Wood

Look at the neck towards the left side of the picture. The neck was cut against the grain for some reason. At the top of the shot is the nut of the guitar...this is the first three frets. The swirl along the side continues down the neck...like a serpent.




Here are the first two frets, the nut (which needs to be replaced) and the truss rod hole. The pattern in the wood is almost psychedelic and will age nicely if the poly wears off...or if I sand it off.
Sometimes, instruments have souls of their own  Independent of you, the player. They have personality and style. Not always...Some have a mass produced cookie cutter look to them. And then we modify them to further make them our own...as in my case with the knob swap.

Even the plain Jane body, which is a slab of pine, just as Leo made them in the early 1950s, has a simple grace to it. (Would they be so crass as to make a veneer for this...?)

These are supposed to be tools really. Do violinists sit and admire the grain? I have not seen piano players do this. French horn players comparing who got the better shade of brass coloring?
And especially in the case of this particular guitar - a relatively cheap iteration of the Telecaster line.
It was made in China in 2009.
Beats the pants off the Indian Strat as far as fit and finish - there really isn't much of either here.
It's.a.tele.
It's wood.
It has a soul...

Needs a name.

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