So, what is a telecaster?
Weapon? Work of art? Tool? Most versatile guitar made? Groundbreaker?
I've owned some 6 or 7 different telecasters over the years, from cheap to very expensive. I love the form factor, I love the control layout, I love the concept but for some reason everyone I've ever had has left me a bit flat. Either the neck pickup sounds too thin, the guitar is too heavy, dead sounding etc. The idea of rocking up to peach with a stack of queens bulging out my pocket to find the ultimate custom shop is not very appealing and I'm not a fan of the custom shop labels. First world problems.
So, from those that I did have, I've learned a few things. I like a thinline (when it's not a boat anchor excuse of a thinline), I like a HB on neck or one of the ASAT type soap bars. Although I've never had a P90 tele, I've had a Fano SP6 with a P90 which was superb. I also really like a lightweight tele.
For some time I toyed with the idea of a custom parts caster but shied away due to cost.
@GSPBASSES recent cleared provided just the right excuse to spend money on some good parts and learning a few new skills along the way. I've collected a small selection of guitar adjustment tools, bars etc and have a better understanding today of what I like in an instrument and how to get it playing the way I like it, no least thanks to a lot of the knowledge picked up on the forum and YouTube channels.
Ok, enough waffling.
I intended this thread to serve as a sort of step by step document of this particular build, amalgamating knowledge primarily picked up from
@SteveRobinson's https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk and
lonestar guitars. It will be a bit of an image heavy set of posts too..
Each post will contain one stage. I will take my time with this as its my first ever build and I want it to come together as a good standard.
I'll also calculate time spent at each stage to get a better idea of the overall time commitment for such a project.
Before sitting down with the body, I spent about 3-4 hours putting together a list of suitable hardware, pickups, overall design and another 2-3 hours watching videos and reading about how to obtain a high quality finish at home.
Base specs with weights and costs. Some are approximations as they've not arrived yet. Costs are definitely variable and a good imported body and neck will easily bump this whole thing towards the other side of a grand. Same for pickups etc.
Nought? Why Nought? Fret Nought, you'll find out later.
Part | Cost | Weight g | GSP Neck (Swamp ash with maple top) - unfinished | 100 | 530 | GSP Body and neck (roasted maple with rosewood board) - unfinished | 134 | 1267 | Fender jack nickel 099-1941-000 | 8.49 | 11 | Gotoh BS-TC1S Bridge nickel | 45 | 92 | Gotoh TLB-1 Ferrules nickel | 6.25 | 14 | Bakelite Witch hat knobs | 7 | 11 | Gotoh 6 in line vintage nickel | 35 | 158 | Axesrus Pickups (T90, custom built, minimal potting) | 110 | 182 | Fender true vintage nickel string retainer 0994912000 | 12 | 1 | Vintage cream pickguard | 26 | 63 | Telecaster wiring harness and nickel control plate | 70 | 139 | TCS true 52 vintage nickel neck plate and slotted screws | 20 | 63 | Nickel slotted screws Fender 0018368049 (7 for pickguard and 2 for plate) | 12 | 5 | Sanding supplies etc | 45 | | Paint | 90 | | Totals | £720.74 | 2536g |
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The starting point is this (
@gspbasses photo):
Comments
Prior to grain filling and correcting any minor wood defects, finer sanding is required. Graham already delivers a superbly prepared body so I feel like there is little work to be done here. Overall cost: 50 minutes, a can and three sheets of sandpapered 2x400 and 1x600.
Key lessons learned - be careful with sandpaper catching routed edges, wood can be delicate, your fingers are very good for feeling out what needs to be done.
I start with something important...
And a couple of shots of the body, prior to any work. The towel is there to prevent contact with the hardwood table underneath and give it a nice working surface that I can move the body around without risking marking it.
This tear may need to be filled, I'll check with the pickup jack once it arrives, it might cover it. On any occasion I can address this at a later time.
These small grain pits will likewise be filled at a later stage.
First step, sanding down with P400. Some of the edges are quite delicate, especially by neck pocket and control route/fhole. It's very easy to snag the paper/block and cause a gouge so careful attention should be paid to sanding those areas and direction. I clean up the edges with what remains of this first sheet.
