I have just about finished my telecaster build inspired by the Fender parallel universe magico.
Really pleased with the results, the build was a challenge for me, it has taken just over a year. I seemed to make a hell of a lot of mistakes, was amazed that the electrics worked first attempt! Looking forward to playing it now!
Nice job Leo.
I like that you have some custom appointments like the timber control & scratch plates. The wrap-around tail piece is a nice touch also.
Hope it's a real player for you too!
As for mistakes, we all make them. The trick is learning from them so they (hopefully) don't happen on the next build!
So what's next???
Making the world a better place; one guitar at a time...
Thanks McCreed, it has been a few months now and I'm really enjoying this guitar! There will definitely be a next build, not sure what yet.
I ordered only the body and neck for this build, with the intention of pulling the parts out of an unloved Jackson. That plan fell by the wayside when I realised the tuners from the reverse headstock would not fit. So... I got a bit giddy and went parts shopping except for the pickups I already had. I also intended to install an 'A little thunder' pickup I have had for years and not used, but somehow I got my pickup surround dimensions wrong and I didn't have the patience to make another.
I have a laser engraver that I thought would easily make custom scratch plate, control plate, pickup surrounds, I was wrong, it wasn't easy.
I received some fantastic and advice for the veneer from Peter at Gilroyguitars.com.
Finishing was a bit of an ordeal, mainly as the 'stain' I bought from bunnings was paint. I also sanded through several times.
I made notes of my build pasted below, sorry it is long and not edited! My days were sadly generally weeks apart.
Teleocaster
Day 1
Fill in areas around binding with timbermate filler. I went with oak tint as I thought it was the closest match to the guitar.
Day 2
File proud binding on the top cutaway. Fill dents and crack with timbermate filler. Sand top and blend in filler previously applied. 240 grit.
Check there is a hole to feed a ground to the bridge.
Day 3
Sand sides and back. Wrapped sandpaper around a rail for sides. Clear rough edges in cavities. Draw ideas to sculpt for cutaway access, still not sure. Bought 2 sizes of countersink washer, tested each, decide smaller looks better. File rough edges on washer as a test for painting.
Attempt to cut test control panel, scratch plate and pick up surrounds out of cardboard with the laser. DXF file came out way oversize and resizing seemed to have a mind of its own. Need to install PDF converter. PNG worked but printed in lines, not path, too slow.
Day 4
Trial fit neck, bit tight. Pulled away some of the top veneer pulling it out. Flooded with PVA, fingers crossed. Intend to take parts off a Jackson dinky with reverse headstock, tuners trial fit, holes are correct size but looks odd with post coming out of wrong side. Length of neck screws should be fine. Countersink washers will be fine will screws. Smooth side of neck with filler. Sand end of neck to make less of a tight fit. Bought an 'A Little Thunder' pick up about 5 years ago but never installed as cavity was too small and the only tool I owned at the time was a tin opener. Trial fit, will need to make cavity deeper, top of pick up currently aligned with neck.
Day 5
Attack the heel for some more comfortable fret access! Did intend to round the whole thing over but wasn't long before it felt comfortable. Will have to move one neck screw. Holes already drilled. Marked the neck to follow the new contour of the heel. Rasp, file, 80, 120, 240. Sanded where the veneer came away and put more glue on hoping it strengthens.
Day 6
Trial fit neck including bridge (masking tape studs) and both e strings. Shape end of neck corners to better fit the pocket.
Day 7
Take a couple of mm off the neck pickup cavity to ensure the a little thunder pickup will not sit too high. Need bearings for router bits, nearly made a need for a thinline scratchplate.
Day 8
Fill the neck screw hole affected by shaping with 4mm dowel.
Day 9
Cut and blend the dowel, looks good!
Day 10
Come to terms with not using tuners from reverse headstock. Buy tuners.
Day 11
Fiddle with headstock logo location on the computer. "teleocaster" using futura font. Inline with neck or with tuners? Decisions decisions.
