Lockdown mod job: a MIM Tele transformed

rze99

A few months a go I did a trawl of London guitar shops and played a load. One guitar that really impressed me a lot was the Suhr Alt T with Thornbuckers (really bright PAF style tones). Played really well and especially the clear Pete Thorn signature humbuckers were focused and chimey, not muffly and middy. The Alt T is obviously a £2+k guitar. But I thought about making something like it wiht those Thornbuckers.

I used this 2016 pre-owned MIM Standard I bought cheaply as a basic mod vehicle base. Here's what I did.

Neck: polished frets; rolled and sanded the fretboard edges; re-cut and reshaped the nut; sanded and smoothed the rosewood board with fine wire wool, ebonised and oiled it for a dark look consistent with the gloss black body; sanded down the gloss to a natural wood feel; sanded to raw wood the heel of the neck and pocket for maximum contact.

Body: filled and repainted a chunk missing out of the paintwork;changed the pickguard to a dark redbrown tort.

Pickups: replaced the Fender split coil humbuckers (which were actually pretty usable in single coil mode with the tone pot rolled back but too middy and rawk-hot for me in humbie mode). Replaced with Suhr Thornbuckers in raw nickel finish 53mm spacing on the bridge and 50mm on the neck. Kept the pots switch and all the hardware it was OK. Suhr use Seymour Duncan colour scheme which is different to Fenders.

Bridge: Replaced the bent steel saddles Strat one. It didn't rattle, but lacked solidity. Fitted a Callaham replacement with brass Tele saddles including replacement short screws. The difference is striking: definition, sustain and improved low end.

Pickups and bridge were nearly £300 - more than I'd normally put into a cheapy, but I really wanted the Thornbuckers and the bridge difference is night and day different.

The result is a Tele with humbuckers that retains some of the the bright Tele snap and attack. It's a little like a bright SG in terms of where it sits in the mix and plays. It has a bit of old school PAF quack. With a really low action big frets and 9.5 radius means it's a good one for widdle and earnie lead stuff.

Quick sound clips using Yamaha THR direct. Same simple riff, bridge, middle, neck first clean-ish then a bit crunchy. 



(clean then crunch)

JT96

Wow, that looks absolutely stunning. Do you have before pics as well for comparison?

SpiritOfTheAge

I love the look of that dark fretboard and the guitar sounds great too.

rze99

JT96 said:

Wow, that looks absolutely stunning. Do you have before pics as well for comparison?

Thank you. This is what it was like originally ...forgot to include...

Chuffola

Very nice. Top marks

PC_Dave

That looks and sounds awesome! Excellent work!

Rich

Looks and sounds amazing, great job! Tempting me to find something similar.

tony99

I want to do exactly that to my strat what you've done on the neck, roll the edges, take the gloss off, darken it, that is amazing

I wouldn't know where to start, every time I look up the techniques for rolling edges people say it sort of ends up more scalloped because of the frets but yours looks perfect

rze99

tony99 said:

I want to do exactly that to my strat what you've done on the neck, roll the edges, take the gloss off, darken it, that is amazing

I wouldn't know where to start, every time I look up the techniques for rolling edges people say it sort of ends up more scalloped because of the frets but yours looks perfect

Thank you

One of my most used tools is a fine general file. Flat on one side curved the other.

The first thing I did use sandpaper to take off the gloss finish all over the neck - back and sides.

Then used the fine file to carefully take off the square edge making it more rounded. A little goes a long way.

Then I used sand paper and wire wool to smooth.  

Finally used the rounded side of a large screwdriver to compress the rolled edges. 

I used mostly fine wire wool grades for the fretboard prep. Then used ebony leather stain. Wire wool between a couple of coats. Then very very light application of tru oil to seal the stain.  Then rubbed back, finally bore oil and rubbing. 

Done this a few times. It's about four hours of work not including drying times. 

tony99

that's good info thanks, I'm gonna do it when I get the confidence to do so

when I've read the discussions on rolling the edges it seems the fret ends are the problem, as in you can get the wood rounded down smooth but the frets still protrude somewhat, did you find this with yours?

rze99

tony99 said:

that's good info thanks, I'm gonna do it when I get the confidence to do so

when I've read the discussions on rolling the edges it seems the fret ends are the problem, as in you can get the wood rounded down smooth but the frets still protrude somewhat, did you find this with yours?

when I first did this on a neck I went too far and yes the fret ends protruded.

The trick is you are just taking a little off the squared edge as I said "A little goes a long way" it's just to make it comfortable and smooth not a circle.

As you can see in pic 7, it's subtle. In any case, fret ends too can be (and should be if required) filed and smoothed. 

The effect of sanding the edges of the fretboard first also takes off any poorly finished / sharp fret ends you can get on MIMs and less well finished guitars.

tony99

rze99 said:

tony99 said:

that's good info thanks, I'm gonna do it when I get the confidence to do so

when I've read the discussions on rolling the edges it seems the fret ends are the problem, as in you can get the wood rounded down smooth but the frets still protrude somewhat, did you find this with yours?

when I first did this on a neck I went too far and yes the fret ends protruded.

The trick is you are just taking a little off the squared edge as I said "A little goes a long way" it's just to make it comfortable and smooth not a circle.

As you can see in pic 7, it's subtle. In any case, fret ends too can be (and should be if required) filed and smoothed. 

