Baritone Telecaster Project.

[Patriot54]

This really is a special project for me.

For one, I really do love playing this guitar, it feels and sounds great!
Adding the buckskin is helping me in my Native Craftwork Skills, & will help me to be patient as I continue to make my Pow-Wow regallia, using sinew & adding my own beadwork to it.

Just stitching the neck pickup cavity edges took 2 1/2 hours.

Nice work. It brings a new meaning to custom guitars.

What colors/patterns of beadwork do you have in mind? Also, do you have other skins to make the case and strap?

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

This really is a special project for me.

For one, I really do love playing this guitar, it feels and sounds great!
Adding the buckskin is helping me in my Native Craftwork Skills, & will help me to be patient as I continue to make my Pow-Wow regallia, using sinew & adding my own beadwork to it.

Just stitching the neck pickup cavity edges took 2 1/2 hours.

Nice work. It brings a new meaning to custom guitars.

What colors/patterns of beadwork do you have in mind? Also, do you have other skins to make the case and strap?

Since the inspiration guitar from the 98' Fender Custom Shop calendar is really just a display item, it's likely sitting in Fender's museum where it won't experience wear & tear.

Mine on the other hand, will be played, and will experience wear and tear over the years, so I won't be doing as extensive decorative beadwork.  I'm going to do a beaded rosette behind the bridge between it and the strap button, the end lacing of the back to the front will be decorative as well as structural.  Most of the additional eye candy will be on the beadwork on the strap.  I do all of my own beadwork and I'm probably another couple of months away from completing the beadwork on the strap.  I then need to purchase the strap, likely from Eyeland Enterprises, a 3" Plush model, in Gold to match the body, http://www.eyelandenterprises.com/html/straps3.html.
I considered http://www.lakotaleathers.com/products/guitar/ but I want my strap to be padded and theirs are single cut pieces.  I'd love to fund them, but I'm looking for specific features.  They are great straps, I have another luthier friend who has purchased several guitar, banjo, mandolin straps from them.


From there, I'm ordering a Tweed Bass Case as the guitar model is too short.  Rondo has some nice ones for relatively inexpensive prices.
http://www.rondomusic.com/bgc250tweedgold.html

I used 2 buckskins from deer that I harvested about 16 years ago.  I have plenty of smaller scrap sized pieces left over from those skins for other crafting projects, plus another complete buckskin that's been untouched for 18+ years.  It's not large enough to use for anything more than another body front or something, not long enough or thick enough for what I would want in a strap.

 

[swarfrat]

So if i wanted to buy your guitar, two bucks would cover it? :headbang1:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

So if i wanted to buy your guitar, two bucks would cover it? :headbang1:

lol :laughing11:

 

[Cagey]

So if i wanted to buy your guitar, two bucks would cover it? :headbang1:

...And then I get a text message from Tony. And do you know what he said? He said, 'I need about tree fiddy.' And so I realized it weren't Tony, it was that God-damned Loch Ness Monster again! Trying to trick me into givin' him tree fiddy!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

So if i wanted to buy your guitar, two bucks would cover it? :headbang1:

...And then I get a text message from Tony. And do you know what he said? He said, 'I need about tree fiddy.' And so I realized it weren't Tony, it was that God-damned Loch Ness Monster again! Trying to trick me into givin' him tree fiddy!

Crackah Pleeze!... :dontknow:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Another 4 hours of stitching done around the bridge area.

Without Flash

With Flash.

 

[Updown]

Sorry Tony  :toothy11:  I got NO idea  :dontknow:  how I have missed this thread  :doh:

That's very interesting what you are doing ..... Kudos  :icon_thumright:
Now that's Customising .....
Looks Great  :toothy10:

How will this affect the sound ?



Just don't do a Jimi on it 

 

[SustainerPlayer]

How will this affect the sound ?

More bang for the bucks one should think.




Sorry  :help:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

How will this affect the sound ?

Likely very, very little if at all.  No more than a guitar sounds resting up against your body.  This buckskin is very thin, and the Easy Tack adhesive goes on very lightly, not a continuous coat that wets the entire surface of the body.

 

[Pelagaard]

I'm sure when its done we'll be fawning all over it.

 

[Updown]

Are gotcha  :icon_thumright: ... I was thinking it was think and meaty like Leather  :toothy11:

Yeah I suppose you need 'Maple Pickup Rings' to really change the sound  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Just stumbled upon this Namm Video.

Perhaps another future build using a hollow L5S and some TV Jones pickups?

http://www.premierguitar.com/Video/20120714/1979/Summer_NAMM_12_TV_Jones_Spectra_Sonic_C_Melody_Baritone_Demo.aspx

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I spent another couple of hours stitching up the area where the control cavity is.

Without Flash.

With Flash.

What I thought might look cool was to have the perimeter of the stitched area butt up agains the sides of the control plate, as test fitted, however roughly here.

I think though, it looks cleanest, and overall complements the whole project by having the plate on top, and then understand that the stitching is there simply to keep the edges of the bucksin from fraying & getting frizzy.  Since I may once in a great while need to replace a switch or potentiometer from wear and tear, it would keep the structural integrity of the buckskin intact by not having to stretch it periodically to remove the control plate.

 

[Patriot54]

This whole project is impressive, but the chrome Strat switch adds an extra level of awesomeness.  :icon_thumright:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Bottom Side, Shielding used for visual effect.
This will cover the red body and only be seen between lacing the front hide to the back hide.

Facial shielding.
To aid in the small gap that will likely reveal itself between stitched edges of bucksin and body cavitiy routes.
This helps protect from electronic interferance, although the pickups I'm using are lower output and the electronics are well made.

Upper Horn Shielding
This is a little more than the other parts, but the possibility exists that more of the body may be exposed around the neck joint area, so better to be prepared.

End shot.
Another view looking towards where the neck will be.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Well, did some more work on the project.  I stitched around the neck pocket, but it will likely not be seen as the overhang of the fingerboard will cover it, so I didn't bother photographing it just yet.  I'll add that when I get to lacing up the front to back.

This is more of a traditional part culturally than guitar related, but is part of the project so I thought I'd share.

This is a rosette, beaded onto a wool backing, leather "thong" strung through and looped in the center, 4 brass beads, 2 beans (coffee, I think) and 4 dentalium shells. I just glued them up, so I placed it on a zip lock bag that my leather hole punch pliers came in just so I can take the pic & show you where it'll be sewn onto the face buckskin.  I may get to start that process this weekend, depending on how long it takes me to stitch the rosette onto the face buckskin.  That's going to be very tedious as I'm going to do my best to hide as much of the stitching as possible by stitching a whip stitch as much on the line as possible.  Probably poke my thumb repeatedly doing so.

 

[Great Ape]

Amazing, Tony...what an incredible idea & project...I can only
imagine how rewarding that is going to be for you. Far beyond impressive...an instrument can't
get more personal than that.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Thanks, I'm really enjoying the process.  The quiet time spent doing it is actually quite refreshing.  It helps me "unplug" for a bit.
I spend my entire day on the phone, then I come home & exercise, work on music, this & that. 
Working on this or doing my reading & stuff is really the only quiet time I have in my day.

It's nice to detach from the noise of life sometimes and just relax, and I very much enjoy appreciate the balance.

 

[Eric Banjitar]

First of all, I love watching this build.  What a unique guitar you will have.

My question: Are you going to sew the edges together with the hides wet, so they can stretch and tighten? Kinda like a drum head? Or...? 

Thanks, just courious.