Until you get some wear and funk on the denim, then it will be a grunge axe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
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Until you get some wear and funk on the denim, then it will be a grunge axe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
Binding on the front done.
Dry fit of neck...
Hah ha.. oh wow. That scratch plate was a good choice. Looking at that I think silver hardware is the go.
Please call it Tiffany.
https://i.imgur.com/7vcgXjzl.jpg
Funny you should say that SM.... whenever I'm working on this build every other space in my head gets filled with pretty ladies...
..less well clothed?
Suffice to say just VERY pretty.... ;)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcel
I have to say that it looks cool, that white pearloid scratchplate contrasts well with the blue denim.
Interesting how opportunities present themselves....
I've hit a bit of a wall that I need to ponder.... install a NOS Fender '62 String-thru bridge plate or use a PBG non-string-thru plate as originally spec'd...
Drilling the holes for the stings is the issue... not tearing the denim and finding a drill press with the required reach.
I would strongly recommend not drilling into the denim - unless you glue or expoy it hard first. Even then I'd be very careful.
What will likely happen is the threads will get caught up in the drill bit and it will grab and rotate the whole job very fast, thats if it doesn't try and tear the denim off first. Multiple strands of denim/cotton are very strong. Having worked with lathes and other fast spinning machinery a lot, the idea of that scares me.
Yeah, it scares me too...A LOT. particularly as the denim isn't epoxied, it is still soft to touch ... I suppose could use a 1/4" hole punch to cut the denim first.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sonic Mountain
I do like the idea of a string thru, and if it did get 'caught' I could re-do the denim. Down side is I went through a near on a full wheelie bin worth of denim to get these two pieces and I'm none too keen on doing that again...
Punching the holes slightly larger than required might work. You'd just have to be careful about any errant threads. Maybe you could tape over that area and then punch the holes, hopefully the tape will secure the threads then you can very carefully drill the holes.
Not having a suitable drill press is one hurdle...
But I had the thought - of first once I have the bridge position set then clearing the bridge side hole areas of denim, then drilling 1.5mm holes through to the other side essentially to mark the positions on the back, then clearing the denim on the back for the ferrules and then drilling the full sized holes. The thinking being that initially using a 1.5mm drill should remain straight enough through the body to maintain even spacing and would be least likely to tear very much at the denim.
Some progress shots. General fit out to asses issues and the copper foil in the cavities has been done. No drilling yet.
The 3 screw mount bridge in the photos is just being used to re-ascertain centre and is not the btidge that will finally be fitted. It does provide a good impression of the final overall look...
Looking very good.
With rear-stringing, one problem you'll have is stopping the denim from fraying around the ferrule holes, and I don't think the ferrules generally have a big enough lip to clamp the denim in place securely. You could probably fit a small brass plate with rounded ends over the back of the body where the ferrules will go, screw that down with a couple of brass screws (maybe make them rivet-looking with some cupped washers) at each end and then drill and install the ferrules on top of that. Should hold the denim in place and flat. Use the holes in the bridge to get 6 holes nicely centred on the brass before drilling ferrule-sized holes in the brass.
The best way to drill the through-body holes is to drill the two outer holes from the top, then drill the inner 4 holes in from the top by about 2/3. then turn the body over and use the bridge as a template to mark the 4 inner holes (using the two outer holes to position the bridge). and drill in about 1/2 way on those 4 holes. Allows you to get a much neater ferrule line and of course you can start with thinner pilot drill sizes, then cut the denim away before drilling bigger string- and ferrule-sized holes.
I kind on want it to have the full ashtray style bridge, but I don't think you can get those that aren't string-thru bridges.
The bridge I intend using hasn't arrived yet but it is a chrome '62 Fender ash tray string thru with brass saddles. Hopefully it and the Grovers will get here this week.
It will be getting the 4 wire bridge rails PU. ... HB/split pull switch on the Vol knob and 3 way selector.
