Home-made Tele makeover

As I started with the guitar body stripping yesterday, I decided to carry on whilst the mood took me. This is my 5-string G-tuned Tele (well it would be if it had strings).

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It has a one-piece mahogany body (made by a mate of mine a very long time ago) and given to me in exchange for some musical kit I gave him. The current neck on it is an eBay copy, as the neck it came with (maple board) was in bad condition, with the frets almost falling out (it had been stored in a loft for ages before I got it and the pickups were all open circuit). Last year I worked on the old neck, took the old frets out, re-radiused the board then fitted new frets. It has some tinted lacquer coats on, but needs a few clear coats as well.

The body had been varnished and wasn't smooth at all, so I spray-painted it red over the top of the varnish (this was a few years ago). Either the acrylic car paint reacted with the varnish, or the acrylic did its trick of not drying, because the paint has always been very soft.

Here you can see how the pickguard has caused a crease in the paint round the edge. Also, you can see how the neck pocket had been cut a bit short by my mate. leaving a gap between the guard and the neck (artfully disguised by a black Sharpie).

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So it was time to give it a revamp and start work on the body. After the success with the heat gun yesterday, I tried it again today with slightly less accomplishment. Whilst the paint came off, it was all a gooey mess that stuck to the scraper and back to the wood. So here it is after I stopped with the heat-gun, in the best Jackson Pollock tribute I could muster...

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But after a run over with the belt and detail sanders, it's all come up looking nice and fresh.

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As you can see, he didn't rout the cavities but used a chisel.

There are three main things I need to do:

One is remove the existing string ferrules and replace them. I wasn't sure about trying to drill them out, so currently plan to try and tap them and then pull them out after fitting a bolt. They were flush-fitting to start with, so if left will be below the level of the paint. I could live with it if necessary, but I'd prefer to replace them if I can.

The next is to thin the neck pocket, as it is over-wide at the front. I have some veneer strips on order. In theory all quite easy, but I need to ensure the pocket remains at the correct angle.

The last is to thin the body a bit. It's about 3mm too thick at the moment. I could leave it as it is, but being solid mahogany, it's rather weighty, and could do with loosing some mass to help my poor back.

My plan, with it being mahogany, is to give it a Gibson TV yellow finish, which should still let some of the grain show through, but also give it a Fender 'Blond' general appearance. There are a couple of areas where there is some filler (around the output jack hole is the main one), so the initial white spray coat should make these areas invisible.

great project Simon. Maybe you could weight relieve the body with cut outs under the pickguard like the smuggler teles... love the plan for the colour - will look classic

It's not overly heavy (I do play a Les Paul), but the body is a bit thick compared to a normal Tele, so thinning by 3mm should make it a bit lighter, and I did deepen the control cavities a bit with a router - if only to get a level floor to them. I may need to enlarge the bridge pup rout as it is a bit on the tight side with the pup installed. I'm not a big fan of deliberate weight relief as I'm never quite sure what it will do to the sound.

The pups currently on it are an SD Hot Tele bridge and an SD Hot Strat neck. Not sure if they are the best choice for it as they sound a bit 2-dimensional. But I'll see how it sounds once it's painted and all back together. I can always change them for something a bit more classic. I need to upgrade the pots and switch anyway, so may well try a 500k volume pot to get them sounding a bit brighter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I'm not a big fan of deliberate weight relief as I'm never quite sure what it will do to the sound.

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I think it's curious how many parallels there are between this and the saxophone world.
So many snake-oil merchants with sound enhancing gadgets/modifications you can hang off it (at a high price).

When I tried my first ever strat shaped guitar the first thing I noticed was the comfortable playing position with the belly cut, arm cut.
That was the reason I went and did the same thing to the tele squier.
The Tele squier is still noticeably heavier than my strat copy.
I've go so much tinnitus going on now that any infinitessimal difference to the sound will not make a jot of difference.

But then again...we're all different aren't we?

cheers, Mark.

Sanded back that is a lovely piece of timber you've got there Simon, be a shame to hide it again

I tend to agree with you Dave. The only blemish being filler near Jack socket that could be hidden with a LP style Jack plate

Looks good Simon. Lovely piece of wood.

5 string Tele huh. Going all Keef on us are you? :p

Apparently they still sound like a tele:
3mm of the top should save a bit though, should be a cool Tele in the end.

I'll weigh the body before and after the 3mm reduction and see where I am. I need to do some routing on another tele body to fit a piezo pre-amp PCB in. so I might practice some chambering on that first.

No, it's not going to be a natural finish. I've got my plan and am going to stick to it. Remember that it was just varnished when I first got it, so I've seen it in its 'natural' state and personally didn't like it, though YMMV. Apart from the filling around the jack socket (which has one of the ElectroSockets fitted), there's also the neck socket which needs repairing and I'm sure that isn't going to be 100% invisible.

The cheap tap and die set I ordered arrived today, and by using a small tap, I managed to get some thread onto the small holes in the bottom of the string ferrules and pull them all out. After some initial resistance when tapping, the ferrules all came loose and started turning in their holes, which made it harder; but by pressing down hard at the same time as turning the tap, I managed it. I dioidn't bother to use another screw, I just used the tap to pull them out.

Bit of a miserable day here weather-wise (warm but overcast and threatening to rain), and I'm feeling a bit off-colour, so won't do anything else today.

Sit down and relax Simon, after all the sanding you have done I'd want a weeks recuperation....

Well the Tele body is now a lot thinner. A bit thinner than I wanted though.

As I don't have a thicknesser, I just had to use a combination of power plane, belt sander and random-orbital sander. The power plane dug in a few places, so I then had to even that all out with the belt sander and then smooth it all down with the random-orbital sander. Removing those gouges meant I probably took an extra 1.5mm off in total. I did both the top and the bottom, so the output jack hole is still central in the body. it certainly now feels lighter!

Now need to go over it with sandpaper and remove the odd mark on the sides of the body.

I also need to remember to check the pup and control cavity depths, as I may need to deepen them.

I also need to glue the veneer strips into the neck pocket to get that back down to size.

Once that's done and its all fine sanded, it will then be ready for a coat of butterscotch lacquer (I'd forgotten I had it), which will give a slightly more creamy-yellow look to it than If I'd used white as I first thought of doing, (and will look more Fendery, even though I'm then going to pore fill after the butterscotch has gone on with mahogany filler in a Gibson style).

Yes I have a power plane, and the sniping at the end of the run is terrible even with care taken. The 1.5 mm shouldn't be a huge issue should it?

I don't think so. I'll probably have to deepen some of the routs and possibly the rear string ferrule holes (need to get some new ferrules) but the finish will probably add 0.5mm back. making it only slightly thinner than my Fender Tele. I did once have a Squier Affinity Tele, and that was considerably thinner than the Fender.

Yeah, that should present no issue. It's still nearly 5mm thicker than the FrankenWashie and I managed to squeeze a FR trem into that.