Wonderboy

[FrankenWashie]

All sand and no assembly make homer something something

[DMorrison]

Hey Friends,
Here's the latest: I let the body hang for a week so the stain/finish could set.
Here's the beginning:

...and here's 2 hours later:



So far, so good; everything fit pretty well, even if positioning the whammy was a bit of a Hail Mary. What you see is everything from the kit - no upgrades. The neck needs to bow a bit more - I tweaked it and will let it sit with tension for a while and see what happens. Miraculously (and I hope this is some kind of sign) the intonation is fairly spot on. I need to do the usual set-up tweaks to get it right (and possibly a smaller spring for the whammy), but my quick test tells me that it has a nice sort of hybrid sound - fairly bright, but with some warmth from the humbuckers.
I'll keep you posted and get better pics...

[gavinturner]

Wow, she really looks the business! Great result man. Would love to hear a sound demo.

cheers,
Gav.

[tonyw]

Veeeery nice, looks very chunky.

I love the look of the Bigsby trem on a tele, but i cant stand playing with Trems so i block or hardtail haha

[Andy40]

fan...bloody..tastic. (still love the guitar bed, guitar water and guitar heater)

[DMorrison]

fan...bloody..tastic. (still love the guitar bed, guitar water and guitar heater)

Andy, that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me all week! The guitar heater wasn't enough - I could barely get the little string balls over the damn tiny pegs on the faux-Bigsby with my cold stiff fingers (weren't they an Irish punk band?). Happily, I can now move out of the basement.
(Now you mention it, it does look like a mattress - it's actually a mover's blanket on a folding table).

[Dedman]

Guitar looks great, might have to add one to my GAS list

[DMorrison]

Still left to do: neck adjustment, nut work, neck bow, intonation tweaks...

[andrewdosborne]

Looks fantastic, you cannot beat a semi hollow Tele

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

[DMorrison]

Hey Everyone,
I've gotten a bit bogged down in the set-up, and any advice is welcome.
First, the nut slots were all too high off the fretboard, so I thought I could lower them all uniformly by taking the nut out and sanding the back. Clearly I was leaning too hard on one end, as when I put it back to check the B and E were buzzing like a sitar - I had sanded off too much on the high side. I tried to put a very thin shim in, but that raised it too much. I ordered a bone nut from Pit Bull, and I'm going to try again. If I have to lower the nut slots, what's the best way to do that - get a set of nut files?
Also, the neck was absolutely flat, and I wanted to introduce a slight bow. I have cranked the truss rod a number of times(counter-clockwise, please tell me I'm doing it right!) and the result is incredibly slight.
Once I get the nut in I will adjust string height and intonation - my fingers are crossed as there is not much travel in the bridge saddles.
Right now it plays fine in the middle of the neck, but not in open chord positions. The B and E strings sound great if you're into that Coral Electric Sitar thing...but I'm not.
Fingers crossed! If all of this fails I may have to learn slide.