IPA or death

Nice looking wood. I'm sure it will be a beautiful guitar too. Are you going to carve the top or leave it flat?

I bought a PAF humbucker from them a month or so ago and installed it in the neck position on on of my teles. I'll say that it is solid and there are no problems at all with it. It sounds a little less refined (for lack of a better word) than comparable Duncans in my Les Paul, though certainly not bad sounding at all. I guess I would call it "muddier" than the SD. For the price they can't be beat, and if you're working on a beater guitar or any project you don't want to sink a lot of money into, they're the ticket. But like someone else said, another 20 or so bucks and you can have a SD or Dimarzio if you're so inclined. I also agree about taking Harmony Central reviews with a grain of salt. They seem to be either glowing or complete disses.

I like all of the woods you're using there, but I have to also point out the beautiful poplar. Really nice grain and color. Great looking guitar, keep up the good work.

Like psw said, that wood might be ugly when you strip off the pink paint. But you say that practicing for a burst finish is one of your main goals, and honestly the first guitar or two you do will likely be less than great (although some people on here have done some immaculate first guitars--bastids!). So strip it and see what you've got. Even if the wood is ugly you can still do a burst to practice the technique. And if it looks bad, strip it again and do over. My first guitar has had four finishes already and I'm currently painting it Sonic Blue to make number five. When you've got burst finishes figured out, get a nice piece of wood or nice pre-cut body and make a nicer guitar. Good luck and have fun.

I like that finish too, real nice look. Not that it would have bothered me for your guitar to be green , but that is much prettier imo. Nice work.

Beautiful guitar blackdog. Really love the carve and the smooth finish. Nice work for sure.

With a straight edge laying on it's surface, there may be an 1/8" gap somewhere near the center. I will have to take a closer look to see--as some of you suggested--whether cutting it will give me a straighter neck section. A couple of things since my first post: -the board is narrow enough to go through the planer, so that's not an issue. -I want a single piece neck so the laminating is not an option (unless it turns out to be an emergency option). thanks for the responses and advice guys.

I have a nice piece of flame maple measuring about 42 in X 12 in X 1.5 in and am planning on making a neck and maybe a bookmatched top later. The problem is there is a slight bow in the wood, sagging somewhere near the middle. My dad suggested screwing the board to a known flat slab that was slightly longer than the maple and run it through the planer. After a couple of passes showing no improvement, he thought maybe if we stuck a thin shim under the bow in the middle, it would keep the planer from pushing down on the middle of the board and thus would give us a flat top to work with from there. Is this the best way to get a flat surface? What methods have you guys used if you've run into the same conundrum? Thanks and Merry Christmas to all.

It's been a long time since I bought my plan but it seems like I got it off Ebay. You could probably get templates on Ebay too, I've seen them on there before, and bought some tele templates myself a while back. I'm assuming you've already checked guitarbuildingtemplates.com as well. Maybe get the plans and make your own template. Check the mimf website to see if they have the plans.

That's what I've got in my LP. They're pretty nice performers imo (and many others' opinions). There are thousands of pups out there so it can be confusing. Dimarzio has a pickup selector on their website that might help. Check out what you're favorite players use and give them a try. They're fairly affordable for the most part, so if you get something that you end up not liking, change again. If money is really tight, look into GFS (guitarfetish.com) or Stewart McDonalds Golden Age, which many seem to like even if they are cheaper than boutique. Good luck.

Yeah, I saw a YouTube video of the Fender Custom Shop guy demonstrating the Andy Summers Tele and if I remember correctly, he said Andy told him the preamp was dead when he got the guitar. I've studied close-up pics of both the circuit used in the Summers and the one used in the Clapton Strat and they are very similar. So no one knows if the new Tele sounds like the original preamp, but I do know that the one Fender uses sounds really good. Like you said, it's not vital to the Police sound necessarily, but it sure is cool. But surely there are many boosts that would do a good job. I've been looking at several at DIYstompboxes.com and other places, trying to find a one knob (level) version to try in my Tele project. The cool thing about little boards like these is they cost next to nothing to make so you can afford to experiment until you get what you want.

