First build: La Baronne (Baritone Telecaster) FINISHED!!!

[VostreRoy]

Sup folks. I've recently came with the idea to get myself a baritone guitar. But I also wanted to get a good old Telecaster, so instead of buying two different guitars, I've decided to build together a baritone Telecaster using different parts on the net, as I've got 0 skills in woodcraft or luthiery. I've got an hand on a cheap swamp-ash telecaster body (cost me 75$). It has some dents, but I believe that it'll do the job as it is my first guitar assembly. Also, if the project turns good, I'll just have to upgrade the body. I'll be using the Warmoth conversion neck (28 5/8" scale). Hardware will all be gold, while the body and headstock will be gloss black. Not sure if the pickguard will be black or brushed gold.

So here are the specs:

Body wood: Swamp Ash
Neck wood: Maple
Fingerboard wood: Ebony
Neck scale: 28 5/8"
Frets: GD6150 (Gold)
Tuners: Sperzel Locking
Pickups: Seymour Duncan STL-3(b) & STR-3
Bridge: Fender Vintage 3-saddles

Here is a little quick mockup made with the TCT Kisekae (http://www.yajimastringworks.com/tct/yswtct-kisekae-e.asp):

I'll be ordering the neck this friday, the bridge and pickups are on their way. Updates shall be done when I'll receive some parts.

Cheers!
- Y.V.Roy

 

[bagman67]

Welcome, Y.V.! 


Looks like a tasteful machine you're planning there.  Personally, I'd go with the black pickguard - solid black, not a B/W/B laminate.  If you're going to accent with gold hardware, I think the gold guard leans too close to overkill.  Stops being classy and starts being trashy.


Good luck -


Bagman

 

[VostreRoy]

Welcome, Y.V.! 


Looks like a tasteful machine you're planning there.  Personally, I'd go with the black pickguard - solid black, not a B/W/B laminate.  If you're going to accent with gold hardware, I think the gold guard leans too close to overkill.  Stops being classy and starts being trashy.


Good luck -


Bagman

Thanks for the welcoming! By the way, I'm french canadian, so do be surprised if my english seems broken sometimes lol

As for the pickguard, I totally agree with you. To be honest, I mostly copy/pasted this thing from another forum (sevenstring.org), as I wanted to have some inputs from people that used some Warmoth stuff. So, to get back to the pickguard, I've decided to go plain black because, as you said, it was beginning to be too much gold (i'll use some gold screw, so the pickguard is going to bling a little anyway)

Cheers!
- Y.V. Roy

 

[blackofe]

god, i love this one! i'm trying myself to build something like this - a totally black strat. and i'm also not so skilled in it. so this project tastes much for me.

 

[ABH Instruments]

Looks like a beauty! I kind of like that gold trim pick guard 

 

[VostreRoy]

god, i love this one! i'm trying myself to build something like this - a totally black strat. and i'm also not so skilled in it. so this project tastes much for me.

Cheers mate, I've seen your build, looking damn nice too

Looks like a beauty! I kind of like that gold trim pick guard 

I've searched on the net for a gold trim pickguard... no luck finding one so I'll go all black

 

[blackofe]

Cheers mate, I've seen your build, looking damn nice too

yeah. i just can't wait for my totally black neck and the stuff.. ccasion14:

 

[VostreRoy]

yeah. i just can't wait for my totally black neck and the stuff.. ccasion14:

Same here, my neck has been ordered on Friday, the waiting time is unbearable ahaha
On a side note, I hope that they have some flexibility for order screw-ups... just realised that I've ordered 2 sets of pickups  :doh:
Sent an email to sales@warmoth.com. Hope that it'll help, its 125$ that I could keep... (Note to self: Triple check an online order)

 

[blackofe]

Same here, my neck has been ordered on Friday, the waiting time is unbearable ahaha

haha! i've made the order almost 2 months ago, and i'm still waiting. lol! but it's ok - i understand, that building of a good neck (and any other good thing) may not hurry. i'm spending my time, learning page's stairway to heaven solo .

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

The wait is definitely worth it.
I'm absolutely loving my baritone tele.  It's inspiring some playing and writing I didn't know I had in me, so it's accomplishing its intended purpose beautifully.

 

[VostreRoy]

Huge updates tomorrow. Had received my stuff from Stewmac yesterday, and has arrived to my appartment with a UPS sticker on the window. UPS = Warmoth. I'm pretty damn excited!

