Renamed to garner attention: Telemaster completed!!!!

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:48 pm

Or rather not been doing, but I just decided to take an evening and get it all over with...

So I don't come around here much anymore. Not that it isn't unfortunate that I can't devote more of my time to buying/staring at/playing guitars... But hell, it's not like I can be a guitar nerd with my family and friends, so...

Not even trying to find the old thread this time. Just know that at one point it didn't all quite look like this, and it probably won't look quite like this for too long either. I'd just as soon have sold the thing a few months ago, but now that it's in one piece, I'm becoming disappointingly, appalling affected towards it.

By the way, it's an impossible to photograph color. It's the same orange as this though, if you've seen any rolling around (rather than the muddy tones produced by my digital camera):

So anyway.

...Always amuses me when people talk about the "little" Jag or Stang... The Tele is about 3" shorter than either, but indeed much heavier than either, predictably.

In which a few swirl marks I missed are a bit revealed, bah, needs a bit more polish, yeah. Oh well

I'm just happy the thing reflects light.

...So all that's really left is cutting this thing here to fit a bit, and affixing the pickups by more permanent means (but none of you can see that from here, so)... Also, when I'm richer, de-ghettoing the headstock and tuners, also Fender logo.

Yeah. Paint is a bit less than perfect, but it was a learning experience, and I'm overall happy with it, so

Bits that bug me the most are where the bondo above the bridge Aug'd and shrunk on me at some point, also I could have done a better job on the back, but hell, it's the back, and it's where I did my experimenting.

Anyway, as for playing the thing... I have it strung up with the elevens, because that's what I have. Which generally works on the Jag and Stang, but is really shitty as hell on this guitar... I'll probably move down to tens first. Since 25.5" is so alien to me at the moment, I'm not even going to bother installing a string tree.

But well, what can I say, it gives me the smooth, plonky, vintage-ish Jazzmaster tone

The pickups are SD JM Hots, which are really ridiculously hot by the numbers in any case, but seem to be more loud than distorted, which is nice (I do still have to play with the height of things)... As for switching, I've only wired it for four combinations yet on the five-way, two of which are even redundant

But as soon as I figure out how much craziness I can stitch up there, I've also got a 3 way dpdt I want to shove between the knobs to play with, lol. (I'm thinking bright and dark switches, series and out of phase will be somehow implemented... Somehow. But hey, I have two working pickups as it is now, so.

Nut needs to be cut more than anything, and probably in need of a fret level to flatten things out above the 14th or so, but hell. It's orange, I made it myself, and it doesn't suck, so what more can I ask for. I'll try not to sell it.

bassintom · Post by **bassintom** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 7:58 pm

Good job...I'd hit it.

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:36 am

...Alright, actually it's still missing both a permanent means of affixing the pickups and a pickguard screw, but in the morn the hardware store shall rectify those issues...

Other than that, I sat down with the pickguard and a file for about an hour, and what do you know, it looks about exactly like you'd think it would, and sounds comparably (like a Jazzmaster that is uncomfortable, ugly, and weighs too much lol):

...Of course it won't really be done til the ghetto-ass lockers are off the thing (replaced by something preferably chrome and goldish), also needs a decal.

Will likely post vids and etc. tommorrow...

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:51 am

Wow.

That's amazing, the pick-guard looks perfect! How much did all this set you back?

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:55 am

WOULD LOOK AWESOME WITH WHITE TOP HAT

AND WHITE BELL KNOBZ

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 5:57 am

cobascis wrote:Wow.

That's amazing, the pick-guard looks perfect! How much did all this set you back?

Haha, most of the parts for this were free, near free, or shit I already had lying around...

The body was $5 (plus shipping) and covered in wallpaper and Elmer's glue, but was "genuine" MIM. The neck (Mighty Mite) was $80 and had a minor crack, which I fixed. The pickups (SDs, as I said) were about $50 altogether, other than that, the provenance of things gets sketchy...

The largest investment was the paint, lol.

All in all, I'd say around $250.

Haha, thanks for the compliments on the pickguard... I'd always heard how hard it was to deal with those things, but I basically freehanded it, then smoothed it out with a few degrees of sandpaper... The fit is near perfect, and I'm almost even impressed with myself.

YES.

But no bell knobs, lol.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:12 am

radness

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 4:28 pm

i wish the ole lady would have let me pick this thing up, but i bet you are glad you finished it up yourself cuz that is a sweat looking fucking guitar.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 4:36 pm

Nice work on the semi-finish, I'd have such a blast to playing that thing.

So how exactly is the break angle over the bridge? I'd imagine you'd nonetheless need to keep some fairly heavy strings on to keep them on the saddles and play its best.

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:18 pm

ultratwin wrote:Nice work on the semi-finish, I'd have such a blast to playing that thing.

So how exactly is the break angle over the bridge? I'd imagine you'd nonetheless need to keep some fairly heavy strings on to keep them on the saddles and play its best.

Thanks

Well as you can kind of notice, the tailpiece is actually scooted a bit forward from where it would be on a real JM, more like a CP... Though I didn't do it for reasons of increasing the break angle, I mostly did it because it looked goofy placed so far back... Strings don't have any trouble staying on the saddles or rattling.

So theoretically it has more break angle and string tension than a real JM, but in the end after having owned only 24" guitars since I sold everything else off a couple years back, the tension is still a bit high for me, so I opted out of even using a string tree...

I might string it up with 9s and find that I need one, though.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 7:16 pm

I wonder what a 51 pg would look like on it?

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 7:26 pm

L@@KS KOOL

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 7:36 pm

More Cowbell wrote:I wonder what a 51 pg would look like on it?

I liked the clipped control plate look of my old 51, but always hated the huggy arms on the pickguard... Not enough to sell it, but I did anyway. Of course I suppose once adapted to a Tele, the arms would be eliminated anyway...

If I had gone with any other guard, it probably would have been a Deluxe guard, as I could have been sloppier with the routes... But I think those only work to cover up hideous 70s colors, and if I had implemented that, the guitar wouldn't have been orange enough

deaner33 · Post by **deaner33** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:13 am

Very nice looking guitar. Looks like it needs chrome knobs to me.

Ty · Post by Ty » Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:18 am

Beautiful!

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:32 am

Holy shit, that looks great! I love that color, Nissan calls it Le Mans Sunset.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 1:46 am

I think it would look better with a '51 style guard or a tele jr. style guard.

Great work though, it looks really clean!

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:32 pm

Cool.

I liked it without the guard too, except that you could see the routes.

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:43 pm

Nice. Only aesthetic change I would do is change the switch tip and knobs to the more standard black top hat and chrome.

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 7:33 pm

Haha, thanks all

I eventually got off the idea of not wanting a pickguard... After looking at it without so much (even with the pointless MIM circle routes, etc.) I started thinking that was a bit of a cheap, plain look. It needed some contrast on the top. And I like the "hey wait, this is still a Tele"-ness of keeping a relatively normal Tele guard on the thing...

And I know, no one likes the Gibson knobs, but I think they're PERFECT on any Telecaster

I think Teles need to be gaudied up a bit, and the interplay of the gold knobs, control plate, and pearl guard just completes that... Then again I'm STILL not really fond of the Tele's shape, so I might just be overcompensating with the gold and anything that can distract from the design...

Maybe they'll make more sense after I get these installed (when I'm less broke)

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