DKs Tele build

[dave.king1]

Here is a non PB build that I have had waiting for a burst of inspiration since January 2010.

I think the is pre Pitbull so please forgive me for my infedility

All the shapes were there including the headstock so all I had to do is put a finish on it and bang it together, what could be easier.

Given that I have a rather nice Squier Thinline and previously had a genuine 59 Tele I really didn't want to follow the pack so once I firmed it up in my mind the spec is.

1. Alder body with tummy cut
2. Maple neck and board ( very much like my Squier )
3. Wilkinson compensated stop tail bridge
4. 1970s Schaller humbuckers ( came out of my Maton L202 )
5. Volume only for each pup and no tone pot
6. 4 way switch for individual pups plus series or parallel.
7. Cherry burst

The pups are not coil tapped and would be difficult to mod and I also have a Shergold Masquarader with has coil tapped HBs so no point in doing a mod.

Anyway enough talk here's the guitar fitted together


Didn't use the router to open up the pup cavities, it didn't seem to be worth the effort to make templates for a couple of minutes work


The pups sat too high in the pickup rings so I knocked the rings down quite a bit, the one on the left is down to the correct height and the one on the right is as it was


I also built this from scratch a few years ago

[maxaxe]

Should become a really sweet Tele judging by your plans for it.
Great to see another builder of stuff on the forum too.
Is the car a Caterham 7 - or perhaps based on one?

[dave.king1]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from maxaxe on September 6, 2014, 18:05
Is the car a Caterham 7 - or perhaps based on one?

The car is a complete scratch build based on Lotus plans that I heavily modified for a modern drive train and suspension.

It's road registered and I also race it in the Festival of Sporting Cars series.

[ponch]

That's awesome, the Tele but that car is brilliant! What's it running?

[dave.king1]

/<\\/p>[]<\\/p>/Quote from andrew on September 7, 2014, 11:59
That's awesome, the Tele but that car is brilliant! What's it running?

G'day Andrew and all others interested I'll start another thread with a bit about the car if that's ok under forum rules with a link to the related forum so as to not hijack this one.

[dave.king1]

Here's a front and rear pic with the first coat of stain, it's making the grain pop nicely but unfortunately also highlights the fact that there's more than one piece of wood and it's not book matched.

I do have a cunning plan to hide this and also the infill I had to make for the bridge pup cavity

[wokkaboy]

looks great Dave, over 4.5 years to get to this stage, wow we say don't rush the build but .......
Nice ash grain, wouldn't worry about the non bookmatching but look forward to your cunning plan !

[stan]

looks nice Dave, love that it is something different.

Lotus 7 replicas rock, you've made a beaut

[dave.king1]

Finally got around to doing some more on the Tele.

Many coats of Wattyl Dark Mahogany stain, then wet sanded with 1000 grit on the front and back only leaving the sides dark red/brown, the face of the headstock is getting similar treatment.

The pics show it with the first coat of clear, there are very small brush marks to rub out and also a couple of spots on the back that refused to take stain.

The kit supplier advertised this as alder and I have two PBG kits one is a basswood PBH4 and the other and Ash STA1 and the grain on both of these is very similar although the ST doesn't feel or sand like it's made of balsa which the PBH did until I put the sanding sealer on

[dave.king1]

Just thought I'd bang it together with the pups, bridge & switch plate resting in place to see how it was coming along.

Not too bad but I'm not happy with the motley shading on the headstock, it was a very dark mahogany colour the same as the sides so I hit with some 1000 grit wet to tame it a bit and stuffed it.

Still needs to be polished & buffed and the frets looked at before final assembly.