Harley Benton Telecaster Kit Build

andyp

Yeah, the headstock is / was always the biggest unknown. I actually really like it in the flesh. It's small and narrow but not too sharp.

I forgot to mention, the neck is a satin finish out of the box and it feels brilliant. I can't get on very well with glossy necks, so this is perfect for me.

dedekind

Hey man that looks great, congratulations! I wasn't aware that these kits were so cheap, I think you just gave me some ideas.. 

andyp

That's exactly how this happened to me!

Fez

Looks great, well done.

Sarge

Yeah looking great!  well done (to your dad) 
 

Deadman

Ooo I like that!

andyp

@Sarge ;

It definitely wouldn't have turned out like this if I'd done it solo, that's for sure.

boydie101

My wudtone kit has been ordered, I'm away for three weeks so a very slow project I imagine!

andyp

First proper play last night with the "Tele" and it's all working great. The neck pickup sounds a bit woody / muddy but the bridge sounds pretty damn good and the pickups really don't sound as cheap as I'd expected. The guitar plays really well and the controls have a solid feel to them, so the only real changes I want to make in the forseeable future will be to lose the chrome fittings and replace them with black. I'm going to try and see if anyone makes a black cover for the neck pickup too as that could look quite neat, but the contrast of having the chrome one is also appealing.

From a setup / playability point of view, I don't think it needs any major tweaks at all, which is pretty cool. So I could just leave it as it is for long enough to be honest, it's not like I'm going to be stretching it with my level of playing abilities.

Playing it alongside my SG last night, it doesn't jump out as a cheap guitar, but things like the frets are very different to what I am used to, I just didn't realise it. The frets on the "Tele" are very thin and quite low in comparison to what now look like massive frets on the SG, but I found bends, notes and chords were all easy to play.

I do want to swap the pickups out, but having sat and played it for a couple of hours last night, I now know there's no major rush to do that. At the same time though, I can see me ordering some within the next couple of weeks (once I get my head around all the options there are out there!) as that's the last thing I have on the list. I want to keep the Tele type vibe, but with a bit more bite, and that seems to be available from any number of pickup companies at all sorts of price point.

So far, the shortlist of pickups looks like this... Irongear Steel Foundry at £50ish, ToneRider Hot Classics at £60ish or maybe into Seymour Duncan Hot Tele or SD Quarter Pounders both at £90-100ish. SD also do a Broadcaster which is maybe the best of their options and there are a couple of Oil City ones that sound like a good bet, but I have no idea at the moment what price bracket they fall into. I'm not quite sure what my budget is yet, but I'd pay the £100ish mark for something if it was worth the extra over the lower priced stuff. I did look quickly at the likes of Bare Knuckle out of interest, but they'd be coming in at £140 or so - which is more than the whole project has cost so far and I really don't think they'd be a good value option at my skill level. The research begins... again.

As it happens, the total build cost so far has been £130.

impmann

As a suggestion I'd say that if you want it to sound like a Tele but have a bit more 'girth', then a Broadcaster type pickup from either Seymour Duncan, Mojo or Oil City will fit the bill perfectly. The early 50s pickups are FAT - and I mean PHAT - sounding, plus have a big output, plus they clean up nicely and have clarity. They are very different to later Tele pickups... which I (whispers....) don't like much.

Neck pickup - unless you fancy chopping around the pickguard, I'd fit one of the neck pickup units that are closer to a Strat unit if you want something with a bit more... oomph. Personally speaking I love the Tele neck unit - but only a good one. The Seymour in my black Tele is a joy and the Oil City one I had in my butterscotch partcaster was fab too - again, Marc at Mojo could also help out there too, I'm sure.

Teles can be massively improved with quality pickups, IMHO - I seriously wouldn't skimp on them with Far Eastern stuff like the IronGears etc. Good as they are, the difference in sound from a hand wound unit is chalk and cheese IMHO.

Oh and don't forget to fit quality pots and switch to suit!

andyp

Thanks very much @impmann that's mega useful stuff, that's exactly the sort of input I was looking for.

I couldn't see what Neck pickup to go with to match the SD Broadcaster when I looked, which one have you got? I wasn't sure how good SD stuff was, but they seem to be popular so that must say everything I need to know. (edit - I've found this matched set)

Pots and switch are also on the cards but I'd kind of pushed that down the list and this is the bit I understand the least about... 500k / 250k etc....? Are there brands I should look for or avoid? Any advice on that would be welcome too.

impmann

Go for CTS 250k Log pots for single coils, and a decent switch (blade type, not the enclosed job). Caps are a bit of minefield on one hand and a load of hogwash on the other... tbh, just stick with stock Fender values and you can't go far wrong, but don't get suckered into the Paper in Oil thing, as its smoke, mirrors and not a small amount of fairy dust, in my experience. No doubt someone will disagree, though!!

