My First Parts Assembly

Do0d! I just pulled the trigger on a guitarfetish - Telecaster Style body SOLID ASH Clear Gloss Finish! Now the fun begins!

Edited to correct - I'm merely assembling parts. My apologies to you masters who do all your own woodwork. That's beyond my current skill and tool base - sorry y'all :oops::oops::oops:

Already have plans for the fralin designed all parts neck (http://www.fralinpickups.com/necks.asp) and the Analog Man Jim Weider Big-T Telecaster neck pickup (http://www.buyanalogman.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AM-BIGTPickup) that I've been oogling for some time now. I'm willing to be convinced otherwise though. Now to scheme the rest!

I'd like to get an authentic Broadcaster bridge pup as possible. With so many choices, I'm lost with option overload!

I've lurked here for sometime learning enough to have done mods on my #1, a MIM Nashville. As the cast off parts started accumulating, the craving to scratch build one started hurting too much to not indulge. Now the impulse is to pull out the stops and assemble the best of the best instead of a castoffpartscaster. Plus I am also desiring to build an Esquire.

Sorry for rambling the excitement has me all atremble. More to follow when I can focus better.

Scampers off to browse the web for Tele-bits...

David Allen replicated a set of pickups from my original 1951 fender pickup that may interest you.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups/335110-david-allen-colt-51-a.html

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David Allen replicated a set of pickups from my original 1951 fender pickup that may interest you.

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups/335110-david-allen-colt-51-a.html

Awesome picking Colt!! Sweet chiming pups too! I thought a little more and (at least for the current hour) think I might try building and wiring an Esquire first. I've waited this long for that neck pup. And if the pain gets too great I can put it in one of my other Teles.

Starting with a Esquire (although it is a two pup route) will 1.) maybe satisfy my longing to do it and 2.) be an educational experience in how to wire one up. I've only just started trying to understand the tone circuits.

I don't have an extensive woodshop, so I'll be cheating by getting a prefab neck and already finished body. I can see in the future I may be getting more bodies as my fever worsens...

Thanks again for the videos, I checked out the link and added the Colt '51 bridge to my got to get list, and fantastic picking!!
PS: If heaven isn't as pretty as the Shenandoah Valley, I'm not staying!

Body Shipped today!

no shame in a parts assembly build! i think 99.8% of people who make bodies and necks now started with a partscaster. i know an esquire will be my first scratch built body, but necks still scare me too much to think about it....

good luck on it! loads of fun and learning ahead

no shame in a parts assembly build! i think 99.8% of people who make bodies and necks now started with a partscaster. i know an esquire will be my first scratch built body, but necks still scare me too much to think about it....

good luck on it! loads of fun and learning ahead

Thank you twiggymac! Gosh yes the neck is so important to get right, and so many parts. I have a bunch of walnut planks from a tree in my folks yard years ago. I would love to one day make a body and neck from it. But that is light years away in terms of tools and skills. I looked at scroll saws at the local hardware store a while back. If I can ever stop buying guitar gear, maybe one day...

Looking forward to seeing your Esquire build!

glad to motivate a little bit! the esquire build will only begin when i get my old bandsaw working, which needs a new tire....aka.....hell.

not going with gfs pickups in this baby? i know their fatbody neck pickup is a favorite amongst tele users but i havn't been in the tele fanclub long enough to be experimenting with pickups!

glad to motivate a little bit! the esquire build will only begin when i get my old bandsaw working, which needs a new tire....aka.....hell.

not going with gfs pickups in this baby? i know their fatbody neck pickup is a favorite amongst tele users but i havn't been in the tele fanclub long enough to be experimenting with pickups!

I duno enough about the GFS pups yet to know. I've been lusting after that analogman/fralin for a while now. I've been on his waiting list for a King of Tone pedal for a year now, well thought I was. My time came and went with no word, so I sent a query. I'm hoping I get treated fairly, or I may look elsewhere, like to David Allen's Colt 51, or I'll give Lollar a call since he's local.

My plan this week is to do an Esquire first, even though the body has the neck route. That way I get a better start on understanding tone circuits. I've read up on the Eldred mod and want to try that...

So may options, so little time!

Great sounding clips!

Great sounding clips!