Day 12
Found image of a neck joint carve I liked so tried to reproduce. Filing and sanding. Will probably revisit moving the start of the carve back.
Created headstock template using telecaster template found on internet. Cut out with jigsaw then used router to smooth some edges. Should have sanded instead. Jigsaw did not give a perfectly square cut.
Day 13
Finish the headstock template. Had to stick template to the front due to limited selection of router bits. Stick with double sided tape. Bit was a bit too short, left paper thin edges on both sides. Pushed a but too hard and knocked the template off. File and sand imperfections. Need longer router bit with bearings. Note bearings I thought would be able to use are too small.
Day 14
Continue to sand headstock shape. Looks good. Additional shaping of the heel.
Day 15
Shape heel again. Attach neck, with screws! Shape neck to tie in nicely to heel. Trip to hardware store for drill bit to suit washers for neck screws. Seems I took too much off the neck last time, put some filler on. Clean out pickup cavity I modified.
Day 16
Sand neck filler. Drill for countersink washers. Use ebony timbermate as grain sealer. Applied with old Tshirt in a ball. Added water, inconsistently. Looks good wet, dries grey. A few spots didn't take, where I had used glue and a couple of dents. Applied timbermate to these areas. Looks pretty good 'natural'. Sanded with 240 & 320.
Applied woodstain again with a Tshirt in a ball. No additions required. Seemed to have more paint like properties than expected. Will require a sand, maybe another coat.
Day 17
Sand back blue with 320. Feels silky smooth! Used filler in a couple of spots. Will require several coats of the stain and sanding back to enhance grain contrast
Day 18
Sand back with 240 and 320, stain does not appear to be penetrating as much as I expected. Possibly due to grain sealer. Applied more stain, more liberally this time. Thinking may apply as paint
Day 19
Sand back with 600 wet, neither the penetrating stain I was looking for or a nice flat colour. More paint. Think the 'stain' is more like wet coloured filler. Don't buy stain from bunnings.
Day 20
Sand back and sides with 600. Decided to leave back and sides and sanded back to wood on the front as could not get consistent finish and I don't really like the 'relic' look.
Day 21
Front looks better than I recalled. Applied the same blue stain to a different project and worked well so I put another coat on the front too. Looks better. Will do same to back, sides and face of headstock.
Day 22
Sand back, back to wood
Day 23
Cut out plates with laser onto card. Worked well, couple of things to fix up for alignment with cavities
Day 24
Scrape stain off binding with stanley knife blade.
Day 25
Edit the laser file. Hone Inkscape skills. Top tip for saving as DFX; 1. Document Properties in mm, 2. Object to paths, 3. Avoid groups, 4. Uncheck ROBO & LWPOLYLINE & select mm on save as.
Day 26
Sand filler in neck divot failure, finally feels good! Need a way of hiding the filler now though!
Day 27
Edited the scratch and control plate and pickup surround templates by tracing a photo of the actual guitar rather than the fender magico. Pickup dimensions corrected. Need to check against actual PICKUPS and add screw holes to attach to body.
Day 28
Sand body back to bare. Used a sanding drum attachment in my diy router table, worked well!
Day 29
Pretty much back to square one. Apply stain. Crimson guitars denim blue stunning shots. Tried dilute first but was way too diluted. Put stain straight on to wet tissue. Awesome, colour not what I had in mind but I love it. Started with the front but ended up doing whole guitar. Dries quickly so can easily work whole guitar. What a waste of time that paint was!
Day 30
Actually a day later, not 20! I went to fix a couple of imperfections, a dent I am unsure how it got there and a score in the back from my diy router table. Thought I'd have a look at body and neck, lifted the bloody top of the edge of the neck pocket, AGAIN! Glued and clamped, fingers crossed it isn't a mess. Did some sanding on the neck, a bit to avoid the lifting again and get rid of the old paint. Still not sure how to cover up the mistake by the heel, a friend said I should embrace it.
