My 1969 Bastardcaster is getting a makeover (450 year old pine content)

[wallis222]

My #1 Tele is beat-up partscaster made in the 80s for/by a Toronto studio musician. The highlights being the neck, tuners, and neck plate from a 1969 Telecaster, and the bridge p/up from an early 60s Tele. It looks to have had a home made body done at some point (pine, ash, alder???), with a strat style hardtail bridge, and brass tremblock fit into the body.

The pickup configuration was HB/S/S. The neck bucker was not actually a bucker but one of those old Valco single coil pickups disguised as an HB that came in early Airline and National guitars. I changed this pickup to a Dimarzio Air Classic. The middle pickup was a flat pole grey bottom Strat p/up from a late 1975 Strat. I changed this to a Fender CS Robert Cray sig. The bridge p/up is a beautiful old Tele p/up as mentioned earlier.

I've always wanted to have a new body made for it with your typical Tele wiring and hardware. However, the guitar sounded amazing and I was afraid that the new body wouldn't sound as good. In comes Tim Frank, a local Toronto luthier, who happened to have a piece of really old pine.

I met Tim at my part-time gig just around the corner from my house - selling high end bicycles. Tim stopped by with his brother who was looking for a bike. They made a couple comments about guitars, so I spoke up and mentioned that I was a player as well. We started talking about our instruments and collecting guitars when Tim's brother mentioned that Tim makes his own guitars. I said "Yeah, I've thrown together a few myself. Do you make them from scratch, or from parts?" I wasn't expecting him to tell me that he did the entire fabrication process right down to custom metal work for the hardware. Long story short.... he mentioned that he had an old piece of pine from the Queen's Wharf in Toronto.

The wharf was built in the 1830's in downtown Toronto on Lake Ontario. Toronto was the old shipping port of the town of York. The wharf was buried in landfill later that century when the town decided to extend Toronto's border further into Lake Ontario. The lake is 193 miles long (311km) and 53 miles wide. The lake is bounded on the south by New York State, and serves as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean via the St Lawrence River. The old wharf was rediscovered in 2007 when excavating for a condo development and the wood was sold locally for artists, furniture makers, etc... Tim had the good sense to snag a piece.

The seller had an expert date the wood based on growth ring counts. It is estimated that the wood started growing in the 1500-1600s, and has been cut and drying now for almost 200 years. Whilst underground for over a hundred years the timbers absorbed the minerals in the earth creating an amazing color palette, especially for pine.

Tim will be building me the tele using a template cut from an original Fender Broadcaster. Clear (slightly tinted) nitro will be used for the finish. I told him to surprise me with hardware (within my budget) but keep it vintage style. I'll be using the original bridge p/up, and I've ordered a late 50s-early 60s replica neck pickup from the Pickup Wizard.

Below is a before picture of my Tele, a picture of the wood to be used, and a couple pics of Tim's work. I'll update with pictures throughout the process.

[wallis222]

more of Tim's work...

[wallis222]

Neck pickup came in. As mentioned - replica of a late 50s to early 60s era Tele neck pup to match the original bridge pup. Made by the Pickup Wizard.

[Colt W. Knight]

Very nice work.

[wallis222]

Body has been shaped.

[dr_zaius]

500 year old pine. That's gotta be a pain to cut. Nice results though.

[wallis222]

Originally Posted by dr_zaius

500 year old pine. That's gotta be a pain to cut. Nice results though.

Yeah he did a good job.

The grain is really amazing in person. I can't wait until its got a coat of lacquer on there.

[wallis222]

Quick mock up. Low quality photograph, but better images to come.

[Maricopa]

500 year old pine. That's gotta be a pain to cut.

Ahh, It's nothing compared to winding pickups while wearing a baseball glove!

[wallis222]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

500 year old pine. That's gotta be a pain to cut.

Ahh, It's nothing compared to winding pickups while wearing a baseball glove!

It's all worth it because the tannins from the leather and the dirt from countless ball diamonds are infused into the pickup bobbin resulting in pure American tone! Ear wax potting is my other tone secret.

[Maricopa]

Is it even legal to get a 'Pure American Tone™' from Canada?

[wallis222]

Originally Posted by Maricopa

Is it even legal to get a 'Pure American Tone™' from Canada?

Yeah, it just costs more.

[frankentele]

One word... yum.

I wish I could find wood like that

ken

[wallis222]

Sealer coat has been applied!

[Rockdog]

That old pine is pretty. You know the old saying that something has aged like fine wine? Well, they should change it to fine pine.

[kwcsports]

looks beautiful!!

[Flemtone]

Wow! That's gonna be gorgeous.

[wallis222]

@Flemtone
@KWCSports

Thanks guys!

[TheRumRunner]

Another Hog Town follower here.

Kwell build.

DW

[wallis222]

Update 'cause its been so long...

The process was at a stand still because it's been so stinkin' hot here in Toronto the last couple of weeks. We got a bit of relief overnight Friday/Saturday and I just got word that Tim (the builder) was able to spray some nitro in the wee hours of the morning. He said that it'll need a couple more coats before it's ready for curing.