Mid 50's Catalpa Sunburst Esquire Build

[inapier]

 

[inapier]

Guitars weighs 6.5 lbs. Catalpa body, spare fender neck I had lying around. All nitro finish, stewmac vintage amber and lemon yellow in the center, stewmac tobacco brown for the burst and black on the sides. Vintage size stainless frets and a fralin vintage hot pickup.

 

[El Tele Lobo]

Absolutely gorgeous and nicely specked. VERY impressed!

 

[mad dog]

That is one spectacular body. Beautiful!

 

[inapier]

This was my first build with catalpa and prior to spraying I was worried that the natural color of the wood was too dark for the yellow to be bright enough. Although they have a similar grain pattern, catalpa is much darker in color than swamp ash. My next catalpa guitar scheduled for sunburst, I think I would experiment with bleaching the color of the wood slightly although this one turned out just fine. This is the most acoustically resonant telecaster I've ever played, I'm very impressed with the catalpa as a tonewood.

 

[brookdalebill]

Cool!

 

[thunderbyrd]

Very cool!

 

[rockymtnguitar]

Awesome - love the way that wood grain looks. Nicely done.

 

[drmordo]

I rarely like sunbursts, but that is beautiful.

 

[JDRNoPro]

Great job - congrats!

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

Awesome! Love a sunburst tele.

 

[otterhound]

This was my first build with catalpa and prior to spraying I was worried that the natural color of the wood was too dark for the yellow to be bright enough. Although they have a similar grain pattern, catalpa is much darker in color than swamp ash. My next catalpa guitar scheduled for sunburst, I think I would experiment with bleaching the color of the wood slightly although this one turned out just fine. This is the most acoustically resonant telecaster I've ever played, I'm very impressed with the catalpa as a tonewood.

Catalpa makes a fine sounding acoustic guitar . We have some sonic surprises growing in our own back yards . The Catalpa that I have is reddish in color but , the Catalpa that Bruce Sexauer harvested and built with tends towards being greenish in color .

 

[haggardfan1]

That looks amazing, love it!

 

[FuncleManson]

Guitars weighs 6.5 lbs. Catalpa body, spare fender neck I had lying around. All nitro finish, stewmac vintage amber and lemon yellow in the center, stewmac tobacco brown for the burst and black on the sides. Vintage size stainless frets and a fralin vintage hot pickup.

That's awesome. I just finished off this catalpa project this morning. Body cut by Woodtech and finished by Valley Classics. Warmoth roasted maple boatneck w/6105 stainless frets. Bootstrap Pretzel pickups. Also 6 1/2 lbs. Catalpa is lightweight with great grain. Its porosity concerns me a bit, but none of the woodworking sites I checked mentioned any problems holding screws, so I think it'll be OK.

 

[inapier]

Catalpa makes a fine sounding acoustic guitar . We have some sonic surprises growing in our own back yards . The Catalpa that I have is reddish in color but , the Catalpa that Bruce Sexauer harvested and built with tends towards being greenish in color .

This particular piece of catalpa was indeed green in color as you mentioned.

 

[otterhound]

Catalpa is the Arbor Day tree of the past . This explains the large trees available out there .

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

I just ordered this 3.6 lb Catalpa body, looking forward to giving this one a whirl. Not sure what finish but I'm thinking maybe a garnet shellac. I've read somewhere that Catalpa doesn't take stain evenly without a conditioner, just curious of the opinions from the experts.

 

[gonzo]

my first tele build,
is a catalpa body purchased from woodtech via reverb.
it is quickly becoming my favorite to play,
because of the really nice acoustic qualities,
that lend itself to loud studio volume play very easily.

 

[Lou Tencodpees]

my first tele build,
is a catalpa body purchased from woodtech via reverb.

Yep, I ordered mine from Woodtech as well.

 

[Willie Johnson]

Beautiful guitar. Nice job dude.