Gorath's first build - TLA-1

[wazkelly]

And Wolfgang's come with bare maple on their fret boards thus requiring lots of lemon oil every string change.

Everyone one will have a differing opinion on how to finish a maple board and entirely up to what you prefer. From those shots it was hard to tell if there is any shine yet? Same polishing method for the body to be done on the neck and on my J Bass where I finished the maple board, also used micro mesh and car polish to bring up the shine on all surfaces. Just need to be a bit more delicate on the fret board and not too aggressive with the frets either.

[Andy40]

I'd do the rest of the neck like Waz.

[Gorath]

Thanks guys. Have some more questions regarding my progress on this Tele if I may:

1) I remember reading somewhere that after you've applied your final coats of Dingotone and are finished with you, you need to let the body cure for a good two weeks or so before waxing/polishing/buffing. I applied my last final coat about four or five days ago and it seems pretty dry. Is the two week thing right? I just can't find where I read it.

2) As the body seems quite dry, I'm going to put the copper shielding in the cavities. Do I glue the copper shielding to the sides of the cavities to hold it in place?

[Simon Barden]

The copper tape should come with a conductive adhesive backing, so it just sticks to the wood on its own. You'll need to overlap it to ensure electrical continuity. If you've got the copper tape with a non-conducting adhesive, then you'll have to add a blob of solder at each joint. But if so, it really is easier to just order a roll of the conductive-backed tape. Apart from having to take the strings and most of the bridge and scratchplate off again, you can do the shielding at any time. It should take around an hour to do (I know because I did it to a Tele of mine yesterday).

The control plate cover is grounded, so you just need to let some of the copper overlap the edges of the control cavity at the two ends (not the sides, as there's not much of an overlap there, and you don't want it to show) to connect the foil to ground. Likewise, the bridge plate should be grounded, so run some of the copper in the bridge pickup rout over the back end of the rout so that it will make contact with the underside of the bridge plate.

The neck pickup rout is the only area where you'll need to run a ground wire to the back of a pot in the control cavity and solder it to the copper in the neck rout. Alternatively, if there's no visible gap between the control plate and the pickguard, you could simply continue with a strip of copper tape running from the control cavity shielding across to the neck pickup rout. You can then also tape all across the underside of the pickguard to act as a large ground plane, which will all help absorb RFI noise.

[Simon Barden]

And any final finish benefits from waiting as long as you can before polishing, so you will get a better result by waiting another week.

[Gorath]

Thanks Simon. I did do the shielding today and found my question about the copper being redundant as it had the adhesive back. Used all of it on the guitar cavities:

[Gorath]

Guitar

[Simon Barden]

You may need to cut some of that shielding back a little bit as it may stick out the sides of the cover plates. But you can easily trim it with a sharp knife or razor blade. The top and bottom of the bridge pup rout for instance, as there's often a small gap there anyway. But it will be obvious once you put the bridge and control cover on.

[Fretworn]

DB would tell you that just because a finish feels dry doesn't mean it is deeper down. That is why he recommends at least two weeks, more if you don't have optimal drying conditions. Dingotone doesn't have added chemical drying agents as these are fairly toxic, so it's best not to rush.

[Gorath]

Yeah I think I'll trim it back with a razor.