A tale of two Teles

Long time between posts for me, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been building!

I developed a nice case of GAS when I was finishing up my strat and decided to build myself and my buddy a telecaster. I got a good start on both of them, but then had to go back to work so progress slowed, but recently I’ve found out I’ve got some pretty serious cancer going on, so I’m back off work and got time again!

The one for my buddy is ash with maple fretboard and mine is alder with rosewood, here they are right at the start

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I started both by routing out extra space for the pickups and control panel for upgraded pickups and pots and then drilled through for string through on both.

For the ash one I used Wudtone butterscotch finish after using timbermate to grab some of the grain highlight. My goal with this one was to make it look like it’s well worn from the get go - I considered doing some light relicing, but decided against it as the wudtone wears so well I’m just gonna tell my mate to thrash the hell out of it and let the relicing happen naturally!

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So once I got back into this I completely forgot to document any more of the process, but decided to put a water slide sticker under the wudtone topcoat to commemorate a trip me and my mate took.

Aside from that it has a Wilkinson bridge for string through, a bone nut for tone goodness and tru oiled neck and fret board. Although I routed out the space to upgrade pickups and pots it’s using the supplied versions so that I can work with my mate on any upgrades - I suspect if he does want to upgrade it may be to a Humbucker in the neck.

So it’s finished now, frets leveled everything installed and intonated and playing really nicely!

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And now for the other one, still in progress, but After finishing the other one I’m keen to keep my momentum up!

After having used nitro on my strat and oil on the other Tele, I decided to use stock standard dulux cans - base coat went on well, then went Matt Black, then sparkle over the front and headstock and at least two full cans of gloss over the top of that (possibly more, it was a while ago!

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So now that I’m moving onto this sparkle-aster I’m not sure what order to proceed in and would appreciate any advice.

So clearly the top is sparkled and glossed, but that is just the top, sides and back are still undercoat. I’ll need to at very least sand the edges of the top because there’s a slight paint edge all the way around, but there’s also a pretty huge ripple in the body (on the bottom right of this pic)

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So I’m wondering if I should wet sand the front before I mask it and paint the sides and back or do the sides and back first, then gloss the whole body at once?

And here she is all tarted up:

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Great to see you back VonScott, sorry to hear about your diagnosis mate, I hope it all works out okay.
I love that butterscotch Tele, and the Route 66 sign just as a little bit more to it. Look forward to seeing how the other one goes!

Rotten news about the Cancer VonScott, hopefully you get that sorted out.

As for your, “sparkle aster” it’s like looking into the night sky. I’d be tempted to call it the Stellar Caster.

Cancer $uck$!

Thanks guys! I handed over the butterscotch Tele yesterday and my mate loved it and has been playing it almost non-stop which makes me very happy!

That's awesome - I can't really think of a better pressie than a guitar, doubly so when it's handcrafted by a mate.

Both are looking fantastic ! Best of luck with your treatment mate