I wipe down with a damp cloth, first time seeing the grain pop.
You can see how there is a lot of 'roughness' popping out with the water, even on the maple.
This then gets sanded down again with a fresh sheet of P400, followed by P600
The surface is much smoother now, but very dusty so I clean it with mineral spirit. Once it is dried, I park the body away and will embark on the next stage when time permits, grain filling.
Best use a "gold" paper. I like 3M Sandblaster. Mirka Goldflex is very good too.
I've just remembered however that you are planning a solid finish so it doesn't matter too much.
I used the following technique: Grain-filling an ash telecaster body
There aren't as many photos simply because it's too messy to photograph as you go along. I inspected it closely after what Steve said about carborundum paper residue, luckily there was none to be seen. I felt the maple top had some small points that needed filling so I went at the whole body. I plugged the control cavity as well as the f-hole with paper towel to avoid collecting filler residue inside the body and to catch any drips, it will be easier to clean the edge of the cavity/fhole as opposed to the deeper bowels of the routes.
I started spreading with a card but at one point switched to using my bare hands to work the filler in, followed by careful flat scraping to avoid lifting any filler out of the pores. I found a light touch with the card, ensuring that it was perfectly straight and not at an angle that would chatter or catch the wood was best. The cutout was difficult to do and was lifting a lot of filler out so it will likely require a bit more sanding to deal with the additional filler residue.
Some time after I was done, I touched a couple of small spots on the swamp ash that I felt needed some more grain filler either because it lifted during scraping or I didn't get enough in there to begin with.
Close inspection is imperative as from a small distance it all looks nice and well but it's only when you look at it square inch by square inch that you are able to see where more filler might be needed.
Overall cost: approximately 45 minutes and, with wastage, I used about 1/6th to 1/4 of what was in the can. I put the diluted mixture back in the can and stored for future use.
Things I learned: Don't try do do this whilst you're also trying to have lunch, it's not going to work. Make sure you have somewhere safe to hang the body afterwards to breathe out the spirit. Again, trust your sense of touch when working through it. May try powder free gloves next time....
Ian
Lowering my expectations has succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
The grain filler has dried overnight, you can see clearly where it does the job:
@Devil#20 I did waver a bit at first when the body first arrived, it's a beautiful piece of book-matched maple. At the end of the day, however, I'm not a fan of flamed teles at all + for a first spray job I'd prefer to go with a solid colour rather than a burst or something butterscotch-ish. I've got an idea of what the end result is going to look like in my head. I mean, flamed ones are nice but just not what I'm looking to do with this one. I like the idea that there is a bit of maple that may change the overall voice the guitar, however slightly, and that it will be safely tucked away under a few layers of solid colour. PRS do this, though they keep the faux binding as 'show' of what 'could have been'. Same with some resprayed gold-tops. I like that idea.
https://manchesterguitartech.co.uk/2012/03/27/more-on-preparation-sanding-sealer-and-using-an-index-coat/
You need to be able to see when everything is sanded level with no dips.
This was a very dusty job. It's also clear why scraping as much off as you can before you allow the grain-filler to dry saves a lot of time. I removed excess filler from routes with an modelling knife but this was very high risk. A wrong slip and you're taking a chunk of the F-hole with you.
I used P320. I still don't have gold paper and could see exactly what Steve meant about black particles from the carborundum paper coming off so I was careful not to exert pressure that would embed particles in the wood. This (presumably) meant that the process took a bit longer than it could have. Also, a pad type sandpaper would have been much better for the curved areas and cutout but we got there in the end with the fiddly paper.
I sanded along the grain to avoid scratches that go across the grain.
If doing this again I would probably do, sides first, cutouts, then rounded edges and finally the flat surfaces of top and back, simply because doing the rounded edges caused minimal marring to the top that had already been sanded so I had to touch it up again afterwards.
Cost, about an hour and a half plus three and a half sheets of p320
The paper accumulates very quickly so patting it out regularly is important. Once it builds up too much it looked like it would probably going to cause damage to the surface rather than actually remove any more filler, so I kept a close eye on it.
