Ok, perhaps some backstory is required...
About 10 years ago I bought a Saga telecaster kit. Back then kits like these were few and far between. I think I paid about £120 for it.
I took bloody ages making it. I cut the headstock to a shape which was frankly, never quite right. Those last three words will reoccur throughout this rebuild. The headstock was never intended to be telecaster shaped, or strat shaped, but somewhere in between. I gave the neck and body a few coats of cheap aerosol lacquer, which only had a few small patches of orange peel, andbin the end I had a playable guitar. I did have some trouble with the action and relief. The truss rod couldn't pull the neck flat enough. At one point I clamped the neck against a plank of wood to straighten it. I left it like that for a few weeks and it seemed to help a bit. I've also put a washer on the end of the truss rod and between the two of them the neck is better. There's also some shimming going on.
It ended up looking like this:
http://i.imgur.com/2WEU19u.jpgThat was fine for a couple of years but I always intended to have it as a guitar to tinker with. Then the internet filled my mind with tales of coil splitting, out-of-phase and series mods and it was upgraded to this:
http://i.imgur.com/MtPmToj.jpgThe finish was done to not quite right standard using rattle cans.
You can see I went to town on switches.
It has:
A three-way for each humbucker, for standard, series and one coil only.
A two-way for both humbuckers out-of-phase.
A two-way for both humbuckers in series.
And, two stacked pots to give individual volume and tone for each pickup.
And that's how it stayed until this weekend. I finally decided to look at the pickup selector as it was dying. So, I took it to bits. Cleaned it up, and once I'd found the ball bearing again it worked much better. Then, on reassembly a wire came off the back of a pot. Arse. And then two more, one of which was something to do with all the switches. Something, to do with my not quite right soldering with a cheapo iron.
So the job's got bigger. Certainly big enough to be considered a challenge to do in 3 months. For me anyway. I'll go through the planned works in the next post. I'm doing this on a tablet so I'm worried all the above typing might disappear.
PS I'm well aware how laughably shoddy the above has been. Feel free to laugh and mock. I can only hope that the end product of this challenge isn't so bad.
Can't sing, can't dance, can handle a guitar a little.
Comments
Improve headstock shape
Refinish neck. The back of the neck is quite rough now. I'm thinking of an oil finish.
Simplify controls:
The stacked pots get in the way so it will go back to a single master volume and tone.
A single switch mounted on the control plate between the pots for coil splitting.
I might put in a 4-way pick up selector as that was one of the few mods that I liked.
I'm going to do away with the extra control plate so the big hole underneath it will need filling.
The bridge could also do with being shifted back a bit as the saddles could do with not being so far back.
And, finally, refinish the body. It will have to be a solid colour. Currently I'm favouring Pelham blue but green again is a possibility.
Anyway, the plan is to still have some splitting going on, but I don't know what yet.
Here's some pics:
http://i.imgur.com/r0pKWHc.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/hUbzX71.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/AxQ9ef6.jpg
The plan for tonight, if there's time is to try and reposition the bridge and see if I can get the intonation better than before. A few more hole in the top won't make a difference at this stage.
Yeah I started off buying from Axesrus. They make nice stuff but as you say the prices have been creeping up the last few years.
My favourite make at the moment for good sound and great price is Vanson.. I haven't been let down by them yet.
http://www.rabswoodguitars.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/RabsWoodGuitars/
My Youtube page
Next job will be neck removal and stripping the finish in the chilly garage. I never did address how this fits into "what I didn't get for Christmas" in previous posts. I didn't ask for numb fingers, but I would have liked another kit, or ideally parts selected from various sources. But that didn't happen. Perhaps the next time @TTony runs a Q1 contest he should do it in the summer when it's warmer.
So, here's what I'm left with:
http://i.imgur.com/3Ojc4NU.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/8eGi0ay.jpg
Not for the first time I got some unattractive wood.
There's been a lot of clear finishes done on here recently and I'd like to do one with this, but this isn't the body for that. One day maybe I'll do a swamp ash something, but that's a long way off.
Back to this one, I still don't know what colour to redo it. I was leaning towards something like Pelham or lake placid blue. My wife liked the green that it was. So it might be green again. I won't be attempting a rattle can burst again.
Anyway, the next job is to find some wood to fill the lower control plate hole and the ferule holes on the back.
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One barrier to getting things done was the state of my shed/garage. In true Sesh style it was a dumping ground of hoarding and half-arsed-ness.
It went from this:
http://i.imgur.com/NGnwIYe.jpg
To this:
http://i.imgur.com/NZlxXPC.jpg
So, that's one less barrier.
I've filled the unwanted holes with wood and filler and now this is where I am. I need to invest in some more abrasive paper before I do anymore. I'm calling this the ugly duckling stage. Will I end up with a swan or a turkey?
http://i.imgur.com/YlREqHz.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/kDT1xj5.jpg
I'm not sure what sort of pickguard it will have so I've filled all the holes for now.
However don't look in my sheds...
I found the brush for the dustpan too.