DIY Telecaster

**Cunamara** · 07-11-2015, 08:49 PM

A couple weeks ago I bought a Tele body and Vintage Vibe CC pickup from forum member Skip. The body had to be finished and I discovered the joys (and relatively foolproof-ness) of hand-rubbed boiled linseed oil with a wax final coat. I used a Warmoth neck (compound 10-16" radius, maple and rosewood) that I had put on my first Tele, a Squier Affinity. I got it together Thursday in time for rehearsal with my band. Yesterday and today I spent a bunch of hours getting to know the guitar, tweaking amp settings, etc. The end result is that I am delighted- I was unsure about the CC pickup at first but it sounds and feels great. A little noisy, as single coil pickups are wont to be. For some reason it really likes fingerstyle playing.

Here's the pics:

The front:

DIY Telecaster-img_0402-jpg

The back:

Front view:

DIY Telecaster-img_0399-jpg

Back view:

DIY Telecaster-img_0401-jpg

Thanks, Skip, for the great raw materials!

**Archtop Guy** · 07-11-2015, 09:02 PM

Nice job Cunamara! Looks like a wide neck? Sweet!

**Jehu** · 07-11-2015, 09:15 PM

Looks awesome. Nicely done, and congrats!

**mr. beaumont** · 07-11-2015, 09:30 PM

Lots to like about this one! Nice!

**Cunamara** · 07-11-2015, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by Archtop Guy

Nice job Cunamara! Looks like a wide neck? Sweet!

Yes, 1 3/4" nut. I have bratwurst for fingers and find 1 5/8" necks a bit too skinny. I like the back of the neck a little flat and the standard Warmoth profile suits me well.

**Cunamara** · 07-11-2015, 09:32 PM

Thanks, Jehu & Jeff!

**Frank67** · 07-11-2015, 10:57 PM

Awesome - congrats to a pretty guitar!

**citizenk74** · 07-11-2015, 11:25 PM

Very nice job on a great looking instrument. I'm sure it sounds and plays as good as it looks. Enjoy!

**marcwhy** · 07-12-2015, 01:19 AM

Very cool guitar -- great job!

**fws6** · 07-12-2015, 07:17 AM

That came out pretty nice ! Congrats !

**hans halmackenreuter** · 07-12-2015, 07:55 AM

congrats! looks nice

**pingu** · 07-12-2015, 07:59 AM

nice tele ,just shows , you can
get some nice stuff out of a skip sometimes

**Matt Cushman** · 07-12-2015, 09:06 AM

Great looking Tele! I like the simple all wood look. It appears as if it may be a lightweight with an F hole and only one pickup. What was her final weigh in?

**Cunamara** · 07-12-2015, 04:30 PM

Thanks, everyone! Matt, I had not thought to weigh it. 6 lbs 6 oz on the scale here. It is a bit neck-heavy on a strap, although I rarely play standing with a strap so I am not sure how much that will be a fuss. The mahogany is much more hollowed out that I realized- the body is hollow except for the neck pocket to the bridge and a little "island" for the control cavity. If it was fully solid I think the body would weigh as much as the whole guitar does now!

**riovine** · 07-13-2015, 12:12 AM

Great job, I like the thinline, non-traditional configuration. This is very timely for me as I'm also working on my first DIY tele project. I am also starting from unfinished wood (going to use Tru-Oil) and was wondering about what to do about the neck hell slot & back of the neck heel. Did you finish the slot and the neck wood that goes against the slot or did you just bolt bare wood onto bare wood. Also, what did you do for the body cavities for the electronics, did you leave them bare, use a conductive spray, or conductive foil etc.

One more thing, did you have to use any glue to keep the string ferrules in. I drilled a couple of practice holes with a drill bit that is the exact diameter as the ferrules using scrap wood. The ferrules fit, but not snugly enough to not fall out. I doubt I can get a drill bit that would let me drill a hole for them to just push in tight. If you did glue them in, what kind of glue did you use.

Thanks,
Ron

**jazzbow** · 07-13-2015, 03:32 AM

CC Rider and Tele configuration for jazz. A great match.

DIY Telecaster-dark-side-png

**Cunamara** · 07-13-2015, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by riovine

Great job, I like the thinline, non-traditional configuration. This is very timely for me as I'm also working on my first DIY tele project. I am also starting from unfinished wood (going to use Tru-Oil) and was wondering about what to do about the neck hell slot & back of the neck heel. Did you finish the slot and the neck wood that goes against the slot or did you just bolt bare wood onto bare wood. Also, what did you do for the body cavities for the electronics, did you leave them bare, use a conductive spray, or conductive foil etc.

