avengers63

From everything I've read about this, you'd need to remove the fretboard. Unless you're experienced in neck building, I'd shy away from this one for a while.

I found a dude that'll make a pickguard out of pretty much whatever I want. Also, he'll make a bridge pickup ring out od maple. WOO-HOO!!! Now I can have the bridge I really want, not what happens to be available. In our email communications, he suggested that wenge might be a better option for the p/g over padauk. I did a couple of mock-ups... and the wenge isn't so good. Of course, your opinions are always welcome. Well, that settles that. Padauk p/g, maple p/u ring.

I really love my digital camera. I can take as many pictures as I want without spending a penny on film & developing. This thing is geting documented about evert 10 minutes or so. OK, maybe not that much, but technology is still great. The sanding is all done: The first coat of sanding sealer is on and drying overnight. It looks more yellow in the picture than it is in person. The lighting in the garage isn't so good. If this is any indication of what it'll look like when it's all done... duuuude! I'm excited. Unfortunately, after the second coat tonight, I'll be at a standstill until I get the other parts in... like the neck & bridge. Ya gotta drill them holes 'fore the poly goes on.

You're absolutely right. It's called bid sniping. A lot of bidders jump on it in the last 10-15 seconds with the hopes that there won't be time to be outbid. I've done it myself more than once. The big temptation for me is to re-bid right away, determined not to lose it bo a dollar ot two. I highly encourage you to determine your maximum price, raise it by 5%, and place your bid. If it goes for more than you were willing to pay, be content that you won't feel like you overpaid for it.

The body came in yesterday. I had a space set up in the garage for me to work on it. I couldn't get to it until about 9:15PM - I was really antsy all night. Go figure. I popped in one of my home-mix CDs at random and started sanding it down. By sheer luck, Stairway To Heaven was on the CD about halfway through. I couldn't resist the temptation to squat down with the body on my knee and "air guitar" the solo". We're all kids with our toys, right? Anyway, it was at that exact moment when my wife popped in to see how I was doing. I'm going to be a while living that one down. But it's all sanded now. Tonight I get to put on the first coat of sanding sealer. I'll post pics as the project moves forward.

Granted - this is a quickie mock-up. Maybe it'd look better in real life. I really like the spalt too. It almost looks flamed. Really nice direction on the figuring.

If that's the case, then why not just make the p/g from padauk? I do agree that a transparent red would compliment the racing stripes and neck. It would also allow the wood to show through with a red tint. I'll have to think about this one for a bit. I don't want to overdo it with the red tones, but it would look nice. Hmmm...

So... instead of trying to add length to the back of the box, why can't you add depth to the heel of the neck? It's surgury either way, but this one seems like it'd be more ascthetically pleasing in the end.

I'm thinking to do it in maple. That'll match the body core and help tone down the whole thing. The plain maple seems to be a nice neutral base. If that's the direction I go, the grain lines will match the body. But, if I diverge from my original game plan (everything possible made from wood), what p/g material would you suggest?

Well, I have ONE problem solved. OK, maybe not the entire aspect, but I'm halfway there. I've centered in on a pickguard shape that'll still allow me to both have one and not cover up a third of the top at the same time. It's from the thinline tele. Now if I can only center in on what type of wood to have it made of. Do y'all have the "too many choices" thing going on too? HEGGIS: I had been searching for Bigbsys on eBay, but every set had the plastic bridge plate. That's what made me ask about it here. One finally showed up this morning with a chrome one. Thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks, dude! From what I can gather through the pics, it's entirely possible to do it with a standard tele bridge. The bridge must be modifies with channels cut out of the back lip so the strings can cleat it and pass over the saddles. So, I must now weigh the options: get the crappy looking acrylic bridge assembly, or have un-professional looking notches cut into a standard bridge. Another benefit of the standard bridge is that it's just screwed in to the body. The other one has a T-O-M bridge which requires bushings to be drilled for. I don't have a drill press, so I'd be doing it by hand.... great potential to screw it up royally.

