Just another Tele....concept to constipation.....

[-CB-]

Da concept

got changed sort of to this

It will retain the black tuners, an oversight when making the mockup image.

Da woods

Da fill - 1 of 5 fills... jeebs leweebs

Da color

Da headstock

Genitalmen,
After five coats of filler, scraped in, scraped down, sanded out... what a pain in the butt (heretowit, for ya information: da constipations)  However, its reasonably filled now, and I've listed the finishing of this body on my resume.  That is, the resume I'm sending to the US National Park Service, in case they ever need the Grand Canyon filled.  I'm now uniquely qualified...... a real pain in da ash this one was.  But... now I'm in the middle of tedious scraping of the binding, after the color was applied, and a thin shoot of nitro was given.  Its coming along ok, just slow, and damned hot outside and today - hence the break for pics.

Hopefully... I'll have it all scraped by sometime tomorrow, and a better coat of nitro shot on.

Enjoy...!~

 

[CD]

That looks really really cool man. Everything you used seems to fit together really well visually. I bet it will sound killer when its finished. :kewlpics:

 

[guitlouie]

Another bad-ass tele!  Do you ever sleep? Also, is this one for you?

 

[Nando Vallart]

Man! You're the guy!

 

[-CB-]

Whoever thinks that scraping binding is easy... I've got two hours into this, and its more or less done, but my eyes, and direct sunlight have gone from me.

Tomorrow, I'll give it a careful go over, touch up the inevitable oops's, and shoot it again.  Didn't oops too badly, just some fine fine overscrapes that'll hide with a rub in of raw sienna (same color).  Black binding with sienna/amber/yellow (whatever) on top of it is brutal.  But, its about done.  I found that wetting the binding in direct sunlight shows all, and you can do those little spots ya missed.

The gals at Gibson do a 335 type guitar in under 5 minutes.  I think they deserve much credit.  But also, that @@#$ recurve at the top neck joint area... takes a bit of time.  A 335 would only have taken me an hour and forty five minutes <gggg>

Cheers and thanks for the kind words too.

 

[-CB-]

And, yah this one's for me.  With any luck, the fat covered bastard will be in on Tues or Wed, and I can begin some electrical manipulation on things.

 

[jackthehack]

You'll love the Fat Bastard, still can't bear to take the Tele Thinline Special apart and complete the lacquer coats and final assembly, it's the only guitar in my legion I've played since I did the test build to see what the RG P90s sounded like.

 

[givememytoys]

damn thats as nice as they get great job

 

[vic108]

just another excellent work of art from Gear Guru CB!~

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RLW]

Sooner or later -CB- is going to convert all of us to the humbucker + P90 combo. The man is on a mission.

:icon_smile:

 

[-CB-]

Its a damned sweet combination.  A lot of flexible tones there, especially if the HB has a good scoop to it.  This guitar, though, will have a FAT covered bastard, and P90.  I can always change to a HB, but... been wanted to try a Fat Bastard, and wanting something a little different than the BFG-LP.

 

[Ted]

WOWZA. That is a sweet tele! :glasses9:

 

[JR]

The mans got me wanting to go with the HB + P90 combo. One of my guitars has that combo but the idea of it on a tele is just orgasmic... not literally, but seriously CB i love your work.

 

[thepriebster]

awesome looking guitar!
Kudos on the binding job, I couldn't imagine ever even trying something like that.
Did you put the Fender on the headstock?
If so, how did you adhere it?

 

[-CB-]

Warmoth did the binding, all I'm doing is carefully scraping off the amber color from it.... a slow go for me.  It'll be done today though.  Then its NITRO-TIME!~

The headstock decals.  Vic managed to dig em up.

What I did was finish the headstock (grain fill x2, lacquer, level, polish out).  Then I eased the waterslide decal on it... wet the headstock too please.  Blot dry.  Give it a few hours to dry out and firm up a bit, overnight even.  Then I carefully, VERY carefully put some clear shellac on the decal so it wouldn't wrinkle.  Shellac is alcohol based, so any remaining water is instantly seen, but also absorbed into the shellac - that is - it may cloud then clear up as it dries.  If the decal has sat overnight, you probably won't see that.  When the shellac was dry, and the headstock masked, I hit it with a real light dusting of nitro.  Then another.  Then another.  Then a little heavier.  Another heavier coat.. just getting it "wet" at that point.  Let it dry well, I mean REALLY well between coats.  After the last coat, carefully rub it out, using maybe some 600 paper when ya need to get the orange peel down.    I did Vics that way, and mine that way, and I think the shellac is a good insurance policy against - decal fubar.  Waterslide decals have a way of lifting, going crazed and wadding themselves up into a ball if you put lacquer directly on them.  Shellac seals lacquer from the decal, and shellac also has the property of sticking to things very well (even metal!).

 

[thepriebster]

Thanks for the detailed tips, I was thinking of putting one on my build.

 

[m4rk0]

That looks fantastic CB! any more pics?
that is a Goncalo neck right? I have a bit of a deja vu moment, so apologies if I have asked you this before..:
was that neck red like this before you finished it? I am seriously thinking about Goncalo for one of my next projects (it was actually my first choice for my first project, but at that time it couldn't be done for an angled headstock).
anyway, the ones I have seen were usually lighter with random dark streaks..

 

[m4rk0]

Also what color/brand filler and stain did you use?

 

[-CB-]

Yes, a goncalo alves neck, with goncalo alves fretboard.  The neck darker, heartwood, but with no streaking to mention, and has just a little flame.  The fretboard is lighter, seems to be taken from the periphery of heartwood where it meets pulpwood.  You can see it has ample streaking but is rather light.  I like the effect, although I wish the neck itself had more figure.

Filler - on the neck, I used StewMac black water based filler, two fill sessions, except three on the headstock front.  It was then dyed, back only, not the fretboard, with Tandy ProDye "Buckskin" color. 

On the body, I used - StewMac medium brown water based filler, which is fairly orangy, as Jack pointed out.  Sanded back.  Two thin coats of Zinsser Bullseye Amber shellac, each sanded back.  Two more finely scraped coats of water based filler (same color as before) and finally.. after sanding that, one last coat of Zinsser Bullseye Amber shellac.  When THAT was sanded back the ash was pretty smooth, and the grain had definite character, although the closed sections were still "in the white".  I sprayed on the Mohawk Amber Toner, two sessions to evaluate the finish density.  Then one quick shot of Deft gloss aerosol.  A quick touch up with Mohawk to even out the odd edge.  Another thin shot of Deft.  Whew.... let it dry.  Then scrape the binding.  Then sand the scraped binding.  Then hit it with a few more shots of Deft.  Sand.  Deft shots, sand.  I had two "sanding gouges" in the top, probably when I sanded with 220grit paper on the grain filler.  I sanded those out and reshot the Deft.  So they're all fixed.    All the Deft coats were pretty light as things go - just enough to get wet... and dry fast - from Friday to Sunday and we were ok.  One level of the top and sides and final shoot and @#$@#$@#$  I hit the top with the the edge of the can - on wet lacquer.  A fast respray and PRAY it melts in.  Most of it did.  But it means I have to let it shrink up a really good amount, then sand it back and hit it once more.  There's always something.... its not bad, not hard, just more time.

 

[-CB-]

UPDATE:  Barring calamity, the last clearcoat was applied this afternoon, and given some time to dry, several weeks, we'll be in the pink for completion.

Pics after it dries up some.....