Candy Apple Red Thinline Tele

[Hendrix]

very nice   :band: :cool01:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

That's a disheveled bench?

Remind me to always crop the hell out of my pics...

Generally speaking, the bench is about the only horizontal surface in the house that remains clear. It's my sanctuary.....  :tard:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Rainbow Guitars to the rescue, yet again. Here is the new claw on the left, with the other one on the right. No idea what uses the smaller one, nor how I ended up with it in my parts bin, but now I know which I need and that's something...

I'm kind of surprised nothing caught fire while I was trying to get the ground lead soldered to this thing. I could smell the rubber jaws of the vise burning. But all's well that ends well...

Got the Super Vee Blade Runner mounted as well. The question is, can it identify replicants?

The Blade Runner has some lateral play, I'll have to get the neck and pickguard on with a couple of strings and do some alignment work.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

The neck is mounted with a nod to the windfall that financed this guitar. Many thanks to our local metallurgical wizard DangerousR6!

With the neck on and the pickguard in place, I took a couple of donors from the spare string box (which is full of sets of strings missing the high E...) and worked the alignment of the bridge and pickguard. Got everything lined up very acceptably.

Marked and drilled the holes for the pickguard. Just about messed my pants the first time the bit dropped into a chamber...... Did the old countersink routine on all of the holes.

Attached the claw ground, fed through the output jack wires and sealed her on up. Man that's pretty....

I installed one of the Pure Tone jacks.

Generally I'm an Electro-Socket guy for Teles, but I decided to change it up on this one and go for the football plate. I must say that it was kind of a pain getting it positioned, marked and drilled, but the results are pretty darned classy if you ask me...

From there I strung her up and checked things out. She'll need a neck shim as I had to bottom out the saddles to get reasonable action. I still need to tend to the nut. The back plate still needs installed, but I'll put that off till I've got the setup situated and the trem dialed in. I wasn't about to let any of that stop me from plugging her in and hearing how she sounds. I am really, really, really excited with the results. She cooks......................

 

[Cagey]

Absolutely gorgeous! She's a real beauty! Great choices, first-rate execution. A GotM winner, for sure.

... I took a couple of donors from the spare string box (which is full of sets of strings missing the high E...)

It's funny how sometimes you think you've got an idiosyncrasy and it turns out to be a common thing. I have that same box here.

Marked and drilled the holes for the pickguard. Just about messed my pants the first time the bit dropped into a chamber...

Reminds me of the first time that happened to me. Your mind sorta goes "TILT! WTF! Dive! Dive! Dive!" thinking you've just entered a time and space you didn't want to be in. 37 milliseconds later you realize what happened, and you gotta metabolize about 50cc of adrenaline.

Generally I'm an Electro-Socket guy for Teles, but I decided to change it up on this one and go for the football plate. I must say that it was kind of a pain getting it positioned, marked and drilled, but the results are pretty darned classy if you ask me...

I agree. I'd love to be able to use Electrosockets, but after several different episodes with them, I'm afraid they're a non-starter anymore. The plates aren't quite as easy to deal with, but the end results look good and are ultimately more practical.

 

[Logrinn]

Absolutely gorgeous. Well done! Bravo!

Got the Super Vee Blade Runner mounted as well. The question is, can it identify replicants?

:toothy12:

The Blade Runner has some lateral play, I'll have to get the neck and pickguard on with a couple of strings and do some alignment work.

Very handy. That makes it so much easier getting the strings right along the edge of the neck.

 

[ghotiphry]

Oh, so this is the Bitcoin build!  Well done, man.  Fabulous.

 

[rgand]

Really, really, REALLY outstanding and Inspiring. ccasion14:

 

[Sovereign_13]

:icon_thumright: ccasion14:

Incredible build, man. 

Although you really ought to give us some kind of NSFW warning or something if you're going to post pictures that beautiful...

 

[stratamania]

Very good.  :icon_thumright:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thank you for all of the kind words! I can't wait to get her dialed in. Even as rough as the setup is I couldn't hardly tear myself away last night, I was having so much fun. It's got me thinking about selling other guitars, it's that good. Pretty cool to think it's going to get better still.....

I have to say, in stark contrast to the last one I installed, I'm a bit let down by the Pure Tone jack. It feels really solid when you insert the cable, but just the slightest tug and it pops right out. Very disappointing. I'll be tearing into the wiring again before too long and will probably replace it with a Switchcraft at that time.

The middle position (both pickups split) is hum-cancelling as intended (the system works!) and sounds really sweet, but I can't not hear both of them together in full. Once I get the setup squared away I'll get some audio of the current switching options then re-wire for both pickups full and record that too. Then I'll have to pick my favorite 5 out of those six tones... I'm leaving town next week, I'm hoping to have all of the setup stuff wrapped up by then and will probably look at pursuing that when I get back.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Initially I thought I would like these big, pretty Kluson strap buttons...

But in the end (pun intended...) they turned out to be big, obnoxious strap buttons. They are very long and just frankly bugged me. So, back to basics.

