Official Luthiers Forum!

Some of ya'll may remember me talking tele a while back. This ash thinline body was a gift that sat unrealized in it's potential.

Don't you just hate all those projects you plan to do some day? Well, this is one of mine. Two years and counting, but I did get the ball rolling.

The body was stained, sanded, to kind of make it look worn underneath. Then I lacquered it, no sealer, big mistake. There just isn't enough lacquer in the world to make it seal off. So, I accepted my fate, heck no, I'm not stripping it, no way. Grin.

It buffed out pretty nice and the few gotcha's will remind me that I am a mere mortal for a while longer. Anyone play tele's? My noiseless Fender PUPs got backordered, so I'm .......back to the drawing board there.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce, unfortunately I can only afford to owne one electric at a time. My
last guitar was a tele with alder body, maple neck, and Fralin blues special
pickups. My current guitar is a Jazzmaster with strat electronics and
hardware. Lollar blonde pickups and Callaham hardware.

I think you'll enjoy the guitar. It seems like you decided to go with your
original plan after your tele thread.   

Just for fun, my current setup is:

Above mentioned guitar --> Planet waves tuner --> Keeley modified
bluesdriver --> Keeley modified TS808 tubescreamer --> TC Electronic
Nova delay --> T-Rex Replica delay --> My tweaked Matchless Lightning
clone.

All cable is Sommer Spirit from lavacable.com.

I'm very seriously thinking about selling some or all of this in order to get
a Fractal Audio Axe-Fx. Thinking is on hold for a few weeks until winter
break begins.

James, You have to understand, I don't play guitar.

So, I have this body someone gave me, sitting unused.

I could have tossed it in the swapmeet, or on Ebay.

An unceremonious end to a nice gesture of distant relatives. They had no idea I'm all acoustic. A guitar's a guitar right?   

As it stands, I've dropped over $400 bucks in this project. Yeah, I'd have loved to go with each of the suggestions, ratchet that up to about $1000 then. Yikes.

Secondly, I was somewhat inspired when a young man at church, leaves his nice electrics home and uses his second-hand prize Tele a Japanese Fender with Noiseless Pickups.

My thoughts were to clone Andy's Tele, because he so dearly loves it, Neck and pickups. I managed to secure a Japanese Fender License Neck. The Noiseless Pickups were backordered, so for now I plan on tossing in a set of Wilkinson (read cheap)on the Wilkinson Bridge (read, I saw them on Callaham's site too). I like the compensation. Andy's has Joe Barden's Bridge with angled brass saddles, pretty cool.

I did manage to snag an authentic Fender Deluxe Case by Fender and really like it.

This is on hold a few days, until my son's acoustic is out the door, then I'm back on it.

James, I thoroughly enjoyed the other thread and did incorporate some of what I learned, like the Electrosocket. Got that. I also heard the calls for Duncans and Fralins, and can always upgrade easily.

Remember this is my first electric.

I was amazed at the aftermarket parts available for both Strats and Teles. There must be a ton of money in this stuff. The place I bought my Tele neck offered it in five formats, mainly neck shapes, but also in birdseye and plain, finished unfinished....

So, the only thing I lack are backordered Fender dome Knobs for my solid shaft USA 250K pots and a better grade of pickups, eventually.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Woah Bruce, don't worry, it wasn't a criticism! There are so many
directions you can go with electric guitars. I think you'll enjoy what you
come out with.

You really don't play?

For now I'm thinking this may go to one of my boys should they show any interest.

Both lead worship on Acoustics, the oldest has a really nice Carvin Tele with humbuckers. The youngest has a really beautiful Epiphone Les Paul Flamed Maple Cherry Burst. Neither play their electrics.

Mainly I wanted to honor the gift of the Tele body... I'm undeterred with the minor setbacks (backorders and finish gliches) and excited to get it together and see what Andy thinks.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Hey Bruce did you pore fill? The ash Tele I'm waiting to wet sand and buff was a major PITA to get pore filled. Three applications of McFaddens natural filler for color, two coats medium CA, and I still shot four or five clear coats of sealer before I felt comfortable puttin any color on it. Whew! Ash sure is pretty but what a price to pay in the prep!

Kahle, Nah, no pore fill. I went from sanding the body to staining with house trim stain. Then I started in with nitro and woah man did it ever crawl. What a big mistake.

I have a gallon of lacquer Sanding Sealer now as a result. No more Mr. Nice Guy, I'm giving those pores hell from now on. As someone wisely said, finishing is the last half of guitar building.

Conquering finish is the last frontier for me. I'm heading out to finish the neck for that guitar. You can bet it'll get sanded and sealed before the McFadden's sees the light of day.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I'm shooting for a match of a Japanese Tele by Fender. The Allparts Fender Licensed neck was a bit thick, so rather than keep ordering all the different style necks I decided to take 'er down.

Careful measurement and averaging told me to rake off .050" all along the back of the neck for starters. So, I raised the neck at the nut end to level it with the body end. Then I fired up the Wagner and planed off 50 thousandths of the neck. I ended up with about a one inch wide flat all along the back, which I will fair into near the fret ends, going around the neck.

Can't wait until the sun comes up tomorrow. I also can't wait to get back on my acoustic building, the SJ for my son has me all pumped up.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Of course the idea was to precisely remove .050 inches all along the neck shaft rear. The Wagner did the job commendably. My first use of it for anything. Just seemed right. Proud to own that tool.





She's a Japanese Tele Neck licensed by Fender, so I guess that let's 'em sell a Tele Style neck without getting sued. Pay the piper and he'll play you another tune.

Well, I have my work cut out for me now, to get this neck back booth ready. Thanks for looking.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Microplane, and sandpaper wrapped on a small rolling pin covered with cork sheet.

I just walked in from the garage/ spray booth, first layer of lacquer sanding sealer laid down, hopefully by tomorrow I'll be spraying finish lacquer.

I'm pretty happy with the way the neck feels now that it's lost weight and reshaped. Way thin copy of Andy's Tele.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Bruce...I made a solid Tele from Ash as well. It took quite a few sessions of Z-Poxy to pore fill and get it level but once done, the Nitro went on smooth and eventualy looked like you could dive into the finish. I'm not so sure that sanding sealer is thick enough to fill those huge pores but I could be wrong.

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

JJ, That is precisely what I didn't do, seal the tele body. So, fisheyes.

I went to Sherwin Williams the other day and bought their sanding sealer to go with their lacquer, clear.

Two coats of sealer and sand in thirty minutes, what, get out of here? No kidding that is what it says on the can.

I'm happy to report that the sealer adhered well to the neck. I play to add some amber tint from STEWMAC and spray the neck tomorrow. After a light sanding of course and scraping of the frets, which coated over with sanding sealer.

So, in a week I should get this baby wailing! All I'll need then is a guitar player.....

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

This neck has two coats of Sanding Sealer and sanded.

Then two coats of Lacquer, I'm giving it one more. Looks pretty good already.

I'll let it harden for a week then buff and put this baby together. Rockin'-'round the Christmas tree. Now I need a Rocker.

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com