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Woohoo, my first go! :D 8O 8-)
Just received my TL-1 kit a couple of days ago and am getting myself ready. Headstock has been cut modeled on my Telecaster. Just looking now for a Tele that I can model my build from. I am very keen to do a moderate 'RELIC' build, initially looking to paint White Blond or Vintage Blond, just cruzed through the Fender colour chart and so many other great colours available. I do like the darker blues like the Blue Burst... damn decisions decisions....
http://www.fender.com/en-AU/support/color-chart/
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Nicely done there Chris :)
Relic('ing tips 101)
just do a perfect job.. then tow it behind your car up the driveway... or give to the grandkids to play with for 5 nano sec...
on second thought - maybe not the grandkids.. you want to be able to still use it..
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And I bid you a warm welcome to the forum Chris, great to see you here matey
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Welcome Chris, can't go wrong with a Tele - vintage white with black pickguard would look great.
However, check out the wudtone colour options as well
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gday chris , teles are awesome , theyre the AK47 of guitars , im in the process of modding a coupla cheap brand ( they have awesome necks tho ) thinlines ...... tho if your seriously going to do a relic , strap a tele on and stand in front of a mirror or something and take note of where the wearing would occur , my gripe with most relic jobs ( not the authentic old axes ) is that the people wear and ding the body in places that would never see that kinda wear ( but thats just me lol )
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G'day Chris, welcome to the forum.
The headstock looks cool! Enjoy your build and keep us all up to date! It won't be your last ;).
Cheers,
Gavin.
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yes Chris, welcome to the forum family, if you have read any threads on the forum you will be well aware of tele nappers. You will be ordering another kit as soon as you finished the tele. Good luck and Goatis has a good point about where you put the wear marks on the axe !
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Thanks all for the warm welcome great to see an Aussie support site!!!! And thanks for the tip above goatis I have an American Standard Tele and I can certainly strap it on and check it out to determine where wear may occur (mine is a triple sunburst with Custom Shop Pickups.... my kit is going to look great painted and really looking forward to hearing it... so many colours to choose from....
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TBH, I don't really get the relic'd thing - I like the idea of starting with a beautiful guitar and having it build character over its life. But hey, I'm also a fan of creativity and enthusiasm and, also, Teles, so go big or go home!
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Welcome along Chris - yes, there does seem to be a thing about Teles on this site.
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Making good progress and some pics to come soon. Yes Glenn many people I speak with don't see the point, in my opinion any guitar is a beautiful instrument :), I have an American Standard, a LP Standard, a Gretsch and am looking at something a little different for my 4th so I thought this would be a nice addition to the collection. Some are very heavily done and I don't like those so I am looking at a suttle approach and quite excited about the results I am getting atm. This one is going to be dedicated almost to open G tuning so that I can rock with some Stones tunes... and am going to replicate either a 52 or 62 vintage sound.
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Does anyone know what the difference if any would be to replacing the 250k pots in my kit with 500k pots and associated capacitor, its a very cheap upgrade but won't go to the trouble if the results aren't worth it....
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Single coil F-style guitars typically use 250K pots to help tame some of the highs. Using 500K pots will bleed less treble, so the sound will be 'brighter' (and/or possibly more ice-picky, depending on pickups and everything else etc). Regarding caps, if you mean replacing a 0.047uf with a 0.022, that will also have the effect of making the sound brighter, as the lower value 0.022 cap will allow less high frequencies to go to ground through the tone control. It may be better to 'hear' the guitar before deciding on different cap and pot values. But, ultimately, it's about your own ears... if you want a brighter sound, go with a larger pot and/or a smaller cap.
This thread about pot values from Gav may also help.
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Thanks Scott, very good information and yes I will definately have a listen before changing anything unless of course there is some evidence that something is very much well worth the effort in the beginning, the info you provided on the Pots is great as I am a musician not a tech! (well I am an IT freak but that don't count). I will be looking for a sound that is different to my American Standard (Custom Shop) so some changes may be required or I may just get it out of the box. I am off to Billy Hydes/Allan's to try out some models today which will give me a better idea of what to aim for. Very excited out that!! A room full of guitars and I can play any of them!!!
Got all my stains for aging the neck yesterday and slimmed down the head stock a bit as on review it was a bit beefier than I really wanted much closer to the Tele Standard I have.... (there is merit in going slow and review, check, check, check lol), tomorrow should be running up the first lot of stain.
Chris
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First coat of stain to age the neck by a quick 20 years... lol
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Not sure if you guys can see the details.. light wear marks and decrease in colour intensity around 3rd to 7th and 12-15th frets. Wear marks around head stock ready for a light touching of black to show some 'roadworn' dirt.
I rubbed to colour down with a green domestic scouring pad which has given the gold base colour a dirty look.
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Seems some of my progress pics are not showing... dumb ass hackers... so here they are again...
so a little behind... so their is some progress there.... more co-ord now our site is back up
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The neck is only the first coat... more to follow, going to clean up the hardware a little as well...
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What did you use for your colour coat?
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Well I like Teles too, and that head-stock looks as good as any.
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This is what I am using as primer, picked it up from REPCO under $20 think it was $12.95 can't recall. To be honest it doesn't seem to spray that well but have persevered anyway, what you see is one coat sanded down with a cork block and 180 grit paper, next coats I will use 240 grit and higher to give a nice smooth finish in readiness for the final colour. You need to use a cork block (or other flat block) so you don't create little valleys when you are sanding which you will do if you sand with the paper around your fingers.
