tuners, not because its originals were stolen but just to help preserve them. (They will be included in the case.)
With so few surviving 335-style EB-6 basses, Reverb doesn’t have a ton of sales data to compare prices to. Ten years ago, a lucky buyer found a nearly original 1960 EB-6 for about $7,000. But Emerald City’s $16,950 asking price is closer to more recent examples and asking prices.
Sources: Prices on Gibson Instruments, November 1, 1959, Tony Bacon’s “Danelectro’s UB-2 and the Early Days of 6-String Basses” Reverb News article, Gruhn’s Guide to Vintage Guitars, Tom Wheeler’s American Guitars: An Illustrated History, Reverb listings and Price Guide sales data.
Originally released in the 1980s, the Victory has long been a cult favorite among guitarists for its distinctive double cutaway design and excellent upper-fret access. These new models feature flexible electronics, enhanced body contours, improved weight and balance, and an Explorer headstock shape.
A Cult Classic Made Modern
The new Victory features refined body contours, improved weight and balance, and an updated headstock shape based on the popular Gibson Explorer.
Effortless Playing
With a fast-playing SlimTaper neck profile and ebony fretboard with a compound radius, the Victory delivers low action without fret buzz everywhere on the fretboard.
Flexible Electronics
The two 80s Tribute humbucker pickups are wired to push/pull master volume and tone controls for coil splitting and inner/outer coil selection when the coils are split.
For more information, please visit gibson.com.
Gibson Victory Figured Top Electric Guitar - Iguana Burst
