Vintage/Modern Telecaster build

[Chuckwood]

Hello everyone,

As explained in the "Just out of the box" section, I am starting a new Telecaster build. This is a "no expense spared" kind of project, the goal being to end up with my personal version of the perfect Telecaster. I will be posting updates as I progress on the build here.

Currently the body is in the hands of a professional shop being finished in nitro (Sherwood Green over 3 Tone Sunburst, no relic), which is the only thing I am not doing myself.

I had a bit of time this weekend so I started working on the neck. Here are two pics of the neck in the sun before doing any work on it (thanks to my friend Nico for taking those two):

The frets (SS6100) were good out of the box, but I felt like I could take them to the next level and spent quite a bit of time refining them. First I accentuated the bevel just a tiny bit. I then proceeded to shape the ends to remove all sharpness (it took quite some time, steel is hard). I also carefully rolled the edges of the fretboard a bit.

I then noticed a couple of slightly high spots, which I removed. I know some people (including Warmoth) like to wait until the instrument has had time to settle in before doing any leveling job and I am not going to argue about this as it seems perfectly reasonable, but I know some people do as I did as well, it is how I learnt and it has never been an issue for me so far.

I then proceeded to crown them and polish them (using 320 grit sandpaper first, then fret rubbers and finally some tissue paper with Autosol metal polishing compound). The result is amazing, I have never seen frets this smooth and shiny (I have done fretwork before, but was experimenting with the compound). Please excuse the poor quality pics, my proper camera was away. I promise to post more convincing shots soon enough, but here you go (first 7 frets on the left of the pic have received the full treatment, others are missing the compound phase):

Next came the back of the neck. I knew I wanted to burnish the neck (and I could never thank everyone here enough for this tip), but I debated with myself whether I should burnish the headstock or not for quite some time. I want to put a decal on there eventually, and like the "old school" way of leaving it unprotected (I know it is entirely suboptimal, but I simply love the look). I really like the headstock of Xotic guitars, and considered finishing mine in Tru-Oil and applying the decal on top just like them... but I love the burnished feel so much I just could not help myself and burnished the whole thing. We will see if the decal holds, if not well... burnished necks rule  :toothy12:

Here are a few picks of the burnished neck. I used the 3M polishing papers, 400, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000, 4000 and spent approximately 2h total. It really made the flames pop, it looked great before, now it is simply amazing. Again, those pictures were taken with an old phone and really don't do the shine any justice, it is glass smooth, better ones will follow

Last thing I did was install the tuners. I really like the way nickel ages, so I am going full nickel on this build. I also like vintage designs, but did not want to sacrifice any modern comfort or stability. I chose to install the Gotoh SD91 MG-T Nickel locking tuners to check all those boxes, and am really happy with the result! Here are a few pics (even if it is not in focus, I believe it is possible to also see the smooth fret end on the first fret):

I know this is a long post, but I did all of the work pretty much in one go. If a moderator reads this and thinks it is too lengthy and should be split in several posts please let me know, I will happily oblige.

Cheers,
Chuckwood.

 

[Rick]

That's beautiful.

 

[rgand]

Lookin' good! That's a nice neck. It'll go well with the Sherwood Green.

 

[Cagey]

Nice work! The burnishing/softening steps for the wood are time consuming and laborious, but well worth it.

 

[Chuckwood]

Thanks for the kind words! Yes indeed, the wood feels so nice now, I really am glad I put in the time and effort.

I actually find the burnishing process quite enjoyable as you can see the wood coming to life as you go. Maybe it's because this is only the second time I am doing it though

 

[Cagey]

Trust me, the novelty wears off, but the reward is so good you have to do it, so you do it anyway ccasion14:

 

[Chuckwood]

Ahah yeah I'll take your word for it!

 

[rauchman]

Excellent work!!!!  Really nice job!

 

[Chuckwood]

After weeks of waiting I finally got my body back with a flawless glossy nitro finish. The Sherwood Green metallic is a bit tricky to photograph, but it looks absolutely gorgeous in person. There is a sunburst hidden underneath, and I hope it will reveal itself after a couple of years of playing.

