Official Kudgel Web Site

I originally purchased this guitar on tour in March of 1993 from Southpaws in Houston. I had picked up an ESP explorer as a back up for this tour and after a few shows the neck on my SG became seperated at the body. The ESP was horrible and was not cutting it as a main guitar.

When we hit Houston we went right over to Southpaws. They had an incredible collection but we barely had enough money for gas, so a purchase was out of the question. I saw this tele and it was reasonably priced around $300. I brought the ESP in for them to look over for a trade and they intially did not want to do an even trade. I must have looked really upset, because after a few minutes the salesman tells me I look like a good christian boy and agrees to the trade. They tell me the guitar previously belonged to a session guitar player from Nashville and that it was a homemade body with a vintage tele neck. It came with an enormous Anvil road case that eventually became a coffee table somewhere.

I played this guitar hard for several years and then when my music career died down, seven years ago, I sold the guitar to my friend Dave Gwiazdowski for few hundred bucks. I had repaired my SG and was not doing much musically so I foolishly let it go. Dave lovingly played the tele in several NYC bands including his latest Saint Bastard. Here's a picture of Dave and the tele from October of 2004.

Last year Dave was coming home from a practice in Brooklyn when he was mugged and the tele was stolen. Dave told me what happened and we both were heartbroken. Several weeks later a NYC detective located the guitar in a Pawn Shop and the tele was returned to him.

When Saint Bastard came to town, Dave let me hold the tele again, which prompted me to bombard Dave with phone calls and e-mails, trying to get the tele back. We eventually worked out a deal and the tele returned to me on Superbowl Sunday 2005.

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Now it's 13 years later and the tele has come home and I decided it was time for some tender lovin care. I took all the parts off the guitar, including the neck. The wood is swamp ash and it had an open grain and the guitar never had any finish on it. So the soft parts of the wood had begun to wear away, especially just above the pick guard.

I carefully hand sanded down the body and got it ready for stain. I started with Colonial Maple but decided that it was to orangey, so did a couple of coats of Red Oak and it made it just the right shade of brown.

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After staining it I applied 7 coats of antique oil, using steel wool in between coats, then I applied 3 coats of Butcher's wax and buffed it up. I must say the finish feels incredible.

Now I had a pile of parts and I lacked the technical skill to put it all back together. Enter Guitarczak, Curt Florczak, who had an ad on Craig's list. I showed him the goods and he set off to refret, rewire, clean up the crusted ashtray, saddle, bridge, put on a new nut and then re-assemble with a new pickguard and knobs.

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So to conclude, the Telemonster rides again. It feels much better than I remember and it plays even better. I'm so happy that the guitar is back home. I am forever grateful to Dave Gwiazdowski for agreeing to the trade, to Curt Florczak for the great repair work, and to my wife for understanding. Mark Erdody February 2005

Guitarczak