Matt Simmons

Hi RyanB Thanks for the response. I am not looking for wear and tear as the guitar is not going to be sweated over for 2 hours at gigs etc - I only do a bit of recording and the odd live spot for 20 mins and this Tele is one of many guitars that will be used! Thanks for the advice guys - I think I will give it a go with the oil. M

Thanks Mattia, Maybe I should be thinking more in terms of Danish Oil for this job. What I seek is a finish that will bring out the figuring and leave the whole neck feeling pretty natural. Like you I have always hated the shiny fingerboard finish that Fender put on their maple f/bs. Looks great but sucks when you play it. Is Tru Oil going to be too close to that? I really like the feel of matt finish on the back of the maple necks I have but they all have rosewood f/bs - maybe I should just leave it with the matt sealer and live with the figuring not coming through. Its not like I will be gigging 4 days a week with it - too old for all that nonsense now! Thanks Matt

Hi, I wonder if someone can help. (BTW I have checked through the forums and tutorials on this topic - but I have just a couple of questions that there doesn't seem to be a clear answer on.) Also I can't/won't spray! I got a really nicely figured birdseye maple Tele neck with maple fingerboard off ebay for a Partscaster. However, its finish seems to be a very thin clear satin poly sealer that does nothing for the wood. It plays nicely enough but I am tempted to add a build of tru oil which will hopefully do 2 things - one is to bring out the figuring and secondly to give the neck and fingerboard a slightly more durable finish. My question relates to Tru oil on a maple fingerboard - none of the other posts on this topic are clear on this. Loads of posts about finishing the neck with oil but not the f/b. I really do not want a sticky fretboad - I have always like the feel of unfinished rosewood and ebony and hated the hard shiny laquered maple ones. I have a feeling that a Tru oil finish on the fingerboard and neck will give me what I am looking for ie slick and natural but not sticky/slippy like shiny laquer - I am I correct? My plan was to sand off the sealer by hand and then to build up thin coats of truoil on both the back and front of the neck. Polishing back every couple of coats with OOOO. My key issue is whether Tru oil will work on the fingerbaord. Any thoughts on all of this would be gratefully received. Thanks Matt PS Eriks bass on the home page is awesome!

These look like they will do the job - and the good news is that I need to order some other stuff fromm them anyway to consolidate the postage to the UK. Thanks Matt

jason, Thanks for the advice - I can visualise exactly what you are saying. In other words don't fit the Klusons central to the hole but wedge one side of the tuner hard up against the same side of each hole in the headstock. There's a difference though between the Kluson and the sperzels in that the vintageKluson type all have push in bushings on the front and they absolutely must be snug or they'll rattle around and drop out when restringing, whereas sperzels/gotohs and schallers (cast) all have little hex nuts to snug the whole assembly tight. Anyway I will get these Kluson style tuners and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted. I'm doing three teles. 2 for me quilted cherryburst/ birdseye maple and flamed honeyburst/rosewood and a flamed green/birdseye maple for a friend. 2 vintage and an experiment Thanks Matt

I agree, I don't have a problem with a little play in the tuner dimension - I can pack it invisibly but there will also be slack with the push in bushings - if they were hex nut again no problem. Its no real big deal as the tuners are quite cheap but I want to get it right ! Thanks M

Hi, I am getting conflicting advice on the correct tuneres for my project Tele. The holes in the neck came predrilled at 11/32" by my measurement. This to my mind is standard Kluson territory. However, one of my potential suppliers is quoting his Kluson clones as direct replacement fit for vintage Tele but then spoils it by saying they are 5/16". They are nice tuners and a good price but I am concerned about the size conflict. Can anyone tell me what I should be looking for. Thanks Matt

Hi, and wow! So much useful information - thanks a bunch. Just to answer some of the questions -- the neck is not a vintage profile - its a really nice 12" radius medium shallow C shaped profile (very like my ESP series 400 strat) and the frets are not jumbo in the say Charvel mould. I would say they are medium and very similar size to what I recollect from a genuinely crap Fender 70s Strat I once had. The fret bevels are quite sharp (in terms of angle) and I'll tickle the frets to get a nice feel overall. Last info which i have taken in to the equation is that I use 9 gauge strings which have a tendency to slip about. I think what I am going to do here is to get a preslotted Tusq and a bunch of blanks. That way its a win/win. I will invest in the slotting files and the spacer as I will be doing a few of these in future and will be splitting the cost with a mate - he's a brilliant woodworker and I do the electrics and set ups. What do you guys think of the special nut shaping files from Stewmac ($$$!) or will I do better at the local hardware store - in which case what should I be looking for? Best regards and thanks again - terrific forum. Matt

I am putting a new neck on an old Tele body to revitalise it. The neck is from WD and has a 1 5/8" nut width - it really does, I measured it just to be sure ;-) Being a lazy git, I wondered if I could get away with using a Graphtec Tusc nut as it was preslotted. Now I know that I will have to tweak the slots for height, but at least they'll be spaced. However, the preslotted nuts only come as 1 11/16 spacing althought they say they are a unviersal fit for Fenders. By my reckoning, if I use this nut, I will loose 1/32" each side by filing to size but my E strings will then be 3/32" from the edge of the fretboard as opposed to the more normal 4/32" (again I measured this and its seems to be standard on all my guitars). Is this going to be a problem? I had major probs with Strats in the 70s with strings too close to the edge and I just wondered how close you can go. Or should I bite the bullet and buy the proper width nut and slot it - I'll also need to buy a string spacing rule from good ole Stewmac at $20 plus shipping to the uk. Or does anyone know a good preslotted nut that is available at 1 5/8" for a Tele neck. Any thoughts anyone? Matt

Hi Doug, Thanks, I have always preferred matt finish necks over gloss anyway. Since discovering the problem, I did actually leave the guitar out in the open air for 3 months (!) to see if it would cure itself as you suggested. No change I'm afraid. Its quite tacky (much more than a new shop Gibson for example) and the finish does feel 'soft' if you gently dig a fingernail into it although it doesn't mark. I'll try the Naptha - then the wool. If this wasn't an old guitar (its a good mid 70s - and there wern't many) I'd do thisin a hearbeat and take the consequences of a FU. There are also complications as there is the edge binding. Does the nitro finish cover that as well as the wood? And should I mask off at the heel and nut to get a hard edge? Thanks Matt

Hi, I stumbled across this brilliant site a couple of weeks ago and it must be said at this stage that I am an enthusiastic amateur who has fixed up and customised guitars for myself and my fellow musicians, predominantly from the hardware and electrics side, for the past 25/30 years but I have no luthier skills (yet ) My problem is this. I have a beautiful (and previously) mint Tobacco S/B Les paul Standard that I bought from new in the 70s which for a number of reasons hasn't been played for the past 5 years and has been stored in its foam-lined flightcase. To my horror, the plasticer has leached from the foam stipples and has marked the top, which I have polished out the worst of, but the main problem now is that the back of the neck is tacky to the touch. This makes it a bitch to play as the more you sweat the worse it gets during a playing session. What can I do? As I see it I could have the guitar refinished or the just the neck stripped and either refinished or tung oiled. Am I right in thinking that to shoot another coat of nitro over the whole lot won't solve the problem - the plasticiser will still leach through? Has anyone had a similar problem and does anyone on the board have any thoughts on how to solve this. Many thanks - I will be pathetically grateful for any suggestions. Matt PS I know it was stupid to leave it in the flight case but hindsight is a wonderful thing