Here's a question. I should probably post this over in the page for electrics, but since it's about this build, here it goes. I want a Bigsby on this tele. Do I need to have a specific bridge, like the one WD sells here or can I get just this Bigsby vibrato assembly and use it with the standard bridge? There's no way I'm going to get this thing because it needs a neck shim, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to do that. If I can use just the vibrato without getting the bridge as well, it's save me at least $50, maybe more. Plus, that acrylic bridge base just looks bad.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a builder in the same sense that y'all are. While I have the desire, I don't have the money to invest in the necessary tools & equipment. Also, while I could experiment and learn, I really don't feel that one semister of wood shop in high school 20 years ago gives me more than a rudimentary knowledge of woodworking. So, all in all, I'm just not a luthier. But there's still plenty I CAN do. Please note that throuhg out this w-i-p and plea for suggestions, when I use the term "build", I really mean "assemble". I do not consider myself a builder, but that is the common terminology, so I will use it with impunity. Anyway, I have had it in my head for a while to build a telecaster from exotic woods. I wanted as much wood on the thing as possible, and it couldn't be "normal" wood. I was open to just about anything but the normal figured maple tops over ash, alder, basswood, etc. That's just boring & common. Likewise, I would rather lovingly embrace my ex-wife than have a maple neck & rosewood fretboard. (Insert retching sounds here) Without the opportunity to manufacture it by hand, I'm left with no other options than buying the pieces. Having a limited budget, where did I turn? eBay, of course. Here's the body I just bought. Maple core, padouk stripes, and mahogany wings. The wings are topped with spalted maple laminated with paduok for a pinstriping effect. At this stage, I have a question and need an opinion or seven. When it's time to finish the wood, I'm going for a glass-smooth natural finish. From what I've read, tung oil is pretty easy to use, but I'm not positive it'll get the depth & polish I'm looking for. My real question for the finish is in filling the grain. I know the mahogany will need filling, but will the spalted wings, paduok stripes, and maple core need it? The opinion I need is about the pickguard. I found a dude that'll make one out of pretty much whatever I want. My issue is that the body is so stunning that I don't want to cover it up, but I really want a pickguard. As we all know, a tele p/g takes up a lot of real estate. I'm feeling like I want to compliment the body & neck, but I don't want it to be too busy & have too many different types of wood on it. As a former art major, I completely understand overwhelming the eye. While I want to compliment the neck, I don't have it yet, so that's basically impossible. A plain maple p/g would compliment the core nicely and wouldn't be busy at all. It would actually peel it all back a bit. If I go with a maple p/g, it couldn't have any figuring because the core doesn't. But maple is so boring... FWYW: I'm trying to get a paduok or bloodwood neck with a zebrawood f/b. The red tones will blend with the stripes. I don't thing the zebrawood will compete too much with the spalting, considering the same tones and themes are repeated, even though the pattern is not exactly duplicated. I'll have spalted knobs, which will compliment the wings. For tuners, I want the Steinberger gearless tuners. I'm thinking either black or chrome hardware. Gold is not only more expensive, but with so much brown tone over the piece already, the gold would blend in too much. I'm leaning towards black, but I'm not positive yet. Anyway, I'd really appreciate any thoughts & opinions y'all have.

I've seen those kinds of rings in my search. They've all been listed as rings for the neck p/u. I'm looking for a bridge ring. I want to keep the classic look of a pickguard, so rear-routing & top-mounting the p/u's isn't an option. Has anyone ever hacked apart a tele bridge to make a ring out of it? That's always an option, but I'd hate to effectively spend $20 for a ring that should only be 3-4 bucks.

What about making VERY thin veneers of the various materials with a sticky backing? They could be adhered to the tops of the pickups without any modification at all. My only question with any of the metal itels would be tone alteration. I'm clearly not an expert on this subject, but has that been considered?

I'm working on building a tele, and I can't find a part I want. Maybe it's not made, but who knows. I want it to have she standard p/u set, but I don't want the standard bridge. I'd like to put a tune-o-matic bridge on it, but I can't do this without putting the bridge single coil in some kind of mounting ring. It's this ring that I can't find. Rings for the neck aren't any problem to find, but bridge rings don't seem to exist. Do they exist & I can't find them, or am I stuck with a traditional tele bridge?

RE: bocote fretboards I'm not doing the work. I'm buying a finished neck. If there's a chance that the bocote hasn't been properly attached, then the lesson for me is to avoid them. Y'all can do things I don't know how to do nor have the time & money to invest in learning how to do. You know... things like reattaching fretboards that came unglued. No bocote for me.

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=30823 Yep! That's the dude I was looking at. I really didn't figure it was worth anything, but I was still intrigued. Their necks are crossed off my list. I still might get an inlaid pickguard from him and some inlaid tuning peg buttons. Maybe not.

So the lesson is: Avoid bocote fretboards. Gotcha!

Y'all are great. Thanks for the input. Has anyone had any exprience with the necks from Korea or Tiwan? You know - the ones with the crazy inlay work?

I've been looking at the eBay seller "karosaguitars" for a few months now. He makes nice looking necks from exotic woods like bocote, cocobolo, yellowheart, and jabota. As I really like the looks of these uncommon woods, I've been wanting to get a neck from him. I was wondering if anyone here can testify one way or another about the quality of his work.

In January, I'll be rebuilding a single p/u practice guitar. It has one p/u: a bridge HB. My thought is to get a pair of bridge hot-rail type SC sized HBs and put them both in the space for the normal HB. This'd have 2 HBs blasting out through the bridge position. Now, this axe would only be good for one thing, but DANG! I'd have between 27-30k in output, blowing away an X2N or Dimebucker. Any thoughts on how not to screw this up?

As you can see, it used to be white... about 20 years ago. I understand that this is normal ageing, I just don't want it. So, without a major financial investment, what can I do?

I'll try and post one tonight or tomorrow morning. I'm currently in the middle of re-wiring the thing and replacing the pickups. I never did like the EMGs that were in it, so I'm replacing them with a strat set. I figure to put the EMGs on eBay in a week or two.

I have an wood-bodied '88 Steinberger that used to have a white finish & a white pickguard. It has yellowed into a rather ugly and inconsistent yellowish cream color. Likewise, but more uniform, the once white pickguard is a dirty cream. Without an expensive repaint or custom pickguard replacement, is there any inexpensive way to whiten the paint and plastic?