Tele/Strat hybrid project - Not Warmoth.

SIr Shredsalot

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I hope this is ok, I'm planning a project but it's not a warmoth. I've been without any cash for ages but now I have a little, although not enough to build a Warmoth (gutted). If it's alright I would like to share this experience with you. So the plan is build a tele with UK sourced parts for around £200 without it being awfull! Something like this:
but
cheaptelesmallnet.jpg


I've manged to source an alder tele body for £41 and a maple strat neck for £48. I know the neck poket is slightly different on a tele to a strat but if I understand correctly the overhang of the 22nd fret should hide the small gaps pretty well. Am I right in thinking that the scale length is still ok, that it's not an issue?
I want to stain the body a colour similar to walnut and then use some tru oil on it. Any recommendations? It's painted at the moment so I'll need to remove the paint somehow. Also, I was planning on staining the headstock to match the body. How difficult will it be to match the colours considering two different woods will be stained. How deep would the stain go? I only want the stain the face of the headstock, I don't want to see it on the sides.
I'm also going to shape the heel of the body to aid with higher fret access, I'm nicking the idea from a Squire showmaster I bought cheap a few years ago. I've got a hacksaw and sand paper, there's not much wood to remove so I hope it'll be ok!!! That sounds so bad!
Ideally I wouldn't have a pickup route at the neck but it's there so I had an idea but I'm keeping that a secret for now. I know, I 'm a tease!
 
Assuming your neck and body are constructed to proper Fender specs, you should have no fit or intonation issues. Yes, the Strat heel will leave gaps in the neck pocket, but an overhang (or a properly cut pickguard) will hide it.

As far as shaping the heel, I'd recommend using a fairly large rasp to remove the bulk of the material, then a sanding block to smooth things out. I've done that with a friend before.
 
The body and neck arrived today, not up to Warmoth standards but for the price I paid I can't complain too much!

Body-and-neck.jpg


The body is seriously light, somwhere around 3lbs, is that right? The necks alright, I've seen worse. The fret end are a bit rough though, something to add to the to do list!
 
Looks like you got a bit of work to do there... :glasses9:

Should have a nice Charvel-esque vibe going on when finished, what's the pick up arrangement going to be...?
 
DangerousR6 said:
Looks like you got a bit of work to do there... :glasses9:

Should have a nice Charvel-esque vibe going on when finished, what's the pick up arrangement going to be...?

Definately quite a bit of work to do but I'm looking forward to it. I'm putting a humbucker called a Claymore in it at the bridge wired to a push pull pot to operate the coil tap. I'm not putting a pickup in the neck route, I've got other plans for that.
 
I'm FINALLY getting the chance to strip the body today. I'm using something called Home Strip which is an eco friendly stripper, no nasty fumes. The first application left for 30 mins did next to nothing  :dontknow:. I'm also using plastic scrapers (I'm sure I read somewhere I should use plastic ones). I'm off to B&Q to buy some sandpaper for later on (or maybe sooner if this stuff won't work!), I'll post some pics later.
 
Sir Shredsalot said:
I'm FINALLY getting the chance to strip the body today. I'm using something called Home Strip which is an eco friendly stripper, no nasty fumes. The first application left for 30 mins did next to nothing  :dontknow:. I'm also using plastic scrapers (I'm sure I read somewhere I should use plastic ones). I'm off to B&Q to buy some sandpaper for later on (or maybe sooner if this stuff won't work!), I'll post some pics later.

Yeah, there's a reason that normal stripper has nasty chemicals! I do applaud avoiding them though. Good luck!
 
Well I've given the body 4 coats of stripper, one of them left over night. This Home Strip stuff does work but it's painfully slow, although it doesn't seem to work on the sanding sealer. I dug out a sander I got as part of a set of tools I bought years ago after hand sanding for a while before coming to the conclusion that I'd be there forever! After about 5 hours of sanding I'm getting there but the sanding sealer seems to be made of the hardest material known to man! Any tips?

No-paint-3.jpg


http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dylanwad/No-paint-1.jpg

I was a bit worried about what I'd find under the paint but it's not bad. I did find this though.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dylanwad/No-paint-2.jpg
 
I've just come inside after being sanding again for 5 hours, the neighbours must hate me by now! I'm almost done, there's a little bit of sealer left on the horn to get rid of and I need to sand out the newspaper print that seeped into the wood when I was using the stripper. I tried using my dremmel to do the horns but the sanding drums I had for it was brutal, gouged the wood a bit, so I resortred to sandpaper around a pencil. Hopefully over the next week I can sort out the neck pocket to fit the neck and work out where exactly to put the bridge. Fun and games!
 
I had a chance to get rid of the extra wood in the neck pocket yesterday. It was only about 1 1/2 mm from the top side of the pocket and I had to do it with stanley knife (it was that or sandpaper, all I had), it worked fine. I need to work on cutting in a straight line! I used a metal ruler but somehow still managed to be a bit off! O well.
The neck now fits in the socket and I've drawn where I need to drill the screw holes to screw them together.
 
I had a chance to take a few pics.

Here's the neck and body together.

front.jpg


The heel marked for shaping.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dylanwad/back-pencil-2.jpg

Dodgy job on the neck pocket! :blush

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dylanwad/front-gap.jpg

Even after getting the neck to fit there's still a little over hang.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w223/Dylanwad/Back-pencil.jpg

Hopefully I can drill the holes and shape the heel during the week, and I can also give sanding one last go to finish off the last off the sealer.
 
Hey dude.

I got one from here : http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Papa-Ds-Music-Store_neck-back-plates_W0QQ_fsubZ541638014QQ_sidZ63831824QQ_trksidZp4634Q2ec0Q2em322

Hope that helps you out.
 
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