Hey Chuck, good luck with your first build. You're right, it is an addiction. Keep posting progress reports.

Nice work bro. I'm really envious of the control cover. I can never get that right.

Wow, nice design and execution Peter. I really like the neck wood. Is this a wood that is better oiled than finished with lacquer, or will you spray it? I really need to make a neck from Wenge or Cocobolo someday (when I run out of maple). Keep up the good work and see you in the GOTM soon I hope.

Nice build indeed! I bet it's going to be a real shredder . Let us know how you like the Dimarzios. I'm putting together a guitar and ordered a Steve's Special for the bridge. Can't wait to give it a try since I've never used a Dimarzio before. Anyway, good work on your guitar.

A good place to start would be to ask yourself what specific player's tone you like and would like to try to emulate, or which part of their tone you like and would like to build from. Once you have that, you can get to work because you'll know what pickups they use and in what kind of guitar they use them. Also, what woods is your guitar made of? What kind of amp do you play through? There are many things to consider, but the good thing is, pickups are fairly inexpensive so you can try something and then move on. Sell the old ones on Ebay.

How much do you want to change it? I would lose the red stripes personally unless you also paint on a matching spider motif or the black widow bowtie. I don't know how you could do it but wouldn't it look cool if it were finished to mimic rusty metal like this one? I agree that the headstock has to change. Nice looking Waldo though .

I wouldn't say a Virginian is the only guy that might come up with that finish, but they're certainly on the short list . Where's the NASCAR guitar? Disclaimer: I am joking around with kpcrash and I am a Virginian too. I kid because I care .

I would be interested to see if this idea worked, or if anyone else has had any success with the boost circuit of the Summers tele. There are several options but I wonder if the Clapton boost would be close enough since they appear to be the same thing except for a part or two. Any ideas on reproducing a Summers tele would be great here, as I'm on the verge of starting one myself.

I think it would be easier to print off something pre-made rather than try to trace over something--for me at least. I found a website that has free fonts and the Banff-Normal seems to be the ticket pretty much. I'll try to print that off with my tweaking of the Fender name and see how it goes. I'll post a pic when I get something useful. Thanks for all the help guys. Hope it all helped someone else along the way. Fonts: GoldenWeb.it

Since you got it so cheap you can certainly afford to do some upgrades. I put a stainless block in mine and think it sounds much better than before. I'm going to put some stainless saddles on it too since mine are wearing and the screws won't stay tight anymore either. Go to Callaham Guitars and check out their Mexican Strat upgrades. And like others have said, changing the pickups should be very easy and fairly affordable too. Good luck to you.

Rick, I would send you a message about brewing but your inbox is full . Of course, I created the thread so it is it really hijacking when I go off on a different subject altogether?

Wow! What an excellent guitar. Nice work Ralph--and tell your kid the same for all the drawings . That neck wood is amazing. Looking forward to the final pics.

That's going to be a nice one Mr. Buttman. I love teles too...I've made a couple. But nothing as nice as this one will no doubt be. Keep up the good work and the good posts. As a side note--and not to take over your thread here--maybe you or someone else could fill me in on carbon fiber rods. I'm assuming they are used to add stiffness to the neck, but do they also make the trussrod less useful or harder to adjust? Just wondering.

Nice ones Mickguard. I bought the waterslide paper too, whereas Jehle used clear transparencies and spray adhesive in his tutorial. I actually overlooked that fact at first but it sunk in later . I figure if nothing else I can just use an original drawing and transfer it to the waterslide (somehow, haven't nailed down all the details yet) and use that. But I'm going to look into Photoshop too since you got such good results. I like the little ? where the copyright should be; very nice touch. Rick, thanks for the beer suggestions. I haven't tried those but I'll definitely look into them. I'm always looking for another good bottle. I used to brew my own but had to put aside one of my hobbies when the kid came along. So rather than losing guitars or golf, I figured I could get by with buying beer for a while. BTW, some of you guys who have your own technique for making decals should think about doing your own tutorial. I know I can't be the only one who would enjoy another way of doing something. And I think most of us want something on a headstock, be it a Fender bastardization or something completely original.