Teleburster TL-1A aka G-special

[WeirdBits]

Well, I ended up doing a second coat of Aged Vintage Yellow on the neck, mainly just to even out the colour a little and get the back of the neck closer to the colour of the headstock. I left the fretboard with just the first coat of AVY, it has just the touch of aged colour that I was looking for. Three days between each of the coats, and since then I've applied two neck top coats, again three days apart. I relented and clear coated the fretboard as well, instead of just oiling it like I planned. I figured this guitar probably won't be an everyday player and I wanted to see how the Wudtone lasts on the fretboard. Pics:





Planning on doing one or maybe two more top coats on the neck.

[WeirdBits]

And, just to show how different the black MOP can look, here's the inlay from two angles:

[AJ]

brilliant job on the MOP inset

[WeirdBits]

I guess the finish line is starting to approach. The fourth and final top coat went on the neck a week ago. The neck colour has actually seemed to get a little lighter with the clear, but it's pretty close to what I was aiming for (it looks lighter in the pics, but depends on the angle). I'll probably leave it to cure for another week or so, but I had to take a look at it with the body (the neck fit is tight enough without bolting it in). The body is a little dusty in the pics as it's been hanging for the last couple of months

[WeirdBits]

Oh, and I took a moment to hang my christmas decorations:

[WeirdBits]

What started out as the decision to cut a slightly more refined pickguard for the G-special, and cut a couple of different pickguard options for my nephew's SG-1F, ended up as a bit of a template making frenzy. I mean, if I was going to cut some SG pickguards I may as well make templates for them, in case I wanted to cut some more. And, I also wanted some G-style truss-rod covers so I should probably make some templates for them too. And, if I was going to be cutting templates for all of those then while I've got everything set up I should probably cut any other templates I may need for the next few builds…

So, with a cheapo plunge router modified to mount on a homemade router table, some new Carbatec bits, and some 7mm ply I set to work… and maybe got a little carried away.




I now have templates for a selection of trussrod covers, cavity covers, trem covers and pickguards for LP, SG, Tele and Strat. The Strat pickguard and trem cover templates were probably the most involved and difficult, but the small size of the TRC's made them the most hassle. Very easy for the router to bite and send them flying (and risk grabbing fingers) and their small surface area meant the double-sided tape had an annoying tendency to flex if I wasn't careful. Anyway, PITA TRC's aside, I can now cut the plastics I want when I want.




I actually found my Dremel (set up on a router table) to be the best option for cutting the small items, and also for putting the chamfer on the edges of the pickguards and TRC's. Much more precise and better for the tight curves.

[Analyst69]

Wow. Nice work WB.

Very organised of you.

The only thing missing is some pickup surrounds

Cheers

Darren

[Brendan]

WB - what / how did you get the shapes for the templates - just about to rip a new pickguard for a VP bass and have some MDF for templates handy - have a Dremel to cut the pickguard once I have a template - just need to cut the MDF to the right shape...

[WeirdBits]

@Brendan - For some, like the Strat pickguard, I copied them from existing items I had using a 1/4" flush cut pattern following bit. Basically, I used double-sided tape with some wooden spacers to attach the existing item about 5mm above the 7mm ply, then I could safely run the bit's bearing along the edge of the item to get a good clean copy.

For the other templates, like the white Tele and SG pickguards (on the left in the image above) and some of the TRC's, I either printed out a downloaded pattern or drafted my own then used a very light smear of Aquadhere on the ply to glue the paper pattern on and left it to dry overnight. The next day I would usually "paint" some brush-on superglue onto the outline to harden up the paper and stop it from fluffing up when I cut it. Then, depending on the item, I used either a coping saw, jigsaw, or router to rough cut the template to just outside its outline and then finished the shaping with sanding drums. I found trying to freehand the router to make a template with just a paper pattern was simply too inaccurate and prone to mistakes, and I got much better results by sanding away the last couple of mm's instead.

[wokkaboy]

well done Scott on another awesome looking build. Colours look very similar to your LP you previously built (axe in your avatar picture). Love how you get such a even burst line.
Well done on MOP inlay and the templates and covers you made look awesome, would love to make a ply pickguard.