TL-1TB Telebilly

Polished, a touch of gloss.

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The fret board was dry and pale after two years of hanging. I wanted it to have the dark rich rosewood look so instead of using Dingowax I reverted to Dr. Ducks Ax Wax for this build.

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Two applications over two days. Yummy.

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Time to rough out a nut.

Slots marked and initially cut with a fine 0.010" saw.

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Rough down the shape with a file.

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Slots filed. The B looks wider because I used a V cut file for it and flat files for the G and e.

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Close enough for now, will finalise after set up.

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Shielding cavities.

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Seams soldered, cavities linked via wires and bridge ground wire added ready for the bridge post bushings. Testing continuity to ensure it's all linked and working.

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Normally I'd install the pickups and wiring later, but because of the tightness of the cavity etc. I decided to do it before the rest of the hardware.

Pickups in.

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Pickup leads connected to the control plate I wired earlier in the build. It's going to be a tight squeeze. You can also see that I've put some heat shrink on the arm of the jack so it can't short onto the shielding in the jack cavity.

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Word of advice: cover the body completely, like I have, if you are ever soldering near/on it like this as tiny solder flecks will splatter under heat and inevitably burn into your finish and/or plastics.

Tap test on the pickups… it's alive and appears to be all working. Considering how tightly everything is packed/squeezed/jammed into that cavity, that's a miracle.

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Headstock bling.

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Using my drill press to push in the bridge post bushings.

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Checking that I've got good continuity from the bushing through the ground wire to the plate/shielding.

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I didn't have a plastic seat for my curved neck plate but I wanted one for this to protect the basswood and Tru-Oil combo, so i made an un-edged one from a standard seat. It'll do.

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Neck on and alignment initially checked with a fishing line centreline.

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Hello Mr. Bigsby.

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The die is cast.

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I'm not sure on the dice knobs as yet. Apart from the cheese factor the binding now has a slight aged/yellowed look from the Tru-Oil so the knobs don't match as well as when the binding was white. I've got some standard chrome knobs and a chrome tip if they annoy me too much. Still need to do some tweaking and final set up, but here are some assembled pics for now. Very difficult to get photos that actually show the grain on the top.

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I only got it assembled yesterday so it's still bedding in. The sound from the Surf 90's is actually better than I expected, and the wiring works pretty well (if I may say so myself). If anything, I think I'd like a touch more bass cut from the TBX, but only a tiny amount. It thins the sound slightly without making it tinny or ice-picky (you notice it most with a bit of dirt on), but I think a hint more cut would make it more flexible. Early days.

I wasn't going to use a pickguard on this, but now I'm thinking I may make a small clear one just to protect the finish a bit, given that Tru-Oil isn't particularly robust. I think a clear mini pickguard would look ok. We'll see.

The build is still fighting me… I got up this morning to find the high e had mysteriously snapped overnight, right at the locking tuner and not leaving enough string to re-thread it. Change in temperature I guess. It was only the old kit supplied bundle of strings, so no great loss, but I replaced it with an old used e just in case it wasn't a flaw in the string.

I'll post some better pics once it's set up and finalised.

Love the Guitar, Hate the Knobs..... Sorry, just my opinion.....