TLA-1S my first Fender style kit.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Hi all, seeing as the old COVID has put a slow down on kits coming in to the country, I thought I would go for something different and available. I am going with a Tele with a spalted top and maple fret board. I picked it just on looks as I thought the spalted top in the picture was amazing. When it arrived I was totally blown away by the veneer. It Was even better than I thought. It came with a white plastic scratch plate which I am not going to use as it covers too much of the top. I also had a thought to get a different pick up for the neck position as the pocket is way too big for the little lipstick single that came with the kit. I am going to put in a Tone Rider hot90 P90 . I Am working on a couple of picks for my next post.

[Simon Barden]

Sounds great!

[Wayne.Mumford]

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Some pics of the amazing top and my hand drawn headstock.

[McCreed]

Nice figuring on that top. Look forward to seeing your progress.

FWIW, if you're planning upgrading anything else like bridge; bridge pickup or 24mm pots, be sure to do a mock build and get any extra routing done before applying your finish. Some T kits will require adjusting the bridge pickup route in order to get proper intonation, and the control cavity route will need widening for full-size pots.

Best of luck with your build!

[Wayne.Mumford]

Thanks for the advice McCreed, early days yet. I don’t even have the P90 yet, just a bunch of ideas. Anyway, I got the headstock shaped and a coat of sanding sealer on the neck. The neck is a really good tight fit. I also did a coat of sanding sealer on the body. I was thinking about a colour for the mahogany body and came up with ,you guessed it,mahogany. I got a good coat of colour on that too. I am having trouble uploading pics for some reason but will get onto it.

[Wayne.Mumford]

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Some really rough grain on the top, I did a bit of grain filling On the body and top, I had to get 2 different colours,a lot of sanding but worth it.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Hi all, a bit of progress today, first coats of poly on body and neck. Also got the logo on. A beautiful sunny day today, a couple of quick coats of wipe on poly during my breaks from painting my house. Being a painter , I don’t usually get a chance to do my own place but it really needs it, so the wife says.

[McCreed]

That's good progress in two days.
What colour is that stain? It's kind of brown, but also kind of purple. I like it!

[Simon Barden]

Mahogany. Mahogany stain tends to have a fairly high blue content, rather like a wine red.

[Wayne.Mumford]

Thanks Simon, you’re quite right, it is mahogany, one coat was enough as it is very dark. I used it on my first build (ES-3)but reduced the colour by half. I got another couple of poly coats on today, slowly building up the finish. Unfortunately the headstock logo didn’t take as it was peeling on one of the corners but luckily I have few extras, I will give it another go tomorrow. I left it overnight before coating it but it might not of been long enough.