My JP Dragon Build

[Spiv]

When I joined this forumI then came across the Dragon Telecaster that Jimmy Page used in the Yardbirds and also in the early days of Led Zeppelin. I then decided to build a replica of this guitar. I browsed various Forum’s and web pages to try and find out exactly what the guitar was. From my research I found the guitar was a Blond 1959 Fender Telecaster that had been left to him when Jeff Beck departed the Yardbirds. Jimmy Page decided to sand the body down and hand painted the dragon design using Humbrol enamel paints. A pickguard was then made out of clear acrylic in a standard Telecaster shape with the addition of a tail part between the bridge and control plate. The pickguard was lined with mylar film, which is a reflective film, the idea being that this reflected different colours from the stage lights. The neck and pickups were I believe the original parts. The start was to try and find a body with a similar grain pattern and I eventually found one from guitarbuild in UK. I then discovered Wudtone guitar finishing kits and decided to use that prior to painting. It is very easy to use it comes in 2 small bottles, base coat and top coat. I chose the Dairy Blond and the Satin top coat.Below 2 pics of the body after sanding and the body after coating with Wudtone.

 

[Spiv]

Painting the Dragon

Next stage was to buy Humbrol enamel paints, and make a couple of cardboard templates and started to pencil draw on the cardboard. At this point I realised it wasn't going to work as I am just not a good enough artist so, time to find someone who could do it. I googled Scottish painters and came up with a lady called Ulianka, who is a Russian lady who lives in Aberdeen, so I emailed her and she said she could do it no problem, so after sending her lots of pics of the original guitar and some clear ones of replicas we decided after comparing all the pics what way we would go. Bear in mind this was hand painted by JP and no two were going to be exactly the same I said go ahead with it.Below it shows the stages of painting it. The difference in colour on the body is just down to lighting.

 

[Informal]

Waiting anxiously for completion!

 

[Spiv]

Painting Finished

Next two Pics show the painting completed. After collecting the painted guitar I went on to use the Satin top coat over the paint which will protect it. The Wudtone kits are very easy to use, basically you need a lint free cloth, I use old T-shirts cut into 6'' squres and you pour a little onto the cloth and rub in. As they tell you on the instructions a little goes a long way.

 

[Spiv]

Pickguard

While the guitar was being painted I started to work on the pickguard. From the research I had done I knew it was some kind of reflective film under a clear plastic pickguard with the addition of the tail part that went between the control plate and bridge. On looking at the other replicas , none seemed quite like the original, many seemed like crunshed up foil, so I started to look at what this mysterious reflective film is. Thats when I discovered the name mylar, it is a thin plastic film which relects different colours as it is moved around. So I ordered 4 sheets of mylar and 2 sheets of 2mm clear acrylic. On my first attempt I used a Tele pick guard to draw the outline and added the tail part. I then ran a very thin line of glue under the guard and crunched a sheet of the mylar up and laid it on and allowed it to dry before trimming it off with a craft knife. First thing I noted was it was indeed reflective as when you moved it in the light you could see orange and green and blue and pink. When I laid it on the guitar I noted 2 things - (a) It was see through and therfore you could see the wiring through into the body and (b) It did not look the original, that was because I had crunshed it up too much. You can just about make out the colours in the next pic which was first attempt

 

[vj6pac]

Looking good a dragon tele is on my list of must have guitars.


cheers...

 

[Spiv]

PickGuard cont

On my 2nd attempt I never crunshed the film so much, but did basically the same, ran a very thin film of glue round the outside and the neck pickup hole, the another film of glue on the mylar and a sheet of foil shiny side up under it. I let the whole thing sit for a day before going round it with a craft knife. I was quite pleased with the end result and think it looks pretty much like the original. Again it is one of those things that no one but JP knows exactly what he done.
The only thing that was on the original that I haven't done is, the overspill of green paint going under the pickguard. I am not ever sure if it was deliberate or he pressed the pickguard down while the paint was still a bit wet ? OR it could have been to make it appear the dragon was coming out from under the pickguard.
I forgot to take a pic of it before I put it on the guitar, but below you can see a pic of it on the guitar.

 

[Davecam48]

I shall probably be stoned for this, but.......I have looked at this, and several tribute builds, as well as pix of the original, but, for the life of me I cannot see a dragon there at all.

Nice job so far though!

 

[Spiv]

Head circled

I shall probably be stoned for this, but.......I have looked at this, and several tribute builds, as well as pix of the original, but, for the life of me I cannot see a dragon there at all.