Next step to fit the neck in place to set out the bridge position, I have upgraded that to a Wilkinson Compensated Saddle Tele Bridge - Chrome that has brass hardware on it which will suit my relic look better and this one also gives me the option of running the strings through the back of the bridge or through the body - which I am told does give you different sounds and intonation depending on what you use. Here is the link if anyone is interested in this http://www.realparts.com.au/bridges-...le-bridge.html (Adam not sure you like links posted to other stores - if you don't let me know and I will remove it).
I have also ordered a 4 way switch to replace the standard 3 way switch, this will give you an extra setting that places the two pickups in Series to obtain a beefier sound (kinda loosely like a humbucker I am told) the 4 way switch also maintains the standard middle switch position that places the two pickups in Parallel. the switch upgrade is cheap and easy to do, the switch is about $12.00 plus delivery if you can't get it local. A little more information here if you are interested http://www.singlecoil.com/docs/4way.pdf . What I like about this upgrade is if you don't like the extra sound the 4 way gives you, you still have the other 3 standard switch positions available to you... win win!
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i havent used repco stuff , but ive used the Septone and Motospray spray pack stuff , my favorite is Motospray one step primer putty ( its a yellowy/gold colour ), its high build stuff and you can use just it on bare wood and with a few coats does everything from a bit of a pore filler ( unless the pores are like small craters ) right through to being a primer for colour paint , and its easy to sand and you can get it smooth as glass , AND you can spray acrylic , enamel and nitro cellulose car paint ( and a lot of other things ) straight over the top .
the only problems it has is depending on the wood it might soak in a bit , and with some paints , like metallics , it might soak them up a bit but easily fixed with a thin normal primer coat .
a bit of a tip when your spraying with spray packs is to find a container ,like a liter measuring jug , and fill it with hot water from the tap , and sit the can in that for 10 mins or so before you use it ( give it a good shake every coupla mins as well ) , this will get the paint upto a nice temp and itll flow a lot better .
another little tip is when your down to the last quarter or 5th of a can , squash it under your foot some , putting a nice dent in the side of the can will give it a tiny bit more pressure and make it a bit more consistent with what the paint was like at the start of the can
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Great tip thanks for that, I did think the paint was quite thick which was affecting the ability to spray. I will heat it up a little and see how that goes for the next coat, this product looks good as it undercoat/primer for all known acrylic and enamel paints (or so it claims), it did cover very well I must say and would recommend it for other users. I only have a couple more coats to do will stop at 3 if it looks ok before I start looking at colours so I probably wont lose pressure but if I do will certainly jump on it a little!
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Nice subtle relic look - the finger board looks great
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Yes the finger board and the back look great, the headstock not so good Stan. Out with the sandpaper to get it off and start again.... cleaning up now and smoothing the timber with steel wool had to use 180 grit to get the black off.. :(
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Ok sanding finished and first antique coat on... looking a lot better another coat and a gentle rub tomorrow and things will be looking heaps better.
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This pic without the flash.... more accurate looking
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Can anyone see the pics I posted, just seeing a cross out.... if you can't see them let me know and I will delete and upload them it is kinda like the upload link is no longer valid
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Welcome aboard Chris
Just a idea to get the relic look.
Once your axe is painted tape sandpaper to your arms and play your guitar this should give you that relic look
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Good progress today, relic'ed my new nobs for the solid shaft 250k pots and the Wilkonson bridge, very happy how the bridge turned out. Drilled all the holes for through body strings and got the final two coats of all surface primer, ready for the first top coat tomorrow. I was up at Repco looking at their vast range of vintage/aged type whites and got a can of Alpine White to give a go... if it isn't what I am looking for it will form an undercoat... lol... at $12.95 a can I am happy to change if not happy with the colour.
The knobs are sitting on a piece of old timber not the TL body.... lol
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Test fit up, everything looking ok. Just doing the end colour, the off-white (alpine white) is a bit light for my liking.... looking for a more 'vintage' white colour. Off to SuperCheap Auto tomorrow hopefully they have something a little more on the yellowish side
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would rubbing the body down with tea give it an aged look. ?
ohh And its looking good
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Now that is a good idea Tim, the pic there doesn't have any top coats on so the colour is looking different but I do like that idea (I have seen it on youtube before) once I rub some of the areas down to bare timber where you would expect stage wear just to darken up the timber colour without the need for stain. The white is showing up all the timber inconsistencies and I am glad I have gone this way first time, if I were to go a second kit I would definately put a sander across the top and bottom to level those faces off better than out of the box before starting on either a stain or painted top, or if I wasn't going to relic it I would have had to sand down after the first primer coat otherwise it would affect the final coat..
The white I originally used (Alpine White) is too white for an aged look so I picked up a can of Torquay Sand today which gives a yellower colour... will try that today and see how it looks :)
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looking great so far - nice job on the bright wear
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Chris - the basswood really needs a good sand before any finish is applied... Not only can it be a bit rough, but people have also found glue patches and polished areas on their guitars (though the bad glue experiences seem to be fewer and further between)... These will resist pretty much any finish as it won't have anything to key to, so I'd strongly suggest hand sanding to at least 240 grit.
DB's mantra - sand, sand, sand and then when you think you've sanded enough sand again is well deserved.
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Yes thanks Brendan, overall it was ok but I can see some imperfections... I went with a darker colour today and unfortunately the spray can blew its seal and was a bit of a mess only get the edges and 95% of the front done but it has given me time to review the colour and I don't like it. so back to the store tomorrow to show them and will change the colour to what I originally had I think.
Never seen this happen to a spray pack before
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