Drummerdude's first build.. TLA-1Q. Wish me luck

Ok I have received and installed my new pickguard. I had to do some modifications around the neck and the pickup was a little too tight so I had to remove some material there as well as sand off the rear side of the neck pickup cavity but got it to work. I have adjusted the neck a little like John recommended and it helped a tad. I think it will be ok. I will be moving on to lacquer next week hopefully. I took a couple more pictures with it dampened to see how it may look with clear on. I am also gonna do a complete fret job, level, crown dress and polish. I think they angle the frets too much from the factory. You loose precious playing area when you cut them so flat.

Thanks for the help and comments so far I am loving my first build and got email that my two bass kits that I customized are shipping so gonna be a busy summer.Attachment 19039Attachment 19040Attachment 19041

Wow! Looking great and the top is georgious but I like what you did to the back of the body. I'll be trying to do the same and hopefully it will come out as good as yours.

Thanks kick. I wish that the grain on the back was a little more consistent. With the multiple pieces of ash and when they cut them at different angles it makes the dark blotchy areas where it is more of end grain instead of side grain. I am happy with it but think it could be better..

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Originally Posted by Drummerdude

Thanks kick. I wish that the grain on the back was a little more consistent. With the multiple pieces of ash and when they cut them at different angles it makes the dark blotchy areas where it is more of end grain instead of side grain. I am happy with it but think it could be better..

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Looking good with the pearloid scratch plate.

Judging from the latest photos it would appear that the back is made from Basswood not Ash as it does not have as much grain definition, and for what little grain there is it looks like the basswood on the back of my Tele. And yes, the up to 5 timber sections glued together do not help with getting an all over even grain pattern either. Still looks good.

Cheers, Waz

Oh thanks Waz I didn't think it looked like ash but the listing on pitbull said it was an ash body with maple veneer.. I ordered 2 bass kits that should be here this week and I upgraded them to ash. I will be building and IB-5 in a short scale 30" neck and a PBH-4 also with an ash body and short scale 30" neck. I ordered trapezoid inlays and will be upgrading all the hardware and making active.. but first I need to finish this guitar for my best friend and pastor.. I hope he likes it. He currently plays a 60th anniversary American Fender Tele in Natural finish ash body. I hope this one doesn't disappoint.

Cheers Buddy.

Here are a couple of shots to help see the difference between Basswood & Ash....
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They were Basswood....
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Notice the grain definition in Ash both before and after staining?

Cheers, Waz

Thanks Waz, yes the back of mine is definitely the bass wood. I noticed on the pitbull site that there is two listings for the quilted tele. One has a binding front and back and it doesn't state what the wood is on the back , which is basswood that's what I got and then there is another one that states ash body and maple veneer and it only has binding on the front. That is what I thought I was getting. That red bass looks killer.. did you build that one Waz? I hope my two ash kits are not 4 or 5 piece bodies...

That top looks stunning. I'd be happy if I got given that!

Thanks Simon. I expect he will be pleased but not sure how it will stack up to his American tele..

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Originally Posted by Drummerdude

That red bass looks killer.. did you build that one Waz? I hope my two ash kits are not 4 or 5 piece bodies...

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Yeah, the J Bass is the best finish of my 4 completed builds with the Swampy Tele that is nearing completion looking smoother and shinier, which proves things do get better with each subsequent build. From memory, and also those shots above I recall that the Ash body was 3 pieces of timber where upper and lower sections had similar grain waves. Unfortunately the scratch plate is hiding some good bits and would have preferred a naked look but the neck pickup rout was too large.

Well I drilled the string thru holes and man was that a learning experience. I had brand new bits and I had the bridge attached and drilled the outer holes all they way thru with a 2 way level on my drill. Then I drilled half way thru the other holes. Then I removed bridge and moved to the back and put two punches into the outer holes to hold it firm and drilled the other holes, which worked very good. Pretty straight... but then I marked the depth on my larger bit for the ferrules and started to drill the first and got a huge tear out. I had never drilled basswood before man it is soft. So I proceeded to put tape on the body and marked the holes and tried the other outer and still got some tear out so I drilled the rest with the drill in reverse and that worked great. So I had to get out the good ol timbermate and fix my good ups. And then re stain.

I also started the tru oil finish on the neck. I got 3 coats on today and now I will wait for my water slide decal and then probably 3-4 coats and wet sanding with some naphtha to level out the decal and then another 3-4 coats and some more wet sanding and buffing. I ordered a lvlp spray gun to spray the poly on the body since I have a smaller compressor. I am planning on about 10 coats with light sanding between coats and level sand and buff. Attachment 19187Attachment 19188Attachment 19189Attachment 19190

Bad luck with the tear outs.

