My 1st El Degas:It's a Telecaster

[riotonsunset]

Hi! I have come to this forum before to read info about El Degas guitars but to day I won an El Degas Tele on Ebay so I thought I would join to share some photos with y'all.
Do you guys have any info on this model(when or where it was made(I know,Japan)?

I was wondering how El Degas compares to the other japanese guitars I own?

[charles]

Beauty!

Not sure how it will compare with your other guitars - the proof is in how it plays. I hope you enjoy your new guitar.

[riotonsunset]

Beauty!

Not sure how it will compare with your other guitars - the proof is in how it plays. I hope you enjoy your new guitar.

Thanks Charles! This tele looks similar to the '72 Ibanez 2352(except the Ibanez has the output jack located on the control plate).

[riotonsunset]

Here is my guitar,I got it yesterdayIt has a beautiful maple neck. The fretboard is birds-eye maple with abalone fret markers. There is something wrong with the bridge pickup but the ebay seller I bought it from is sending me an original replacement pickup for it

[charles]

Beauty.

[Barry]

Looks like you got a good one there man. You even have the bridge pickup cover, that usually goes missing.
I'd replace those awful knobs with some proper Tele ones though.

Ibanez is a "white label" brand owned by Hoshino. Their top end instruments (Artists, etc) were probably made in house but it's more likely their less expensive knock-off copies of American standard guitars were contracted out to other companies. This looks to be higher quality than Ibanez.

[riotonsunset]

Thanks Barry! I got the replacement pickup today. I dropped it off with my luthier so he can install it for me.





It's bigger than I thought it would be(next to the neck pickup in my Tokai)

[Barry]

Yikes! That looks you could jump start your car with it.
Some serious metal in that one I'm thinking.
BTW you said it was the "bridge" pick up that wasn't working, did you you mean neck, or is the bridge busted?

[charles]

How does the size of the replacement pup compare with what was in the El Degas? On mine it looks like the neck & bridge pups are about the same size.

By the way, that replacement is a neck pickup. The bridge pickup has a 3 screw mount.

[riotonsunset]

Thanks for the info. Yes the bridge pickup is broken on mine. I didn't release that was a neck pickup the seller sent me.The both looked the same size. I didn't see how the bridge pickup was mounted because I haven't been able to get the bridge cover off yet. Maybe I will just have to get the original bridge pickup rewound.

[charles]

Your luthier might also just have a bucket of Tele bridge pups sitting around That's what happened when I had one of my Tele's worked on - the luthier just put in a Wilkinson bridge pup he had laying around the shop when he discovered the existing bridge pup was not functioning.

[riotonsunset]

Your luthier might also just have a bucket of Tele bridge pups sitting around That's what happened when I had one of my Tele's worked on - the luthier just put in a Wilkinson bridge pup he had laying around the shop when he discovered the existing bridge pup was not functioning.

Would a standard tele bridge pickup fit in the El Degas Bridge?

[charles]

Your luthier might also just have a bucket of Tele bridge pups sitting around That's what happened when I had one of my Tele's worked on - the luthier just put in a Wilkinson bridge pup he had laying around the shop when he discovered the existing bridge pup was not functioning.

Would a standard tele bridge pickup fit in the El Degas Bridge?

It ought to. You should be able to put just about any standard import Tele pup in there without too much difficulty. I'm sure Barry will correct me if I'm wrong in that.

As I mentioned, a standard Wilkinson Tele replacement bridge pup went into one of my El Degas Tele's (black Tele Custom copy).

[Barry]

Wilkinson make some decent pups for reasonable money. They would be a good choice here. GFS as well.
Even if the fit is off slightly it's not really a show stopper.

[charles]

Even if the fit is off slightly it's not really a show stopper.

There's probably a pretty roomy route under the metal bridge plate, anyway.