 

[VostreRoy]

Hello again Warmoth people. Been a while since I updated my stuff, so I think its time to to give you guys a little update. Reason why I haven,t done it before? Well, in all honesty, I was pretty much ashame of my screw up and I didn't wanted to talk about it here before I got it fixed  :toothy11:

So, I've received everything that I need to build this thing. So I was ready to put the tuner bushing, everything was cool until I was done putting the 6th and last one. I cracked the headstock. I was more destroyed myself than the neck was actually. Ripped off the broken part, glued it back and used clamps during the dry process. Here what it looked like after the glue:

So, I could live with that. It was visible, but solid enough to be playable. At most, I could just mask it with the pinstripes I bought for the pickguard (as pictured below). Decided to continue and install the tuners. I should had checked more information. I should had pre-drilled the screw holes (didn't knew it was the process to do...). I should had seen this thread before: WARNING : Careful with screws supplied with Gotoh Vintage Style tuners !!!. Too little too late, I broke not only 1, but 2 screws in the process. At that point, I decided to stop and give the neck to a profesionnal. Here is the faulty screw.

Had to wait over 1 month for the local luthier (who is doing an awesome work) to come back to town. Two weeks ago, I gave him the neck. He removed the bushing and the broken screws, filled the holes of the screws, sanded the neck, repainted it, re-coated it and he installed my tuners (wich I was pleased, damn tuners...) for 40$. A pretty good deal if you ask me lol. Anyway, during the waiting time, I pinstriped the pickguard with burnt gold pinstripes, so it would look almost exactly like my mockup. Here is the process.

Before

The pinstripes (those are doubled, but each stripes can be pulled alone, I used the smaller one)

After the job done (also note that I changed the neck pickup cover to a gold one, came with a chrome cover)

Then, yesterday, finally, my neck came back. Took some quick pictures then bolted the neck to the body and strung it with D'Addario Baritone light set (13-62), replaced the 62 with a 70 and tuned it GDGCFA. Since those neck have the truss rod access at the neck pocket, I'll have to wait until the neck is straightened before I can put on the pickguard. So here she is, pictures are a couple of hours old. I can finally see the end of this project. Expect more updates this week.

Cheers!

- Y.V.Roy

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Nice build.

Don't fret the learning curve.  We've all been there.  Now it's the one mistake you'll never repeat.

How does she twang now that ya got her home?

 

[VostreRoy]

Nice build.

Don't fret the learning curve.  We've all been there.  Now it's the one mistake you'll never repeat.

How does she twang now that ya got her home?

Thanks for the love!

Yeah, learning the hard way is a pain in the ass sometime, but its the best way to learn... as you said, I won't repeat those mistakes lol

As for now, the neck is still too bended to play it (strings hits the 24th frets). Once it'll be straight, I'll raise the saddles a little more. I'll be able to do the first test tonight.

Cheers!

 

[Mor Paul]

Yeah, those pesky tuner screws... make sure to predrill and to wax!
And for the bushing, just clear out the hole and make sure that the bushing can go in with finger pressure.

 

[VostreRoy]

And for the bushing, just clear out the hole and make sure that the bushing can go in with finger pressure.

Well thanks, I'll keep that in mind the next time I'll order a Warmoth kit (wich I'll probably do this year... as I know myself lol). I felt that something was wrong when I had to hammer them in... Assume it was normal... as I said, beginner mistakes, eh

Anyway, the neck is now straight, gotta clear coat the pickguard tonight so I'll be able to install it tomorrow. Finally figured out the wiring trouble (inverted the outputs wires...  :toothy10: ). Couldn't try it much yesterday though, one of my friend shown up after I picked the 5th note or so lol. Will give her more attention tonight, she deserve somes.

Cheers!

 

[VostreRoy]

Hey Warmoth forum, realised that I never updated this thread in a long time lol

I wanted to wait until 100% completion, but since I'm only missing my golden string ferule, I'll show it as it is now. Wired it with Seymour Duncan Quarter-Pound set I bought, didn't really liked the bridge so I recently switched it for a Dimarzio Super Distortion for tele. Totally brought this guitar from country music land to old school metal, wich I wanted.

Here is a shot right after I've put everything together

Here she is in the canadian winter with her brand new bridge pickup

Cheers!

 

[swarfrat]

Everbody loves Tele's

 

[tylereot]

That's elegant as hell.

I wonder if you could get a cool gold/black pickguard effect by cutting the pickguard out of clear acrylic, painting the back side metalic gold, and the top black.
Then cut, bevel and polish the edge so you get the gold reflected through the clear.

 

[VostreRoy]

That's elegant as hell.

I wonder if you could get a cool gold/black pickguard effect by cutting the pickguard out of clear acrylic, painting the back side metalic gold, and the top black.
Then cut, bevel and polish the edge so you get the gold reflected through the clear.

I guess that it could make a cool finish but I got no tools to do so ahaha