The effect of sanding the edges of the fretboard first also takes off any poorly finished / sharp fret ends you can get on MIMs and less well finished guitars.

how much would you charge to do that on a neck?

stickyfiddle

Looks fab. 

Big +1 to rolling fretboard edges. I don't know why more folks & brands don't make more of this as a "thing" - for me it's essential on an unbound neck. I would go slightly further than you have in that pic, but only very very slightly!

I use the edge of a Stanley blade to just very accurately take off that corner and not any more, then a couple of grades of micromesh to polish. 

timmypix

That is gorgeous! How did you darken the board, just a wood dye?

rze99

stickyfiddle said:

Looks fab. 

Big +1 to rolling fretboard edges. I don't know why more folks & brands don't make more of this as a "thing" - for me it's essential on an unbound neck. I would go slightly further than you have in that pic, but only very very slightly!

I use the edge of a Stanley blade to just very accurately take off that corner and not any more, then a couple of grades of micromesh to polish. 

The feel difference is enormous.

So why not done? It's because its a fine hand labour task and therefore expensive even with reduced labour costs in those locations .

And thanks for the Stanley knife idea - not tried that method. 

DiscoStu

That's the biz! So much cooler than the original guitar.
Give you £50 for it?

mikenetic

Top job - really classy setup!

rze99

tony99 said:

rze99 said:

tony99 said:

that's good info thanks, I'm gonna do it when I get the confidence to do so

when I've read the discussions on rolling the edges it seems the fret ends are the problem, as in you can get the wood rounded down smooth but the frets still protrude somewhat, did you find this with yours?

when I first did this on a neck I went too far and yes the fret ends protruded.

The trick is you are just taking a little off the squared edge as I said "A little goes a long way" it's just to make it comfortable and smooth not a circle.

As you can see in pic 7, it's subtle. In any case, fret ends too can be (and should be if required) filed and smoothed. 

The effect of sanding the edges of the fretboard first also takes off any poorly finished / sharp fret ends you can get on MIMs and less well finished guitars.

how much would you charge to do that on a neck?

Thanks but sorry I’m very lucky enough to have a well paid 60 hour a week job this is just for my fun and satisfaction of the resulting guitar. No way could I make money from this lark - I take too much time.  

Lock down has been perfect for these projects. Glass of wine music on nice summer evening weather .... and I’ve avoided lots of drinks parties with people taking about their pensions and kitchen extensions. What a relief!  

tony99

rze99 said:

tony99 said:

rze99 said:

tony99 said:

that's good info thanks, I'm gonna do it when I get the confidence to do so

when I've read the discussions on rolling the edges it seems the fret ends are the problem, as in you can get the wood rounded down smooth but the frets still protrude somewhat, did you find this with yours?

when I first did this on a neck I went too far and yes the fret ends protruded.

The trick is you are just taking a little off the squared edge as I said "A little goes a long way" it's just to make it comfortable and smooth not a circle.

As you can see in pic 7, it's subtle. In any case, fret ends too can be (and should be if required) filed and smoothed. 

The effect of sanding the edges of the fretboard first also takes off any poorly finished / sharp fret ends you can get on MIMs and less well finished guitars.

how much would you charge to do that on a neck?

Thanks but sorry I’m very lucky enough to have a well paid 60 hour a week job this is just for my fun and satisfaction of the resulting guitar. No way could I make money from this lark - I take too much time.  

Lock down has been perfect for these projects. Glass of wine music on nice summer evening weather .... and I’ve avoided lots of drinks parties with people taking about their pensions and kitchen extensions. What a relief!  

no worries, you can do mine just for fun then!! haha jokes

I'm deffo going to attempt it on my strat at some point but I'll probably buy a cheapo to do a first go I reckon

thanks for posting though coz it's really helpful

gusman2x

tony99 said:

rze99 said:

tony99 said:

rze99 said:

tony99 said:

that's good info thanks, I'm gonna do it when I get the confidence to do so

when I've read the discussions on rolling the edges it seems the fret ends are the problem, as in you can get the wood rounded down smooth but the frets still protrude somewhat, did you find this with yours?

when I first did this on a neck I went too far and yes the fret ends protruded.

The trick is you are just taking a little off the squared edge as I said "A little goes a long way" it's just to make it comfortable and smooth not a circle.

As you can see in pic 7, it's subtle. In any case, fret ends too can be (and should be if required) filed and smoothed. 

The effect of sanding the edges of the fretboard first also takes off any poorly finished / sharp fret ends you can get on MIMs and less well finished guitars.

how much would you charge to do that on a neck?

Thanks but sorry I’m very lucky enough to have a well paid 60 hour a week job this is just for my fun and satisfaction of the resulting guitar. No way could I make money from this lark - I take too much time.  

Lock down has been perfect for these projects. Glass of wine music on nice summer evening weather .... and I’ve avoided lots of drinks parties with people taking about their pensions and kitchen extensions. What a relief!  

no worries, you can do mine just for fun then!! haha jokes

I'm deffo going to attempt it on my strat at some point but I'll probably buy a cheapo to do a first go I reckon

thanks for posting though coz it's really helpful

You have a Vintera strat? I've been considering trying to dye my pau ferro board. BUt concerned about making a pigs ear of it.

tony99

mine's a 60s classic player, so basically like a vintera I suppose, mine is one of the last run to have rosewood

I think a bit of work on the neck like this thread and then maybe one day a cool relic paint job for the body is as close to CS as I'll ever get