Once upon a time there was an expensive pine table. It served its time as a table very well until it became out-of-keeping with the decor of the house. At that point, it was moved outside to the patio and spent some time there in the rain, sleet and snow until it again out-grew its usefulness. It was destined to go to the tip until a chance conversation between its owner (an old friend) and I saw the tabletop passed to me...
That was about five years ago, and it has sat in the shed getting in the way and generally gathering cobwebs until last week. I finally got the momentum together to start turning it into a Tele(ish)caster.
This is what it looked like cut into Tele sized blanks...
Using templates bought from here, I roughed out the body shape with a Jigsaw and then, using a router bought s/h some years ago on eBay (and untried since purchase) I carved around the template using a bearing-guided bit. The result was an Esquire-a-like - I have a bridge pickup sat in the drawer so figured a one pickup guitar is the way forwards...
I'm waiting on my round-over bit arriving to finish off the major woodworking and then I can get on with preparing it for a finish.... more on that later.
The ethic for this build is "recycling", so that aside from the strings every bit of this guitar has to be either bought secondhand, scrounged or saved from a skip. And that leads me onto the neck.
Its no secret that until they closed the UK office, I was gainfully employed by Line6 and when we were clearing out the building, there were quite a lot of guitar parts that were destined for the bin. Therefore, I took as much on as I could including a few scrap JTV69 necks. These were reject necks for a variety of reasons (mainly broken off screws during repair work - as the repair could not be totally invisible, the neck would be replaced) and all need a little work to make them useable again. But that headstock HAS to go... sorry, it's eaten-up with the uglies...
I spent a happy afternoon in the garage armed with a sander, a Dremel and some files - its now a little more Tele shaped. I may attack it some more before I'm done, but its one heck of an improvement. I've filled all the holes and removed the broken screws from it. Plus I've removed all traces of the headstock decal and the serial number.
The body is waiting on the control plate to arrive (a s/h purchase from this forum) before I can be sure that all the routing is complete. The pickup is a Kent Armstrong rails unit that I've had for ever and when I tried, nobody would buy it, so I've built a guitar around it!! The bridge is a s/h Squier CV unit that I got from ebay for the princely sum of £5. I have an old Variax neckplate and screws set aside, a secondhand set of machine heads and I have a bunch of electronics left over from several projects that will get slotted in somehow.
A mock up of how it looks right now...
And yes, I ballsed up the socket hole. It will be OK with some work but hey... its a learning curve.
So what to use for a finish?
I'd like to stain it - I loved the green Westone that was on here and have considered doing similar. But what stain was used on that? And would it work on pine?
I have 3/4 of a bottle of Tru Oil left over from when I built my Telecaster thingy about three years ago. Its been in the garage ever since - I've checked it and it seems ok under the crust that had formed. A quick stir and I tried a bit on an offcut and it seemed pretty good.
So what are people's thoughts about the finish? All comments, suggestions and criticisms welcomed, as long as they aren't personal. ;-) I've not made a guitar body before, so I'm learning as I go!!
Oh and one final thing... once this one is complete, I'm doing it all again with the other blank and another JTV neck. That one will be a present to my friend for donating the table in the first place. That guitar will be slightly different in that it will have twin humbuckers (already sourced) but I'd like to do them in a matching finish so they can be 'sisters'. Again, it's being done using recycled materials as I have no money!!
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Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
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My green Westone was done with Rothko & Frost Forest Green spirit based stain.
http://www.rothkoandfrost.com/spirit-based-wood-dye-lightfast/
god speed!
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/61134/sarge/p1
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Yes, I'm serious . Especially about the second one.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
but i like your way of doing things more...
its looking great!
Any other ideas? I have ordered the green stain that @Sarge used for his gorgeous Westone makeover. I'm still quite keen on that but doubt I'll get this looking anywhere near as nice!!