Tales from my workbench

[slingblader]

This week I made a final push to get the finish on the  Teles completed. Here are some of the highlights. 

I applied water slide decals to the headstocks (not pictured). I've blurred these logos in my photos where I show the headstocks. They are not F logos, but rather my own "hobby business" name which I don't know if I will ever use in an official capacity. The bottom line is that I'm not a business and I'm not trying to promote any kind of business, nor am I making a counterfeit item... I just wanted to get that out of the way.

So, you may recall some mention of my color choice fiasco for the "gold" Tele. Since it turned out to be lime gold, I decided to try and knock that green down a bit by applying several coats of UV aged lacquer. That's the stuff right there.

This is a picture after the body had about 3 coats next to the headstock which didn't have any aged lacquer applied at this point. To me, it looks like it is taming it considerably. 

After I had the gold one where I wanted it, I threw a couple more coats of clear on it while all the other guitars got several additional coats of clear. After drying overnight, I level sanded everything one last time. I used P800 on my ROS for the flats.

I followed that up with P800 on a block to get rid of all the pigtails and to nock down the transitions on the flag Tele.

Ready for final coats.

I took a two days of vacation to get this project wrapped up and today was the last day. I got started at a decent time and laid down two solid coats, plus a flow coat at the end. (I shoot my "flow" coats using a fairly high percentage of retarder which helps everything to flow out and reduce the amount of level sanding later.)

Here are a few shots along the way.

Pumpkin pie break...

Stamped some born-on dates and build numbers. The one for my dad has his birth date, which is part of the reason for this build, for his 80th birthday. You can see that I used some aging "toner" that I mixed up on the necks here.

I thought the sun coming through the garage door windows and through the lacquer haze looked pretty cool.

And here they are to hang for a few weeks to dry. 

Later today I'll remove all the tape, then chase all the holes and hit them with a countersink bit while the lacquer is still soft. I've found this is safer than waiting until everything has dried for a few weeks... things can get chippy with lacquer if you're not careful.

This has been a long and arduous build to be sure. I was really hoping to be done before our family gatherings for the holidays, but that won't likely happen. At this point, I've told my brother to expect his by mid-January. 

We've decided to present the flag Tele to my dad on his birthday celebration this May since my parents head to Florida right after Christmas. Seems like it would be good timing anyway.

If you've made it this far, congratulations and many thanks for following along.

 

[Travis]

Once again; stellar work. Can’t wait to see the finished products. 

[Drew816]

MAN, just great stuff! That Gold White/Black trim edge guitar makes me drool every step of the way, every time I take a look. I need a new drool cup this time around, killing it!

[slingblader]

Been a while since I've updated this thread! The Teles are currently hanging in my basement awaiting level sanding and polishing. I got started on building a five string fretless bass in January and decided the guitars could wait for a while before they get finished up. 

The bass is a slightly refined version of my first 5 string bass design. This is the first one, for reference. 

I wasn't entirely happy with the body outline of the first version, so that has been tweaked. I've also redrawn the headstock so that the design actually works as intended this time. When I built the first one, I made 2 identical neck beams, so I'm using the 2nd one for the fretless build. 

Here are the specs for the fretless:

• 34" scale
• Figured Gabon ebony fingerboard with various position markers
• Neck wood: 
  • Wenge
  • Hard Maple
  • Bloodwood
  • Black dyed poplar veneer
• Body wood:
  • Quilted western big leaf maple top
  • Black dyed poplar veneer for pinstripes
  • Mahogany
  • Padauk 
• Headstock has matching woods
• Hipshot ultra lite tuners
• Individual bridges
• Nordstrand big split pickups, passive with balance and tone

I'm currently in the final stages of the fretless build, but here are some pictures of the build progress to this point.

 

 

Pile 'o wood...

Sorry, I know that's a lot of pictures.  

So, after the mock up and rough assembly, I've broken it back down to refine the carving and get everything final sanded... and on a bass like this with all the swoopy curves and facets, it takes a damn while. Hopefully will be applying finish in a day or two, which will (I think) consist of an epoxy sealer followed by a coat or two of Rubio Monocoat hard wax finish. 

 

 

[topekatj]

You’ve got the skills and the tools to make the most of them!

[Steve Haynie]

Adopt me.

[slingblader]

6 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

Adopt me.

Are you potty trained?

[slingblader]

I got this thing final sanded today and put on a primer coat. I think it's going to be pretty special.

[Drew816]

Amazing work as always! That bass is amazing and we await the final Tele shots too; especially the Gold-Green-Checkered Sparkle Monster!

And no, Steve is not potty trained but I AM!!! Honest, only the occasional accident...

[RobB]

8 hours ago, slingblader said:

I think it's going to be pretty special.

 

YAYYYYYYYYYY!!

[DaveH]

Serious skills! Beautiful, man!

[a.bandini]

You've got one hell of an eye, and the ability to execute your vision.  That looks fantastic.  

[slingblader]

Well, I finished up the fretless 5 string. Here are waaaaaaay too many pictures of it from every conceivable angle.

 

 

[stonge]

that's amazing - there are so many cool details in the photos (I especially like the sides of the headstock - just wow).

[Biz Prof]

That's just sick. Which means more gooder.

[veatch]

Love the headstock. Love the whole thing, actual. Great work!

Edited March 21, 2022 by veatch
Auto correct.. replaced white with whole...

[Drew816]

Stunning, I think you're likely to get a flood of adoption requests coming in. 

NOW, back to the Teles!  😉

[cmatthes]

That's unreal.

 

Sir...

[slingblader]

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it! I should be getting back to the Teles within a couple of weeks.

[topekatj]

Bravo! I can’t muster much besides a jaw-dropped “WOW”, and, “how does one cut the back cover for the controls?” Do you jigsaw that one back layer of wood before “gluing the sandwich together”? I can’t imagine how that cover would be cut out on a ‘single block of wood’ solid-body, like Hamer did with the Ecstasy.

[slingblader]

Thanks.  Yep, that's pretty much the process. This is the second time that I've done this, but essentially you have to plan for the back layer to be a good thickness for a cover plate. I could have gone a little thicker for sure. Here is how I went about it.

I scored around the template very carefully.

 

Then I scored an area on the straight side extra deep until I could push a knife through.

 

I put that on the scroll saw where I could thread a blade through the slot and very carefully cut on the line.

 

That's the rear plate before gluing to the body wing.

 

Gluing the rear plate to the treble side wing. The top face is up here. I used alignment pins between the rear layer and the wing core to keep the plate perfectly in place. I also glued the rear plate with hot hide glue so it would be simple to clean up the squeeze out.

 

Just like magic.

 

 

 

[slingblader]

I finally got back to the Tele project. I have a hard deadline of May 20, because the "flag" Tele is a birthday gift for my Dad on his 80th, so I gotta get serious here!

This week I got everything level sanded and tonight I started the buffing process. Hope to start polishing tomorrow evening and assemble, etc. this weekend. 

 

 

[cmatthes]

I love this thread...

 

[Travis]

Wow…. You, sir, have an amazing talent. 

[Drew816]

That Green/Gold Tele with Checkerboard binding is one of the coolest guitars I've ever seen; and friends, I have seen quite a few!  😉

These all look great, but I call DIPS on that one!

Love your work, thanks for the update and I know we all look forward to seeing the final Flag Tele for your Dad.