Dream Guitar Help / New to the Forum

Hey folks!

First post as a member. I've been trolling this site for a while now, perusing the various custom telecasters, parts-caster jobs, and formulating the guitar of my dreams that I've been pining over for some time. I've been a telephile for as long as I've been playing guitar (13+ years now), and have had an unrequited love affair with thinlines since I first played one; a beautiful old original from the 70's that may as well have been priced at a million dollars when I was fifteen or so.

Anyway, down to brass tacks: here's a mock up of the guitar I see when I close my eyes; the guitar I plan to bring to reality this summer:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/nocturneno7/ThinlineCabronita.jpg

I'm looking to spend as little as possible, without sacrificing quality. That is, I'm looking for "bang-for-my-buck" sort of options. I've contacted MJT about the body and neck combo because I'm looking for a black nitro finish, which will run me upwards of $700. Anyone have any experience with MJT?

As far as various parts go, the plan is:
— Single pup: Bare Knuckle "Mule"
— Greasebucket tone knob
— Single ply, no neck pup pickguard
— Modified 3-saddle bridge

I really love the feel of the old vintage guitars, and I'm aiming at a "closet-classic" sort of look on a guitar that sits somewhere between Esquire/Cabronita and Thinline (I plan on doing the 'relic' work the old-fashioned' way for the most part—maybe a little initial wear on the neck to break it in though).

I have a Les Paul Studio that I never play because I'm always plucking away at my tele, so I plan to sell it (as well as a lot of other equipment)‚ and use the money towards realizing this guitar.

So, if anyone cares to drop their two-cents and let me know if you have any suggestions, comments, ideas, etc., I'd love to hear what everyone has to say!

Best,
— Nick

Nothing but good things to say about his product and customer service. He made my dream guitar a reality.

That is a gorgeous instrument! Thanks for the reassurance ADinNYC! I've shopped around a lot and the quality not only seems over and above the rest, but I emailed them and got a super quick and extremely helpful response. Happy to hear that that's consistently the case!

Looks nice, I love Black/Black Tele's. The chrome bucker and cut off ashtray is also a nice touch.

Kinda off topic but where does everyone get the Mock Up pics I see on here? Is there a website or program somewhere just for that application? Thanks.

Here is a whole discussion of the mock-up process: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/44372-kisekae-telecaster-design-your-own.html

I also had to photoshop mine a touch for the cut off ashtray, and black pickguard screws (the large pickguard on thinlines make it look a little overly industrial with silver screws, almost like it's covered in rivets). I didn't go as far as trying to vintage tint the neck in photoshop or relic the humbucker, because the cover comes stock like this:
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/main/images/product/the_mule.jpg
So I plan on buying a nice, lightly used (not personally a fan of super shiny, chrome hardware) ashtray and sawing it off myself. But the virtual guitar builder actually did a great job of making me realize that some things I had in mind just didn't look good, and also didn't really feel right, but the photoshopping was very minimal.

with all this talk of ashtrays it would be funny as hell to make an ashtraycaster

+1 on MJT - they did an incredible job on mine.

Mark is awesome.
Any thoughts about Tele Custom-style binding?

FWIW, I bought the Wilkinson half-bridge for like $15, which is a cheap alternative to cutting a used one yourself.

Here is a whole discussion of the mock-up process: http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/44372-kisekae-telecaster-design-your-own.html

Oh man thanks, that should be quite helpful.

Well, the praises seem to keep on coming. I'll definitely be going through MJT. Thanks for the reviews everyone! I don't like going into projects sight-unseen, so hearing the rave reviews is really settling.

Where did you buy the Wilkinson half bridge for $15? Was it on eBay or a local sale? I've only seen it in the ballpark of $50. Also, do all Wilkinson bridges have compensated saddles? I'm looking for classic saddles, rounded or guided.

Ashtraycaster would be interesting. Maybe an experiment with "Ghost" pickups, so it looks like a pupless tele? Sounds fun.

guitar fetish has wilkinson chopped bridges with compensated saddles for $33. you could get a set of classic saddles and replace the compensated saddles. you could probably trade parts with someone on this board.

i like the look of your guitar but since you mentioned ghost pickups... i would stick a pickup in the neck position under the pickguard. scatter lee has a build thread like this on the board right now. get a 5 position super switch so you can wire up as many combinations as you can imagine. the look of the guitar wouldn't change at all but it would be a much more versatile instrument.

Oh, I don't think I would get the ghost pickups really. I just think they're an interesting idea. Maybe somewhere down the line. I plan on having the body routed normally for a single-coil neck route, but then covering it with the pickguard so that I have the option of dropping a pickup in there at some point if I want. Always good to have options.

For now I'm looking for a single pickup, and I'm happy with the sound of the pickup as it is solo (played it on a boutique guitar recently, and love all the tones it puts out). Ghosts are a neat idea though.

The only suggestion I would have is Moving the control knobs IMO I’ve always thought the layout for Strat controls are more practical especially for pinky grabs on the volume.

Great point! But is that even an option with a thinline? It's going to have to be top-routed, and the picture above would suggest that I'd have to find a way to back route as well and reshape the pickguard to accommodate for the positioning of the knobs.

Also, I have very long fingers; reaching knobs is rarely an issue, hah. But I'll definitely take the advice into consideration, thanks!