TL-1TB Telebilly

With a touch of understated class, this looks like a Guitar that I would want.

This is how she should look! Really wonderfull :)

Slightly ordinary I agree, but they do fit the ret of the guitar a lot better.

Can you artificially age the plastic?

I rather liked the Cheesy Dice but the squareness was a bit much with all the other curves on this. Maybe go dungeons and dragons and use a couple of 20 sided dice?

I can't believe its finished Weirdy almost 2.5 years in the making !!

any chance of a sound demo ? looks the business with the Bigsby

You could always put a few coats of TO on the dice to make them looked as aged as the binding.

Have only just caught up on this thread and saw your were struck with the DT curse too and kudos for a top save and recovery effort to bring it home looking so good.

Yeah, considered that Waz but I think I'll stick with the chrome for now. Currently working on something to finish it all off, ao may see after that.

I originally planned not to have a pickguard on this build, but with the switch to Tru-Oil I'm re-thinking that decision. TO is fairly soft finish and I'm worried that it won't take long for a bit a strumming to wear through and expose the orange Dingotone, which would be a major problem. So, I'm thinking a clear pickguard could be the solution.

With the tweaks and mods I've made to the kit the stock pickguard is a little outside tolerance to be used as a template.
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So, the first step was to make up a paper pattern which I could use to create a template.
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Once I was happy with the paper pattern I superglued it onto some 4mm ply.
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This should be a one-off template, or at least specific to this build, so I'm only using the thin ply. The 4mm ply is easier to cut and shape (or fix if I stuff it up) and it's all I need for a one use template like this. The downside is it can chip when shaping, particularly on sharp corners.

Rough cutting to shape with a coping saw.
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To shape the template I'm starting by routing the straight edges (using a humbucker template) and then the control plate cut out using the stock pickguard. Double-sided tape is your friend.
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To shape the curves I used a sanding drum in my drill press. Slow passes taking a little off each time allows you to smoothly creep up to the line/edge for a nice continuous curve. Taking too much off at once or sanding small sections at a time can cause undulations and ripples rather than a smooth curve.
Attachment 18020

Once the template was shaped and sanded I toughened up the ply's edges by coating them with thin superglue and left it to dry overnight.