Thinline Tele Build - Pitbull Hybrid

[kman42]

A thinline tele kit I ordered from Pitbull had the binding lift off when I tried to stain it, and Adam was good enough to send me a replacement body which went on to win March GOTM... https://www.buildyourownguitar.com.a...t=11294&page=2

Anyway, I decided to write up what happened to the original body. Since I lost the binding, my thought was "what have I got to lose?" and routed a radius onto the body. It came out pretty good, so I kept going - sanded off the veneer, stained the body walnut, routed the neck pocket for a humbucker, made up a custom cavity plate, and stained an old neck I had lying around to match the walnut. Put a pair of Toneride AC2 Classics in it, running through 1 meg pots for a bright lead tone. Pretty happy with the results...

[Johnbamb]

This is a great rescue! Well done.

[JohnH]

Woah! that came out really well

[Bakersdozen]

Top job! Looks wonderful. I hate letting stuff go to waste too

[McCreed]

Very good use of recycling!

I referenced this post to another member that wants to remove Dingo Tone finish on maple veneer TL. At least if the veneer gets damaged in the stripping process, they have an ash body under it that can still be resurrected!

[kman42]

Thanks all. My experience was that the veneer was surprisingly hard to sand through, considering how thin it is. The timber underneath wasn't perfect - you can see that the grain stripes aren't aligned and there are some knots etc. I just embraced this as part of the look.

[McCreed]

The timber underneath wasn't perfect - you can see that the grain stripes aren't aligned and there are some knots etc.

I've seen worse grain matching on non-veneered kit bodies!

I just embraced this as part of the look.

That's all part of guitar finishing IME. What we see in our head doesn't always come to fruition. When it does... go buy a lottery ticket!