Definitely! That bridge pup is going into at least one of mine, probably the Nashville to start with.

Been away for a while, work and life have been crazy... In the midst of it all I've still been busy, busy, busy with the fever.

Summary of accomplishments / on going projects while continuing to research, plan and re-plan and gather parts for the Telebuild:
(Warning, not all tele related.)

1.) Installed a set of SD Alnico2 Pro p'ups in my Epi Les Paul.
This involved removing the 85/81 p'ups and tone circuits that were in it when I bought it off the local free classifieds. I tried unsuccessfully to build a new tone circuit using some old Asian 500k pots that were taken out of an Epi LP Gold Top when it's harness was upgraded. So, the new p'ups are wired directly to the switch and jack, running wide full open. Sounds like your little sister's Chevy Vega screaming across the desert at 60 mph -- in first gear! Volume and EQ done either at the amp or with an MXR 10 band EQ pedal.

2.) While accompanying a friend to pick up his new (used) bass amp, I scored a 1972 Les Paul Custom (a player that has had a hard life for sure, but complete with the original T-tops, love 'em or hate 'em,) and a 1968 Bandmaster amp silverface with the blacklines. I've not pulled the chassis to verify which circuit it has but it sure sounds sweet (elsewise I would not have bought it.) I A/B-ed it with a '72 Bassman in the shop and ick, that Bassman sounded thin where the Bandmaster was full of all the creamy smooth clean Fender goodness I've been craving. My teles sound so damn good through this thing, esp after I learned about jumpering the channels!

3.) Playing "musical chairs" with pick ups. (Ordered a Colt '51 from D.Allen! He's awaiting a shipment of materials...)

Not going to bore you with the details, BUT this led to my very first completed partscaster build -- Just finished yesterday! The first strat I bought from the local free ads was the source for most parts. In my ignorance at the time I got ripped off. Long story short, it was a partscaster too. The neck is from a MIM strat, and I bonded immediately with it! The tremolo is a GFS solid block, it has genuine Fender tuners, cheap generic characterless alnico p'ups, and a way crap body.
When I was ordering tele necks on a blowout discount (more about that later) the gent found an unfinished swamp ash strat body also on blowout. I rounded up a genuine fender tortoiseshell pickguard and a set of CS Texas Specials, grabbed the harness and pots from the original donercaster and voila! The strat of my dreams!! Which IMHO is the whole reason for learning how to do this in the first place. *HUGE THANK YOU to all the wonderfully helpful folks here, because without your sharing, I would never have had the knowledge or courage to take on these projects in the first place!* Since it is a strat and not a tele, I'll have to find the right place to post pics of it, although for administrative efficiency on my part, sure would be nice just to post everything here...

So, back to my OP! After much cogitation, I've decided I have two projects going, one is a Telegib, the other is still in formation. The Big T pick up is here, and ready for me to load into one of the teles I have until it finds permanent home.

The first tele body I ordered, the one that I mentioned was shipped in a previous post was ordered from the lowest price place I could find, ~$85 shipped. It looks kinda grey and lifeless. It is northern ash, so I guess I should give it a fair chance, and eventually reckon I will. But it just doesn't inspire the same swoon as the swamp ash strat body does.

From that experience, and learning the hard way with the blowout tele necks that one does indeed get what we pay for, I ordered the Telegib body from Warmouth using their new beta configurator. It should be here in ~four weeks, as I am having them finish it too. (I wish I had the facilities and tools to do the woodworking and spraying here, but for now, I have to be content with merely assembling sourced parts.)

Seeking out proper necks now. I do love an ebony fingerboard, and have been tinkering with bhefner.com's configurator... There there are the guitarpartsonline.com bargains. Dare I go with the cheapness again? Perhaps I should post pics of the blowout necks to see if any of the masters here can recommend if they are salvageable.

I have the Telegib p'ups. Found the JM in the case of a local shop. It had been there so long, the fellow marked it down for me, and then was kind enough to find a used JB. The set cost $100 plus tax.

