I keep saying "limousine" when I mean "tuxedo": idiot.benecol wrote:Not usually a fan of black teles as a rule, but the huge white pickguard gives it a nice limousine look, as will the white-button Klusons.
Baritone telecaster thinline. (completed pics on page two)
Moderated By: mods
fuck i go away for a week and this happens. nice project Benecol and looking forward to seeing the results. the fact it smells like an air rifle has got my mind racing. Lots of combinations of some of my favourite things in this project that is making me very jealous
plopswagon wrote:I like teles and strats because they're made out of guitar.
robroe wrote:I dont need a capo. I have the other chords in my tonefingers
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taylornutt
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- Posts: 4908
- Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:04 pm
- Location: Dallas, TX
I put those saddles on my Baja Tele....great investment for sure. Can't wait to see this finished.Fran wrote:+1. Saddles a great, i'm gonna get me some brass saddles for an Esquire.Sublimedo wrote:I like those Wilkinson bridges alot.
J Mascis Jazzmaster | AVRI Jaguar | Tuxedo-stang |Fender Toronado GT |
Squier FSR Sparkle Jaguar | Squier CV Mustang |1971 Fender Bronco| Baja Telecaster |
Squier FSR Sparkle Jaguar | Squier CV Mustang |1971 Fender Bronco| Baja Telecaster |
So, no pics as yet (my wife's having her hair done, and I'd look like a right knob taking photos of a guitar, you know how it is...), but a few war stories...
I decided against letting the neck cure for a week, since I wanted to give it a final rub with steel wool to smooth it over before any uneven spots dried too hard. Rubbed it down, then buffed it with some old denim, as recommended. So far, so good; was concerned that the Tru Oil would have made the neck too hard to drill, though.
So, the first step was to fit the nut; was nervous of this bit, but it went ok. Had to file it down a bit to get it to fit, but it tapped in (with a bit of wooden trainset) fine. I ordered a 42mm tele one, as per Allparts' spec, but it's a bit too narrow - will switch this out when I next change the strings.
Next up, the tuners. Luckily, I'd watched these fucking amazingly useful videos the night before: I can't recommend them highly enough...
I copied his every step, except I couldn't find a reamer: I wish I had, since I almost drilled out the holes for the bushings too big (protip: Allparts also spec that standard Kluson tuners should fit fine - I needed to drill a fair bit and still use brute force too). I also drilled the screw holes on the back of the headstock a little too small first time round (I was nervous of making them too big and fucking it up) but better too small than too big. What I started doing, that was dead useful, was I drilled test holes in a block of wood and tried the screws in them before I drilled the guitar.
Tuners and string tree fitted, the sensible move (it was 11pm, I'd had a big curry and a beer and was bit wobbly) would have been to stop until the following day. But obviously, I didn't do that. Instead, I bunged the neck into the pocket and wowed at how cool it looked. Now the sensible move at this point would have been to have fixed the neck in place using a clamp before drilling. Terrifyingly, I didn't do this, but the neck joint is snug as a bug. What I did do was to fit some cotton from low E saddle > low E tuner > high E tuner > high E saddle: this showed me that the neck was on straight, and I could start with the highest stakes part of the whole build...
Let's not beat about the bush, I was bricking it about drilling and fitting the neck; I'd gone to all this effort, somehow not fucked it up, but now had to drill four big, perfectly aligned holes... With the drill set backwards (deliberately, mind) I made a tiny pilot dent in each hole through the body with the neck held in place: I considered drilling through the body's neck holes to guarantee a straight, aligned screwhole, but since the body's screwholes already had their own thread I didn't want to risk smoothing those off. So I removed the neck, marked the drill with masking tape so as not to go too deep (did this throughout, thanks to those two videos up there) took a deep breath, held my arm at roughly a right angle and drilled the four holes.
Dear reader, I couldn't have done them any better. Screwed it onto the body, and it's snug as a bug.
I was relieved that the baritone strings fit through the ferrules and the bridge holes fine, and I didn't need to ream out the holes in the tuners, either (special mention has to go to the tuners: they're great - take the extra tension and gauge just fine). Tuned it up to A at first, but wanted to put some tension on the neck tostart with, so dragged it up to B instead (this is also easier to transpose down to, and remember what string is which,since after the low B, it's pretty much just like a guitar - E A D F# B). There was some rattling and sitar sounds, so raised the action, and dragged the saddles right back to intonate it; baritones always seem to intonate much better than regular scale guitars to me - this one's close enough for a tele. It sounds divine, and it plays pretty well considering it was languishing in bits this time yesterday afternoon...
SNAG LIST: the nut is a bit on the high side, a bit narrow, and the strings don't sit low enough it. Rather than tweak it particularly, I'm just going to order a new nut, strings and some files come payday and sort it then. It's rattling a bit on certain frets, but it's a long old thing (although it doesn't feel anywhere near as long as Dano baritones I've had) with heavy strings under a fair amount of tension, so I plan to give it some time to settle in before I start messing with shims or any of that jive turkey.
Looks nice with a white strap, too.