Day 31
Spoke to my friend Shane from Haigh Guitars who suggested a black blue fade to hide the filler in the neck, I'll give it a go. Sanded back the edge of the neck pocket and a small area of scratches on the front. Trial fit neck, again. Sand with 600 all over and repeated the dye process on the whole body. A couple of patches in the back where dents were not perfect as filled with paint and filler. Neck pocket fix not perfect but will have to do. Masked off the fingerboard and had a go at creating the fade/burst by applying the dye neat at the heel and dilute at the headstock. Will get some help from sanding, but I think it will work. Dye headstock same as body. Maybe should have masked off sides of headstock.
Day 32
In the sunlight noticed a shallow scratch in the body and the sides were a bit patchy from applying the dye against the grain. Also noticed that there are still small specks of the old paint embedded in the grain on the headstock.
Sanded the headstock back to bare and reapplied the dye. Sanded out the scratch and reapplied dye to the patch, the dye seems quite forgiving for patching, blending in nicely.
Sanded the neck to try and enhance the burst effect. Not there yet! Tried mixing the black woodmate and the dye, looked like it was working well at first but the filler seemed to come out when I tried to blend it in more, perhaps overworking it. Concentrated on the black, will need sanding then dye over the top, fingers crossed.
Day 33
Decided to stain whole neck including back of headstock. Burst looks better but still miles away from perfection. Repaired small chip on back of body.
Day 34
Got some black dye to attempt to blend in the burst better. Should have ordered the same type of dye but impatient so went to bunnings and picked up some Feast Watson black spirit dye. Did a test on a piece of plywood to confirm compatibility with the dried blue and vice versa, worked well. Let's go for it. Needs several coats to get opaque.
Day 35
Can still see the line of with the filler a little more matte, but both sides are black, hopefully will be uniform with the finish. Sanded the neck with 600 and put the blue stain over, looks good.
Left to dry, took masking tape of and repaired a couple of bleed areas with a blade. Sanded the Ridge created by the dye going up to the tape.
Applied tru oil with tissue, started on the body front, moved to the sides and back. Looked good wet, looking forward to seeing it in the light. Worked towards the black on the neck in case of smudging black elsewhere, looks great. Fingers crossed it dries as good as it looks wet.
Day 36
Second coat of oil on body applied with 800 grit wet & dry and wiping off excess. Neck looks good, a bit glossy over the black and also feels a bit sticky.
Day 37
Some of the stain bled into the fingerboard under masking tape and stain on the body binding. Started to clean up with a Stanley knife blade.
Day 38
Continue cleaning binding with Stanley knife blade, some fairly deep scratches I didn't notice before. Sand all over with 800.
Days 39 to 400?
Continue oiling and light sanding with 800, moved to 0000 wire wool. Looks better with every coat.
Day?
Decided to paint the f hole white, used a paint pen and masked the top off.
12/01/21
Lost track of number of oil coats, it has been a while.
Scanned the guitar body to the computer to trace the pick guard template. Worked well, cut out template in card with the laser and it is a perfect fit. At last!
With the laser going well decided to add the logo to the headstock. Happy with the results, the blue stain has reacted with the laser up to 1mm adjacent to the logo but hopefully will blend with another oil coat.
13/01/21
Another coat of paint pen to the f hole.
Wire wool for what is hopefully the last 1 or 2 coats of oil.
23/01/21
Applied several coats of white paint pen to f hole edge. Bad news is I foolishly pressed the pen down to get the paint flowing to the tip so there are a couple of areas with several small dents.
Added another coat of oil to body and neck.
Peter from Gilroy Guitars (https://www.gilroyguitars.com/shop/) has been extremely helpful with advice on how to make wooden pickgurds. He also kindly sent some sheets of stunning flame maple veneer. I can't thank him enough. Using thin flame maple veneer on plywood for the plates. Applied thin coat of glue to back of veneer to prevent bleed through when glueing to ply.
