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If it sounds as good as it looks you have a keeper for sure. Just beautiful!

I just use a dewalt palm sander with 100 grit to shape necks. I then hand sand with 220 and 400. If I’m keeping it raw I’ll use 600 as well and will wet it before the 400 grit to raise the grain for super smooth results. If you are going to finish it you can stop after the 220. With no...

I think it’s cool and wouldn’t mind having that pickguard! Since the price will be prohibitive I’ll watch you guys play it.

I like GHS 9.5-44 nickel steel for Teles. I’d use a straight 10-46 set, but I occasionally get hand pain and thought I’d like to keep playing, so I changed. I do really like the tone and just a half gauge difference allows easier bending. They do sound different, but I would not say worse. FYI...

Foxrox Octron will do that and s lot more.

I’d go steel or titanium for a more open sound. I’m a Strat guy so it may not be too surprising I prefer that sound. I do have brass on an Esquire I made that is my #1 um Tele, but I think I’m going for Broadcaster style saddles soon. YMMV, but I actually get better intonation with straight...

It is slightly easier to just use 5 especially if you use the gauges Keef uses. You can still drop that low E to D and it works about the same. I built my own Micawber so I’m lucky to have a dedicated 5 string.

I’ve slowly started reshaping all my U shaped necks to V shape. As I am getting some arthritis going in my hands the V shape keeps a lot of wood for my big hands, but it eases the stretch on my thumb for great comfort.

Your attention to detail is staggering!

When I build guitars I always tape off the areas that touch so I don’t have any finish on finish. I’d like to think it helps tone and sustain, but it’s probably so small it can’t be measured. Lack of finish will not hurt anything. I have 8 year old guitars built like I do and they are better...

Really nice! Love to hear it in person.

Necks are easier to finish than bodies I have found so don’t be afraid to go with the higher quality Musikraft necks. They do a lot of eBay auctions so you can get one quickly and often for less than custom order.

Just go Esquire. You know you want to ;)

Usually you can just bolt a tele neck to a strat but not the other way around.

I think I read in Forrest Whites book that Leo hammered out the neck pickup with Jimmy Briant (sp?) and he wanted P90 tone. Which it kinda has but Leo didn’t like distortion so that may be why it is low output.

The ones I make. Just finished a Micawber clone and it’s my first dedicated 5 string. FUN, FUN, FUN!

Klein makes the best single coil clones I’ve heard. Since few have experienced playing a real blackguard and the early guitars used 43 gauge wire the misconceptions run deep due to people judging pickups by dc resistance only. The magnets are very different than today’s versions and it’s...

I’ve always heard ABS and I believe Callaham makes them if you need one.

It’s all preference of the personal sort. I LOVE V necks but few others seem to and very few brands even offer V necks which is why I build and shape my own. I’m 6’3” with xxxl hands/gloves and I get a smaller volume while still filling my palm with a V shape. My favorite T necks are the old...

Thanks Paul! Thanks Bergy!

Doc Brown owns a Gunbarrel guitar :-) I’ll be ready once ski season is over mid April. I haven’t played much since my accident and I’m losing the feeling in my fingertips so I just hope to avoid total embarrasment lol. I am really liking the GHS 9.5-44 strings on a Tele. Converted one of the...

I would guess, from the dozen Fender books I’ve read, that they sold in fairly equal numbers in the 50s. To me Teles seem more popular in the 60s and post Jimi the Strat took off. We all know what happened in the 80s lol.

It’s the 21st century maaan, no one cares what you can do. Just look the part and technology will cover the rest.

Metallic finishes crack really easily! I had my Tele I was trying to crack out in 5 degree weather for a few hours and hit it with a heat gun. Nothing! Yes, I’m sure it’s thin nitro as I made it myself. With today’s plasticizers it may take several tries to fatigue the resilience and crack...

After reading the article I find Abigail charming, but she didn’t make hand wound pickups for much of her time at Fender. But, I never cared for Fenders machine wound pickups due to ice pick highs. Even on Custom Shop models. Hand winding seems to solve much of that.