I always drill in reverse if there is an existing hole to prevent such things happening. Takes a lot longer on the metal control plate if you choose to fit upgraded Bourns pots.

I did have to drill the control plate just a tad bit no problems I gues my metal drill bits are better than these new ones I bought. I also had to sand/ rout out the control cavity to get the new pots to fit in they were way bigger in diameter. I just use the good ol Dremel with the sanding drum and widen out where the pots fit making sure not to go too far to be covered by the plate.

I ordered the humbucker and the bridge oversized bridge pickup from guitar fetish and they have a quick plug on the pickups and they have the upgraded pots tone cap installed prewired with the male plugs on so only soldering will be the ground to the bridge. It seems like a good system, if you wanna change pickups you can buy from them with the quick plug and no soldering, change it out in minute or two. I have heard good thing about their stuff we shall see if it's any good.

Have seen them before, I think EMG do that too and looks like a good idea.

I know Gibson and Kinman also do it, though Gibson did if for a while on some guitars and then seemed to stop doing it. I had two Gibson Melody Maker Les Pauls (one went to a friend), one had the solderless set-up, the other (a bit later build) was standard. I've still got the one with the push connectors and they have been fine so far - but it is only 4 years old. It just means that if you want to swap the pickups for some that don't have push-fit connectors or a compatible arrangement, you need to create a new soldered wiring harness - but that's no big deal.

Sorry about the tear outs, but man that quilt looks awesome!

I've only done this once so far, but I used a very thin drill to start with for the pilot holes, then used a brad point wood drill (rather than an HSS one) for the ferrule insert holes, then widened out the through-holes. It was a bit fussy, but I didn't get any tear-outs.

The ferrule edges will hide most of the tear-out. A bit of green-dyed timbermate in those should help hide the bits that will be visible.

Well I built a make shift spray booth to keep overspray down and dust out, or at least help. I will be spraying the poly this weekend and I have already got about 8 coats of tru oil on neck. I ordered a water slide custom decal instead of the inlay and once it is on I will do some more coats of oil to hide decal paper. Then buffing and polishing.. the end is near..Attachment 19307Attachment 19308Attachment 19309

I take it you used a drill press to drill the holes and I can tell you it is technique rather than the drill type but if I had problems I would use a brad point or as we call them sheet metal tips but I can grind these type of tip by hand which takes a little bit of experience. You have the same problem drilling soft metals, especially brass that can be overcome by changing how you use the press. When drilling brass most tradesmen remove the sharp edges as it causes the drill to bite in and tear the part out of the vice, especially on larger drills, but due to the technique I use I have never had to change the grind on a drill and have had other tradesmen telling me it wont work and you have to take the sharp edge off only to prove them wrong. I have found that when you drill softer materials if you change the way you introduce the drill to the material and control the downward feed you will eliminate the tears. Most people pull the knob down on the press without supporting the underside of the knob which allows the drill bit to pull down into the material and tear the material. If you grab the knob with the palm of your hand under knob rather than just the tips of your fingers and slowly drill and keep an upward pressure on the knob you will find you will have no tears or if the press has a lock to fix the height you can just tighten it slightly to stop it grabbing the drill and pulling it into the wood. Or alternatively you can use 2 hands on 2 different knobs to control the feed, you pull down with one and hold back with the other. The other technique is to clamp another piece of material on the back of the guitar, say a scrap piece of pine and drill through both with the pilot hole and then when you turn it over you drill through the scrap into the guitar to the depth you need and as long scrap stays in contact with the guitar body then you have no tears but this technique takes more setup and calculations to get the depth right.

That is good info Dikkybee. I had to use a hand drill with a bubble level because I only have a small drill press and it was not deep enough to reach. I need a big drill press. It the wife doesn't agree.

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Originally Posted by Drummerdude

That is good info Dikkybee. I had to use a hand drill with a bubble level because I only have a small drill press and it was not deep enough to reach. I need a big drill press. It the wife doesn't agree.

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Yes, I have a couple projects stalled for the same reason.

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Originally Posted by Drummerdude

Well I built a make shift spray booth to keep overspray down and dust out, or at least help.

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That spray booth is awesome. I've just been spraying with the guitar hanging off the clothes line outside. Seems that every insect in the garden wants to touch my newly painted surfaces.

