Tele number Two. The one I should have built in the first place.

Turns out the Tele I built wasn't actually the one I wanted, still like it and it gets played but not as happy as I should be. Hence this thread.

Will be another long build, its going to be perfect this time ;), (and I've not finished the ES12G yet). How often is that said at the start, for some compromise to pop up along the way... Hopefully not this time.

Anyway here is the starting point, just arrived. A one peice ash body set up to accept vintage spec hardware.Unfinished, and made in Japan. So its going to be my tribute to a 50's tele. Hope to get a genuine Fender repo '52 neck from Stratoshere or somewhere similar. No doubt be a MIM one as I'm not spending $600+ on a made in the USA piece.

Plan is to finish in a traditional Butterscotch / Blonde colour, black pickguard. Here's hoping I get this one right.



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That’s a nice looking piece of wood.

Best of luck


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That should look awesome done in that colour scheme.

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DT + Humidity = Nightmare + day trying to sand back to bare wood :-(

Nice project as a Tele person I'll be watching this one.

FWIW. I have 52 Blackguard spec pickups in my Thinline and love them, they were a custom set made to order

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

I have 52 Blackguard spec pickups in my Thinline and love them, they were a custom set made to order

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52! That's a lot of pickups in one guitar! ;)

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

DT + Humidity = Nightmare + day trying to sand back to bare wood :-(

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Which DT are you using? butterscotch?

Yes Butterscotch. My own fault, really shouldn't have tried in the weather we're currently having.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

52! That's a lot of pickups in one guitar! ;)

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Makes it kinda heavy :D

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

Makes it kinda heavy :D

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Though the lack of wood must compensate somewhat!

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

Turns out the Tele I built wasn't actually the one I wanted, still like it and it gets played but not as happy as I should be. Hence this thread.

Will be another long build, its going to be perfect this time ;), (and I've not finished the ES12G yet). How often is that said at the start, for some compromise to pop up along the way... Hopefully not this time.

Anyway here is the starting point, just arrived. A one peice ash body set up to accept vintage spec hardware.Unfinished, and made in Japan. So its going to be my tribute to a 50's tele. Hope to get a genuine Fender repo '52 neck from Stratoshere or somewhere similar. No doubt be a MIM one as I'm not spending $600+ on a made in the USA piece.

Plan is to finish in a traditional Butterscotch / Blonde colour, black pickguard. Here's hoping I get this one right.



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So, basically like the finish on the body of my custom Telecaster then?

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

Yes Butterscotch. My own fault, really shouldn't have tried in the weather we're currently having.

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You in Qld? I don't know where you are.

In any event, I usually find that it just takes longer to dry before the next coat

NSW, but at the moment I don't think it matters where you are. Will wait till we get a slightly cooler less humid spell. May just be I went too may coats too quickly.

You recon the Butterscotch takes longer to dry than other DT's?

Something Similar Doc.

Got the period correct 5 screw pick guard without the neck pickup screw holes and a 7.25in radius '52 model neck, Just need the weather to change so I can give the stain another go.

Take 2. In the house this time sitting under the AC running on Dehumidify. We'll see how long it takes till I'm kicked back out into the garage :-)

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That looks great mate.

Ok so, as there is only a "stain coat" being the mix of butterscotch and white base, it takes just a little longer than a normal stain coat but a lot less than a normal intensifier coat to dry.

Look as a general rule I always wait about a week between stain coats before applying the next coat, if its humid I'll wait two weeks or more.

The thicker you put it on the longer you have to wait.

I found that once I put on each butterscotch coat it would look rad, then fade as it dried. So I'm pretty sure I put on somewhere between 4 and 6 coats all up.

Cheers Andy, Yes it fades a huge amount, I've got 2 on, and with having done a couple and sanded off probably don't have enough for 6, but will get another one at least.

So, no intensiter - what is the 3rd bottle that says final coat on it?

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

Cheers Andy, Yes it fades a huge amount, I've got 2 on, and with having done a couple and sanded off probably don't have enough for 6, but will get another one at least.