It was then time to assemble the complete project. Here are a couple of pictures of all the parts I used :

- Warmoth burnished modern tele neck (AAAAA Flamed roasted maple, rosewood fingerboard, 10-16’’ radius, 21 SS6100 frets, graphtech nut, standard thin profile, luminlay side dots)
- Warmoth extra light chambered roasted alder tele body finished in nitrocellulose Sherwood Green over Three Tone Sunburst
- Gotoh locking tuners
- Glendale nickel plated steel bridge
- Glendale titanium ferrules
- KTS compensated titanium saddles
- Emerson traditional 3 way wiring kit
- Bare Knuckle Flat 50’s tele pickups
- All parts nickel plated control plate, knobs and electrosocket
- Toneguard gold anodized pickguard
- Pure vintage Fender string tree
- Custom engraved (DOB) steel backplate repro from crazyparts
- Nickel plated pickguard & neck screws from crazyparts
- Custom « Fender Custom Shop style » decal for the back of the headstock from Rothko and Frost

I really wanted to use what I consider to be the « best » (most to my liking, no compromises) parts down to the most minute detail, for the perfect blend of looks (the all nickel hardware, nitro finish) and performance (the boutique pickups, titanium parts to eliminate all wear related risks for areas of contact with the strings etc).

The whole process took me a good 10h over 2 days (not including final setup and all the work I had previously done on the neck ie. fretwork and burnishing). I guess this is not really fast, but it was my first project and I wanted to get it right. It was a great learning experience and I am very proud of the end result.

 

[Chuckwood]

First thing I did was to copper shield all the cavities. It was a bit time consuming, but fairly easy and straight forward. I could probably have done a cleaner job, but the continuity is there.

The one thing that was quite hard and would prove really frustrating down the line was pulling a cable from the neck pickup cavity to the main control cavity (hidden beneath the tape to ensure continuity of shielding). I do not know if this was so hard because the routing was impossible on my specific body or because it is like this on all Warmoth tele bodies and you just have to deal with it and I sucked, but I became seriously frustrated after a while, especially since it was one area where I wasn’t expecting any trouble at all!

 

[Chuckwood]

Afterwards I put together the bridge. No difficulties to report here. I decided to go with the Glendale bridge plate after reading many nice things about them on the TDPRI forums.

They are on the expensive side, but the machining is incredible, and I really do like the nickel finish. Original Fenders were chrome plated, but I simply like the nickel more, much warmer looking imho. I went with KTS titanium saddles for the weight/durability ratio. The fact that they are compensated did not hurt either.

 

[Chuckwood]

Next, the ferrules. I opted for the Glendale titanium model. Again, maybe a bit overkill, but I liked the idea of durability/lightness for this part as well. I used the soldering iron trick to put them in, really easy, worked like a charm.

 

[Chuckwood]

I then assembled the control plate with the Emerson wiring kit. I was disappointed with the knobs I bought. While the Emerson solid shaft pots worked great, the knobs had faulty screws, and would not hold on to the shafts, turning forever and ending up being totally useless. Replacements are on the way.

This is when things started to become fairly complicated. The bridge pickup was easy to install, but as I said before pulling the cables from the neck pickup to the main control cavity proved very hard. The cables were simply too flimsy, and I threw in the towel after 2h of trying in vain. I then had the idea (probably fairly obvious for some people but hey…) to pull a more rigid cable to overcome the angle issue in the routing channel (still took me a few tries), and to then solder the end to my pickup cables to then pull them in. 4 cables (one connecting the shielding, one acting as a guide and the 2 pickup cables) means things got a little crowded in the small channel, but I managed to do it without damaging the cables.

I then soldered and tested the electronics, everything worked well first try.

Next I had to screw in the neck pickup in the cavity as I always liked the vintage tele pickguards where the neck pickup is not adjustable from the plate. I cut down some dollar store flip flops in the shape of the cavity to act as a spring replacement, some tip I had seen on YouTube. My first attempt was unsuccessful as I removed the sole part, which made a piece that was too soft and did not provide enough resistance. Second try worked well.

Screwing the pickup down was a bit hard though. I first thought I had it right, but then struggled to put the pickguard on, and had to redo it a couple of times before finding the right angle.

 

[Cagey]

The one thing that was quite hard and would prove really frustrating down the line was pulling a cable from the neck pickup cavity to the main control cavity (hidden beneath the tape to ensure continuity of shielding). I do not know if this was so hard because the routing was impossible on my specific body or because it is like this on all Warmoth tele bodies and you just have to deal with it and I sucked, but I became seriously frustrated after a while, especially since it was one area where I wasn’t expecting any trouble at all!

Sometimes, that can be frustrating. A properly mutilated coathanger can come in handy. But, even with that, a "chambered" body is almost always uncooperative. Too many nooks and crannies along the way, and the cable seems to have an insatiable curiosity about what's in all those little chambers...

And 10 hours over 2 days seems slow to you? I don't know... In any case, that's going to be a beautiful instrument!