I decided against letting the neck cure for a week, since I wanted to give it a final rub with steel wool to smooth it over before any uneven spots dried too hard. Rubbed it down, then buffed it with some old denim, as recommended. So far, so good; was concerned that the Tru Oil would have made the neck too hard to drill, though.
So, the first step was to fit the nut; was nervous of this bit, but it went ok. Had to file it down a bit to get it to fit, but it tapped in (with a bit of wooden trainset) fine. I ordered a 42mm tele one, as per Allparts' spec, but it's a bit too narrow - will switch this out when I next change the strings.
Next up, the tuners. Luckily, I'd watched these fucking amazingly useful videos the night before: I can't recommend them highly enough...
► Show Spoiler
Tuners and string tree fitted, the sensible move (it was 11pm, I'd had a big curry and a beer and was bit wobbly) would have been to stop until the following day. But obviously, I didn't do that. Instead, I bunged the neck into the pocket and wowed at how cool it looked. Now the sensible move at this point would have been to have fixed the neck in place using a clamp before drilling. Terrifyingly, I didn't do this, but the neck joint is snug as a bug. What I did do was to fit some cotton from low E saddle > low E tuner > high E tuner > high E saddle: this showed me that the neck was on straight, and I could start with the highest stakes part of the whole build...
Let's not beat about the bush, I was bricking it about drilling and fitting the neck; I'd gone to all this effort, somehow not fucked it up, but now had to drill four big, perfectly aligned holes... With the drill set backwards (deliberately, mind) I made a tiny pilot dent in each hole through the body with the neck held in place: I considered drilling through the body's neck holes to guarantee a straight, aligned screwhole, but since the body's screwholes already had their own thread I didn't want to risk smoothing those off. So I removed the neck, marked the drill with masking tape so as not to go too deep (did this throughout, thanks to those two videos up there) took a deep breath, held my arm at roughly a right angle and drilled the four holes.
Dear reader, I couldn't have done them any better. Screwed it onto the body, and it's snug as a bug.
I was relieved that the baritone strings fit through the ferrules and the bridge holes fine, and I didn't need to ream out the holes in the tuners, either (special mention has to go to the tuners: they're great - take the extra tension and gauge just fine). Tuned it up to A at first, but wanted to put some tension on the neck tostart with, so dragged it up to B instead (this is also easier to transpose down to, and remember what string is which,since after the low B, it's pretty much just like a guitar - E A D F# B). There was some rattling and sitar sounds, so raised the action, and dragged the saddles right back to intonate it; baritones always seem to intonate much better than regular scale guitars to me - this one's close enough for a tele. It sounds divine, and it plays pretty well considering it was languishing in bits this time yesterday afternoon...
SNAG LIST: the nut is a bit on the high side, a bit narrow, and the strings don't sit low enough it. Rather than tweak it particularly, I'm just going to order a new nut, strings and some files come payday and sort it then. It's rattling a bit on certain frets, but it's a long old thing (although it doesn't feel anywhere near as long as Dano baritones I've had) with heavy strings under a fair amount of tension, so I plan to give it some time to settle in before I start messing with shims or any of that jive turkey.
Looks nice with a white strap, too.
nice write up and I've watched those videos to recently and feel sure i can manage the task after watching them. I look forward to pics as well. I like the top tip of the supper of champions to settle the nerves though 
plopswagon wrote:I like teles and strats because they're made out of guitar.
robroe wrote:I dont need a capo. I have the other chords in my tonefingers
Pics...
(more inside spoiler below)
Played it for a couple of hours last night, and it's a beaut: the bridge pickup can get really clangy (into Albinotoanz territory, even), mixed position is really percussive sounding, and neck is (as with all baritones) where the magic lives; sounds great dirty (had hilarious japes with the muff and Tone Machine), clean (lots of looping fun with the M13 yesterday afternoon) and in-between (baritones make me sit and make up spaghetti western soundtracks).
Not 100% sure if the pickups will stay in there that long: it's piano-ey neck pickup sounds I like most on baritones, and I'm not sure if this one can quite manage that, and the bridge is a little too trebly-tele even for my tastes. It's got decent full-sized pots, but they're 1meg jobs - I wonder if dropping this value down would sort things out. Ordered a new nut and some files last night, but it's holding tuning perfectly with the (admittedly, high) one that's on there at the moment.
(more inside spoiler below)
Played it for a couple of hours last night, and it's a beaut: the bridge pickup can get really clangy (into Albinotoanz territory, even), mixed position is really percussive sounding, and neck is (as with all baritones) where the magic lives; sounds great dirty (had hilarious japes with the muff and Tone Machine), clean (lots of looping fun with the M13 yesterday afternoon) and in-between (baritones make me sit and make up spaghetti western soundtracks).
Not 100% sure if the pickups will stay in there that long: it's piano-ey neck pickup sounds I like most on baritones, and I'm not sure if this one can quite manage that, and the bridge is a little too trebly-tele even for my tastes. It's got decent full-sized pots, but they're 1meg jobs - I wonder if dropping this value down would sort things out. Ordered a new nut and some files last night, but it's holding tuning perfectly with the (admittedly, high) one that's on there at the moment.
► Show Spoiler