As for the neck pickup... tbh, it was so long ago when I bought the pickups (2003) that I'm not 100% sure of what I went with in my Tele. I think it was just his standard Tele neck pickup but I couldn't swear to it! Sorry... many beers since then...

andyp

Cheers! That's another great help, thanks for this.

I see SD do matched pairs of their Tele sets, so that probably answers my question on the Neck pickup, I'd just order a pair. I really like the sound of both the Broadcaster set and the Quarter Pounders. The Hot Tele ones seem to be neither one nor the other... sort of a no-man's-land between the Broadcasters and the QP's. I have to admit, I really liked the sound of the QP's on the clip on the SD website... It's less "Tele" than I maybe want to go with though. I'll see what clips I can find of these two options but these look like either set would be ideal for what I'm after.

I ordered the black hardware at lunch time - tuners, control plate, string trees, jack plate, strap locks and a nut... I'll fit them sometime next week, but I'm not in a rush really now that it's up and running.

Andy

andyp

So, this lot turned up over the weekend and was sitting waiting for me when I got in from work tonight.

http://i.imgur.com/N6cg4Ks.jpg

No sooner had I said "Ach, I'll fit the stuff some time this week... it's not urgent" I found myself half way through the job list and making good progress. So I just carried on and ended up with this...

http://i.imgur.com/Y8zw2Ca.jpg?1

A small change on paper I guess, but the black hardware has finished it off nicely. Even wee things like the jack plate and string trees make a really noticeable difference. Looks-wise, this is it done. The tuners are a big improvement over the standard ones, but they were decent enough to be fair. The rest was purely for looks, I really wanted to go for the black finishes and it's turned out exactly as I wanted it to.

Only two jobs remain... fit the black nut, and then decide on and install some new pickups. And electronics. Hmmm, that's either three or four jobs then... But none of that is urgent at all. After spending a couple of hours late on Wednesday evening last week I have got it set up pretty well, some trial and error has definitely improved the playability over the first pass setup we gave it. I can see me tweaking the action and neck relief now and again, but my main job now is just to get on a play it.

Total build cost is now £182. It feels worth a fair bit more than that to me though, overall I'm mega chuffed.

thumpingrug

Im surprised at how much difference the black tuning pegs make.  It looks very nice indeed and at that price its daft for any of us not to give it a go.  Really appreciate you keeping us updated with this build Andy, its been interesting.

andyp

Hey, thanks very much @thumpingrug

I wasn't sure if it was of interest or not to the folks on here to be honest, I'm so new to playing guitar that I wasn't sure I had much worth sharing through this build, but I'm really glad I've done it and that it was worth doing a thread on it. What started as bad GAS for a  Baja and a desire to build something one day has ended up in this.

In fact, it's achieved all of my aims when I started the project...

1. I've got myself a "Tele" for way less than I could justify spending in my current situation.
2. I managed to build and set up my own guitar (bar the "painting", but I know for sure I am capable of the same result that my old man managed, although it would've taken me a lot longer).
3. I've learned how to set up a guitar and lost my fear of adjusting things. I'm now in the place where I would be happy disassembling this and tweaking almost anything.
4. It's also told me how I want things to play and feel, I found myself adjusting my previously fine Epi Les Paul as I wasn't happy with it anymore having found the world of endless tweaking that I've just entered...

I'll be drafting in the Old Man to replace and adjust the nut though, and I definitely need his help with replacing the pickups and wiring, but I reckon I can do that with him guiding me through it.

For anyone that's considering this type of build, it really is worth a bash. If I can do it, anyone can.

I've set my pickup budget at £100, and the Seymours seem to be perfect... it's just a case of which set I go for... Broadcasters or Quarter Pounders. I've decided to sell my Mini Cry Baby to fund the SD's though, so I'll be posting that in the Classifieds tonight, I didn't get round to doing that yesterday due to working on this.

Next step for the moment... tune to Open G and learn some Stones!

Andy

Andyjr1515

That's a really impressive build, Andy.  Top drawer stuff - looks lovely and I'm sure it plays great

andyp

Cheers! @Andyjr1515

WezV

Next step--- build a new body

andyp

Actually @WezV that's very true.

Although I fancy an LP Jnr as a next project (any next project guitar won't be anytime soon though) the idea of building my own body or getting a higher spec but more "raw" Tele body that I then modify with (say) a forearm chamfer or belly cut is probably what I'll do next. I fancied that idea from the off really, but it was too much of a first step I think. Having had a look around online during this build though, there are some amazing blank or pre-routed bodies out there.

Something like Alder or Ash, with a nice grain... maybe in a bright translucent blue satin... Hmmmmm...