TS Electric Guitar

Our TS model duplicates the classic Fender Telecaster^® body but with our modular pickup system built in! You’ll get the same style, balance and feel but with a premium USA build that has no limits to the pickups you can snap in. We’ve actually improved the body by thinning it down to 1-1/2 inches, adding a forearm bevel and a belly cut, sculpted the neck heel and upgraded the hand-built neck to a zero-fret system. If you want a slab-sided body we can do that, just let us know. The default model is a hardtail but we can add a Kahler floating tremolo for superb control and buttery-smooth action. The passive electronics feature a 6-way switch so you can get that neck+bridge pickup combination that a standard 5-way can’t provide. A 9V battery compartment is built in so that you can use active pickups anytime you want, even combining them with passives! If you only play passive pickups then a battery isn’t needed.

Three half-size cartridges come with this guitar and give you six tone combinations, so it’s like buying six guitars in one! Add just two more of those cartridges and your combinations jump to 20! Use any pickups you want, active or passive, mix and match to find new and exciting tone combinations. Full-size cartridges are also available and they can hold up to 3 pickups, most commonly S-S-Slant or H-S-H or S-S-H. Cartridges are solderless and re-usable so you can switch out pickups yourself anytime you like, and order additional cartridges to build your tone library like you never imagined you could!

Every Somnium USA guitar comes standard with premium features like stainless steel frets, locking tuners, slim Schaller bridge, heavy-duty Qijack input jack and a hand-made USA neck with a traditional style headstock. A full list of the standard features is below. The standard fretboard is Maple but you can change that with options on the Upgrades page. You can list the color you want in the notes and basic solid colors are included in the base price. We can do all sorts of specialty finishes so contact us if you have a special request. Default guitar orientation is right-handed but if you want a lefty guitar, that’s no problem!

If you like the classic strat-style body shape but you want a world of tones at your fingertips in a professional-level guitar, you have come to the right place.

Somnium TS standard features include:

22 medium-jumbo stainless steel frets, 25.5″ scale, 12″ radius, modern C profile
Zero-fret system with TUSQ XL guide nut
Hipshot USA locking tuners
Alder body
6-way selector switch
Schaller roller bridge
Qijack output jack
9V battery for active pickups
Dunlop USA Straploks®
ABS hard case

We include three of our machined aluminum half cartridges, or one full cartridge and one half cartridge. Select “Three Half” or “Full Plus Half” under the default cartridges options. Either way we include two great Kent Armstrong single-coil pickups which can be P90, Humbucker, T-Style Neck, T-Style Bridge or single coil S-style. After you place your order we’ll contact you to verify which pickups you want and to review any final details on your build.

 Video Description of Pickup Cartridges

Please visit the cartridges and pickups pages to order additional cartridges and pickups. Also visit the Guitar Upgrades catalog for additional options. Additionally, if you order the pickups from us (or send us your own) we will install and test them for you at no extra charge.