Q418C guitarcookie1 Telemaster build - Completed

guitarcookie1

Wanted to do one of these for ages and today this arrived:

https://i.imgur.com/bpybDz4.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/c6toxre.jpg

It’s going to go together with this Birdseye maple neck that I got from here recently:

https://i.imgur.com/2H8vDhg.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ffkmse1.jpg

Poplar body & not too bothered about the dark grain on the bottom as it’s going to be stained black with two Gibson mini-humbuckers in the middle/neck and a Bareknuckle Boss bridge pickup (all from the parts drawer). 

Roland

I presume you’re going to log this build under the Q4 challenge?

guitarcookie1

Roland said:

I presume you’re going to log this build under the Q4 challenge?

Don’t know if it really fits. It’s a kit, but from my “parts box”, not something you can buy complete as a kit to assemble? 

WezV

You won’t be the first to push the definition of a kit... go for it

equalsql

I love the whole Telemaster vibe. I've been thinking of doing one myself so it will be interesting too see how your's goes.
Black seems an unusual colour for a Telemaster though.

guitarcookie1

Roland said:

I presume you’re going to log this build under the Q4 challenge?

WezV said:

You won’t be the first to push the definition of a kit... go for it

Well if people don’t mind then add it to the challenge

Here’s most of the rest of the ‘kit’:

https://i.imgur.com/sHhR2Jb.jpg

Pickups came from this forum, as did the neck. 
Hardware would have come from www.axesrus.co.uk and www.axecaster.co.uk (as have the bridge and switch currently en route to me). 

Body came from www.guitarbuild.co.uk as will the scratch plate. 

Finish is coming from www.crimsonguitars.com

guitarcookie1

equalsql said:

I love the whole Telemaster vibe. I've been thinking of doing one myself so it will be interesting too see how your's goes.
Black seems an unusual colour for a Telemaster though.

It’s going to be the yin (or yang) to a previous build that is now my main guitar:

https://i.imgur.com/dprdS7m.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DALXp3W.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GNmjMZH.jpg

Roland

guitarcookie1 said:

It’s going to be the yin (or yang) to a previous build that is now my main guitar:

See black with a rosewood board?

guitarcookie1

Roland said:

guitarcookie1 said:

It’s going to be the yin (or yang) to a previous build that is now my main guitar:

See black with a rosewood board?

Black with a maple board (the birds eye maple neck is a thing of beauty). Lightly-worn finish to the body to let the grain pattern show through a bit. 

johnl

Glad to see that neck being put to good use

enjo

Cool - I don't think I've ever seen a middle bucker on a tele (or telemaster)! 

guitarcookie1

Finally managed to get a scratch plate made so now we’re good to go again

https://i.imgur.com/cUGSfVM.jpg

equalsql

Looking good already  

guitarcookie1

Now we can start with the colour..

After one coat & dried for two days:

https://i.imgur.com/9NpsQW8.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4yOJTuj.jpg

Using Crimson Guitars black Stunning Stain for this, looks a bit brown in the picture but much more black in the flesh. Will keep going over the next few days until we get a nice deep black colour.

Not sure whether to keep the colour consistent or rub back the wear areas to get a bit of an an aged effect?

Roland

I’d vote for consistent colour, and let it age naturally

guitarcookie1

Lost count of how many coats of stain, but the bottle is empty...

https://i.imgur.com/fAZRNlX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/L6sPBq4.jpg

Now starting on the finishing oil top-coat to make it nice & shiney (it’s also bringing out the black colour more too).

UnclePsychosis

guitarcookie1 said:

equalsql said:

I love the whole Telemaster vibe. I've been thinking of doing one myself so it will be interesting too see how your's goes.
Black seems an unusual colour for a Telemaster though.

It’s going to be the yin (or yang) to a previous build that is now my main guitar:

https://i.imgur.com/dprdS7m.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DALXp3W.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/GNmjMZH.jpg

-I love this! 

Did you source the lipstick pickups / scratchplate yourself? Can I ask where you got them? 

guitarcookie1

Cheers

The scratchplate is a standard Strat one. 

The pickups I got from axesrus many years ago, they don’t seem to do them anymore but GFS might..

guitarcookie1

Body finished - used the whole bottle of stain to get it “black” enough, and nearly all the finishing oil to get a mild gloss finish. 

Found out, after the first few coats of oil were quite sticky, that it really benefits from applying a couple of coats with wet & dry paper, cos after that each one went on smoothly and dried out flat. 

Final finish coat was with furniture wax - top tip with this is the wax will melt any decals you might have put on the guitar hoping they would be protected by the wax layer, as happened to the pin up decal that was on the back...

https://i.imgur.com/msUFvUu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uRWK0sY.jpg

paulnb57

Very nice, liking the contrast between the black and maple..

guitarcookie1

And we’re finished:

https://i.imgur.com/5zPVhQc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jXD4ST5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NCgGWk5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Lqm74xS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/0Ctm7ZF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/aIS1J5g.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NOhFEOG.jpg

I’m really happy with the way it’s turned out - plays well but needs a bit of a fret dress, a couple of high frets mean the action is a little high. 

The bridge pickup is up is now an Oil City Liquidator rather than the Bareknuckle Boss as planned as it balances better with the Gibson mini-humbuckers. 

The three-way switch gives me almost a Tele and LP Deluxe in one guitar, the middle pickup is almost bridge pickup-like, and you can get a good Strat-like neck/middle combination too if you wedge the switch in between and back off the volume. 

Locking tuners are a revelation, not used them before. 

Going to to swap the brass saddles for some steel ones as there’s a metallic “zing” that I want to get rid of. 

Might also swap the mini-humbuckers for P90’s at some point in the future but not immediately.