Another Te(i)lecaster?

[Tretgeraet]

Dearest Warmothians,
The main reason for me for building guitars from or with Warmoth parts was, that I wanted something that wasn't readily available on the market.

Now, building the Teilecaster was so much fun that I wanted to build another guitar, more for the purpose of building a guitar, than needing one, but I also didn't wanna spend too much money.

So, I was already fanboying about my favorite german parts supplier Rockinger in this dear forum, and since I was recently infected with the Telecaster virus, I chose to order one of their Tele® Style kits.

Is it cheating? Is it betrayal? I don't know.

But I thought it might be interesting to offer some comparison.

The kit contains:
- Body made of american red alder, "vintage shaping", unfinished
- One-Piece-Maple Neck, 7.25" radius, unfinished
- Preslotted TUSQ Nut (not installed)
- Heel-adjustable truss rod
- 21 frets (2,1mm x 1,1mm)
- Nickel plated KLUSON Deluxe Vintage Tuners (Double Line Stamp)
- Vintage Bridge with Brass saddles
- Complete hardware incl. mounting screws
- Black pickguard
- Rockinger Telly Rhythm and Telly Lead Pickups
- All electronic components incl. US 3-Way-Switch and Orange Drop Capacitor
- 1 set of Rockinger Strings

For an upcharge I ordered the neck with rosewood fingerboard. Also I changed the black pickguard to a mint green one at no extra charge.



This is where we get to the biggest difference between Warmoth and these Rockinger kits: While Warmoth is all about options, Rockinger doesn't have a lot of options to choose from.

For example: You can choose between one-piece maple neck or maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and you can also order them finished for a relatively small upcharge, but either way you are stuck with vintage "spaghetti" frets and 7.25" radius.

And regarding prices:
Warmoths prices for bodys and necks alone are lower, even if you don't stick to the cheapest options.
However, Rockinger offers free shipping within Germany for purchases over 100€ and also, when I order from the USA I have to pay taxes (VAT) and customs when it arrives here.

As for the quality, so far I am pleased with the kit, although there is a bit more to be done, than I am used to:
The neck comes without mounting holes and the nut needs to be installed, but both worked well. One appreciates thought, that Warmoth offers mounting holes as standard option.

The only thing that bothered me so far is the routing of the bridge pickup: I don't know if it is because of the bridge, or if it is true to vintage correctness or just a mistake, but the bridge pickup routing could have been a millimeter closer the the bridge mounting holes. Now it's a bit of a press fit which I'm sure it shouldn't be. Also something I appreciated with Warmoth.



I ordered a dairy blonde finish and an aged vintage yellow neck finish from Wudtone and they are currently in transit. Can't wait to put some finish on this thing.

 

[supertruper1988]

Its a bummer the bridge doesnt fit well. However, I will mention that there are about a million variations on the Tele bridge so that specific bridge might not be good fit and if you are looking to upgrade it, then you might find that a different manufacturer might fit better for that route.

 

[Spud]

Dearest Warmothians,
The main reason for me for building guitars from or with Warmoth parts was, that I wanted something that wasn't readily available on the market.

Now, building the Teilecaster was so much fun that I wanted to build another guitar, more for the purpose of building a guitar, than needing one, but I also didn't wanna spend too much money.

So, I was already fanboying about my favorite german parts supplier Rockinger in this dear forum, and since I was recently infected with the Telecaster virus, I chose to order one of their Tele® Style kits.

Is it cheating? Is it betrayal? I don't know.

But I thought it might be interesting to offer some comparison.

The kit contains:
- Body made of american red alder, "vintage shaping", unfinished
- One-Piece-Maple Neck, 7.25" radius, unfinished
- Preslotted TUSQ Nut (not installed)
- Heel-adjustable truss rod
- 21 frets (2,1mm x 1,1mm)
- Nickel plated KLUSON Deluxe Vintage Tuners (Double Line Stamp)
- Vintage Bridge with Brass saddles
- Complete hardware incl. mounting screws
- Black pickguard
- Rockinger Telly Rhythm and Telly Lead Pickups
- All electronic components incl. US 3-Way-Switch and Orange Drop Capacitor
- 1 set of Rockinger Strings

For an upcharge I ordered the neck with rosewood fingerboard. Also I changed the black pickguard to a mint green one at no extra charge.

View attachment 66170

This is where we get to the biggest difference between Warmoth and these Rockinger kits: While Warmoth is all about options, Rockinger doesn't have a lot of options to choose from.

For example: You can choose between one-piece maple neck or maple neck with rosewood fingerboard and you can also order them finished for a relatively small upcharge, but either way you are stuck with vintage "spaghetti" frets and 7.25" radius.

And regarding prices:
Warmoths prices for bodys and necks alone are lower, even if you don't stick to the cheapest options.
However, Rockinger offers free shipping within Germany for purchases over 100€ and also, when I order from the USA I have to pay taxes (VAT) and customs when it arrives here.

