TLA-1 arrived today.

Looking like it's going to come up beautifully Jeff like the others I love the grain.

My only comment would be that if you are going to do tummy or arm relief make sure it is faired in rather than the angular cuts that are found on nearly all kits with the cuts. ( maybe this avoids expensive legal action )

I have sanded these right out on my PBH-4 and STA so that the transitions are smooth and flow.

No criticism of kits here they are what they are and we make them our unique creation with the little ( or large ) mods that we make to them

Sanded to 240 grit. Is it possible this body has a veneer over the back, as it is chipping right near the edge, and cant see any visible joins no matter how hard I look. also the end grain doesn't match. Can see the joins of the 4 pieces of timber on the front. Also the grain on the back seems to be to evenly matched......Jeff

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Will also add, that there is no visible sign around the edges that there is a cap on the body. Just has me puzzled why the back grain doesn't line up with the end grain.

dont think there is a cap Jeff. I think it is the joy of the imperfections of a natural product

I used the old Baltic stain on my ash tele, if you want to see how it will look. It wasn't exactly what I was aiming for, but I'm still very happy with how it came out.

Finished sanding for the time being, and decided to put a bit of colour onto the body. Very diluted Jarrah stain just see what the effect might be. Reasonably happy with the result with the exception with line on the back bottom edge. Any one have any ideas how I might minimize the look before I go much further. I also did a couple of cuts to the body; a subtle arm cut and a slight rounding in the lower arch where it would normally sit on your knee if you were to play while sitting. Just to make it less of a square edge.

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Couldn't understand why I had mis-matched grain on the back of body and end grain, and chipped when sanding near the edge. Extremely thin veneer.
Original:
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Now:
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thats strange Jeff these kits never used to have a veneer on, just about 4 pieces of ash glued together.
So take it you sanded off the veneer on the back by the looks.
Pity as all the grain matched

I have never seen a Tele kit with a veneer either.... Strange... It was a good veneer too!

While I liked the original, it doesn't look to bad. The stain I applied didn't end up the way I wanted, so it was time to start again. I was bleeding under the edge of the veneer and didn't look good around the edges.