Harley Benton Telecaster Kit Build

andyp

Cheers!

Yip, it's been sanded down a fair bit and we were pretty happy it was ready for Wudtone, but we're only going to find out if we were right once we get into it I guess. My old man applied the deep coat yesterday... I don't know how it's gone yet and I have to admit... it's kinda killing me waiting on an update from him.

I'll see it properly tomorrow, but he's planning on adding another coat today and possibly a third tomorrow. How many we need overall, I'm not sure yet but I guess it depends how much colour we want.

(To explain a bit, I work away from home Monday to Friday and I stay with my folks as a lodger when I'm at work so at weekends I'm back at home near Glasgow with the wife and kids. The "project" is in my old man's garage / workshop up near Aberdeen so he's helping me out with some of the stuff).

andyp

Ok, we're three coats in... the deep coat and two base coats. Kinda confusingly, the base coats are applied after the deep coat. It's about 36hrs between coats and there's going to need to be a few more colour coats before we then apply the satin lacquer, so I think we're maybe 2 weeks away from being able to assemble the guitar, maybe longer.

Pics of how it looks tonight, not the best light but it's a pretty good indication of where it's sitting just now. Next coat goes on tomorrow night.

http://i.imgur.com/ga5VVHB.jpg

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

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

Roland

"The image you are requesting does not exist"

andyp

Hey, thanks for flagging this. Something went weird when uploaded them to the sharing site last night, I ended up with 2 copies, deleted 1 and ended up with none at all after I'd posted the links.

Should be sorted now.

Andy


(Sorry - just to add, I've noticed following the Photobucket thread that people probably can't see the pics on mobiles. I'll try and sort this, I've not quite figured out the best way to post photos on here yet and tend to be on the laptop when I'm reading the forum, so I hadn't realised that only the links show up on mobiles)

Roland

It's looking good on an iPad 

andyp

Great, thanks for letting me know. I don't really use the mobile site as I find it pretty awkward, so had been carrying on in blissful ignorance.

Another coat to go on tonight, it's going to take a lot longer than I had expected... but now I'm this far I want to take the time to get it right (or as right as I can!).

andyp

The colour doesn't photograph very well, but that's the last colour coat on today. Next stage, 4 (or more?) coats of finish coat / lacquer.

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

Been reading @Roland 's thread with great interest and I'm going to flip the controls over too, makes so much more sense for me. Hoping to be assembling it towards the end of next week... Wudtone recommend a week for the finish coats to cure, but we'll see how it goes.

Andy

andyp

At risk of adding to my thread on watching paint dry, here's the first lacquer coat on. It's really coming to life already. I'll probably hang off any more pics until the last coat is on and drying. Hoping to be assembling it a week today, if it's cured enough.

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

thumpingrug

Thats looking really nice.  

andyp

Thanks.

It's pretty amazing (to me, at least) how much the first coat of lacquer has added to the finish. There are / were quite a lot of light and dark spots, particularly around the edges, but I think it's beginning to even out and the finish has deepened very noticeably with this first coat. I think I / we are aiming for 4 coats, then it'll be a few days to cure.

Andy

Sesh

Looking good. 

andyp

Ok, last set of pics before assembly.

This is it with the Wudtone complete... 1 Deep coat, (I think) 5 "base" coats and 3 coats of lacquer. Now it needs to sit for a few days to cure. Depending on work and how well the curing goes this week, there's a chance I could be assembling it on Thursday night. In reality, it's more likely to be Monday 10th.

I think the colour in these pics is a bit more like it is in the flesh. Pretty chuffed with it.

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

http://i.imgur.com/1boIwqh.jpg

andyp

Well... last night I managed to get it pulled together in what we'll call "Phase 1" form. The bridge didn't fit in the end (as @Roland I think) queried so I drilled new holes for that. It was easy enough to drill as the wood is very soft but lining it all up to get the holes in the right place was a bit of a pain. My old man had already levelled the frets so it was pretty much a case of just assembling it and setting it up. He also extended one of the wires to allow me to flip the controls which made a lot of sense having thought about this and seeing the idea in @Roland 's build thread - thanks for that tip.

One of the most obvious changes I wanted to make was to go with a black scratchplate but when I fitted it I was gutted as it looked so cheap. Fit was fine, needed filing under the neck and at the edge of the control plate, and 3 of the 8 holes needed re-drilling in the body to fit it. Then later on in the evening... I realised I'd left the plastic film on, so I carefully peeled this off and as I did so remembered that I'd ordered a matt finish guard. It was perfect! Really pleased with that change, and the bridge it night and day to the original kit one, although stringing through the back and up over the saddles is a wee bit of a faff.

All in all, it was pretty straightforward to assemble it last night. The original strings it came with were junk so they only went on for an hour or so to allow us to set it up then they were replaced with D'Addario 10-46s which I use on my other two guitars. We'll give it another run over next week once I'm back up at work and get it just-so. It sounds decent to be honest, a lot better than I was expecting, but I do fancy some hotter single coils pretty soon. The tuners are fine, but I can see me wanting to replace them with satin black ones and the control plate would be neater in black too.

For a first bash I'm well chuffed.

Pics...

In progress

http://i.imgur.com/x3bZwdB.jpg

Done!

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

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

Before and after...

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

thumpingrug

Thats a very nice looking guitar.  The matt black scratch plate looks very good,

andyp

Thanks.

Rocker

I have the control panel on one of my Teles swapped around as you did @andyp. You did a very good job on the guitar, well done, congrats to yourself and you dad.

andyp

Thanks!

The assembly was easy enough but I couldn't have done the frets and setup myself... yet. It was great having my Old Man's help with the "painting" too as it would've taken me weeks to do all the coats with my work arrangements being as they are.

I've no doubt I could do it again and I'll be fine swapping parts over on this, but might need his help again when it comes to soldering any new pickups or electronics.

boydie101

A quick question with regards to the state of the body pre wudtone-- was the finish quite rough or had you smoothed it off? I have a kit waiting to be finished but I've never used a stain kit before

andyp

The body had been filled (of sorts) as it came, which I think would take a paint type finish fine but for oil / stain we sanded it down a fair bit.

It was easy enough to do, but the variation in the grain in general and the end grain present in places around edges means there's a noticeable colour change across some areas, but that's what I was looking for really. The variations got less and less with more coats though and especially when the lacquer coats went on. The body was pretty damn smooth once sanded, I didn't think it would take the stain too well like that, but it did. You can check if it's ready by dampening it lightly with a rag or even your finger before you commit to staining it.

Octahedron

It looks good. I'm not sure about the headstock, but the neck and body look great. Good stuff.