Received my TL-1 today

[WeTheNorth]

Hi all,

It has been a while since I haven't given an update on where I was at.
Busy with work, busy with life and busy completing this first build LOL.

Anyway as per my latest post I was on to tru-oiling the body, which quite frustrating because one coat is quickly applied and then you have to let it sit until it's ready for the next one...
So I decided that 15 coats of tru oil was good enough for the body, and about 5-6 for the neck.





During that time I was waiting for electronics upgrades to come in.

So a 99% finished guitar looks like this.



CTS 250k pots w Sprague 0.047uf capacitor on tone
Oak Grisby 4-way switch
Switchcraft Mono Jack
Tonerider Hot Classics TRT2 pickups set
Grover 406C locking tuners

On the photo is the stock set of strings which I had put in for the sake of testing. Those will be replaced shortly as I need to adjust string height and intonation.

What remains to be done is to install the string trees.
I've seen many Teles with only one of them. With the TL-1 models would you put in both or only one?

I have sound tested the stick through a Fender Champion 30.
It is pretty cool when pushed up in gain. The pups react beautifully.
I didn't initially have any volume control... Everything looked fine from a wiring perspective, even the volume pot lug which is meant to be grounded. However a quick continuity test showed that it wasn't properly grounded, and a bit of additional solder fixed the issue

One thing I haven't done is shield the cavities which I was considering but dropped the idea. I might do it later but i can't be bothered now un-wiring the whole thing. I found that it does generate a fair bit of noise but i can live with it for now.
One question though: would you ground join the two pots as I've seen it done on a couple of strats?

I'd like to stick a decal on the head stock but I'm struggling to find a 'good name'...

[WeTheNorth]

Oh I forgot to mention that the bridge cavity was a tad small to accomodate for the Tonerider Bridge pup...
A bit file did the job.

[McCreed]

Looks good WTN! It has a nice rustic appeal with the Tru Oil over plain timber.

re: string trees - One or two, depends on whether or not you're getting any pre-nut resonance, and an extra string tree is not the only only way to fix it if you do.
I would say most people just throw on the second tree and be done with it (I used to be one of them) but a properly cut nut can eliminate the need for a tree on the D/G strings most of the time (but not always and typically it's just the G that is the problem).

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with having two trees, it's just not necessary all the time.
See how you go with just the one, and if there's string weirdness happening, make sure the the string nut slot is angled properly or chuck on the 2nd tree if you're not confident about filing the nut.