Hi Fretty, you can get a combo top or string through from Real Parts, ash tray style. I have them on both my Tele's set up as top strung.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fretworn
Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk
It's strung up, and tuned to pitch. Full setup to be done soon... and so far only my electronic tuner knows how this build sounds...
Being my first string through, well, that turned out okay except it sorta got messed up a little with the usual issues of being as straight as a dogs back leg...
Awesome and unique finish. looks classy as.
That's come up really nicely.
Looks great. Need to bust out some Springsteen and Neil Young covers.
Looks great, feels great, plays great .... Sounds awesome !!
The usual D string G string intonation battle on this Tele build so the compromise I opted for was slightly sharp on the G as flat on 12th fret D just sounded too wrong. B & high E were pretty good, low E & A are a fraction worse, but way better than D/G. Action is set to near 1.5mm, which does bring out a very slight buzz on the D and G strings at around the 15th fret so a little more fret work is required.
Something I didn't mention earlier was on the original build the fretboard was quite high above the scratch plate. It was either re-route the neck pocket or shave the foot of the neck. Due to the pocket being as deep as permissible for a Tele body and the neck foot being slightly out of square I chose to shave the almost 2mm change from the neck foot. That was fun. I used my router in the binding cutter jig, held the neck square with another jig, and then let the two jigs do their thing on the neck foot. It worked like a charm as now the scratch plate sits wonderfully snug under the Rosewood extension of the 22 fret fretboard.
Sound... it's all in the fingers of the player... Must be... Spent most of the afternoon playing the same few riffs and swapping between the axes in the two group shots while leaving the amp at one setting so as to get a better comparison. Gain was kept flat out with Master maintaining the noise level and bass reduced due to the Celestion loaded ported cabinet that I was using. I noticed most difference due to the different PU's with some being bright, others meaty, others clear and a few absolutely growling gloriously when pushed hard into the AC18W front end. The growlers being the all the rails PU's. All inspired different versions of those few riffs I was repeating which I put down to the real physical and tangible differences in the various guitars.. All is good as the inspiration did venture strongly towards the genre that each is known for.
The Denim Tele sounds like your typical Tele on the neck PU. Not much loss of sustain (if any) due to the denim. It does feel vastly different under the arm and due the denim back is a lot less prone to moving as the fretting hand moves up and down the quite thick in the hand neck. Pulling the volume control sets the rail bridge PU into single coil mode which has a little more of that Tele twang, actually the bridge PU sound more Strat than Tele.
So this denim Tele build sports the following :-
- Alder body with glued denim front/back and double Pearl binding
- Kmise Maple Tele 22 fret neck with dark Rosewood fretboard & Mother of toiletseat almost Pearl inlays and decorative Rosewood 'Skunk stripe'
- Fender chrome '62 ashtray string through bridge
- Camel bone nut (seems more oily than other bone nuts)
- Grover 18-1 tuners
- Pearl scratch plate
- PBG control plate, 3 way switch, neck plate and jack plate
- 500k Vol and Tone controls (0.047uF cap)
- PBG neck PU (didn't expect that did you ??)
- Yibuy 4 wire rails Tele bridge PU (swichable SC/HB on Vol control)
Hi Marcel, good to see it all finished, works well and that you are happy how it sounds too.
I figured it was time... to give a sound sample....
Okay, I know I'm not the worlds gift to guitar playing prowess, far far far from it.... but hopefully you'll get the idea on how this build and my AC18W amp sounds together. Actually the denim Tele is quite fun to play... lots of character...
Nil pedals, nil EQ other than a bass cut due the speaker cabinet. SM57 microphone. V30 and G12H Celestion speakers. All tone changes from the controls on the Denim Tele, input gain on the amp at max and master volume at reasonably loud, and nil plectrum as I couldn't find one.
https://soundcloud.com/user-26130539...551/denim-tele
Enjoy ... !!
Sounds good man. That pearl binding really works with the denim.
