My Tele project

[axisus]

Fishing around in the loft recently I came across an old hohner body/neck that I got about 25 years ago. The whole thing was a wreck, having been (mostly) sanded down, covered in varnish by paintbrush and roughly routed for 2 humbuckers. The frets had been totally flattened off in the middle. At the time it was too much of a job for me, but now I'm (a lot!) older it is just my kind of thing. My plan is to get a relic-type look as I'm a big fan of that sort of thing.

A pre-start picture




Here's the neck minus frets, and sanded to remove all the old (flaky) varnish



Sanded neck and frets installed, trimmed to size but not rounded off




Body sanded here, holes filled, and quick test assembly. Pots and wire from my stash of bits, as was BK piledriver pup and Kinman HB. Aged Wilkinson bridge plate bought for £20. Can't be seen here, but I found an old control plate in chrome and sanded it off with wet & dry to give it a dull metal look.




The neck in the previous pic looked too 'new' for my tastes, so here it is with a bit of 'aged' colouring and also about 8 coats of tru-oil.




I put it together to see how it felt, so the next pic is the current state. I'm planning on spraying it but I haven't decided the colour yet - probably light blue or black, and a bit relic'd as well. Also I'm going to get some older looking machineheads to replace these ones and a new nut (currently using a graphtech I had spare)




Well, it's in one piece, and it is ........ amazing! I absolutely can't resist playing it. The sound when unplugged just rings out of it like no other guitar I have. Every day I am picking this up instead of all my other (expensive!) guitars at the moment. I really don't feel that I want to pull it apart right now! The funny thing is, the action is pretty high right now as I haven't levelled the frets yet (need to buy tools when I get paid!), but it doesn't seem to bother me or affect my playing at all???

So, what colour? If I go black I may go for a white pearloid scratchplate. Probably going to swap out the pickups for something else eventually. Well, that's the story so far ....

[mrerikryman]

Excellent - that looks great already. Nice job

[Ozric]

I'd stay with the natural finish myself. That's one cool looking tele.

[JAYJO]

Looks finished to me! Leave as is imo. Great job.

[guitargeek62]

Great work!

One thing though - is it really a good idea to have that micro toggle right there next to the neck pickup? Just asking for trouble methinks...

[d3c3it]

Lovely looking tele. I'm with others, leave painting it, it got a lovely look to it

[axisus]

.... is it really a good idea to have that micro toggle right there next to the neck pickup? Just asking for trouble methinks...

I have no problem with that placement at all with my playing style?? It's to split the kinman sound, but it doesn't make all that much difference to my ears.

I take what you lot are saying about the natural finish, and I am a big fan of that look generally, but I really fancy a lightly relic'd look for this body so I'm gonna go for one colour or another. I like to try things out and I'd like to see if my ideas for relicing are going to work to my satisfaction or not - not expecting custom shop quality! just something that looks OK to me. If I fail I can always strip it back again!

[TomMon]

I do love a blue tele. I think a Lake Placid type would go well with the current plate (ltd ed. baja a few years ago?) or sonic blue with a white guard. But then you'd have to relic the new pick guard too.

[d3c3it]

I have no problem with that placement at all with my playing style?? It's to split the kinman sound, but it doesn't make all that much difference to my ears.

I take what you lot are saying about the natural finish, and I am a big fan of that look generally, but I really fancy a lightly relic'd look for this body so I'm gonna go for one colour or another. I like to try things out and I'd like to see if my ideas for relicing are going to work to my satisfaction or not - not expecting custom shop quality! just something that looks OK to me. If I fail I can always strip it back again!

What about surf green? My mate used to own a mid90s tele in that colour and was his main guitar so got very battered. Cracked paint, dings, faded paint. Looked awesome. Stil don't know why he sold it.

[axisus]

UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***UPDATE***

I've been working on the Tele again ....

I decided against the relic finish, and went for something 'low tech' instead. so heres a few more pix to show how it looks now.

For a bit of character, I burned the body with a blowtorch (!), before oiling it and then waxing it. Probably not to everyone's taste but personally I love it!

This was the frets masked off before levelling



Close up of the fretboard. I really don't do for the shiny new thing, so this is my grunged up look.




Headstock, with my usual 'logo'. I figured I'd put it on as the guitar has been substantially changed from original.



Wilkinson aged bridge



Control plate: This was chrome (along with the knobs) I attacked the parts with wire wool/wet and dry paper etc to lose the shine and get a satin look



Got some nice 'painted over' screws from a cheap old guitar I was given. Not a great pic, but they look pretty cool!