Colin's Tele Adventure

[colin2121]

Attached the neck. Nice and straight and satin finish looks good against the body.


Did not realise how much extra weight would be in the head with the 12 tuners. The neck could easily dive without a decent strap.

[colin2121]

Had to clean under the plastic nut. Taped the bone nut in place and used string on the two outside tuners align the bridge.
Scale length looks good and Nice clearance on the sides of the neck. Had to remove the saddles to get at the screws at the back of the bridge.

[colin2121]

Working on not using a pickguard. Don't want to cover the spalted veneer.
Cut a pickup mount out of 3 ply pine to cover the large rout at the neck.

[colin2121]

Well ... finally finished it!

The pickup plate has worked and covered the large rout.
I managed to leave the spalted cap mainly uncovered.
The high G was a bugger to tune up but its intonation is good. (Need PPE when tuning the high G though!)
And, more importantly, it sounds like a 12 string. All jangly.
Very happy overall with it.

[Simon Barden]

Glad you finished it and it's all working.

I can't help but think that the ply surround rather detracts from the looks than exposing more of the top adds. I'd suggest either making another one but with a more appropriate spalted veneer on the top, or thinking about cutting down a standard pickguard to expose more of the top, along the lines of the Tuff Dog Tele (though you can always be more extreme if you want).

[colin2121]

Thanks for the feedback Simon.
Bit difficult to try to match the spalting. I was contemplating doing another in black to see if it sat against the spalting better.

[colin2121]

Took a while but I finally got around to finishing this build off properly.
Took the standard pickguard and gave it a trim.

I am happy to finally call this build finished.
Not only does it look the goods now - it has a low action and that 12 string sound.

[Simon Barden]

Great! You've also got the benefit of the kit 12-string bridge only being suitable for left-handed use. it's missing the tapped threads in some holes that allow it to be set up for right handed intonation with the thick/thin string fore/aft saddle positions swapped over.

[Andyxlh]

That looks really good! I have never played a 12 string. What are they usually used for, and what does it sound like?
The different scratch plate is an improvement

[McCreed]

Good work!
I also prefer the new scratch plate.