Not So Mellow Yellow Tele

Great Ape

Great Ape

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Sorry, no "build" pics, but I got rolling on this pretty quickly and just didn't take photos during the build...while checking out the El Dorado website in search of a nice strap, I discovered their tooled leather 'gator' pickguards and immediately jumped on one. It looks amazing, fit perfectly, but since it went onto the guitar it has buckled all over the place, to the extent that I'm thinking it's not going to
be kept on there--looks very sloppy. Humidity? Heat? Cold? Gator Gods Wrath? I don't know, but it's a bummer for sure! These pics were shot before-the-buckle.
Swamp ash chambered body
Modern vintage maple neck, vintage tint, Gotoh vintage-type tuners
Barden bridge
Duncan 'Antiquity" pickups
Q-Parts knobs






 
 
I wouldn't chose leather for this reason, but it does look cool.  It wouldn't eork on a strat but a top routed tele has very little wood missing. Gluing it down could work.  Maybe glueing it down to a metal s or thin ABS heet so it could be removed with the pickguard screws?
 
I would sans the leather on this one also, do more of your wonderful art on the face or just keep the border theme going.
Otherwise, take my money!!!
 
It's attached to a sheet of something else...not sure what, but it's not thick enough to prevent the buckling. Looks like it's gonna have to be ditched. Black or tortoise replacement in its future....
 
Crazy talk here. I wouldn't do it to this one but... if you just gotta have it...

you could try inlaying a standard thickness pickguard. (Actually hmm that sounds kinda cool in its own right. The thought of inlaying my bridge and pickguards has crossed my mind before, as if I didn't have enough crazy hair brained schemes floating around that will never get done)
 
You're work's always great, Ape (see what I did there?) but you've excelled yourself with that shadowed feather.
 
Nice, is the feather symbolic of the bird being eaten by the gator and the gator skin symbolic of it being eaten by the human... :dontknow:

And FYI, they do make some thin aluminum pick guard backing plates you could glue the gator skin to.. :laughing7:
 
And who might ''they'' be, pray tell? And, Doug, all that deep symbolism stuff ain't got nothin' to do with this: This is a damn yellow Telecaster with a feather burned on it, and an alligator pickguard! We
don' need no stinkin' symbolism!
 
Because I forgot to say it earlier, great work as always.

Looking at that picture again I'll take back what I said earlier about crazy talk. That alligator would look sweet inlaid flush with the top. Make it so!
 
Great Ape said:
And who might ''they'' be, pray tell?
Click to expand...

These guys do aluminum and brass 'guards for a variety of guitars. You could glue (3M's Super 77 is wicked good for that sort of thing) that gator hide to one of those, and it would be a relatively immobile thing. Might be a tad thick, though, so you might want to recess it about .090" or so.
 
Great Ape said:
And who might ''they'' be, pray tell? And, Doug, all that deep symbolism stuff ain't got nothin' to do with this: This is a damn yellow Telecaster with a feather burned on it, and an alligator pickguard! We
don' need no stinkin' symbolism!
Click to expand...
well it's a damn fine yellow telecaster.... :headbang:
 
Thanks for the replies...recessing the guard sounds as though it would work, but unfortunately I do not have a router, and do my 'woodworking', such as it is, at my drawing board...and thanks for the
pickguard source, Kevin.
 
Another option would be to get a thin .06" 1-layer Warmoth pickguard and laminate the material to that.  It shouldn't be much thicker than a standard pickguard.
 
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