My Telegib is not meant to be a direct quote of Jeff's original, or Seymour's re-creation. The spirit of the Telegib, to me, is to make the details what you want. In that spirit, I found a set of tuners I like, the vintage slots. I'm planning on using the tele half bridge like Jeff's because I like string through, and I believe this style may contribute more "teleness" to the way the strings vibrate. (Points to supply of ten foot poles leaning up in the corner.) I've never heard Seymour's gibsoned tailsection, but the bridge p'up tones on Because We Ended as Lovers, and Freeway Jam ignite something inside me. I ordered the body for wood mounted p'ups, and will see how I like that or whether pickguard, humbucker tele bridge mounting is the solution.

I've most recently been trying to research wiring. The JB/JM set I have are both four wire versions, so I would like to see about experimenting with coil splitting. I found the wiring libraries of Fender, SD, Deaf Eddie, and Phostenix, as well as some others. Enough to make my head spin, being numbers challenged and no EE. I'm not so into series/parallel as I am wanting to see the options of running each 'bucker as such individually and together (Gibby style.) Then seeing about single coiling each for the same combinations, and one single and the other normal and vice versa. Nothing too fiddly though.

If you are still reading, wow, here's a beer! And many thanks. This was a summary to catch up with where I've been and what I've done in the interim.

I am also still swapping pick ups in and out of my Nashville tele. At present it has the stock tex-mex bridge (this is where I'll install the Colt '51 when it arrives,) a strat lace gold in the middle (still searching for the perfect strat middle,) and SD SH-55 in the neck. I have a set of hot golds to experiment with in the middle, as well as another set of Blue, Silver and Red I just put in another strat (found both Lace sets on closeout at the local Geetarz-R-Us. Haven't completely bonded with them. They are stratty, but in a cold way. Still determining if I just haven't dialed them in or if they aren't for me. Not all guitars/p'ups work easily with the Bandmaster clean, yet sound good through the Vox NT15.)

I'm also scheming about trying out one of the SD Alnico 2 Pro 'bucker in the neck, which would free up the SH-55 for my Epi 175 RI... or maybe the '06 LP Studio neck... So many combinations, so little time. Lots of these configurations take time to fine tune and fiddle with. Good tone most times has to be worked for. It doesn't just happen, except in the rarest moments, like when it all came together with my new custom assembled strat, which btw is calling me to come play...

If anyone is interested, pics of my journeys are available for posting.

In case you haven't noticed I get so excited and inspired as I work and play that I tend to be like an Hyperactive, ADD, emo ferret on meth...

...scampers off to...

Oh yea, another inspiration I'm chasing is a tele bridge, humbucker middle, and strat neck...

Time for doing it, ciao for now!

Quite boring without pictures, yes. So here are the earliest for the first planned build, the northern ash body:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/tele1/body.jpg

Musings on the telegib project. This shows a Gibsonized tail like Seymour's. I think I'll try the three piece brass tele like Jeff's first. The paper over the control cavity is for the MXR Equalizer in the background. Inspired by running the p'ups in my Epi LP full on as described elsewhere in this thread. Hold that thought for another build...

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/telegib/mock1.jpg

Once the necks arrived:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/tele1/mock1.JPG

Can't say I'm thrilled by the combination. I've been looking at bhefner.com as noted above for a neck with an ebony fingerboard. Should go nicely with the analogman/fralin Big-T neck and the Colt '51 bridge...

The overcut:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/tele1/nutcut.JPG

In my rookieness, I need help with knowing if this is usable. This is a side view of the nut, the tuners are to the right. It looks like whoever did the cuts were asleep at the wheel.

HELP from you wise ones please... Is this a salvageable condition?

I tried to photograph the imperfections on the fretboard too. Between the nut and first fret, on the bass side it looks like either the planer grabbed the wood, or the finish is smeared. All three necks have both the overcut and the surface flaws. One even has cracks in the finish above the 12th fret. I'm planning on calling the supplier to let them know. Since I bought these on a blowout deal, I don't expect return/refund/exchange - however there is no information on the site listing that these are rejects. Otherwise I would have spent the neck money elsewhere...

I loaded the JB/JM pick ups in a test platform only to find out that the screw coil on the JB is shorted out. Next time I buy a used p'up, reckon I should take the multi tester to the store. Going back tomorrow to see about a refund.

The '72 LPC purchase was accompanied by a bag of assorted goodies, one of which is a replacement TonePro string stop. Set it aside for *if* I Gibsonize the tail end of the telegib.

