First attempt at a tele build.

Well, the bits arrived for my first tele build so looking forward to cracking on with it. Unexpected bonus, the body has a really nice quilted maple top, so a bit of a dilemma, scratchplate or not?

Pics would be somewhat helpful of course...

Please Ice - Don't ask Westcoaster to take pics(remember my Rainbow/Sausage with a cocktail stick analogy)

I promise you it won't even look like a guitar let alone a telecaster. It will look like the blurry image of Jack the Ripper caught in the smog festooned backdrop of late Victorian London.

Prove us wrong Robert

Go get 'em Tiger!!



Its almost like asking Jeff Dahmer to take your boyfriend out for a nice meal

hoax wrote:Please Ice - Don't ask Westcoaster to take pics(remember my Rainbow/Sausage with a cocktail stick analogy)

I promise you it won't even look like a guitar let alone a telecaster. It will look like the blurry image of Jack the Ripper caught in the smog festooned backdrop of late Victorian London.

Prove us wrong Robert

Go get 'em Tiger!!



Its almost like asking Jeff Dahmer to take your boyfriend out for a nice meal

That sounds like a challenge to me.

I knew that if I gave your cage a hard enough rattle, you would come out fighting!!

Hoax

Honestly Robert loves photography as much as Bill Clinton loved Monica Lewenisky. You'll remember that he loved that gal so much he even splashed out on a new dress.

..... "splashed" being the operative word, eh?! Oh, hang on.... That was the old dress!


If the maple is really nice, then no pick guard.... I like the look of Teles without them, eh! Best we see what we've got to work with here, mate.....

Depends on your build/finish skills... Those honkin' big PG's can cover up a multitude of badness.
Otherwise, I vote for a nekkid Tele

Barry wrote:…I vote for a nekkid Tele

Still got Barbara Eden rattling 'round the noodle, eh? Sorry I ever brought the subject up...

Ok peeps, some photos of the tele build so far. Not a lot done yet, just sheilding ther cavities with copper tape. So what do you reckon, with or without:

With:


Without:

Robert

With, as I really love the traditional black guard look. Having said that, if you want a more contemporary look then you can get one of those little shaped neck pickup mounts. That is a really nice figured top.

Either way, it will be the dogs!!

And also no more slagging of your photographs - Not!!

Hoax

I love her nekkid but I would hate to see that finish scratched up.
How about a clear PG?

Loverly jublee, super smashing great.

Without, if it was meant to have a scratchplate it would have had a route for the neck pup.

Once you drill those holes they're there forever.

If it got scratched over time you could always add one, take years, hours of playing.

Man that's beautiful. Where did you get that kit from?

Bye the way what a good picture, someone else take it....

I got the parts here:
www.northwestguitars.co.uk
Ended up paying a bit more than I originally intended but just loved that body although it's a real heavy beast and I want this to be a good one. I think you've nailed it with your suggestion Barry, I was thinking along the try it without first line.
Graham, I would really welcome wiring suggestions, I think I remember you saying something about wiring out of phase, what are the advantages/disadvantages.

Robert

I can't see any disadvantages as I don't really like the two pickups together on any guitar. Wiring out of phase gives a real nice funky/quacky/moody tone like positions 2 and 4 on a Strat or like Peter Green's Black Magic Woman solo.

Two easy ways of doing it

1. Take the magnet off the neck pick up and reglue it with the old glued side looking up at you
2. Swap the live and earth leads on one of the pickups.I always use the neck pickup. It just means you solder live to earth on your pot and earth to the live on your switch

If you struggle bring it over.

Graham

Thanks, sounds really straightforward. Gonna be a while before I get this finished, don't want to rush, and they sent me the wrong control plate, holes are too small for the pot shafts, no prob though, replacement is in the post. I did say a while back that teles weren't really my thing but this is growing on me, nice and simple (the guitar not me).

Finish it, plug it in, crank it up and then tell us Teles aint your thing!

It won't happen Robert, Tele's are seriously, great, comfortable , go to guitars.

Hoax

Very nice piece of kit. Not exactly cheap.

