Guitar build

jimistone

long standing member
I haven't been posting much lately. I have been fiddling around with a couple of guitar builds. One is a Tele. I have had this body and neck for a while. Finally decided to work on it.

I decided to paint it gold firemist metallic. It is a color that fender introduced in 1966. I didn't really want to do shoreline gold, since it's been done to death. Gold firemist metallic is a cooler and kind of rare color. It was a bitch to find it I know that.
It looks almost like copper and highlights and reflects gold metallic.
These pics are before any clear coating, sanding, or buffing.
I'm using nitro lacquer paint and clear for this project
 

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I'm patterning this Tele after a '66 with the gold firemist metallic nitro lacquer, vintage 3 way switch, 3 saddle bridge, and stringthrough design with counter sunk string grommets.

Here is a quick mock up with some of the parts
 

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The neck I bought was an unfinished neck from allparts. The neck pays homage to a late 60's Tele as well with the truss adjustment at the heel, rosewood cap board, no skunk stripe, and transitional logo.

I used amber tinted shellac to get the neck a nice amber color to simulate aged lacquer of a vintage maple tele neck. After I got the color where I wanted it I gave it a coat of nitro lacquer. The neck will sport vintage kluson type tuners as well. Although I'm going for a vintage vibe on the guitar. I'm not going to do any aging or relicing on it at all.
I'm going for 66 Tele sitting in the window of a music store in 1966.
Brand spanking new not aged.
 

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Looks awesome. What pickups are you using?
Thanks Robus.
Muttley (Luthier from England who used to post here)
Is going to wind me a set. Vintage 60's wind...lipstick put on the neck and traditional Tele pup on the back.
The body is routed for a neck humbucker, but as of now I want it to be a country or blues guitar more or less. I have humbucker guitars and a strat for rock and roll.
 
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the neck looks great...im not that brave to get the laquer and tints out..lol

i always liked the amber tint vs the bleached white... not sure Ive ever had nitro? thats the old school coat.

looks fun.
 
Nice even coverage on the paint. Looks great. The black pickguard gives it a nice contrast.

Tell Mutt I said hi. He never responded to my emails.
 
This is looking really nice jimistone!
Gold Has always been my favorite finish. My first electric was a jap Winston, single pickup, gold with a chrome pickguard. I loved it even if it was quite junky. Wish i still had it. The tele looks great in gold and black. Have fun...
 
I levels the frets ( barely needed any leveling) and recrowned them. The rosewood on the new allparts necks fretboard wasn't pale but it wasn't as dark as I like.
I wanted to darken it a few shades. I had already used bore join on it (fret doctor). It looked a little better but still wasn't there. Some have used ebony stain forbthis but I dont carebdorbthe look.
I read in some guitar forums that Old English scratch remover for dark wood works great for darkening up a fret board.

So...I gave it a shot.
Wow! It really darkens up the rosewood fret board without making it look like ebony.
It's $4.95 a bottle at Walmart.... a bottle would do hundreds of fretboards because a few drops goes a long way.
 

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I use Old English on my rosewood fretboards, including the Jazz bass with a very light board. It makes it look darker initially but the improvement is temporary.
 
I levels the frets ( barely needed any leveling) and recrowned them. The rosewood on the new allparts necks fretboard wasn't pale but it wasn't as dark as I like.
I wanted to darken it a few shades. I had already used bore join on it (fret doctor). It looked a little better but still wasn't there. Some have used ebony stain forbthis but I dont carebdorbthe look.
I read in some guitar forums that Old English scratch remover for dark wood works great for darkening up a fret board.

So...I gave it a shot.
Wow!
20180730_215607.jpg
 
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It's $4.95 a bottle at Walmart.... a bottle would do hundreds of fretboards because a few drops goes a long way.
 

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Here is the new tele neck, after darkening, side by side with a 50 year old Brazilian rosewood strat neck.
 

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I use Old English on my rosewood fretboards, including the Jazz bass with a very light board. It makes it look darker initially but the improvement is temporary.

Old english scratch cover for dark wood?
(Not the furniture polish)
 
Not sure why you keep posting the same thing over and over again. Must be posting from a phone. :D

I was trying to figure out how to rotate the neck pictures and I think I resubmitted the post a couple of times...sorry.
 
No, lemon oil. Not the same stuff?
Yeah, this stuff is completely different from the Old English lemon oil. It's specifically formulated to cover scratch's in wood. You can get it for dark wood or for light wood. It's more like a stain than a polish or oil.
It took two coats on my board to get it where I wanted it.

The thing is a stain, like "ebony", pretty much is going to completely change the color or your fretboard. With this Old English scratch cover the board darkens up but retains the original hue of the wood.

Plus it's only $4.95 a bottle.
 
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I did some sanding and buffing on the tele body yesterday.
The finish looks cloudy in a couple of pics, but it's the reflection of the sky.
:)
 

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