NGD - Offset Partscaster Finished and Set Up

BillDL

I finished off a "partscaster" build and I'm really pleased with the results.  The colour scheme will not be to everybody's taste, but I really like it.  I do have chrome hardware and a white scratchplate if I tire of the dark hardware and scratchplate though.

• GuitarBuild UK 2-piece Alder offset "Telemaster" body bought through the classifieds here.  Scratchplate from GuitarBuild UK.
• Roasted maple half-paddle unfinished neck with 22 semi-hemi hidden fret ends from Partscaster.  I shaped the headstock to a Strat outline rather than Tele because I preferred to look.  I had rubbed it with Danish Oil and unfortunately it's left slightly darker areas where it soaked in more to the softer grain structure on the headstock, but it's not as obvious in the flesh as it is in the photos.  The fretwork was almost impeccable on this neck but I did have to spot level a couple of frets.  The oiled finish is really smooth and easy to play with no hint of stickiness.
  
• Northwest guitars unbranded (Wilkinson I'm sure) black ashtray bridge with cutaway rims and brass compensated saddles.
• Black nickel control plate and knobs, black string ferrules and black Wilkinson tuners.  New black graphite nut to replace the white bone one.
• The pickups are IronGear Steel Foundry Overwound that have that extra bit of ooomph and give a very usable neck pickup sound while still sounding like a Tele.
• I wanted this guitar to have a lot of jangle so I used a couple of 300K CTS pots I had lying around and used a 0.047uF tone capacitor.  It has some real treble bite and rolls off the highs very well when needed but the taper of the pots isn't great.  I can live with it for now though.  I reverse mounted the controls and I prefer the layout on this particular guitar. I don't on ordinary Tele shapes.
  

I finished it with the "Ocean Green" gloss wipe-on finishing dye/varnish system from Bolt Guitars (@BoltGuitarsUK).  I don't know if it's my camera or the lighting I was taking the photos under (or perhaps even my monitor calibration), but the photos kept showing it as leaning more towards aged Daphne Blue or Sonic Blue than to green.  I've had to edit the colour so it looks like the exact shade of Seafoam Green it has turned out, but the editing has left what looks to be a darker edgeburst that isn't actually there.

The finishing system comprises a water-based wood dye and a separate clear hard varnish.  If the dye is applied onto bare wood by itself it doesn't give good results, but Bolt Guitars came up with a system where you mix the dye with some of the varnish and apply it very thinly in multiple coats with a folded cloth to build up to either a beach-washed finish or keep going for a solid opaque finish, then you apply the finishing clear coats, with fine rub-downs in between every other coat.  With care and practice you can get an almost mirror-like finish after a bit of final buffing, but it's not quite as mirror-like as a well sprayed gloss finish if you scrutinise it. It's something you can do in the house rather than a shed or workshop and cleanup is easy.  I'm very pleased with the results and will most likely use their finishing system again in a different colour.

I'm sure some of you will take an instant dislike to the black on pale green colour scheme and feel that it should have a pristine white scratchplate and shiny chrome.  I just felt like something different.  I only have one other "offset" guitar and that's my Squier Starcaster.  I swore I would never buy another offset body shape because they don't stand up and lean against things without wanting to fall sideways.  I've mitigated this by positioning the bottom strap button up the sloping side a bit, but I actually really like the whole balance of this guitar shape on my knee and on a strap.  It feels comfortable and is perfectly weighted where it needs to be.

Svartmetall

I think the colour scheme rocks - nice job  

jellybelly

Lurvley - congratulations on completing it, looks pro!

BillDL

Thank you guys.

One think I think is odd, but not disconcertingly so, is that the brass compensated saddles are a bit further back on the bridge to compensate properly than some of my other Teles with ashtray bridges.  The rear of the saddles is not far in front of the four mounting screws, whereas on other I have the saddles are further forward away from the mounting screws.  I did have the saddles off to clean the strange film off the shiny black coating and to mark and mount it, but I'm sure the outside ones have the same bevels and can be switched and it's only the middle one that needs to go back in that position because the G string bevel is further back.  Anyway, it intonates fine the way I put the saddles back on.  I did have to drill holes for two small front mounting screws on the bridge plate though.  I don't know if the body undulates a bit (maybe my sanding) or the plate is twisted, but it was lifted at one front corner and could be vibrated like a ruler over the edge of a desk with a "prrraaannng" sound.

Kittyfrisk

Nice job. Looks lovely.
Probably helps that it's finished in one of my favourite colours 

SlopeSoarer

That's lovely @BillDL the colour scheme is fantastic. Nice work!

Supportact

Nice one.  I like the colour. 

TTBZ

+1 for the colour scheme, looks awesome. 

bluecat

Excellent Bill, looks really nice. I like it lots.

BillDL

Thanks guys.  I've just realised, after looking at the full res photos before editing them, how dusty the back of my couch was.  It's been dusted off now

paulnb57

Thats very nice Bill, I like the black hardware against the green…proper job!

Offset

Proper job that.  Lovely colour and great contrast with the black h/w.

Clever man Bill :-)

Rich31k

That looks great. The finish especially. Thanks for the write up on your experience 

GoFish

That's a beaut.

Telemaster's are quite a special hybrid to me, combing many of the things i like about both designs. Fender can keep "offset telecaster" for their SEO reasons, the DIY ones will always be Telemasters to me.

I also like reading about your attention to the details and the descriptions. Cheers.

BillDL

Thanks guys.  One wee tip. I couldn't get any black butterfly string trees with the curved underside, so I used a felt-tip marker to make them black and then smeared on a thin layer of clear epoxy I was using for something else at the time to stop the marker ink from rubbing off.  It's a tiny detail, but it gave them a nice bluey-purpley reflective hue through the black.  I also just positioned them for functionality rather than aesthetic symmetry or conformance with standard layout further back so I have a nice consistent break angle over the nut while mitigating that sympathetic G string ring you sometimes get behind the nut.

Offset

^^ Bill - I have a black Tusq string tree on a Tele :-)

BillDL

I quite like the Graphtech / Tusq string trees also.  I have them on my Strat style guitars.  They're nice and neat and the screws that come with them are very good quality, don't get chewed up in the head slots and won't break while screwing them in.

I usually fit the small button style retainers on Tele type guitars, but the slots for the strings are flat and leave a sharp edge that I always round over with a fine needle file:

The Fender American Standard style string trees are quite good and look neat, but you have to bore the extra hole for the locating pin and they are fiddly trying to locate them where they give the best string angle with that pin protruding from the base.

Keefy

I have a Jazzmaster in the same colour scheme but with a white scratchplate and I have to say yours looks every bit as good.

BillDL

Cheers Keefy.  I did rough mock-ups using my limited digital image editing skills and I was actually quite torn between the white / chrome and the black, so I bought a black and a white scratchplate and physically compared them as best as I could.  The black only just won. 

Gemsdals

Very nice. I love the colour.

Maak

that looks awesome!