As for the quality, so far I am pleased with the kit, although there is a bit more to be done, than I am used to:
The neck comes without mounting holes and the nut needs to be installed, but both worked well. One appreciates thought, that Warmoth offers mounting holes as standard option.

The only thing that bothered me so far is the routing of the bridge pickup: I don't know if it is because of the bridge, or if it is true to vintage correctness or just a mistake, but the bridge pickup routing could have been a millimeter close the the bridge mounting holes. Now it's a bit of a press fit which I'm sure it shouldn't be. Also something I appreciated with Warmoth.

View attachment 66171

I ordered a dairy blonde finish and an aged vintage yellow neck finish from Wudtone and they are currently in transit. Can't wait to put some finish on this thing.

You are a naughty one!

 

[Hodgo]

Teles are great both to play and to build - 39 to 43 screws later and you have a great guitar.

I can’t wait to see the Wudtone finishes go on.

I believe those are also the German, Goldo-owned, Gotoh made Kluson tuners? I’m jealous.

 

[supertruper1988]

Teles are great both to play and to build - 39 to 43 screws later and you have a great guitar.

I can’t wait to see the Wudtone finishes go on.

I believe those are also the German, Goldo-owned, Gotoh made Kluson tuners? I’m jealous.

You can get the Gotohs in the states they just dont say Kluson on them

 

[supertruper1988]

the only difference is the line count and branding if I recall correctly.

 

[Tretgeraet]

I can’t wait to see the Wudtone finishes go on.

Me neither!

I believe those are also the German, Goldo-owned, Gotoh made Kluson tuners? I’m jealous.

Yes, they are. Why are you jealous, what's the deal with them?

I know Göldo has the rights to the Kluson brandname in Europe, but that's about all I know.

 

[Tretgeraet]

Progress has been made.

Here's a before and after of the headstock:

As you can see, the aged vintage yellow neck finish darkens the wood quite a bit.

With the neck finish kit you get two bottles, a neck colour coat of which I put 4 coats on and a colourless neck top coat, of which I used 3 coats plus a couple more just for the headstock, because...

... I put a golden silk-screen logo on it, made by the wonderful people of GuitarDecadence.com, which I highly recommend!

Instead of Fender I used my infant sons middle name, the blurred out word before caster being his first name, which would be too much information for the internet. Let's just assume it's a Babycaster in this thread.

"Richtig dufter Typ" means something like "really nice/cool guy". I know tellys usually don't have these small decals, but they were part of it and I don't like to waste things.

Here are some shots of the body before the clear coats:


With the dairy blonde finish kit I got 6 little bottles! Two bottles of colour base, two bottles of white base, an empty bottle to mix those two und a bottle of Top Coat Extra Gloss.

I ended up mixing white and colour 2:1 and using up almost all the white. It is possible to get more opacity in less coats, but I read that very late.

It is recommended to wait a week after the last clear coat before putting it all together, which means by thursday I can start to screw it together.

All in all I like Wudtone and I think it's worth the money, I think it's absolutely possible to make (almost) professional looking finishes with their kits, but maybe not the first time!

I didn't take the grain filler, I didn't expect is to look perfect and/or new and I'm generally satisfied with the results. But maybe I would've done some things different.

I will use Wudtone again.

 

[Spud]

Very niiiice!

 

[Tretgeraet]

Alright, here she is, sitting next to the Teilecaster.

And yes, I bought one of those ashtray covers just for shits and giggles. It makes the guitar unplayable but I always wanted to have one of those.


She's pretty light, 3.28kg or roughly 7 ¼ lbs, partly because the wudtone finishes barely add any weight.



While I really enjoy playing her, I'm also kinda relieved:
I kinda came to terms with being a Telecaster fan now, but spaghetti frets, 7 ¼" fretboard radius, uncontoured, sharp edged body and a normal wound bridge pickup... this all together is almost a little too much Telecaster for me, so there's still hope for me!







This final picture shows the color of the body best, it was again tricky to get it right on camera:


EDIT:
Btw.: I expected the new guitar to sound a little warmer/darker, you know, rosewood fretboard, alder body... the somewhat warm and buttery appearance... But I was wrong!

It seems like the difference between the fatback profile of the roasted maple neck and the thinner, more normal profile of the rosewood neck is absolutely dominating all possible tonal differences.

Which is an excellent realisation, when the next guitar you're building is made of poplar!

 

[ragamuffin]

Classy build!

 

[rockandroller]

Looking great, awesome depth of color while still leaving the grain visible!

 

[Spud]

Thy are both very nice! HOWEVER, I beg you to install a cream or black pickguard on the blue one. The one on there gives me a headache. Hurry please!!! I am having trouble sleeping.

 

[TBurst Std]

If no visible route for neck pup wiring routing, I vote no Pickguard.

Or a std pearloid.

 

[Tretgeraet]

If no visible route for neck pup wiring routing, I vote no Pickguard.

That's probably what I would have done with a custom build! But it started as a showcase body with that universal neck pickup rout.

And I actually really like the blue shell, looks much better in real life.