Taking a cue from some of the others who have posted non tele builds, I'd like to share my modest projects. Mind you I'm working with hand tools in the livingroom of my cave. Maybe one day I'll be able to tool up a woodshop, but I'd probably ruin a lot of nice wood until I gain more experience in all this.

Rather than sprinkle my projects out all over the place, I'd like to share then here in one stop. I just finished my first assembly. It wasn't a pure sourced parts build. The first strat I ever bought from the local free classifieds turned out to be a fake. The neck is decaled up like an '02 MIM:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/headstock.JPG

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/neckbutt.JPG

I immediately bonded with this neck. It just feels like home to me.

The body however turned out to be a softwood aftermarket. It looks like it was originally painted black then oversprayed with white. It is a gorgeous cool white and came with a sweet pearloid white pickguard.

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/fakecaster1.JPG

The roughest route I have ever seen. Any insights?

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/fakecaster2.JPG

I described it above as having cheap alnico pickups. So cheap that they have the smallest windings I've ever seen... and 500k pots!

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/fakecaster3.JPG

The new body arrived in the same shipment as the afore mentioned questionable tele necks:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/bodyfront.JPG

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/bodyback.JPG

I'm really digging the grain!

Next I set about checking my options. Although I was pretty certain about using the 02 MIM neck, I wanted to see how it looked with a rosewood neck.

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/mock1.JPG
http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/mock2.JPG

After comparing, I decided to stick to the original plan of just moving all of the useful parts from the fakecaster over to the new body. It just called out to me for a tortoise shell pickguard.

The body wasn't without its imperfections too. The neck pocket wasn't shaped right for the pre drilled holes to line up.

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/neckfit1.JPG

I took this as being a good thing in the long run, because I could grind it down for a very tight fit. Much better than being too sloppy loose.

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/neckfit2.JPG

I carefully snugged the neck down:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/neckfit3.JPG

Next I positioned the GFS solid tremblock that came on the original fakecaster:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/tremmount1.JPG

Once placed and secured, I finished the pilot holes for the rest of the mounting screws:

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/tremmount2.JPG

Mounted the spring bracket. (Note to self, nest time angle the screws out a bit!)

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/tremmount3.JPG

Loaded up the Texas Specials, trying at this point not to tremble with excitement too much to be able to hold the iron and screwdriver...

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/pickguardload1.JPG
http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/pickguardload2.JPG

Fitted and fastened the pickguard down, strung, and tuned her up and voila!

http://persistentfolly.org/Studio/Build/Strat1/Binah1.JPG

Sweet, sweet sounds through the '68 Bandmaster clean, and the Vox Nighttrain 15 in all configurations.

I know this is anticlimactic for the pros who are building from raw stock. It was a huge step forward for me and quite a learning process. A small step toward the next two total sourced builds.

Practice on a strat so that I have better skills for the tele builds!

Thanks for reading this! Any and all feedback is quite welcomed.

Scampers off to plug in and wail a while...

The David Allen Colt 51 arrived today!! YaYs! Going to for a test drive today in one of my others until I get the neck sorted out on my first build.

Still waiting on the telegib body from warmouth for the second build. Returned the defective used JB bridge and bought a fully functional used one.

Time now to round up the hardware for both!!

Just installed the David Allen Colt '51 bridge in my Nashville tele and OMFG! Since I seem to be the only one reading this thread, I'm going to post a TOTAL RAVE ab out it in an appropriate thread.

If you want an authentic tele pick up ORDER THE DALLEN COLT 51 (http://www.dallenpickups.com/nocaster_tone_for_your_telecaster_p/ap-clt51.htm) NOW!

The Tort pickguard is perfect!

Thanks Glen! Next is finding the right beige colored p'up covers and knobs...

That's a nice looking Strat!


By the way - Is Stinky Kitty the same as Smelly Cat?


No soup for you! Oh wait, wrong show. My bad :oops:

That's a nice looking Strat!
By the way - Is Stinky Kitty the same as Smelly Cat?
No soup for you! Oh wait, wrong show. My bad :oops:

HAhahaha... Thanks nosmo! I guess we're both fetid felines, jumping through the kitchen window to stealth some soup :grin: