Simons TL1-A

[SIMpleONe89]

Guys I made some modifications to this guitar because of the following reasons:

1. Finish wasn't even. Some areas didn't absorb the Wudtone stain as well as others. I had a hard time getting an even look as a result.
2. Wipe-on-poly wasn't tough enough or it was probably too thin. I had areas of sand through and the finish was very easily dented.
3. The string spacing wasn't well done. The high E string was much closer to the edge of the neck and this really bothered me. I didn't centre the bridge properly the first time round.

Seeing this build was almost 2 years ago and I had gained much more experience in measuring, routing and finishing, I made the following changes:

1. Sprayed a solid colour close to surf green.
Thanks to Gavin Turner for recommending MTN94 Luminous Green! In retrospect I didn't prepare the wood well enough and getting an even finish during wet sanding was hard. Hence, I learned the lesson of sanding and more sanding even if you hate it!
2. String through body.
I drilled string through for this guitar because changing strings on a top loading bridge (Squier/MIM style) was a pain. Unfortunately I still couldn't get a perfect alignment.
3. New pickguard.
I loved the look of the tortoise shell pickguard against the surf green. I had to modify the centre pickup cavity because I previously measured it wrongly.

For the TLDR summary:
I modified this guitar. Here are the pictures.

[SIMpleONe89]

[img]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b378/SIMpleONe89/Telecaster%204%20of%2015_zpsog0tk5gw.jpgi/img]

[SIMpleONe89]

[wokkaboy]

love it Simon, looks really cool, how does it play and have you got standard strat style 5 way switch ?
Noticed you reversed the control plate so the switch is at the bottom.
Surfer green really suits the pickguard, nice build mate !
Is that a Gotoh bridge ?
If you haven't entered it in GOTM previously you might as well enter it for March GOTM

[SIMpleONe89]

Thanks wokka. It plays ok because the neck is rather chunky and I didn't shave off too much wood that time. I still need to fix the action to make it lower.
The tonerider hot classics sound awesome. I also added a seven way sound mod on top of the standard five way. I prefer the volume closer to the picking hand so I did reverse it intentionally.

[SIMpleONe89]

The bridge isn't a gotoh but it's from a squier affinity series.

[wokkaboy]

cool, cheers Simon

[tonyw]

Hey Simon dont know if you thought about putting new saddles in that bridge? i did this mod to an Affinity bridge, works a treat.

[SIMpleONe89]

Hey Simon dont know if you thought about putting new saddles in that bridge? i did this mod to an Affinity bridge, works a treat.

Hey Tony yes I actually thought of brass saddles but I actually prefer the six individual adjustable ones for perfection intonation. Thanks for the tip.

[tonyw]

Hey Tony yes I actually thought of brass saddles but I actually prefer the six individual adjustable ones for perfection intonation. Thanks for the tip.

No such thing as perfect intonation... but i get what your trying to say