First Build—Space Cowboy (Musiclander with Tele pups)

kat

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Howdy!

First build and first post! Figured I would document things here. Motivation is (1) being a southpaw I have limited options, and more importantly, (2) I enjoy: putting things together, fine tuning, and tinkering, and (3) learning experience!

I ordered the neck and body a couple weeks ago (so looking at end of May) I am having Warmoth do the routing, most of the neck work, and the finishing of both, to keep things relatively simple for my first go. Here is a summary so far:

Body: Musiclander, alder. Neck and bridge tele pup routes. controls for volume, tone, and blade. Turquoise flake, because sparkly.

Neck: Maple/maple, vintage-modern construction. Moon glow nightswan markers. Stainless steel 6105 frets. 9.5 radius, modern-medium nut width. Gloss finish.

Pickups: Lollar, ‘52 neck, alnico 3 bridge

Bridge: hipshot telecaster with compensated saddle

Tuners: Most likely going with locking hipshot (staggered)

Wiring: push-pull volume with off/on for treble bleed, push-pull tone to switch cap values (.015 µF and .047 µF). 5-way super switch with out-of-phase and series.

As for the name, “Space Cowboy”, feels right, at least for now!
 
Nice! I really like the Musiclander body. Very lightweight and comfortable. I've built two. You might experiment with where to place the rear strap button. I've got mine on the horn, but I kind of wish I'd put it dead center to pull the body closer to me when I'm standing.
 
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Professor Bill, it looks comfortable and lightweight, glad to hear that it is! And thanks for the tip about the strap button! I will have to come up with a way to test out different locations.
 
Got the knobs!
They are from THG knobs. Dyed maple burl with luminlay dots. I think they will be a good fit aesthetically.

My thinking was they touch on other elements…black hardware, turquoise body (more or less), maple neck, and moon glow inlay. Also, they are just really pretty.
IMG_8250.jpeg
 
Holy Schnikies! Those are huge are you sure they will go on a guitar? I mean they are bigger than a human hand!!
 
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Finished all the wiring I wish to do beforehand, and it all seems to be working as intended! All components obtained now as well! (need to resize photos to share). For the bridge and saddles I ended up going with Glendale.

Also, after having fun with the multimeter:

Volume pot: ~246k
Tone pot: ~248k

lollar ‘52 tele neck: 7.06
lollar alnico 3 tele bridge: 7.66

Theres some additional tools I may get, but I should have everything to get it assembled!
 
HOWEVER…I don’t know if I am going to stick with the puretone output jack…It takes a fair amount of force to pull a cable out of the thing, and still unsure how I feel about that! Both reassuring and annoying.
 
Finished all the wiring I wish to do beforehand, and it all seems to be working as intended! All components obtained now as well! (need to resize photos to share). For the bridge and saddles I ended up going with Glendale.

Also, after having fun with the multimeter:

Volume pot: ~246k
Tone pot: ~248k

lollar ‘52 tele neck: 7.06
lollar alnico 3 tele bridge: 7.66

Theres some additional tools I may get, but I should have everything to get it assembled!
what size cap?
 
HOWEVER…I don’t know if I am going to stick with the puretone output jack…It takes a fair amount of force to pull a cable out of the thing, and still unsure how I feel about that! Both reassuring and annoying.
I have one, but can't really hear any difference. YMMV
 
They’re meant to cover the entire pot, yeah? 😂

But yes, I have, and they’re perfect.
 
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