Painting a Tele...

BeardyAndy

I've a feeling I may answer my own question here, but...

I've decided to turn my modded, battered and bruised Mx Tele back to standard spec with a few vintage tweaks. One of those is to give it a butterscotch nitro finish but i'm wondering how much of a ball ache this is going to be? Would it be easier to sell my Fender body and buy a new one from Guitar Build so I've a nice clean canvas to work with but not have a "proper" Telecaster .

My other worry is that I don't know whats under the poly and wont until I get the heat on it, It could be a 6 piece blank full of knots and filler!

GoldenEraGuitars

It depends how attached you are to the guitar itself. In my experience, a Mexican body with an opaque finish will likely have poorly matched bits of wood making a trans finish impossible. 

You could do an opaque blonde which would look very cool. 

SteveRobinson

Get a new ash body from Guitarbuild.

A butterscotch Tele should have an ash body and it's a virtual certainty your Tele won't be ash. More likely it will will be poplar or alder.

BeardyAndy

@GoldenEraGuitars & @SteveRobinson thank's guys for confirming my thoughts. 

I'd dearly like to be ordering one from you Scott but funds aren't there at the moment so it's the rattle can for me! One day, i promise.

Steve, my order will be coming your way soon.

SteveRobinson

Thank you. I have a butterscotch demo here:
https://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/2011/08/05/finishing-an-ash-telecaster-in-butterscotch/

If you have any questions, please ask.

GoldenEraGuitars

@BeardyAndy thats no worries at all man. I do have a spare body here if you want to check it out. Just PM me. You’ll not go wrong with Steve’s lacquer