javacody

tirapop, would they use the belt sander for the contours as well?

DrummerDude, don't sweat it. Remember, 50's and 60's guitars were done by hand. They were all slightly different. Using the warmoth guitar as your base will get you probably as close as was gotten in the 50's and 60's. I've even seen photos of Broadcasters and Esquires where the back string ferrules were really out of whack.

I was asking about 50's vs. 60's because they have slighly different specs (different neck shapes, fretboards, saddles, different body woods, and finishes).

I wish I could find anything positive to say about this. I would choose even olive oil over that, any day of the week. Heck, I'd choose rancid lard over that.

I guess personally, I have a hard time believing folks in the US can't find lumber. I live in the middle of Iowa and have at least half a dozen places with in an hours drive to buy lumber. I searched on the internet and looked in the phone book. I guarantee that if I ask around, I can find at least another half-dozen.

Having said that, I would love to post my sources to share with others.

Wipe on with a rag, wipe off after 15 minutes. Let dry as long as the can says to let it dry (probably overnight), and then go over the dry coat with 0000 steel wool. Next, hit it with a tack cloth, and repeat everything I just said. Do this between 8 to 12 times.

Be careful not to use too much oil, it will continue to bleed out for hours after you've wiped it off if you do, also, it will bleed out the most from your end grain.

A trick that I've read about and am planning on using, is gluing the paper plan to the piece you are going to make the template out of. I'm going to use spray adhesive.

Nice start though.

I admire your tenacity, and I wish you the best of luck.

I noticed you said the first tele's and also mentioned the 60's, are you after a 60's tele, or a 50's tele?

I did a little experiment with Tung Oil (Behlen's Pure) and paste wax on top of that. It really looks good. It's shiny and satiny and has a depth to it that really invites you to pick up the guitar and play. Course, this was on alder. I've read about pore filling walnut (another big pored wood) on gun sites, and they used Tung Oil or Tru-oil, and sanded the oil and sawdust into the pores as pore filler. It takes at least six applications (and with Tung Oil, thats at least 24 hours between coats). Personally, I don't like to grain fill.

I usually use whatever comes with my pickups. Usually, there is enough extra to wire up the rest of the guitar. Otherwise, I use the red and black kind that comes in little spools at radio shack. Whatever that is. LOL.

Is there a full moon tonight or what?

I use fancy caps, but I don't pay 10 bucks for 'em. I buy NOS in lots off of ebay, about $1.00 a cap, still overpriced, but I like their shiny silver bodies (well, green in the case of the NOS Russian Military caps).

I know on another forum, I asked about Callaham's cryogenically treated pots and switches, and was almost laughed off that forum. LOL Sometimes, a question doesn't seem so stupid until you ask it.

What do you guys think about the quality pot argument? So many people choose to buy CTS pots to replace the cheap ones in import guitars. Is there any good reason to do so?

Yeah, happy birthday, good work Brian and all of the mods! Here's to at least three more years!

Black dye is what you want if you don't want to obscure the grain, and try and get a powdered version, so you can control the strength.

I'm thinking about using anyline dye to decorate a cake, what do you guys think? LOL

Yeah, I'm one of those people who really like to do it myself as well. You know what they say, if you want a job done right, do it yourself.

I feel the same way about fretboards. If I'm going to make my own, I'm going to get some maple scraps and practice first. For finishing my first guitar (have a ways to go), I'm going to do what you are doing and buy a fretboard already slotted.

Actually, the tolerance on most pots is +/- 20%, which would make any pot between 400K and 600K "in spec" - if you can show me that there's an audible difference between a 400K pot and a 500K pot, I promise I'll start using those expensive blue ALPS precision pots - BTW, CTS pots are 20% tolerance too. If you want to use expensive specialty stuff to make your cavities look cool, that's fine with me - just don't try to convince me it sounds better, or that it's worth more money. ]

Yes, that is the tolerance, but from what I understand, in real life, they tend to be in the lower K range of the spectrum. RS guitarworks will sell you a tested set at much closer to 500K. Yeah, a single pot off 50k won't be a big deal, but when all four are off 100K or more?

I also wasn't suggesting anything sounded better (kind of like you were putting words in my mouth?), nor was I judging others for their preferences.

I'm also not understanding the overly argumentative response? Are you addressing me? Others in this thread? Or the seller on ebay? You quoted me, and then went on to address things that I never spoke to. Can you please clarify?

I would add a simple buffer as your first "effect". Then a booster (my favorite being Jack Orman's JFET based booster). A fuzz would be simple to add, but you wouldn't want a buffer in front of it. Check out diystompboxes.com, generalguitargadgets.com, geofex.com, and muzique.com.

idch, I'll give you my opinion on the harness, as thats what you actually asked about.

First, how well can you solder?

If you know how to solder, then in my opinion, you would be better off doing this yourself.

I do use fancy caps, and I understand that they probably don't do anything more than the cheap caps, but I like em anyway.

One thing about RS Guitarworks, is that they will actually test the pots and if you want a 500k pot, then you will get a 500k pot. Normally, they would be anywhere from 350k to 450k.

Another nice thing about vintage wire, cloth type at least, is you don't have to strip any wire, just slide the cloth back.

It does look cool too. Some folks care about how their cavities look. Some don't. Who am I to judge? That would make me like most of the posters in this thread.

Most vintage type bridges that I've seen don't have notched saddles. I've got two strat type guitars and I've been playing strats for years, and even with heavy trem use have NEVER had an issue. I play blues and am a big Buddy Guy and Albert King fan, so I bend the strings a lot. No issues.

On my Telecaster, however, the e strings both slide a little bit. It's because of the saddle being tilted down on both of those sides. Not an issue with a strat bridge.

Try it out first, see if it really is a problem. You can always ruin, err, mod it later.

Actually, I buy my socks at Menards. LOL.

I'd also recommend that before a new user asks one of our experienced builders if they only build tele's, they do a little research first.

Sometimes its hard to stay on topic, and I know that we've all gone off topic in a thread at least a time or two, my concern with PM'ing someone is that valuable information that could be shared with the forum may end up getting shared with only one person. I suppose you could start a new thread, and pm the person a link to that, eh?

You're missing the studs or whatever they're called? Where did you get the bridge? I'd go back to whomever sold it to you and get the hardware that it should have had.

I like em. BigD, you keep getting better. How were these burls to finish?

I'm not so sure you can get a schottky diode at the shack. Mouse would be your best bet (like Ansil said).

Spencer,

It's sent, it should be in your inbox shortly. I did a fairly exhaustive search on the net, and 99% of what can be found on the blueshawk can be found on blueshawk.info.

Hey, I have a drawing of one I got from David Ridgeway, he was kind enough to send it to me, and I'd be happy to send it to you. Here are some great links:

blueshawk.info

ridgeway ridgehawk

One more note, Steve's Studs and Bushings are rock solid, in my experience. I have three sets, and they are all perfect. They are made out of steel and hardened steel (your choice). His bridges and studs fit together snugly, so you don't need the tone pros set screws at all.

The stuff Wes said about the platers is true. They are generally very inconsistent from what Steve tells me. His first batch of vintage stopbar repros had to be sold as "reliced" pieces because the platers did such a crappy job. He's since found new platers, but they are very inconsistent on meeting delivery dates.

Anyway, lots of Historic Les Paul owners are pretty happy with his stuff. I agree with Wes partially, but I think that things fitting snugly is a sign of higher quality. Slop in a stud and bushing set is often (probaby mistakenly so) associated with lower quality.

Idch, I wonder if you could find bits like that on British sites? Shipping from the UK wouldn't be too bad either, would it?