Tla-1

I know my current build is not yet done but time to work on some pent up Tele ideas.

With the arrival of new stock I've ordered a TLA-1 with no hardware, white pearloid pickguard (which I may or may not use). I have located a box of suitable hardware whilst tidying up my workshop that's about to be converted into a ' teenagers retreat' but that's another story..

Hardware is modern style. I'll add a tone bleed mod to the harness.

Finish - the last scraps of my red and yellow colourtone mixed to fire-orange with truoil top-coat. Neck natural with tru oil finish.

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And test fire-orange finish

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that orange is going to look great! nice to see these sorts of colour ideas

The kit arrived! Very nice tight parallel grain on this one. Did a dry fit of components. Bridge pup route needs to come towards the neck a bit and a tiny bit wider so pup sits in correctly. Little bit of work on pickguard so it sits flush with neck. Neck sits nice and snug in pocket. The neck itself is very clean and good frets.

Not sure how to get the best of this grain with my proposed orange colortone so time for a lemonade to ponder on it at least until tomorrow when work on it begins!

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Nice kit Andrew. Your grain looks a lot like th egrain I have on my MKA-2. Will be interested to see what you do with it. I'm a big fan of using Timbermate to pop ash grain now. Some walnut might look good with the orange?

cheers,
Gav.

Good idea with the walnut Gav. I didn't want to go too dark on the grain filler. I'll see what I have laying around in my untidy workshop..

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Do a colour test in the front pickup cavity and see how the wood looks with the orange. To me the grain looks like its screaming to be a blackguard esquire, but that's just my opinion. It also looks like the grain in my tobacco burst Tele.

It's always fun to have more than one job on the go Andrew.
Gives you a chance for ideas to mature IMO.
I do like what you propose to do with this bad boy so far.
That's a nice lump of wood dude - I'm sure you will do it justice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fretworn

Do a colour test in the front pickup cavity and see how the wood looks with the orange. To me the grain looks like its screaming to be a blackguard esquire, but that's just my opinion. It also looks like the grain in my tobacco burst Tele.

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I see where you are coming from Fretworn. That's food for thought... also opportunity to experiment with Esquire style wiring which could be interesting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maxaxe

It's always fun to have more than one job on the go Andrew.
Gives you a chance for ideas to mature IMO.
I do like what you propose to do with this bad boy so far.
That's a nice lump of wood dude - I'm sure you will do it justice.

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maxaxe, yes its nice to have another on the go. A nice block of wood it is indeed!

(Thanks to Fretworn who planted the Esquire seed in my head!) I've spent some time studying Esquire wiring diagrams and listening to sound demos. This is the path this axe will take. I won't go black pick guard but will stick to my original planned colours (it would look too similar to another Tele I have). It will look similar to this (search candy tangerine esquire) with an 'Eldred' wiring schematic. I'll nab the bridge pickup and bridge from another Tele (Wilkinson compensated saddles and a hot Tonerider pup). 20 mins of sanding achieved today, a lot more to go.....


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Nice orange colour there Andrew, maybe find a filler that is a little bit darker than your orange for a more subtle pop?

Wow Andrew, those candy tangerine esquires look fantastic! A great look to go for. I'm very intestested to see where you go with this and to get a bit more info on that Eldred wiring scheme. You may just start a fad here on the forum ;).

cheers,
Gav.

sounds like a great plan Andrew

Okey dokey. Finally some progress.

Mock build done. This is now going to be a standard tele with tummy and arm cut.

Need to sort out the plastic nut, it's a real shocker!

Next job, sanding, sanding and more sanding.....

I'm going to try and colour the body with Dylon tangerine cold water dye.. Naughty room stuff for sure.....

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Liking the carves Andrew!

Goldfish orange! I'll use walnut timbermate under this for grain filler. Then maybe a go with white knight acrylic finish..


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The picture..

That dye just sounds like it should look amazing Andrew, really like the work you have done with the carves. Will be keeping an eye on this one.

oh yeah, that dye!

Cheers everyone. Some more progress.. Headstock is carved. Now to sand it, fret job and naughty oil..

I'll need to clean up all the carvings/dust in my workshop as getting to be a health hazard..

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Headstock looks great Andrew! Cant wait to see some of that orange dye in action! Gonna be a sweet tele.

cheers,
Gav.

Hey Andrew. I'm just catching up with build diaries. Really digging how this is progressing

Quick update.

Neck in process of final finishing (currently on 2x coats of tru oil)

Body sanded 150, 180 then 220. Grain raised and knocked back 3x with 220 paper. Dylon made up. Like colortone to use, and looks like a goldfish!

I'll do a few more passes then sand seal up before grain filling. (Gav, remember I found this method some time back. This is the experiment!)

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Drying and out of sun

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wow that colour bounces in the sun, nice one. Neck looking good too Andrew, are you staining the headstock same colour ?

Yes quite an intense orange and only one pass so far. Not sure on headstock jury is out on that one for the time being..

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The orange is looking awesome andrew! Very interested in the outcome of your experiment. Maybe more colour in case sanding the grain fill takes some out?

cheers,
Gav.

3x coats of stain applied. 2x of sanding sealer applied.

Next job is to sand back with 220 paper (avoiding going through the sealer to stain) then apply grain filler..

The theory is that the filler will go into the open pores with the sanding sealer protecting the dyed wood.

B4 sanding sealer

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Freshly applied sanding sealer. Looks a bit patchy as still wet.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06...e3bb7e3f2d.jpg

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Timbermate applied and sanded back. Not much grain to be filled on front and back as already quite tight but you can see the effect of grain fill on the side. Being experimental I also used pine timbermate..

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And with some of the naughty oil

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looks great Andrew the lighter grain fill makes the grain more of a feature, well done.
Keep piling on the naughty oil !

filling after seems to have worked very well

Yes, I was quite surprised. The ash pores are deep and large enough even after sanding sealer to take the grain filler

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I like it. Sort of like a doghair finish.

Spot on Pabs. I reckon easy to get the dog hair look using this technique on mahogany.

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Definitely doghair! Looks real nice Andrew!

Thought it's about time for an update. Slow progress with sickness in the household..

Tuners on (Gotoh), bone nut cut and installed, (just need to carefully file one side flush), cavities shielded. Frets levelled and crowned. Bridge installed. Just need to screw in pickguard and wire in the control panel (note tone knob missing in the photo). Then install string tree. Pickup is tonerider in neck, f* standard in bridge. Wilkinson bridge. Electronics USA standard with volume mod for neck pickup.

Pretty much set up apart from tweaking the intonation. I've designed new decal bit this may have to wait a bit.

Dylon goldfish dye worked a treat! Neck has been finished with 4x coats naughty oil..

Already feels better to me than my F* tele as prefer the fretboard radius on this one.

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Very nice Andrew. Love the orange.

mmm yeah that finish looks great

looks very nice Andrew love the colour. Is the bridge ok for intonation ? Some of the tele's I've built I've had to route about 5mm to move the bridge cavity forward

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Originally Posted by wokkaboy

looks very nice Andrew love the colour. Is the bridge ok for intonation ? Some of the tele's I've built I've had to route about 5mm to move the bridge cavity forward

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All good on the intonation (one of the first things I checked......). I did have to widen the pickup route in general, the F*er pickup did not originally fit at all (due to base plate)

ah ok nice one. I like the look of the Wilkinson bridge. The gap between the bridge and pickguard looked a bit much but all good.
What is the volume mod you did ?
Have you installed a 4 way switch for the mod ?