Yay! Christmas Tele project!

[zebra]

Yay!

I got an Tele body from my girlfriend for Christmas!
It's a two-piece Alder body from Olivewood.

After years of lurking, this is going to be my first build.  Johnny Marr of the Smiths was the first guitarist I really got into, so I really want to take this in a "vintage-aesthetic with modern hardware" direction.

Neck will be Warmoth, and definitely raw - probably roasted Maple, Canary, Goncalo Alves, or Afra...or something along those lines.

Pickups will probably be vintage-style humbucking SCs, although I may go with something a little more modern, like Joe Bardens or Bill Lawrence. 

Everything else, who knows....the bridge is a big question mark as of yet.  There's no bridge routing at all on this thing, so I have a pretty clean slate to work with there. 

Woohooo!

 

[Cagey]

Girlfriends that give you guitar parts? Where do I sign?  :icon_biggrin:

 

[DangerousR6]

yip, I'd say she's a keeper...

 

[Strat Avenger]

That's an awesome Christmas gift.

 

[SlartiBartfast]

That's definitely a great gift. Congrats on the awesome girlfriend and the awesome project you have to look forward to now!

 

[AutoBat]

Girlfriends that give you guitar parts? Where do I sign?  :icon_biggrin:

http://youtu.be/TyD8By3458A

 

[zebra]

Ok, so things are coming together a little bit.  I've decided on the pickups, and went with Bill Lawrence L-45TL for the bridge and the L-45S for the neck.  The pickguard arrived in the mail today from Greasy Groove.  I went with the "Marble Yellow Pearloid," and the pictures at the website really don't do it justice - in person, it looks great!.

The next choices are a matter of hardware finish and fingerboard.  Having trouble deciding on how to finalize the look, so figured I'd ask for some suggestions.

Hardware:  Black, chrome, gold, or...gold with black accents - for example, gold control plate w/black knobs,  gold bridge with black saddles, etc.  (I considered solid brass hardware, but figured that would add too much weight for my liking.) 

Fingerboard:  Deciding on something lighter in color (roasted Maple) versus something darker in color (rosewood or pau ferro).

Thanks for any input you folks have to offer!

 

[Cagey]

I've never met a Bill Lawrence pickup I didn't love. Becky does a good job with what Bill designed.

Don't worry about the brass weight issue. Most hardware, unless it's really cheap junk, is already brass. So black, chrome, gold doesn't matter. It's all brass.

Fretboard wood is a tougher choice. Aesthetically, you want a contrasting material, so a light body calls for a dark fretboard, and vice-versa. Also, you don't want conflicting patterns, so a fancy body calls for a plain wood neck, and vice-versa.

 

[rgand]

+1 on what Cagey says about Bill Lawrence pickups.

There's an all black ebony in the stock Tele necks. It's pricey but that would look outstanding.
http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/ShowcaseNeck.aspx?Body=1&Shape=4&Path=Tele&nWood=5&i=TN7215#.VOa7hcm0g60

 

[zebra]

+1 on what Cagey says about Bill Lawrence pickups.

There's an all black ebony in the stock Tele necks. It's pricey but that would look outstanding.
http://www.warmoth.com/Showcase/ShowcaseNeck.aspx?Body=1&Shape=4&Path=Tele&nWood=5&i=TN7215#.VOa7hcm0g60

Wow, that neck is something!  Not sure if I'd necessarily want to go that route, but you got me thinking that a really dark neck might work well against the body.  Maybe it would be possible to apply a very dark dye or stain to a roasted Maple neck...

 

[Cagey]

There's an all black ebony in the stock Tele necks.

One of these days...

 

[Cagey]

Wow, that neck is something!  Not sure if I'd necessarily want to go that route, but you got me thinking that a really dark neck might work well against the body.  Maybe it would be possible to apply a very dark dye or stain to a roasted Maple neck...

Maple doesn't take stain well. It's a closed-cell wood that requires special treatment. Plus, you'd probably want to order it un-fretted so you could do the fretboard as well, which would add some serious cost to the thing.

 

[rgand]

Wow, that neck is something!  Not sure if I'd necessarily want to go that route, but you got me thinking that a really dark neck might work well against the body.  Maybe it would be possible to apply a very dark dye or stain to a roasted Maple neck...

Perhaps you could look into a rosewood or mahogany neck. They wouldn't sound as bright but might take stain better. Or there may be another, brighter sounding wood that would stain well. Any input on this, Cagey?

One of these days...

Same here.

 

[Cagey]

Typically, Rosewood is naturally dark. Mahogany, not so much. But, Mahogany can be a pain in the shorts to finish, and it needs finishing or it may get all twisty on you. It can be repaired, but it's not a trivial task so you would probably just replace it. That's no fun, especially if you've fallen in love with it, so...

 

[rgand]

So then, there's really no substitute for the ebony. Could you darken the lighter ebony to get that rich black or are the lighter streaks the harder grain?

 

[Cagey]

Actually, there are some cheaters out there who dye streaked Ebony to make it black, as that's considered more desirable (and sells for more). In fact, Bob Taylor (of Taylor guitars) has made it a special project to secure export rights to all Ebony in some countries so they'll stop wasting it. Apparently, in some places if they knock down a tree and find that it's not all black, they just let it rot. Terrible waste, as there's really not any difference in the quality of the wood, just its appearance. Stuff takes forever to grow, so there's really no "reforestation" possible. Once the stuff's gone, it's gone. Others are just learning to love streaked Ebony because it's not unattractive.

As for substitutes, there are some wood species that are as hard or harder, but they're not real popular for fretboards. Some exceptions might be Pau Ferro, Ironwood, Satine, Bocote and Ipe, but none of those are particularly dark if that's the direction you wanna go.

There's a wood hardness chart here (pdf) if you're curious.

 

[rgand]

Thanks, Cagey. Interesting about the streaked ebony. Some of the pieces have real character.

I had no idea ironwood is used. I have a piece of that and it's really dense and hard. It wouldn't surprise me if it wouldn't even float.

 

[Cagey]

If you want to see an absolutely stunning streaky Ebony neck on an outstanding guitar, check out Updown's Strat here.

 

[mark1178]

Beyonce was about to tell you to put a ring on it, but Kanye interrupted and said "You should put that ring on Beyonce"

 

[rgand]

That was a fine neck. Something like that would look really good on Zebra's guitar.