Chuckwood
Newbie
- Messages
- 24
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.
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.