This is how I approached the cutaway, being careful not to catch the paper. You can see the excess filler on the neck pocket area to the top. Here is where I wish I had scrapped off a bit more as it just clogs the paper quickly and sands down slowly.
You can see all the low areas that have been filled by the grain filler here. After cleaning with spirit.
I might return to this area once the spirit has dried.
The grain filler seems to have given the ash grain even greater contrast compared to an earlier photo, though this may have been due to the light. The ferrule holes may not seem straight but this is just some excess filler that has not yet been removed causing an illusion.
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You can see such areas below, top more so than bottom highlight. I reopen the tin of rustins, which at the top contains the diluted mixture I used the other day and simply dab a drop with my fingertip and work it in. It's a simple touch up job and as it quickly dries it powders off, leaving the spot filled with grain filler. I'm not rubbing it clean with my finger as I'm going to have one last final sand with the pads suggested by @GSPBASSES above. Once those arrive, I think I can conclude this portion of the prep and move on to sanding sealer so it's a good time to get things ready in the shed for (hopefully) a weekend job ahead
A couple of days ago my order of a couple of sheets of 320 grit gold flex soft Mirka abrasive that @GSPBASSES and @stever recommended arrived. I wish I had known about this before I got started as it's an entirely different sanding experience. The pliable, resistant pad is far more suited to this type of work than the stiff and flakey carborundum paper. I appreciate this might be a sort of 'given' for those working with bare timbers but it was news to me. I'll make sure I have some in hand for future projects if I ever have future projects. It was especially well suited for smoothing out the edges of the routes and I can see how it will be valuable for when I get to the neck.
It does what it says in the tin and more. Go easy because I got a bit over enthusiastic 'redoing' the whole body and caused some of the pores to lose the filling so I had to touch up again, using the hard light method I've written about before, nothing much really but I could have avoided it. Lesson 1 learned.
Once that was complete, I was ready for stage four. Sanding sealer.
I stared by sourcing a piece of off-cut and cutting it to size to fashion a handle that would be attached to the body. I made sure that it was narrow enough to easily handle but wide enough to offer a good and sturdy handle to work from and left enough room around the edges of the neck pocket to avoid any possibility of paint bridging onto the body. I also drilled a hole in the top of the handle so that I could have where to hang it from to dry.
I felt that the screws I had at hand were a few mm too long and didn't want to drill far into the neck pocket so I made mental note of this.
I first drilled two diagonally placed holes (in relation to the body centre seam).
Once holes were drilled (of a smaller dimension to the screw so that there would be grip) I installed the screws to the handle only and used the whole contraption to press a pair of locating marks onto the neck pocket.
Once that was completed I drilled shallow pilot holes of the same dimension into the neck pocket and installed the handle. The heads protrude a bit in this case as I did not want to go too deep into the neck pocket with either pilot holes or screws but the resulting handle and installation is rigid and strong enough for what is necessary, being able to move the body around as I spray it.
Prior to spraying I wipe the body down with a tack cloth (a thin cotton mesh impregnated in beesswax) specifically designed for collecting dust and any foreign particles from a sanded piece of wood.
I thought a glove would also be a sound idea to allow for more uninhibited spraying of close quarters.
I would not necessarily want to do this with a heavy body and would likely opt to have it hanging but since this one is reasonably light it was not too much of a problem to handle for the spraying session. I built thin coats up until the body started to look 'shiny', indicating that the wood had saturated from the spray, being careful not to build thick/runny coats. One thing to note is that different parts of the ash behave completely differently in terms of absorption. The end grain seemed to need more spray than the back. As the body curves and moves from end grain to grain lines, the absorption also changed so where I was going a bit thicker on the sanding sealer, it eventually hit a saturated spot and I ended up with a very small run. I will have to sand it down carefully when it has hardened overnight.
I end up with a very smooth, matte surface throughout. I did have to go back outside for a couple of areas in the end grain that needed a bit more lacquer, but otherwise I am very pleased with these early results.