First build - Tele [photos fixed]

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RichardrichardRichardrichard Frets: 351
edited June 2019 in Making & Modding
Evening all. Thought I would start a thread about my first ever build. I decided I needed a Tele, but rather than buy something I have always fancied building a guitar so why not start with a Tele.

Looked around at bits for a while deciding what I wanted, when @GoldenEraGuitars posted up this neck



I knew it was perfect straight away. Birds eye maple stained with a walnut finish, 7.25 - 10" compound radius board, soft V profile at the nut end tapering to modern C profile higher up. Beautiful.

Set to work buying the various bits I would need. Next to arrive was this body from boobooguitars, almost perfect but I soon realised there were no wiring holes drilled, the neck pocket didn't fit the neck and there were a few rough bits.



From there it was the waiting game for various tools, finishing products, hardware etc. Whilst waiting I got bored and made a workbench to build it on!




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Comments

  • RichardrichardRichardrichard Frets: 351
    edited June 2019
    With most of the stuff having arrived, it was time to crack on. After getting the various wiring holes drilled and chiselling/sanding out the neck pocket to make it fit, it was time for the finishing process. First a coat of Birchwood Casey sealer and filler, followed by grain filler.





    Grain filler was a PITA to sand back, clogging the sandpaper immediately, but we got there and finished off with another coat of sealer


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  • RichardrichardRichardrichard Frets: 351
    edited June 2019
    Time for some colour. I was using the water based stain concentrate from Crimson, and really it didn't soak in like I was expecting, possibly the result of using water based stain over solvent based sealer. However, after a few coats, some sanding back and fine tuning it was looking good





    Not perfect but frankly better than I had hoped!

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  • Onto the Tru oiling, not got many pics from this stage but this one is about halfway through the process


    Unfortunately, the waterslide logo rubbed off with the next coat of oil, oh well!

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  • RichardrichardRichardrichard Frets: 351
    edited June 2019

    Fast forward a few days and the finishing is done and buffed up nicely, I have fitted the tuners and nut to finish off the neck, which has buffed up to a beautiful satin after 8ish coats of Tru oil. I have also buffed up the body and polished a little with Farecla (what I had lying around), shielded the cavities and underside of the bridge/scratchplate etc, clamped and drilled the neck bolt holes and now test bolted the bridge. Everything aligned beautifully and looking good. 



    That's where I am so far, I think I'll get some strings on and give it a setup next. Since it's a heel adjustment I would prefer to get it sorted before moving onto the electrics. Shouldn't take too long to finish from here, will update in due course.

    This was probably a little ambitious/expensive for a first built attempt but I think I've done it justice so far, have certainly learned a lot more than if I had just bought a kit with everything pre drilled etc.


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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044
    Photos don't work!
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • Thanks, must be because they're on Google photos so have moved to imgur. Without the ridiculously long google urls I could have fit it in one post without exceeding the character count!
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  • paulnb57paulnb57 Frets: 3044
    Looking good so far...
    Stranger from another planet welcome to our hole - Just strap on your guitar and we'll play some rock 'n' roll

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  • Winny_PoohWinny_Pooh Frets: 7732
    Nice workbench and guitar! Grainfill really helped too. @ThorpyFX 's colour too
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  • After stringing it up by some miracle all I had to do was adjust the saddle height to get the action where I wanted it, and the intonation was somehow perfect...


    Decided I may aswell crack on with electrics, pickguard etc and so cracked out the soldering iron (my first time). I was using pickups from a MIM tele that I grabbed cheap on eBay (amongst other things) which had grounding eye terminals making things a bit tight in the cavities but manager to get it sorted.

    Then found that the CTS pots wouldn't fit through my control plate, cue drilling. Then found that my knobs wouldn't fit the pots, cue more drilling. With everything wired up and screwed on I Stuck a string on and plugged in expecting failure and to my amazement sound was produced through the amp, great success.

    Turning the guitar over to stick the rest of the strings on I realised that the ground screw in the pot cavity had gone clean through the back of the guitar. Drat, first proper mistake! Oh well it's a tiny hole and a bit more puple stain + tru oil should pretty much hide it, plus I'm secretly happy it has a battle scar and a story.

    Ladies and gentlemen I give you, a purple Telecaster.

    Final remaining issue I have is that the jack socket doesn't fit my electrosocket plate (imperial vs metric), have ordered another jack to wire in.
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  • King85King85 Frets: 631
    That looks great mate, you must be chuffed for a first attempt. The colours you've got going on work great together.
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