That Tele definitely has some character to it.
Nice tone and could hear the more Strat like bridge single coil sound you were referring to. Nice crunch too.
Looks great, and it sounds awesome! Noodling is good.
Yeah, I like the crunch the amp has Waz. It's that typical 12AX7 overdriven sound... and the amp takes HB's so well... The natural/blonde Strat beside the denim Tele has SD rails (HR/VR/CR) in it and that can growl so nicely in every switch position...;)
With the denim Tele switching there is 5 possible combinations. Neck alone, Neck with SC bridge or neck with HB bridge, and then SC bridge alone or HB bridge alone. The most mellow tones were obviously the neck PU, And the brightest are the bridge alone with the louder being the HB mode. The neck+bridge combinations are not as loud as the bridge alone yet do offer that different combined tone. SC bridge and neck are both equal perceived volume when individually heard live. I tried a few times in the recording to repeat various riffs with different PU combinations.
There must be some top end roll off somewhere in my record setup as playing back on the PC is not as bright as when live. Maybe my SM57 has an issue, or more likely it's something to do with the Behringer USB interface, and can't really see it as a Reaper DAW problem...
Most things sound better live.
Introduced this build to the JVM210... All I can say is ... ;) ;) ;) ... ;) ;) ;) ... ;) ;) ;) ...
This build and the ES-1TL are the most creative and inspirational of all my builds leaving very little interest in playing other peoples work ...
It took me a few hours but I have decided that I need a new phaser pedal on the effects loop.. the Joyo Vintage phase is quite fine and okay (much like a cheap version of the Phase 90) but it doesn't do the Tele much justice...getting a TCE Helix to replace it ... and a Hyper Gravity just because...
All good things often come to an end, and so it goes with the PBG neck PU in this build.... Postie delivered its replacement, a Fender N3 noiseless...
Ya,all can guess what I'll be doing on Boxing day...
The denim looks badass man. nice herd by the way
Buggar !!!
I bought the N3 off a private vendor on Ebay... and after putting it in found it made nil noise... I had faith that it wasn't going to be a dud, but it seems this PU is now destined for the rewind pile.... coil resistance of 1.5Mohm, which about 20 times what it should be.
Oh well,... the PBG neck PU lives on in this scratch build.... which I don't mind so much as it does sound pretty good... just annoyed the Ebay buy has turned into a waste of $49....
Bugger about the PU, but killer build Marcel
Thanks JohnH...
A killer that sounds the way I like Tele's sounding..... I honestly can't complain at all about the PBG neck PU as in this Alder bodied build it does sound pretty darn good. And it matches up well with the Yibuy rails bridge PU.
There's a saying amongst guitarists... 'The axe next to your amp is most probably your favourite axe.' and right this moment (and for the past few months) I have my JVM210 and my VT40X parked right behind this denim Tele build... with my ES-1TL, ply body Strat, PRS-1H and my cased up Gibson LP and Fender F-25 all on the other side of the room... mind you, all my axe's are within a few steps or arms reach...
Well, we had a real outing....
A few emails, A trip to Melbourne, A 2.5hr drive across Melbourne traffic from Hoppers Crossing to Ferntree Gully... and I finally go to meet a dude who I hold in high esteem. While he himself couldn't play my build he convinced his bandmate to give it a go...
Anyways, I video'd it, and a very Bluesy sample is here..... Enjoy...
https://youtu.be/Tdw4QGDW6O4
https://youtu.be/Tdw4QGDW6O4
Very smooth, always fun getting others to play your builds. Anytime anyone who can play comes to my house I get them to have a go on the builds, its always a blast.
There's something about the Telecaster that really makes it a guitar that's perfect for playing the Blues, my custom Telecaster has a very bluesy quality about it too, I think the Tonerider Hot Classics pickups that I installed in it have something to do with it.
Great to have someone else play a guitar you made you can tell by the the look on there face if they like it