COMPLETED -- $100 Telecaster Challenge - Palletcaster

[cooktimj]

Whoa!

That is awesome! You'll have to update us on how it plays, how fast the neck is, and how much it weighs. I know for less than $100, that may not mean much, but I'd like to know.

-TJ

 

[iansmitchell]

Very cool!

 

[Mike Simpson]

Here are some progress photos... I still need to do a bunch of stuff... make a nut, wire it up, make a pickguard, Set up, strap buttons, string tree, maybe replace the brass saddles and hope it all works.

The neck is a slow neck... I prefer a slow neck because I hate playing fast... it is 1.02" at the 1st and 12th frets... this thing is a bat.

The knobe are copper solder on pipe caps I got at Lowes for .53 each with a wood insert to fit the pots and switch.

 

[Maricopa]

Glad you kept the 'brand' Mike. It preserves the guitar's rich heritage as a transport platform for industrial equipment.

Now hurry up and finish so we can show these things to the other guitar geeks at the jam.

 

[JasonRobert]

looks cool! How did you join the three bent up sides in the corner on the bridge?

 

[scubadoo]

outstanding!

 

[edd677]

Cant say how much I love the copper!
Its too bad you that you cant get a copper P/u cover for the neck pu

 

[jays0n]

Looks great. As mentioned already, the stamp left over there on the edge looks great.

j

 

[Jack Wells]

Its too bad you that you cant get a copper P/u cover for the neck pu

Dupli-Color makes a transparant tinted spray called MetalCast. It is available in a variety of colors. It is used by car enthusiasts to color chrome. I'll bet the Orange MetalCast would make that neck pickup cover look like copper............ not that there's anything wrong with leaving it as is.

......

Good job Big Mike.............

 

[mkhhunt]

Hi Mike,

Very cool... Did you put a finish on the copper (lacquer?) or are you just going to let it tarnish and age? A buddy of mine uses a piece of 1/2" copper plumbing pipe for a slide and it has a really nice antique look now.

Cheers

Murray

 

[Mike Simpson]

looks cool! How did you join the three bent up sides in the corner on the bridge?

I used silver solder like you solder copper pipe together with.

Hi Mike,

Very cool... Did you put a finish on the copper (lacquer?) or are you just going to let it tarnish and age? A buddy of mine uses a piece of 1/2" copper plumbing pipe for a slide and it has a really nice antique look now.

Cheers

Murray

There is no finish on the copper... I thought about it but didn't do it. I will either leave it "au natural" or maybe put some Gibbs on it... it can tarnish and darken... patina ya know.

I took it to work yesterday and put it on the digital scale... 6.62lbs. I thought it may have been lighter since the body is only 1 1/2" thick, but I guess it's the big neck...

Well I have today off work as a "furlough" day so I am going to try to get a few things done. I need to scrape the lacquer offa the frets, make a pickguard, wire it up and put in the output jack, drill the knobs for setscrews and maybe make some copper saddles.

I wonder what effect the copper bridge plate and copper plate on the bottom of the pickup will have on the sound? The pickups are some I bought off ebay a couple of years ago that are supposed to be out of a 50's classic and I added a plate to the bottom of the bridge pickup.

 

[Mike Simpson]

On Thursday I had off work as a "furlough" day I got a few things done. I scraped the lacquer offa the frets, wired it up and made a home made socket cup kinda like an electrosocket and put in the output jack, drilled the knobs for setscrews and made a nut out of a dog bone from Petsmart that I had cut up for a previous project. I didn't have a .047 cap so I used 2 of the little .022 chicklet ones (because they were laying around) in series for a value of .044 and wired it like my other Pine tele (std 3 way). I made a string tree out of copper but it looked crummy so I put on an allparts tree.

Left to do:
I need to do a fret level
make a pickguard
make saddles (time permitting)
play guitar.

 

[Keith S]

1) Do a fret level
2) Make pickguard
3) Make saddles (time permitting)
4) Play guitar
5) Send guitar to Keith

 

[Mike Simpson]

I made my own "electrosocket" to save $12... I tool a 3/4 nibco copper solder on pipe cap and cut it off, cut the end almost off, cut it down the side and made it fit in the 7/8" hole... then I melted some silver solder in the cup to solder the end back on and fill the split in the side... then with a few drill bits and my handy dremel tool I made it look kinda like an electrosocket.

cost .53 and and 1 1/2 hours labor...

 

[Mike Simpson]

Then I made a pickguard out of a scrap of leather that had some barb wire scratches in it. I copied the allparts pickguard shape. On this one I decided to not do any tooling except the groove around the outline. I dyed it black with fiebings USMC black and put some pecards leather dressing on it.

 

[Mike Simpson]

Here are the finished seductive couch photos...

 

[Mike Simpson]

Cost:
Pickups $40
Tuners $15
Pots $10 ($5ea)
Switch $9.50
Screws $3
Knobs $1.50

Total $84.50

Wood... free
Leather... scrap
Copper... scrap
Decals left over from 1st pinecaster
I still need to replace the saddles and string tree with copper ones.

I will post a sound clip in a few minutes...

 

[Tdot]

Wooo!

 

[Mike Simpson]

Here is a sound clip to prove that it plays... (pardon my playing)

This is the Neck Pickup on rhythm and the Bridge pickup on lead.

www.members.cox.net/mp3post/palletcaster.mp3

Recorded plugged direct into the computer using Cakewalk, I did add some reverb to the mix.

 

[martino]

Here is a sound clip to prove that it plays... (pardon my playing)

This is the Neck Pickup on rhythm and the Bridge pickup on lead.

www.members.cox.net/mp3post/palletcaster.mp3

Recorded plugged direct into the computer using Cakewalk, I did add some reverb to the mix.

I dream of playing as well as you.

Dont take this the wrong way but it sound just like a Tele
Well done