Tele Build

OK, so here we go.
My philosophy for any of the relicing that I have done is that it should look realistic and that any wear should be in places that would handled or bumped or scraped a lot. For example, there would be lots of wear near the strap buttons and where the player's arm has rubbed on the finish over years of playing. The horns of the body usually take more abuse than other parts.
Of course, there's the standard buckle rash area and wear from careless string changes and mishandling.
 
body.jpg

Here's the front of the body with the standard tele neck route opened up to accept a humbucker. Not pretty, but not horrible either. As noted in an earlier post I used a drill press and forstner bit to remove the majority of the material and tidied it up with a chisel.

back.jpg
Various bumps and bruises added with pliers, screwdrivers and other utensils. Scraping was done with a paint scraper and a utility knife, especially on the edges of the body.
 
The pickguard was a cheap plastic one from Guitar Fetish with the humbucker route. It had a very sharp bevel on the edges. I sanded the bevel with 800 grit to round the edges to approximate the edges on a '50's bakelite guard. The edges were then polished with 2000 grit to remove any sanding marks. Keith Richard's tele has a mounting ring holding the pickup so I added one here as well.

PG.jpg
I chipped the PG and ring a little bit as well. I also notched it a bit in the middle of the neck pocket where the truss rod is adjusted on the vintage style necks.
 
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The pickups are from Guitar Fetish as well. The neck humbucker is a 7.6kOhm GFS Pro AlNiCo V vintage spec model and the bridge is a aged Slick Fullerton Lead overwound single coil tele pickup at 9.4kOhms. I'm really hoping this will be a raunchy rock machine!
 
The neck I used is from a Canadian made Sparrow guitar that I had around. It already had the vintage tint finish. I gave it some fingerboard finish wear between the frets and some finish wear on the back where it gets played most. The edges of the headstock also got some scrape wear. All of the wear was then stained with Minwax walnut stain to darken it up a bit.
I must also say that I stained the body with the same stain to darken the chips and scratches, etc.

neck f.jpg
neck r.jpg
 
Yours looks great Johnny! I see the MJT bodies for sale quite a bit. They look great but are pricey!
 
I just realized that I don't have a neck plate for this beastie! Could have sworn I had at least one lying around. I guess I will be on a hunt tomorrow then!
I also have to get a nut for this neck. The plastic one was crap and cut too low.
 
So several points to pass along. I have strayed from the "vintage" formula by using a compensated Wilkinson bridge, an Electrosocket cup for the jack instead of the stamped metal/clip style and the use of the Grover tuners that were already on the neck.

I was unable to find a neck plate at my local shops so I will have to scrounge one up elsewhere.
 
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