I'm building my first Tele

[jonvo4591]

Hey everyone, I'm a noob on this forum.

I recently decided that I wanted a Telecaster of sorts. I looked at fenders, And saw I coudl buy a MIM Tele for around $500. This was ok, but I figured I wanted to put some money into upgrades on top of that $500, and that's kind of a chunk of change to drop on another guitar for a college student.

So I thought to myself, "Self, you built your first guitar (strat style) from a kit, why can't you do it again?" I totally agreed with myself. That is when I decided to put one together from parts that I selected; this way I'll have around $500 into a guitar that I actually spec out.

Enough said. It's picture time!



This is the first "mock-up" It was the day all my hardware from GFS came in the mail. I had to see what it would look like on the body.

By the way, the body and neck both were bought off ebay. The body is 2pc Swamp ash, and the neck is a licensed Allparts piece, Its a freaking huge solid chunk of maple.

A few days later I commenced work on the guitar. I started by fitting the neck to the body.

I measured a center line, lined the neck up, and put in in a clamp to help hold it in place.

The holes were drilled, so I ran the screws in and out a couple times.



Got the neck plate on, and the body and neck were peacefully coinciding with each other.



You can also see my strat in the pic :)

When I was done with this little project, my bedroom floor looked like this.

[jonvo4591]

Nextly, several weeks later, It was Christmas break. I decided to get some more done on the old telecaster.

I didn't get any in-progress shots of me drilling holes or anything like that, I was just screaming through it and I would have had to borrow my sister's camera again. So here are several pics of the guitar assembled with all its hardware, minus the electronics:


The string ferrule holes didn't line up perfectly on the body when I got it, but WHO CARES? nobody will see them cause I'll have this thing strapped around me all the time!


The back of the peghead



Those are all the pics I've got for now, but I did recieve my pickups from Bryan Gunsher at BG Pups, and I got it all wired up and playing before I finish it. It will be finished in butterscotch blonde nitro from Reranch. I'll get some more pics up, and maybe a sound clip or two before I tear it all back down for finishing.

[52Tele_lover]

That is a bueat mate. Id say just clear coat her, its a great peice of timber and itd suck to cover it, but im also a fan of the BSB sooo its a hard choice but its yours and not mine so im happy coz i wouldbe torn. anyway geting off topic again, amaing man.

[mgdesigns]

Those must be the new invisible stealth pickups - right? No buzz or distortion from that kind. No really - I bet it feels and sound great - acoustically, that is. FUN? Nice. Keep us all posted, and when you get it electrified - post a clip.

[Jeff_K]

Obviously those are the new noiseless pickups. I'm sure they work perfectly from the look of them.

[storyboards27]

Originally Posted by jonvo4591

When I was done with this little project, my bedroom floor looked like this.

Dude, that just means you're doing it right! My whole apartment looks like that!

Looks great! Keep up the good work.

[bossaholic]

I'm diggin the grain in that body!

How did I miss that on Ebay? Would make a great Springsteen clone!

Great job!

[jonvo4591]

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

Yeas, those are the new stealth pickups; cost me a fortune ...

Onto other things, I saw this body on ebay, it was from a store that had 2 ebay accounts and were just starting an independant store account for their guitar parts. I got the body and the neck from the same people. I'm very pleased with the grain on this body, you can't even see the joint in the middle. I think I'll try to make the grain show through a little extra when I lay some color on it.

It plays so nice, and the baseball bat neck fits my giant-size manhands perfectly. the maple is so easy to play on, and the big frets make it nice for doing barre chords. Sounded so good as an acoustic, I picked it up first thing cause it was so easy to play. I didn't put much time into the setup, so The frets above 12 are kinda buzzy and dead, but other than that, really nice

I've got it all electrified, but the firts time 'round with the wiring, I heated the Vol. pot too much, and fried it. oh well, I grabbed a crappy 500k I had from when I upgraded my strat, so its a little bright right now, but it's nice and twangy!

I tried to record a few sound clips, but my computer keeps putting some kind of phaser effect on it and it sounds like crap. I'll see what more I can do, and I wont' tear it down before I get a clip or 2 up for you guys :)

[jonvo4591]

Here's the sound clip for you guys. I kinda just set up and went for it, I haven't even listened to it myself, so it will be a surprise for everyone. My playing always seems to be sloppier while I'm recording something.... anyway, I couldn't do anything with any dirt, cause my computer just phased it out, so it's all cleans! I'm going through a couple pedals, but none were on, so its just the guitar into the mic input on my laptop.

here you are tele clip 2.wma - 3.10MB

I just did the quickest thing to upload the clip as possible. What's the best way to go about this?

[jonvo4591]

Just a short update for you who are following this.

I haven't made any progress on the guitar. I've decided to wait till the snowy weather leaves Michigan, when it gets a little warmer outside. I'm gonna finish the body and neck when that time comes. I got the reranch stuff all ready to go, so I can't wait.

