|
Post by lpf3 on Jul 23, 2012 17:29:26 GMT -5
I finished another scratch built Tele. This one is a solid 2 piece Alder body, double bound. The finish is my first attempt at a sunburst- I used 4 colors to get a Fender 3 color 'burst , & I like it....... The neck is Maple with a Wenge 'board- 22 frets, 25" scale & 12" radius. This was an experiment of sorts to compare the shorter scale & flatter radius with the traditional 25 1/2" scale of a real T- style guitar. I gotta say that I don't see that big a difference in playability, or string snap, or tone- I like it just fine but don't have much pro or con to report........... I will say that my normal string gauge- .009; is a little slinkier & I'll probably go to 10's when I change strings. I used this set of pickups from Heavy Air ,a custom pup winder out of the UK. I really like the tone of these pups, very nice & clear- & very transparent; even the neck pup. The N + B setting is killer- it's got all that old Tele "honky" tone. I used 250K pots & a .022 tone cap, which is another departure for me; I've been using 500K pots & .047 caps in my other guitars. & this is sort of a trade off- I wanted a warmer tone with this one & as a result I don't get the same bite out of the bridge pup that I got with my last build. I went with the Fender 4 way switch for the series setting, with a different switching layout than I'm used to for a 4- way. As you can see- it's much more intuitive because both N + B settings are next to each other. IMO this is much better than the series- neck- parallel- bridge switching that I've used in the past. I used an on/on DPDT toggle and this diagram for half oop courtesy of fellow Nut roadtonever. All the settings work as advertised, with an interesting side effect: With the switch down (oop), the series & parallel settings change places on the 4- way. If it's in position 3, N + B series; it goes to parallel oop when I reverse the phase. Likewise, if it's in N + B parallel, it goes to series oop with the switch down. I thought something was wrong at first, but once it sunk in that it made sense, I just got used to it. I used most of the same tools, jigs & techniques for this build as I did for my first build, so I won't bore ya's with all the build shots; just a few completed shots. Last but not least I topped it off with a Fender Mint Green pickguard that I had to modify slightly due to the shorter scale length. -lpf3
|
|
|
Post by newey on Jul 23, 2012 20:00:13 GMT -5
Another beauty, lpf3! The burst came out really well, and the binding is special. +1!
|
|
|
Post by ijustwannastrat on Jul 23, 2012 21:41:04 GMT -5
I cried tears of joy after seeing those shots...
|
|
|
Post by cynical1 on Jul 23, 2012 22:19:38 GMT -5
Very pretty. My hat is off to you on these guitars. The burst came out very nice and the binding just sets it off. Gotta give you a +1 on this one, too.
Is it me, or is there a bit more room on the headstock with this one?
So, besides Telecasters...
Happy Trails
Cynical One
|
|
|
Post by lpf3 on Jul 24, 2012 18:16:25 GMT -5
Thanks for the nice comments, guys. I found binding to be a pretty simple straightforward job- it's just really messy. I was a nervous wreck about the burst but it also wasn't as hard as I had built it up to be. I know Fender only uses 3 colors but I couldn't get the same effect- I had to soften the transition with some Tobacco brown. I like how it turned out, though.... c1- this headstock is actually almost 1/2" shorter than the first one, I used smaller tuners, about 1/8" closer together & moved them all a little over 1/4" closer to the nut: to give me a sharper break angle over the nut. I didn't use string trees on this one & that's why it looks roomier. Good eye, BTW. What's wrong with Telecasters...........? ;D I have 3 more Tele shaped projects on the bench although a bit different configurations. One is a La Cabronita clone & the last 2 are chambered hybrids with different pickup & control setups, as a sort of departure from the traditional Tele. After that I'm planning to come up with my own body shape & maybe a different neck configuration. I hope they balance out all the tears I've shed since I started working on guitars....... ;D Thanks again guys -lpf3
|
|
arx300
Rookie Solder Flinger
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
|
Post by arx300 on Oct 12, 2012 8:48:31 GMT -5
That is awesome. Do you build them completely from scratch yourself? Body and all?
|
|