Get what you pay for suppose.

Which pups did you choose?

Westbone wrote:
Bye the way what a good picture, someone else take it....

It's actually meant to be an out of focus pic of my cat, don't know what went wrong

Had a thought about this and I'm tempted to go for a compromise solution, do a bit of surgery on the scratchplate to show off more of the wood. Still not sure about pups but at this stage nothing too expensive.

Barry wrote:I love her nekkid but I would hate to see that finish scratched up.
How about a clear PG?

Yup, that was my suggestion above Robert.

i think you should use a trim ring on the neck pup.
i got a nicely quilted body for a project and wanted to show off the wood grain.

i have built two tele's from parts. the first one used Texas Specials, the second i used Fender Original Vintage pups. the original vintage are Alnico 2 magnets and i think they sound amazing, blows away the texas specials (Alnico 5).

gittarasaurus wrote:i think you should use a trim ring on the neck pup.
i got a nicely quilted body for a project and wanted to show off the wood grain.

i have built two tele's from parts. the first one used Texas Specials, the second i used Fender Original Vintage pups. the original vintage are Alnico 2 magnets and i think they sound amazing, blows away the texas specials (Alnico 5).

What body is that? Looks great. You know the model?

obviously not a tele body. the pic was for a look at the pickup ring for the neck pickup, to show off the body.

the body is one i got from ebay a few years ago. this was actually my first total custom build for myself. ash with quilted maple top.

the body is a charvel design and spec. i never found out exactly who made the body, the ebay seller did not know. the body was totally new and unused. it has a thick poly coat, seems very durable.

i installed an authentic Floyd Rose Lo Profile bridge, GFS lipsticks, custom designed (by me) 6-way pup switch, stacked volume and tone controls. i got a neck custom built for it, it has the FR locking nut, wilkinson ez lok tuners (in black). i have to make some pics of the back of the neck later. it is sweeeeeet!

Bee-uuuu-teee-fulll!

Ok, youve convinced me, Pickup ring ordered.

That maple top is gorgeous g'aurus.

Just as another alternative, why not go like the Pantera style and just sit the pickup in the cavity.

This type of thing. Just a suggestion.

I'd thought about the bare mounted pickup but to my eyes it looks unfinished on some guitars - looks great on the pantera though.
Pickups on order as well so hope to be nailing things together at the weekend. Now where did I put my 14lb hammer.

Btw that's an insane looking strat.

Maybe a "La Cabronita" style pickguard, that only covers the bottom of the body front?

Mind you I have been using chrome pickup rings on some of my builds recently, with some nice results

Nobody said it would be easy, and it isn't. Predrilled string through holes don't line up with the bridge and the bridge mounting screws are too big for the holes. I think I can use the shorter pick guard screws though as I don't expect that there will be any problems with pull-out due to it being string through. As for the misaligned holes I think some bodging is required as the holes are currently covered.

There's a good few tele style bodies coming out of China with the same bridge hole troubles.

Here's one. Have a read of the 'graded stock' part.

The one's in the picture have the correct bridge.

Just wondering if your in the same boat with your 6 saddle bridge??

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140613509353?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

Finally all nailed together after doing a bit o butcher, oops I meant precision woodworking to the string holes. Nightmare getting solder to stick to a pot but finally done.

Strung up and plugged in for a quick test, f***ing h**l, Graham you were right, telecasters rock, great cleans and really good with a bit of distortion, just need to finish setting it up.

It looks really good, class.

Which pups did you choose?

Great looking axe!
But of course

Westbone, The pickups are artec hot ceramic from the same guys I got the body from. Surprisingly good. AFIK they are same as GFS pickups.

westcoaster wrote:...AFIK they are same as GFS pickups.

I think that's correct.

Excellent result Robert.

Is that gold hardware? It looks great!!

Hoax

It's all gold - a festival of bling. I'll get some better pics upwhen I'm done.

wowie zowie baby! that looks great!

well done!

Well, took it to practice last night and it's great, really good through the acoustic patch on my boss gt8 and with a bit of distortion it really rocks. Think I got lucky when I put this together.