So, no intensiter - what is the 3rd bottle that says final coat on it?

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Pretty much as advertised, its the final coat. you can skip the intensifier and go straight to that if you are happy with the colour.
Very VERY thin coats with plenty of drying time between and you should be right.

Okay so, they way I did it, was I kept putting the stain coats on (mix 50/50) and waited for it to fully dry before I decided whether I wanted to go darker each time. I honestly can't remember how many coats I did.

As I rule I generally don't use DT final coats. but that's just me. You have to put them on super thin, the final coats take waaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer to cure than any other coat. When you are applying the final coats they leach some stain out, which I don't like. If you muck the final coat up (ie put too much on) it weirds out and looks husky and then you have to wait for that to cure before lightly sanding off and i've never been able to do that without sanding some stain off, so then you have to blotch stain again before final coating again....which you may inevitably muck up again.

I have vowed to do my bass all in DT as a final coat....so lets see how that goes.

Look the best conditions to use DT is lowish humidity and about 30 to 35 degrees.

So I usually finish in tru oil. It's a lot quicker, finishes harder, glosses up nicely. also if you chip or ding it...you just patch it up with more tru oil.

Look I read a post that Dingobass wrote with one of the reasons not to use Tru oil (apart from toxicity), he said that it contained silica, which like ground up glass, will gum up the wood and destroy tonal elements of the wood.

Cheers Andy. I've used DT before on the Spalted LP and it came up a treat, probably just the horrid weather for the last month that's causing me issues.

So your Tele is Tru Oil over DT ?

Assembly time.

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Together, needs a bit of relief adjusted into the neck, but will leave it for a few days to settle down before doing anymore adjustments.

Think I'm happy with this one.

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Looks great! How does it play?

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Originally Posted by TZK321

Looks great! How does it play?

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Electrics are all good, but need to get neck right yet before its fully good to go.

Looks superb.

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nice job, looks great, well done! I play my PBG TL51 more than any other guitar i have, there's something about that design which is simply wonderful.

Cheer folks.

My original TL51, although aesthetically it may not be quite what I hoped for is probably tied in 1st place for most played. It may be relegated once this one is dialed in, we shall see.

Spent some time getting things sorted last night, no buzzes. Only playing through headphones but at the moment really not happy with how it sounds, especially the treble side of things, G string is just horrid. A simple D chord, yuck. Had something similar before, on the other Tele funnily enough, turned out to be the nut

Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually or ship it off for a set up, but that will be a last resort.

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Originally Posted by Rossc0

Spent some time getting things sorted last night, no buzzes. Only playing through headphones but at the moment really not happy with how it sounds, especially the treble side of things, G string is just horrid. A simple D chord, yuck. Had something similar before, on the other Tele funnily enough, turned out to be the nut

Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually or ship it off for a set up, but that will be a last resort.

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Nut slot for the G not deep enough ?? and pulling it out of tune.

For a simple nut file of the correct size you can give unwound strings a bash at a few angle with a hammer on a steel block ( vice ) to deform them a bit, wound strings will do the job on their own

Yep, lower the nut slot a little. Also I tend to focus on the G sting intonation more than the D with those bridges. I've had surprisingly few problems getting them to work to date, even though they really seem like they shouldn't work all that well.

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

Nut slot for the G not deep enough ?? and pulling it out of tune.

For a simple nut file of the correct size you can give unwound strings a bash at a few angle with a hammer on a steel block ( vice ) to deform them a bit, wound strings will do the job on their own

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Yip, that was next course of action, Have a set of nut files so will get to it.

Every couple of weeks after I drop my wife of at work I nip into my local music shop for a browse, (shout out the the folks at Macron Music Erina).

Well without knowing, today I walked into their annual sale, 35% off store wide. Unless the price difference between in store and online is stupid amounts I prefer to support the store. I had never been happy with the pickups I put in this, so took the chance and garbed a pair of Fender Original Vintage 52's. So time for some surgery.

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I now have the guitar I should of had 4 months ago, so much happier. Won't sit and gather dust in the corner now....