 

[Chuckwood]

I then put on the neck. First try was not convincing, high E string was way too close to the edge of the board and overall the neck was not centered properly. Fortunately the second try worked perfectly. Overall the fit is great, no visible gaps, and it feels rock solid. By the way, I feel like the finish tightened the fit quite a bit, is this something that can happen or is my mind playing tricks on me ?

I then strung up the guitar and proceeded to adjust the pickup height. The neck pickup proved difficult again. It was by default very close to the strings and I could hear the effect of the magnetic pull of the pickups, so I started turning the screws to make it drop, but at some point the pickup went dead. I had to dismantle the entire thing to understand why. I am still not quite sure, but I think it could be something like the cables pressing too hard on the bottom of the cavity, causing some weird angle on the soldering joint, as a quarter of a turn back on the screws fixed the problem (and the pickup has been fine since then, silent, no glitch, sounds great). This process had me putting the pickguard on and off a couple of times (everytime I had to check the fit was still ok, as I had had troubles putting it on the first time) and doing so damaged one of the screw holes, which meant one of the screws did not bite into the wood anymore. I fixed this using toothpicks and wood glue, a trick I had seen somewhere. It worked fine.

I then applied my custom decal to the back of the headstock. I was concerned it would not hold onto the burnished wood, but it worked fine. This was a bit easier than I thought it was going to be actually. For those wondering : I like the look of uncovered decals, I know it looks a bit funny to some people and I risk damaging it pretty quickly, but that’s just personal preference. I might put on a Fender decal on the front of the headstock at some point in the future, because I really like them, but I am still not sure about it. I know this is a controversial subject, but I feel like this custom one would clear all doubts anyway and makes it obvious I am not trying to fool anybody, and to me teles look kind of "incomplete" without one.

Last thing I did was putting on a traditional string tree (despite my staggered tuning keys and all) as it just didn’t look right to me without one (I will post pics of the final headstock later, did not take some for the string tree at first, as it happened on a different day and did not have anything under my hands).

I then waited a couple of days to let it sit in, and spent a good bit of time setting it up afterwards.

This is an incredible instrument, it plays and sounds truly awesome, and I could not be happier. The process of putting it together was hard at times, but it was an incredible and overall very pleasant learning experience. Definitely not my last guitar assembly project. I think I’m going to go with an HSS strat next, so that the Tele does not feel too lonely!

I will post more pictures in the close future when I receive my replacement knobs, without the crowded kitchen table and in a nicer setting, but here is the 99% finished product (lacking string tree, knobs appear in the pic but would fall off in the playing position).

 

[Chuckwood]

The one thing that was quite hard and would prove really frustrating down the line was pulling a cable from the neck pickup cavity to the main control cavity (hidden beneath the tape to ensure continuity of shielding). I do not know if this was so hard because the routing was impossible on my specific body or because it is like this on all Warmoth tele bodies and you just have to deal with it and I sucked, but I became seriously frustrated after a while, especially since it was one area where I wasn’t expecting any trouble at all!

Sometimes, that can be frustrating. A properly mutilated coathanger can come in handy. But, even with that, a "chambered" body is almost always uncooperative. Too many nooks and crannies along the way, and the cable seems to have an insatiable curiosity about what's in all those little chambers...

And 10 hours over 2 days seems slow to you? I don't know... In any case, that's going to be a beautiful instrument!

Thanks for the coathanger tip, it does sound like a good idea indeed, I will use it if I order another chambered body.

Ah, I don't know if this is slow or not, this was my first project, I am sorry if this sounded bad it really wasn't my intention!

Overall the entire process took way longer if you add the work on the neck (I'd say approximately 10 additional hours), and the setup (which had me tweak some things about the neck pickup again, probably another 3 to 4 hours to be absolutely satisfied).

From ordering to completion, it took over 5 months total, maybe this is why it felt slow overall! (plus I spent an awful lot of time, several additional months, designing the project and settling on all the parts)

 

[bagman67]

You got yourself a gorgeous instrument there.  Thanks for sharing the tale of its progress.

 

[Chuckwood]

You got yourself a gorgeous instrument there.  Thanks for sharing the tale of its progress.

It is very nice indeed! Thanks for the kind words!

 

[rgand]

That looks great! Nice work, there. Looking forward to your final pics. Congrats.

 

[BigSteve22]

That's one pretty guitar! The Sherwood Green is a perfect match for the roasted maple. I'm liking the colors a lot! Like Rob said, "Looking forward to your final pics."  :icon_thumright: