I bought a raw telecaster body a while back and just got around to working on it. Here is some pics of it to start.



I sanded, stained with honey and ebony stain



Doing the clear coat tonight.

Neck came today, here it is mocked up

Excellent project! I never got involved with electronics (or is an electric guitar only electrical components?).

There is a company -lost the link- charging GOBS, literally, of money making Telecasters look like they've been beaten and abused across the world's stages for five decades ...

Here's an old rock'n'roller looking for a Tele. Not much cash, plays MD VA NC SC ... Looks are not important. It's all about sound.

You can put active components in and make them electronic but most are electric only. Basses are commonly active to boost the output.

She's done!

That's a very cool project! How did you find the tolerances during assembly? Were they pretty tight or did it require a lot of hand fitting? I'm also curious as to how you would rate how it sounds and plays compared to a comparable commercially produced guitar.

Quick question. The first string appears to be wound in the opposite direction from the rest. Could the angle it makes as it comes off the end cause undue stress?

Tolerances were luckily very tight, I had to do a lot of hand fitting.

I don't have a traditional tele besides this one but I would argue with a good setup (I am mediocre at best) it would sound as good as the $1500 G&L behind it.

My wife is the string winder and yes, she did the first one backwards, it's been a while since we did strings.

We fixed the string, it was driving her nuts too.

What goes into ending up with a good-sounding Telecaster copy?

Is there a parts kit you particularly recommend?

This one was cobbled together with the basis being the body I bought a year or so ago. I would say that body and neck are important, pickups, then tuners and bridge. You can build from Chinese parts to good results or spend big on parts made here. Bodies should not matter much but woods do. The Chinese may or may not have the routings correct so you may have to compromise. I think my body was $25. The same one made here is in the $300 range. Necks are similar. A good Chinese neck should work just fine but you may need to level frets or settle for a higher string height to eliminate buzzing.

I've been sniffing around the extensive Telecaster forums. And read of basswood and ultra-light bodies.

What is the preferred wood for an electric body? How about pickups?

It depends on what you want to do. Alder, swamp ash, pine are common on teles. I purchased a poplar and a mahogany body today just to cover the whole spectrum.

For pickups you can go from 9 dollar Chinese ceramic to 150 dollar boutique. There are several lower priced custom builders too. I have used rose and cavalier.

while searching the youtube to try and figure out what the knobs and dials do on guitars,
I found a few fellas that dumpster dive at the music equipment stores.

One guy found a perfectly food neck and head w/o the keys/tuners, another one found a hand full of pick guards, another guy found some cords, a soft case and strap in the original plastic

That's one way to build them cheap! I am $500 into this one. The sad thing is, without a name in the game, this would probably get $300 tops.

Nice!

I've got a friend that works for Gibson; he's agreed to teach me how to build guitars. Ultimately, I'd like to do an acoustic/electric hybrid, but I'm settling for a Les Paul style for my "first." I've had little interest in playing or learning guitar outside of having been a fan of rock and metal and such for decades, but damned if it isn't a cool enough woodworking project that I'm interested.

Nice looking guitar.

Warmoth parts?

There's a guy online who sells mostly Fender stuff he took apart to part out. Bought a buddy a Fender bass a couple years ago as a Christmas gift.

I've thought about building something myself, either a Strat or Tele but after looking at the price of used gear, it didn't make sense for me to do it. You can find used American Standard Strats and Teles for $700 these days.

I'm still second guessing myself for not pulling the trigger on the George Harrison rosewood Tele that came out back in August. At $2,500, my wife would've killed me but I believe they only made 1,000 of them (for now).

That turned out nice. ^

Franken-Fenders are fun, too. Friends and I have pieced together a few that way. My buddy got me started several years ago, when he pieced together an awesome Tele with Fralin pickups and all Fender parts otherwise for just over $600. Lots of deals if you're patient.

Fenders are like the VW Bug of the guitar world. Cheap, user serviceable, super common...

Bill, finished product looks great. I love the block inlays and darker woods.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:
There's a guy online who sells mostly Fender stuff he took apart to part out. Bought a buddy a Fender bass a couple years ago as a Christmas gift.

The Stratosphere guy? I nearly bought a stripped-down Les Paul Goldtop from him a few years back. I had, and still have, literally all the parts in a bag to make it work and several sets of pickups. I may yet do something like that soon. I want a Goldtop.

These were mostly guitar fetish parts, with the exception of gotoh tuners and cavalier pickups.

Bill, you've had me thinking about this project for over 3 months now. I gave in and ordered up a very inexpensive bass kit so I could give it a try without losing the will to live if I mess it up.

I really like the stained look but I've also seen some pretty nice lacquered paint jobs as well. I'll have some time to decide about that but I have a few questions if you don't mind.

Were the honey and ebony stains you used on yours Home Depot type general woodworking stains or did you buy some of the specialized stains which are apparently marketed for use on stringed instruments? Also, how did you apply the stain?