Bought a 'damaged' Tele

  • Thread starter Thread starter Slouching Raymond
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Slouching Raymond

Slouching Raymond

Well-known member
Just popped into the local music store to buy a £6 headphone extension cable yesterday -
and came out with a new Telecaster.
It was a fair bit cheaper than normal, because of some damage.
The damage is just on the body, near the socket, and does not affect the great playing at all.
It is a standard Player, made in Mexico.

tele2.webp
tele3.webp


Now I have to come up with a scheme to fix the damage.
I'm thinking superglue to stick down the section that's lifted up, so I keep as much of the original colour as possible.
Then try to fill the bare areas with epoxy, and rub it flat.
Not really bothered about a small discoloured area.
 
Nah, Raymond. You've got it all wrong. You don't fix things like that. You pick the bits off, then beat the rest of the body up, sand off some finish in a few other places, and PRESTO! You have a reliced guitar that would have cost you a $500 to $1000 premium over a new one!

If you REALLY want a truly authentic reliced guitar, you might consider breaking off the headstock and putting it back on with epoxy, just like real player guitars. :giggle:
 
Watching the videos on Youtube - I've seen the superglue fix and epoxy method work. The killer is mixing the colour for the epoxy. Just means wasting some to get the shade right, then a bit of a polish. Good way to wind away a few hours. If you carefully mix it and do a shallow layer at a time you can adjust the colour to make the final layer correct.
 
I bought an American Telecaster Pro from the local Sam Ash about 3 years ago. It was used but looked like new. It even had all the paper work in the case. I looked it over and didn't see a mark on it. It was about $500 less than a new one and I asked the sales person what was wrong with it. He said nothing. I played it and found the A string slot in the nut was too deep and it buzzed constantly. I doubt it came that way, someone probably messed it up. So I bought it.

I didn't want to go to the trouble of replacing the nut, so I filed the slot out some, and filled it with bone (deer antler) dust and super glue and then re-filed the slot. I did a little tweaking on the neck and bridge and it came out great. It sounds good and plays nice. I'm very happy with it.

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Unless you want to sell it and make a profit I would not bother to repair that damage.
Take off any loose material and give the area a LIGHT rub down with fine wire wool dampened with a little meths ( the de-greasing fluid NOT drugs!)
Dry with kitchen cloth and give a light spray of clear sealer to keep the grime out.

Dave.
 
R D Smith said:
I bought an American Telecaster Pro from the local Sam Ash about 3 years ago. It was used but looked like new. It even had all the paper work in the case. I looked it over and didn't see a mark on it. It was about $500 less than a new one and I asked the sales person what was wrong with it. He said nothing. I played it and found the A string slot in the nut was too deep and it buzzed constantly. I doubt it came that way, someone probably messed it up. So I bought it.
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Very nice.
 
Very nice. I love the butterscotch. @TalismanRich is right. Call it "road worn" and the price goes up.
As long as we have a chance to show off our Teles, here's mine. The pick guard was hand painted by my wife, though I've replaced it with a black one.
 
ecc83 said:
Unless you want to sell it and make a profit I would not bother to repair that damage.
Take off any loose material and give the area a LIGHT rub down with fine wire wool dampened with a little meths ( the de-greasing fluid NOT drugs!)
Dry with kitchen cloth and give a light spray of clear sealer to keep the grime out.

Dave.
Click to expand...
I agree with this approach. It's the playing and sound first. Appearance is secondary in my guitar world.
 
OK, thanks for all the suggestions.
This is a guitar for playing, not for showing at exhibitions, so I went the ecc83/Sky Blue Lou path.
Keeping it simple, I even considered putting a sticking-plaster over it (look away Scott Baxendale).

What I did was chip away the few bits that were going to come off anyway.
Then use a fingernail file on the sharp edges.
Then fill the wood hole with clear epoxy.
Then put a coat of clear lacquer over the top.
I think that'll do. The whole guitar looks good, so who is going to notice a little blemish?

I actually eyed up this very guitar on the store's wall some weeks ago, when it was in perfect condition.
Since then the store re-organised the place, and moved all their guitars around. That is probably when it got damaged.
The price was knocked down from £599 to £499.

tele4.webp
 
Unless someone looked close, they would never notice it.
 
Guitars are like potato chips, you can't have just one.
 
£500 seems a really decent price for a new tele! The epoxy will stop it chipping further and you could always refinish it some time in the future.
 
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