"Chrome-Hardware-Black-Fasteners" motif preserved.....

Important stuff here!

I cut the slots into the Black Tusq nut. It was a very tall nut to begin with so some of the slots are pretty deep relative to the string diameter.  Hopefully won't be an issue, but if it is then I guess it will be time to invest in shaping files.

Speaking of things at this end of the guitar, at this point I have opted to forego the string tree for now. I have a tree from Mastery sitting on the shelf if I need it, but we'll see...

I spent some time over the last couple of days getting the trem floating where I want it and I don't think it will change too much from here, so time to button up the trem cavity.

Defend the finish!

Ideally it would be nice to have the string holes line up with the opening in the cover, so I started there.

Before marking the holes with the awl, I wanted to see where they were located relative to the cavity. So I marked them with a silver sharpie. Glad I did too, as the two holes on the right were a good deal closer to the edge of the cavity than I'd have liked...

So I scooted everything over a bit. Better advertisement for Super Vee, but less functional for string access. Ah well....

That fixed the right holes, but the top left hole ended up borderline.

I re-calibrated my eyes and concluded that the cover was ever so slightly crooked with the left side being low, so I kept the right where it was and brought up the left about one hole diameter. Looks good...

I did not use the marker dots to start the holes, but used them to get the cover back into position and marked the holes that way. The pattern ended up like so:

Groovy.

 

[bagman67]

Neatly done.

 

[Cagey]

Looks good! I'm curious, though. Do you have something against straplocks, or are you secretly hoping you'll drop the thing and have a heart attack?

 

[BigSteve22]

I like the pearl trem cover against the candy apple, very nice. To keep the trem cover "straight", I used masking tape on both edges and drew a pencil line down the middle. Then I did the same on the body, using the neck mounting screw holes as a reference, so it was in-line with the center of the neck, and therefore the strings. Line up the marking on the cover with the making on the body, and you know that the plate is straight down the center. It was then just a matter of moving it forward or back to the desired position.

I set the trem cover on my strat so that the string hole in  the sustain block lines up with the opening when the strings were off, to facilitate changes. Turned out, I decided to deck the trem, so my careful lining up was really for naught, but it was sure enough straight!

I agree about the Kluson buttons, no love from here either. Have you tried Planet Waves Elliptical Pins? I like 'em, not as secure as strap locks, but not big kludgy things either.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Neatly done.

Thank you!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Looks good! I'm curious, though. Do you have something against straplocks, or are you secretly hoping you'll drop the thing and have a heart attack?

Straplocks, you mean Grolsch gaskets?  :icon_biggrin:

I keed, I keed! I don't have any particular aversion to them, just haven't ever used them. I did put larger buttons on my Paul when I installed the Bigsby B7 because the end plate of the Bigsby interfered with it...

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I like the pearl trem cover against the candy apple, very nice. To keep the trem cover "straight", I used masking tape on both edges and drew a pencil line down the middle. Then I did the same on the body, using the neck mounting screw holes as a reference, so it was in-line with the center of the neck, and therefore the strings. Line up the marking on the cover with the making on the body, and you know that the plate is straight down the center. It was then just a matter of moving it forward or back to the desired position.

I set the trem cover on my strat so that the string hole in  the sustain block lines up with the opening when the strings were off, to facilitate changes. Turned out, I decided to deck the trem, so my careful lining up was really for naught, but it was sure enough straight!

I agree about the Kluson buttons, no love from here either. Have you tried Planet Waves Elliptical Pins? I like 'em, not as secure as strap locks, but not big kludgy things either.

Your way is definitely less trial-and-error than mine, haha! I'll remember that for next time.

Those Planet Waves are kind of cool, duly noted...

 

[Cagey]

Dropping a guitar off it's strap is a nightmare waiting to happen, and almost certainly will at some point. I've seen it too many times, and have had it happen to me. I lucked out in that I didn't destroy my guitar, but I've seen some real honest-to-god tragedies. Even if you're not going batshit dancing and slinging the instrument around, the strap ends themselves will wear and get soft to where they'll just let go at the most inopportune moment, like when you're standing on concrete with your favorite guitar of all time without a particularly tight grip on it.

Anything is better than nothing, but I like Schaller's design...

The peg on the guitar will still function as a standard strap-hanger if it has to (although I wouldn't - it's smallish), the strap-mounted part hangs the guitar on the strap. The ball-end sticking out the end operates a spring-loaded post internally that pokes into the end of the peg, so it can't come off. It's also designed so the strap will just snap on by hanging into it - you don't need to operate the spring-loaded peg, so it's very easy to use. You can also buy pegs separately so you can equip more than one guitar and use the same strap for any or all of them. Plus, you get black fasteners on plated hardware, as you like. Highly recommended.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

It's a good warning, and well received. I had a close call with the Les Paul I mentioned, with the B7. Strap slipped right off of the rear button and it would have hit the hard floor had my left hand not already been around the neck and able to catch it. Maximum Pucker Factor......