TL-1TB Telebilly

How soon we forget, Wokks ;) Volume only/Volume & TBX/Volume, TBX & Treble Cut

Oh you have to finish this. This has been the most intense and informative build diary I have followed. Lots of great ideas, with lots of great tips on how to achieve them.

She is a weapon of beauty and we need to hear her sing to our souls. Scott plug in your desire to hear her play and make it so. Man she needs to breath......this girl is gonna wail.

Updates probably aren't too far away Ozz.

So, where were we...

Well, it's been a while so I guess I better see if I can get this one over the line. Plus, Wokka has been fretting for an update for long enough.

Quick summary for new players:

• Build started October 2014
• Testing an early Beta version of Dingotone orange (already 6 months old when I got time to test it)
• TL-1TB kit had some glue issues and needed some tweaking
• Re-bound body with white binding and bound F-hole
• Re-drilled and counter-bored tuner holes
• Shaped body for curved neck plate
• Thinned neck profile
• Plugged and re-drilled bridge post holes for roller bridge
• Adjusted neck pocket to slightly increase neck angle
• Replaced side dots with white MOP
• Added headstock flamed maple veneer
• White MOP headstock inlay
• The usual thread jacking shenanigans from Wokka ;)
• Modified Surf 90 pickups for 4-way switching
• Custom wiring (diagram) with:
  
  • Surf 90 pickups with Tele 4-way switching (bridge, bridge + neck parallel, bridge + neck series, neck)
  • Neck phase reversal push/pull
  • Modified Fender TBX tone control (bass cut <-0->treble cut)
  • Treble cut filter cap with On/On/On switch (Volume only, Volume & TBX, Volume & TBX & Treble cut)
  • Overconfidence and ambition to try and fit it all into a standard Tele cavity
  
  
• One stain coat of Dingotone Beta orange on body and headstock face
• Two Intensifier coats of Dingotone Beta on body and headstock face
• Colortone vintage amber mix stain on neck
• Two coats of Dingotone Mk.1 clear neck stain 'base' on neck
• The beta orange really stains binding, and I mean really. Much scraping of binding! But I love the colour
• First beta top coat on body

And that's where this build diary paused, briefly (about 2 years and 4 months ago)… and Wokka's nagging started.

The build didn't actually stop at that point, I was still applying the finish, I just didn't get around to an update before the build did pause. To finish the initial catch-up, here's the rest of the finishing I did two years ago.

The beta orange was proving to be very volatile even after plenty of drying time. It seemed to re-activate when applying my top coats and quickly stained my cloth.

Attachment 17715

First coat of early Mk.1 neck top coat applied.

Attachment 17716

The beta top coats were looking good, but patchy.

Attachment 17717
Attachment 17718
Attachment 17719

Attachment 17720

You can see the binding was taking on colour again from applying the clear top coat.

Third top coat dry, looking good and the patchiness is slowly improving.

Attachment 17721

Attachment 17722

Binding scraped, yet again, ready for 4th top coat.

Attachment 17723


Fourth neck top coat.

Attachment 17724

Fourth top coat on body.

Attachment 17725

Attachment 17726

It was going on well and looking pretty good. But, then we had a couple of days of higher humidity and the finish took a turn. Coat #4 went from smooth and nice to coarse, rough and lumpy over a couple of days.

Attachment 17727

Attachment 17728

(second image is without flash to get the contrast to show how rough it was)

I couldn't risk wet sanding with water to clean up the roughness, not enough protection for the wood. And, with the volatility of the orange I couldn't risk using a solvent to sand, so I had to go with dry 1200 wet'n'dry. I just wanted to smooth out the finish without taking off any more of the top coat (or orange) than necessary… but the paper was still stained very orange. With time and caution it was eventually smooth again.

Attachment 17729

But it meant more orange moving around with the next top coat.

Attachment 17730

Fifth top coat, or replacement of #4 really. Back to a nice smooth finish.

Attachment 17731

Attachment 17732

Neck was still doing ok.

Attachment 17733

Although the body was mostly smooth again with the 5th top coat, the patchiness was still occurring. Hard to photograph clearly, so I took some shots without the flash. You can just see the patchy/streaky sections scattered across the body, and it was pretty much the same on the headstock face.

Attachment 17734

Attachment 17735

And, that's where I had to put the build aside two years ago. I was planning to let it dry for an extended period to see if that would improve the patchiness, but then life got in the way and it kept getting pushed aside (while also gathering a layer of dust).

*** time passes ***

Twenty-six months later…

While working on my YB-4 build I had a look at the TL-1TB's neck, and sighting down it something didn't look right. I was worried that it may have warped a bit while it had been hanging, but it looked more like a couple of frets may have just lifted slightly from all the temp and humidity changes over the long years of neglect. It was time it had some attention.

I re-pressed the frets to sort out any raised ones and gave it a light level to get it back where it should be. Black marker is a high spot, red everywhere else.

Attachment 17736

Re-crowned, cleaned-up and polished.
Attachment 17737

Attachment 17738

The binding was still stained from the last top coat application two years ago, so to start fresh I scraped the binding yet again (probably for the 7th time, or more, time).

Attachment 17739