Read up on wet-sanding with oil finishes, there is a lot of information out there about it; it makes a huge difference in the final finish. And it's really, really easy to do. If one doesn't have a dust free ventilated spray booth to shoot lacquer, the oil finishes are a great choice. Tru-Oil, BTW, is basically a mix of boiled linseed oil, varnish and mineral spirits. If you were doing a lot of this stuff you could make your own quite readily, but a 3 ounce bottle of Tru-Oil would probably finish a Tele body with some to spare.

I finished the inside of the neck pocket with a couple coats of boiled linseed oil. I did seven coats on the body, one a day. I sanded the body to 320 grit and then applied two fairly heave coats of BLO a day apart with a light sand in between. Then I began wet sanding in the oil working up from 220 to 800 for five more coats. This filled in the grain on the mahogany pretty well without needing to use a sanding sealer or filler. I think it gave a more natural coloration to the wood. There was also some filling of the grain on the maple- the flames are a bit more open grained than the rest of the wood. In retrospect I could have done a couple more wet-sanding coats to completely fill in the grain more perfectly but I am satisfied with the end result.

The neck is finished with nitro by Warmoth, so I did not do anything with that. The heel of the neck is finished. IMHO since I live in Minnesota were we have dew points into the 70s (F) in the summer (78 last evening) and into the teens in the winter, I like to have wood pretty well finished to reduce seasonal swelling and shrinkage. Hence the finished neck pocket.

One more thing, did you have to use any glue to keep the string ferrules in. I drilled a couple of practice holes with a drill bit that is the exact diameter as the ferrules using scrap wood. The ferrules fit, but not snugly enough to not fall out. I doubt I can get a drill bit that would let me drill a hole for them to just push in tight. If you did glue them in, what kind of glue did you use.

Thanks,
Ron

No, the string ferrules were a mild interference fit. I suspect the bit used by the guy who made the body was 1/64" smaller than the diameter of the ferrules. I used rimless ferrules that sit flush with the back rather than projecting above. They had to be lightly tapped into place with a hammer and a punch.

**Matt Cushman** · 07-13-2015, 10:06 AM

Wow a Tele under 6 1/2 pounds is remarkably light. Having a hollow area in the body probably adds a little acoustic tone to the guitar and keeps her nice and light. Light weight is the first thing I look for in a guitar.

**riovine** · 07-14-2015, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Cunamara

Read up on wet-sanding with oil finishes, there is a lot of information out there about it; it makes a huge difference in the final finish. And it's really, really easy to do. If one doesn't have a dust free ventilated spray booth to shoot lacquer, the oil finishes are a great choice. Tru-Oil, BTW, is basically a mix of boiled linseed oil, varnish and mineral spirits. If you were doing a lot of this stuff you could make your own quite readily, but a 3 ounce bottle of Tru-Oil would probably finish a Tele body with some to spare.

I finished the inside of the neck pocket with a couple coats of boiled linseed oil. I did seven coats on the body, one a day. I sanded the body to 320 grit and then applied two fairly heave coats of BLO a day apart with a light sand in between. Then I began wet sanding in the oil working up from 220 to 800 for five more coats. This filled in the grain on the mahogany pretty well without needing to use a sanding sealer or filler. I think it gave a more natural coloration to the wood. There was also some filling of the grain on the maple- the flames are a bit more open grained than the rest of the wood. In retrospect I could have done a couple more wet-sanding coats to completely fill in the grain more perfectly but I am satisfied with the end result.

The neck is finished with nitro by Warmoth, so I did not do anything with that. The heel of the neck is finished. IMHO since I live in Minnesota were we have dew points into the 70s (F) in the summer (78 last evening) and into the teens in the winter, I like to have wood pretty well finished to reduce seasonal swelling and shrinkage. Hence the finished neck pocket.

No, the string ferrules were a mild interference fit. I suspect the bit used by the guy who made the body was 1/64" smaller than the diameter of the ferrules. I used rimless ferrules that sit flush with the back rather than projecting above. They had to be lightly tapped into place with a hammer and a punch.

Great, thanks for the excellent info, I'll be consulting this when I start my finishing.

**goldenwave77** · 07-15-2015, 09:30 PM

Great job. Love the wood-tone control knobs---just the right touch for the overall vibe of this instrument.

Thin finishes that preserve/enhance/reveal wood grain are another "like" of mine: I think Leo F took a giant step backward when he started painting guitars with DuPont car colors. I never understood why a guitar should look like a '66 GTO or Mustang.

Also a big fan of Pete Biltoft's VintageVibe pu's. His build quality is really good...have a tele set, a strat set (blades), and a p90-humbucker sized pu (low wound)---and am very pleased/satisfied with all of them. The CC Rider is a standard humbucker-sized mount?! (I'd love to drop one of those into a 175. I like humbuckers, but there is just so much good guitar sound before 1957, and the advent of the humbucker.)