Look what arrive yesterday... my two customized bass kits... I can't wait to start on these because they are for me.. both in 30" short scale and lots of mods planned for them. I am not that impressed with the timber on the in-5 kit but the pbh-4 looks pretty good. I just don't like how they glued up the pieces grain it very different and will hard to make look consistent I think any ideas? I will start a new thread for each of these soon..Attachment 19378Attachment 19379Attachment 19380

Here are a couple pics of the clear coat progress. I have 6 coats of poly, level sanded and left overnight. I got two more coats sprayed on tonight. These two coats went on much better than the first 6. I am basically a newbie on spray equipment except airbrushing some gun stuff. I got the gun adjusted better for these two coats. I will sand back again tomorrow and try and get 2 more coats oneach couple of days until I get built up like I want. Sorry for the bad lighting but you can get the idea.. I have a couple of places that I bumped when moving it so I will have to sand them out and build back up.. I can see the end in sight..

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Spectacular DD

tele looks awesome Drummerdude, good work.
If you are unhappy with the grain in the IB-5 I'm sure Adam will exchange it. It's really a lucky dip what you get. The factory make very little effort to match grains in the body blanks they just glue them together.

Tele's looking great.

Both those bass kits are on my list of stuff to do one day. Can't wait to see what you do with the IB5.

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Originally Posted by Drummerdude

Here are a couple pics of the clear coat progress. I have 6 coats of poly, level sanded and left overnight. I got two more coats sprayed on tonight. These two coats went on much better than the first 6. I am basically a newbie on spray equipment except airbrushing some gun stuff. I got the gun adjusted better for these two coats. I will sand back again tomorrow and try and get 2 more coats oneach couple of days until I get built up like I want. Sorry for the bad lighting but you can get the idea.. I have a couple of places that I bumped when moving it so I will have to sand them out and build back up.. I can see the end in sight..

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Oh DD. That top, absolutely glorious. Wonderful work mate.

it looks like green swamp water and I mean that as a compliment :D

Unless it's got a veneer top, I always think it's best to have two finishes in mind for your kits; a translucent one if it's got good grain, and a solid one if it hasn't. Unless you go to a website where you can buy a specific body (and pay a lot more as a result) as Woks says, its all pot luck.

You might get lucky with a really dark brown stain for the IB-5. You don't want anything too light, but dark should reduce most of the grain contrasts.

Yeah I know Simon I shouldn't complain I bought three kits so far and two of the three were really nice looking grain. I am thinking about a dark gray stain with black timbermate grain fill. I can always darken the stain to hide more if I don't like the looks. I just can't bring myself to paint Ash...Attachment 19418

Ok I just finished som sanding on the tele. I wet sanded to 2000 and then used 3000 on a wheel attached to my drill and man that poly is already shinning. I am going to have to wait another week or two for fully cure the poly and then final cut and polish I can't wait to see how much more shine I am gonna have. I am pretty satisfied with it since it was my first build. There are some spots that will always bug me but I have learned so much that my next two should go a little better. I am still needing to put on my headstock decal and then a few more coats of TO and then fret job and final assembly and set up.. thanks for all the help from you guys.

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Here is my buddy that had to get in the picture..

I already love the gloss! Well done job I say for a first build! I think your buddy agrees with me ;)

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Originally Posted by Drummerdude

Yeah I know Simon I shouldn't complain I bought three kits so far and two of the three were really nice looking grain. I am thinking about a dark gray stain with black timbermate grain fill. I can always darken the stain to hide more if I don't like the looks. I just can't bring myself to paint Ash...

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Hi buddy, I would almost suggest having a crack at the chemical wash finish I have done on my latest Tele build that is still nearing completion. The Alder had all sorts of differing timber colours and fairly dull grain patterns to work with but the rust solution stain gave it some character. Ash naturally has more grain waves and should be easier to make it look good, particularly after using ebony timbermate as a grain filler put down after a coarse grit, say 120 maximum so that plenty of it has a chance to soak in.

Cheers, Waz

That's a great idea Waz. I just may give that a whirl. If I didn't like how it turned out could I just use the black water based dye and go over the chemical wash?

Or sand it back and try something else.

Waz you just did an application of the tea mixture and then let it dry and then the vinegar and steel wool concoction. How many coats and how did you apply just wipe one with rag? How fine did you sand down to? Questions , questions i have many... I think that this is just what I need to try and blend the different grain patterns and get some character in a dark color.. I should probably start a new thread for this but this will do for now.