Nice job so far though!

Dave see inside the circle that is the head of the Dragon

 

[jkingma]

Nice work so far.

Does anyone know why JP's pickguard had that extension out between the bridge and the control plate? I have never seen another one like it. Was it custom made to cover up something perhaps??

 

[guitarbuilder]

A bit of background:
http://findingzoso.blogspot.com/201...e.html#!/2012/03/guitarsenal-dragon-tele.html

 

[Spiv]

Nice work so far.

Does anyone know why JP's pickguard had that extension out between the bridge and the control plate? I have never seen another one like it. Was it custom made to cover up something perhaps??

No idea why he decided on that extension part, it's one of the things I like - the many mysteries of the Dragon Tele. He made the pickguard himself as far as I know and I would guess he did it in a similar way that I did - with a fine toothed hacksaw and a dremel with a round sander

 

[Spiv]

Pickups

For the pickups I browsed around this and other Forums and one name kept popping up - Don Mare. I browsed his site and came across the ones people were raving about ZeppAtones and so ordered a set of those. I only took a pic of the bridge pickup, but I'm sure I have another pic of the neck one somewhere,

 

[Davecam48]

Dave see inside the circle that is the head of the Dragon

Naah! This is a Dragon

 

[Spiv]

Bridge

When it came to the bridge it took a while to get finished due to the fact that while the body was drilled for through body JP used a top loader bridge. I have read somewhere it was something to do with bending the strings ?? Another little snippet I read was that he strung the guitar with the first 4 strings through the bridge but the 2 bass strings ( A and E) went through the body.I have a close up shot of the bridge and can see the top loaded string but I can't see the top 2 for his hand. I eventually got a Fender bridge and steel threaded saddles and took the bridge to a machine shop and had it drilled as a top loader.

 

[Spiv]

Neck

Took me a while to find a suitable neck and eventually found a Vintage Style Telecaster neck from Japan at the The Music Room in Clegheaton UK. From the numerous pics I had of the original I could see the neck was lighter colour than the body and was worried if I sprayed it with nitro what colour I would get. Wudtone to the rescue again. I saw on their site they had neck finishing kits and they had a colourless kit, so I decided to go with that and I am really glad I did, as it came out really nice and is silky smooth and kept the neck the same colour. The neck was then fitted with Kluson Type machine heads and a single string tree. Oh and a TUSQ nut was fitted.

 

[Spiv]

Naah! This is a Dragon

If you were on half the substances Jimmy was reputedly on at the time, you'd have no problem seeing that Dragon

 

[surfoverb]

I shall probably be stoned for this, but.......I have looked at this, and several tribute builds, as well as pix of the original, but, for the life of me I cannot see a dragon there at all.

these are the best pics. you can see the dragons eye,horn and fangs. looks like he used the ash grain to look like smoke coming out the nostrils.

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[Spiv]

these are the best pics. you can see the dragons eye,horn and fangs. looks like he used the ash grain to look like smoke coming out the nostrils.

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Yes you could be correct there with the grain pattern, it's funny that it is almost clearer to see in Black and White

 

[Spiv]

Final Assembly

Now that I had all the parts together, I wired the pickups onto a 4 way switch, 250K CTS Pot's, super tone 0.047uf Paper in Oil Capacitor and Treble bleed mod. all done with cloth covered wire. I then drilled the pickguard screwed it down, screwed the control plate on and everything looked pretty good. I then plugged it in and tapped the pickups and that seemed fine so it came to fitting the neck. One of the things I liked when I got the neck was it fitted real snug. I never had to force it, nor was it too loose it was just a snug fit. I then strung it with a couple of old strings in the top and bottom E positions to check the alignment and it looked spot on, so drilled the neck, put on the neck plate and tightened it. I tuned up the 2 old strings and plugged it in again and it sounded great, it just sounded different to the other Tele's that I had worked with, not sure how to describe it exactly but in a couple of positions it sounded .... big and quite beefy. I had previously fitted a TUSQ nut to the neck and it was still a little high so took that out again and adjusted it, re-strung it with a set of 9's and worked on the set up till I wa fairly happy with it. While stringing it I remembered the bit I had read about him stringing the top two bass string through the body while the others went through the bridge, so I went that way.
So that was my attempt a replicating the Jimmy Page dragon Telecaster, overall I am quite please with he result and the 2 pics below are of the finished guitar in it's case.