New Tele Day

[madbean]

I've had the parts for this for well over a year and started to put it together a couple of weeks ago. Both the body and neck are from BYOC members. The neck is a Warmoth conversion, so it's a Gibson scale...fat neck profile, too. It originally had a painted headstock which I sanded down and finished with Tung Oil. Body was also done in Tung. I will probably add two more coats to the pine back at some point.

The hardware and pickups are from GFS. The pickups are really hot and I'm not completely sold on them yet. I'm pretty used to weak single coils. I I used a sweet 22n PIO cap for the tone control and man is it smooth!

Overall, it's not a typical sounding tele. It's quite deep and resonant. I'll have to spend more time with it to figure out if I want to take it in a different direction or not. I LOVE the look, though---exactly what I was going for.

To do: all the setup (bridge radius, intonation, neck adjustment) stuff and I still need to put the strap buttons on. Right now it has a traditional cup on the jack, but I will be swapping that for an electrosocket type.

Total cost came in under $300 so you can't beat that!

[night-B]

Good work sir! It's a beautifull tele, these are my favorite guitars. Haven't heard these PUs before. For that price this a fantastic result 

[midwayfair]

mmmmmm, plank o wood. Droool.

Nice with the removal of the neck pickup cover, too. Retro!

[pryde]

Very nice indeed. I just love teles. Throw some vintage output PU's on there and get that thing a twangin' 

[gtr2]

Cool!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has unfinished guitar builds...

Josh

[mgwhit]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has unfinished guitar builds...

Inspired by recent threads here, I pulled out the La Cabronita body that's been "curing" (read: languishing) in my closet since last year and started wet sanding.  Sanded through the finish within minutes of starting the 600 grit.  It's just a few spots on the edges, and my wife thinks I should just leave it, but it's the kind of thing that makes me want to put it back in my closet for another 10 months.

Nice tele, Bean!

[slimtriggers]

How do you like the shorter scale length?  Coming from my Strat to a Gibson scale length guitar always takes me a while to adjust.  Just feels weird at first.

[madbean]

I love it. It feels really natural to me. I've never owned a Gibson or anything like it so it's hard to make a real comparison. Someday I will build an SG, though. Maybe an LP Studio.

[G.G.]

how do you like the bridge? I was considering putting compensated saddles on my Tele & was wondering if it made any real difference in tuning.

Great looking guitar, the Gibson scale is a cool idea.

[asatbluesboy]

Probably the most standard non-standard Tele I've ever seen! lol

Congrats!

[madbean]

how do you like the bridge? I was considering putting compensated saddles on my Tele & was wondering if it made any real difference in tuning.

Great looking guitar, the Gibson scale is a cool idea.

I'll let you know after I finish the set-up. Tonight I finally glued the nut in. I had to have the brass saddles (a must for Teles IMO) and I got the compensated ones since it was nearly the same price. These do not have the additional rotation feature as the more expensive ones out there so not as much tweakability for intonation. But, I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to that. One thing I do insist on is getting the proper radius on saddles. Unfortunately, I lost my radius gauge so I don't know what the neck radius is! It's compound for sure, though.

The Gibson scale is probably ideal for my smallish hands. Even though a couple of fingers on my left hand are longer than the right 

[slimtriggers]

I think 10-16" is the standard Warmoth compound radius, if that helps.

[asatbluesboy]

Ever tried the Jag/Mustang scale? You can stretch your fingers to get really cool chord voicings.

[madbean]

Got the electrosocket in. This one is almost completed!

Never even played a Jag. I should really go to a music store sometime and try one out.

[nzCdog]

Dang that looks nice!  Good times!