Silver tele

[Danuda]

So far this is day one of my silver tele build.
I dry fit the parts just to get an idea of what it would look like all done.  Imagine this only with a silver checker pattern.

Here is a close up of the fret board.  I have always like ebony fret boards.

I saw a thread on grain filling the body of the guitar with joint compound.  I really don't like my current grain filler so I gave it a shot.

The joint compound is much easier to work with, sand and it also does not give off an odor so I could work on it in my living room.  I would have to say I like it better than my oil based filler and it works just as well.  It is hard to see in the picture since I did not tint the joint compound.  I am painting the whole thing anyway so I didn't bother.

Primer time.  I originally was going to do a spray booth in my basement.  I gave it a try, but even with venting and fans the fume smell was traveling upstairs.  Looks like the garage it is then.  Here is the body with 3 coats of primer.

I taped off the neck, primed and painted the headstock.  The back of the neck I am just going to seal and cover in lacquer.  The color looks darker in the picture, but the reflection from the metal flake is pretty close to what it looks like in person.

The back and sides of the guitar are going to be black and I have started to paint it.  I need to let it sit and dry because I was not being careful enough spraying the sides and I splashed the back with a couple of globs of paint.  Next time I will be more careful about where I am pointing the spray paint as I press the nozzle down.  Despite the couple of spots it seems to be coming along quite well.

 

[jay4321]

Ok I dig the tele and the color scheme, but the knob placement seems unnecessarily close given the space you had.

I take it you like the Strat placement with the volume all close like that. (Am I the only one constantly hitting those volume knobs?)

 

[jay4321]

going all chrome?

 

[Danuda]

Why thank you.  
Yeah, with the way I play I really like having the volume knob near my hands.  I like to be able to adjust it while I am picking and slowly roll on or roll off the volume.  I have accidentally hit it in the past so you are not alone.
I am mostly going chrome.  The knobs, bridge and pickups are chrome/nickel.  The tuners are chrome, but they have black posts and my 3 way switch has a black knob.  I think it will tie in nicely with the back and sides being black as well as the ebony fretboard.

 

[jay4321]

Yeah the silver looks good though.

I had trouble with chrome buckers AND chrome pickup rings on my LP though. Looked better with black rings/chrome covers, or chrome rings/black pickups, but not chrome on chrome. You may do better.

 

[lafromla1]

Looks great so far, but didn't you JUST receive the package yesterday?  How did you get so much done so fast?

 

[TroubledTreble]

Looks great so far, but didn't you JUST receive the package yesterday?  How did you get so much done so fast?

He obviously a time traveler.  :icon_tongue:

Looking Good!

 

[Danuda]

I took a half day off of work so I had been working on it for about 13 hours when I posted that stuff.  I let myself get carried away and I accidentally stayed up until 4 AM working on it.  I actually have to repaint the headstock because I was practicing wet sanding after I sealed it and I burned through on one of the corners.  The rest looked really good though so at least I know I am on track.

 

[Danuda]

Day two.
Well technically day three since it is almost 1 AM.
I did not get nearly as much done as I was hoping.  I had to repaint the neck of the guitar and also the back black part of the guitar.  I think I have the hang of wet sanding now though.  It took me a while to get the hang of it.  You have to be more careful along the edges than I expected.
I put about 6 coats of clear on the neck and let it dry overnight.  This is what it looks like after sanding with 600 wet and working to 1500 wet and then polishing.  I did it by hand because I don't have a pad for my drill.  Also, I have never done it before so I went with what I knew.  I think it looks nice.

I even put the tuning machines in.  They are not completely in though.  I need to by a smaller drill bit for the pilot hole.  I didn't have any in the right size.

Ohhh shiny.

I think I may regret going with the white nut, but we will see.

The body still has a way to go.  I have to wait a day between each color change because I have to mask off each color I use as I make the checker pattern.  I painted the entire front in one color.  I have a bunch of premade squares cut out of 1 1/2 inch masking tape that I am going to put down on this base.  Each of the 4 colors will be done one at a time.  I will pull up the corresponding square, paint and then after it dries cover it back up and move onto the next color.  It will take a while but I think it will look nice.
Here is the first color

 

[lafromla1]

Very nice  :icon_thumright:

 

[jay4321]

Has a nice industrial but clean look to it. It looks like a modern Tele for sure.

I'm going to suggest again at least taking a look at black pickup rings, you've got the black & chrome thing going on with the Planet Waves tuning pegs already. Although with the checkerboard plan maybe that will be enough (truth be told I think the silver body alone looks pretty good).

 

[Danuda]

Yeah, I am thinking about it.  The pickups I bought came with black pickup rings.  They are not metal like the ones I purchased, but I can put the two different sets on when I am done painting and see what works best.  I was really tempted just to go straight silver with the body, but I really want to try the checkerboard patter.  Unfortunately I have had a small disaster.  I have been using blue painters tape for the entire build, but I decided to switch to the green stuff from 3M.  I don't know if 24 hours was not long enough to wait before I masked over the first coat of paint, but it pulled up some of the paint. :icon_scratch:  I spent all of yesterday priming the squares I pulled off and sanding with a tiny little piece of sandpaper.  There were a couple of times I was thinking I just should have kept it solid silver.  :icon_tongue:

 

[Cagey]

I'd have kept it solid silver. That looked good. Checkerboard patterns are for clown shirts, golfer's pants or unassimilated foreigners. I don't care if somebody famous did it; famous people do profoundly stupid things all the time.

 

[Danuda]

I am starting to lean in your direction.  What I may do is paint the top the same silver as the headstock and then use one of the lighter silver colors to do a painted binding between the top and black on the sides and back.

 

[Jusatele]

the mock up look good in the check pattern as did the practice board
Cagey has his opinions, but checks do not look like clown suites.
I would go for it, it may be a pain, but it will be your original vision, and it is easily reversible, just sand it off.
Unlike some thing, paint is just paint.
I believe a bit of patience will get you what you really want
:rock-on:

 

[Cagey]

I am starting to lean in your direction.  What I may do is paint the top the same silver as the headstock and then use one of the lighter silver colors to do a painted binding between the top and black on the sides and back.

I think that would look much more refined and respectable. But, as Tele says, that's just my opinion. I don't mean to tell you what to do.

 

[Cagey]

Cagey has his opinions, but checks do not look like clown suites.

It would be interesting to see what your wardrobe looks like <grin>

 

[Danuda]

Since I have already started the checks I am going to finish them and see what I think.  I think I still do like the design, but it is a lot of work because of that stupid tape.  I think that is why I started to waffle on my design.  Switching back to the blue stuff should help.  If I don't try the checks I will always wonder if I should have done them.  Like Tele said.  I can always just sand it off.  I do like the black pickup rings though.  I think it will tie in the tuners better.  I may order some metal ones because I don't really like the feeling of plastic ones.

 

[mayfly]

Checkerboard would be awsome. 

 

[jalane]

I am starting to lean in your direction.  What I may do is paint the top the same silver as the headstock and then use one of the lighter silver colors to do a painted binding between the top and black on the sides and back.

Now that sounds like a cool idea.  :icon_thumright: 

Of course, if the checkerboard thing is really what you're into then that is what you should go with, but personally this new direction you are considering sounds cooler to me.  It's just that that silver looks so great on it's own, and with the matching headstock it will be really really sharp as is.  nice work