I did undertake a project this weekend though, and the pic just so happens to show the tele with the pickups installed. It's a 6 guitar stand.

[birddog01]

When I saw your first picture I had to turn around and make sure mine was still in the stand cause you aren't that far away. Spent this weekend doing the same thing.
My body came from the same source and it has a very similar grain.
Pretty torn right now, I couldn't bring myself to drill the pick gaurd holes cause it would cover to much of it.
Be sure you post pics when you get it done.

Wally

[jonvo4591]

Originally Posted by birddog01

When I saw your first picture I had to turn around and make sure mine was still in the stand cause you aren't that far away. Spent this weekend doing the same thing.
My body came from the same source and it has a very similar grain.
Pretty torn right now, I couldn't bring myself to drill the pick gaurd holes cause it would cover to much of it.
Be sure you post pics when you get it done.

Wally

Hahaha, that's cool how you got the body from the same place. I looked at a few different ones from them, and they all had really nice grain patterns, but I chose this one. Once I received the body the butterscotch blonde finsih was confirmed, cause I wanted this grain to show through.

What are the specs on your build?

[jonvo4591]

I was bored the other day, so I installed the string tree on the headstock in true old-school style: I eyeballed it. After playing this thing all the time I've noticed a couple things that bug me. 1) the nut keeps sliding over so the low E string gets too close to the edge of the fretboard, 2) the frets above 12 didn't work. No biggie on that, I just raised the action a bit, and now all the frets work.

I've also noticed that an unfinished neck gets dirty :O

For all you picture lovers:

String tree


Dirty fretboard


More dirt


I can't wait to get finish on this thing to see what it will finally look like.

[homerzeppelin]

Wow, that neck is looking pretty sweet with the dirt.

I think you've just discovered the best way to quickly relic a neck!

[stevecrowley]

im thinking of doing something similar to this, but possibly with an old fender body from ebay. maybe a bigsby bridge kit... idk we will see lol

[loog]

looking fwd to progress

[fernando]

You've got a wonderful body grain!

I'd finish it without filling the grain, using shellac, amber shellac and maybe wax at the end, same for neck except wax, for an "old log" look and feel

congratulations

[marz]

Jonvo - nice work! It looks awesome. I'm just starting on my first - a similar build. Do you mind a couple of questions?

How did you get the neck aligned and then hold it in place for clamping? I see the clamps, but what did you use to reference the alignment?

When you installed the tuning pegs, did you pre-drill the screw holes, and what size bit did you use?

Thanks!

[jonvo4591]

A quick update for you guys. I've just been playing the heck out of the tele, and Its probably my favorite feeling guitar of all mine, It's gotta be that baseball bat neck!

anyway, I have plans to finish it this spring/summer, and I've got the stuff to do the butterscotch blonde, but I'm gonna try to make it pretty translucent to display the grain a bit.

The neck is getting pretty dirty, I think it looks pretty sweet, but I'm not too sure yet on what to do for finish, I love the feel of the raw wood.

Marz: To answer your questions, To align the neck, I scribed a center line on the body, then I took some straight pieces of wood or rulers (I don't remember what) and held them against the neck. I eyeballed the ends of the sticks compared to my center line, and made a couple marks. I measured to get it all centered up, and then I clamped it down, drilled, and bolted it on. As for the tuning pegs, I did predrill the holes, but I think the bit I used was a little too small because the screws went in kinda hard. I'll have to get some new ones, cause the heads kinda stripped out a little putting them in. What I did was just drill some test holes on a piece of scrap wood and try the screw till I got the fit I wanted, to make sure I didn't go with too big of a hole.

Hope this helps!

[fernando]

(...)
>but I'm gonna try to make it pretty translucent to display the grain a bit.
(...)
>I love the feel of the raw wood.

imho, the answer for both is... shellac! :)

[Lucretia]

Can you show us a pic of the neck (the profile)? You say it's a baseball bat, but what's the profile of the thing?

Thanks,
Luke.

[jonvo4591]

I guess its just a fat neck, I have giant hands, and it fits in my hands perfectly, i was just using "baseball bat" as maybe an exaggeration

[jonvo4591]

I recently just blasted the guitar apart to begin with the finishing of the body. I will update my progress and I'll try my best to take pics of it all.

[bullitt]

Very good job,nice body.

[jonvo4591]

I've been seriously slacking on this finishing job since I kept doing a little at a time on my various other projects.

So far, I got the body sanded to 320, grian filled, sanded again, and just put the 2nd coat of grain filler on today. tomorrow I can sand the excess off, and get to spraying!

I have no progress pics to share, and I can bet I'll get carried away with finishing and not take any of that either. BUT I promise I will have a finished pic of the body, and one of the guitar when it goes back together.