25/01/21
Applied a second thin coat of glue to the back of the veneer and then glued to the ply to make the plates. The flame already looks stunning with the thin glue! Don't have a vacuum press so used a car battery and a vice to add to the clamping pressure.
07/03/21
Tried to cut the control plate with the laser. After 30 passes or so I got impatient and thought I would help it along by using a Stanley knife blade whilst the laser was stopped and cooling... Unfortunately I moved the board so stopped the laser not wanting to risk not getting back exactly in place. Looks like the cut was only about halfway though. Think I'll abandon the laser for cutting and use the bandsaw.
10/03/21
Sand all over except fingerboard and front of headstock with 1200 wet (with water, not oil) as there are some ridges where I must have missed wiping off.
21/03/21
Coat of oil all over. Set up band saw I've had since June but not turned on! Cut out control plate with band saw which went pretty well. The depth of the laser cut was inconsistent, some areas nearly full depth, others not even half way. I assume it is something to do with the plywood. I was able to use a knife blade to remove most of the excess back to the laser cut edge. As this first piece was a success, I engraved the pickup surrounds and the scratch plate, cut with the band saw then finished with blade and file. Pleased with the initial results, the flame looks incredible. Cleaned up the surface with mineral turpentine as I covered in masking tape to avoid smoke stains from the laser, and gave a quick coat of oil to the face. Control plate will need a little glue as the top veneer has lifted a little on one edge, possibly due to the heat of the laser or my glueing workmanship. The pieces fit together nicely. Need to soften the edges, might leave the joins flat.
22/03/21
Feel like the natural wood of the plates is lacking something so did a test with black and blue as alternatives. I like the black. Did another test with black timbermate. Also did some samples with different depth chamfers, like the softest best.
04/04/21
2 coats of stain has the best effect.
Chamfered the edges of the plates and pickup surrounds with a file. Put black timbermate on all edges as filler. Sanded back and sanded and cleaned the faces. Applied one coat of black stain.
06/04/21
Lightly sanded back black stain and applied another coat. They look great.
Noticed some scratches in the body finish (upgraded my garage lighting) so used 600 with oil as the wet to get them out. Think 600 was a bit harsh at this stage, I'll get some additional grades of paper.
09/04/21
Coat of oil on the plates, flames are popping! Went too far with sandpaper on the body the other day, rubbed in some blue dye.
12/04/21
Another coat of oil on the plates and over the dye where I had rubbed through. Control plate veneer lifted on one edge, glued with titebond II.
13/04/21
Repair looks good. Another coat of oil to the plates and body where I rubbed through.
14/04/21
Oiled the body with 800 oil wet, plates with 400 oil wet. 400 was too much for the plates and I rubbed through the black.
16/04/21
Oiled body and scratch plate with 1000 wet. Edges of scratch plate rubbed through but minimal. Sanded control plate and pickup surrounds back to almost bare and dyed black... Again. Body looks good, nice and flat. I have been doing only the front and taking time to rub of all excess, think I wasn't spending enough time on that previously.
17/04/21
Oiled body with 1200 wet. Oiled plates with paper towel. Used a bit of black dye to darken edges where previously sanded through.
20/04/21
Oiled body with 1500 wet. Oiled plates with paper towel. Noticed the plates are not as dark as previous attempt.
25/04/21
Oiled body with 2000 wet. Oiled plates with paper towel. Tried to mix a small amount of black dye in with the oil to darken the lighter plates, not sure if successful.
27/05/21
Applied 3 coats of birchwood Casey gun wax to the headstock and back of neck, front of the body and plates.
Days blurred but finished and wired up 24th June 2021.
Applied wax with polishing pad attachments for drill.
Had to get smaller switch and mini pot as they didn't fit in the cavity.
Progress photos
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