Stone Roses Tribute: Procrastination Anyone?

So, for a week or more now there's been no progress on the Stone Roses Tribute build. There's been a couple of contributing factors but the main reason, now that it comes to it, is that I'm nervous about starting. Once that paint hits the guitar there's no going back!

And so in the spirit of complete and utter procrastination, and to vet my splatter technique one last time, I built a life-size prototype of the guitar out of 6mm ply, painted it with the same primer and gloss enamel used to prep the actual guitar body, and got the kids to fling paint at it. I could have had the kids flinging paint at the actual guitar body but hey.

There was one useful outcome of the exercise. This time around I varied the amount of paint used on the guitar compared to my first prototype, with a much smaller amount of paint, and fewer paint passes used to create the effect. I had looked at my first prototype long and hard and was starting to worry that it was too busy. The result of the changes to our technique was a guitar with much more white space.

Which do you guys think looks better? The consensus from the interweb is a unanimously in favour of the initial prototype. I think I agree! And so, the procrastination has reaching it's logical termination. The only thing left to do now is to bite the bullet and start-a-splattering. Watch this space!

Flamed Telecaster: 8th Coat of Tru-Oil

8 coats of Tru-Oil are now on the flame maple telecaster. Starting to look really nice. The colour is a little dark for me, and there isn't enough of a burst along the edge, but not bad for a first attempt. I can see now that the trace-dye coat I did was too dark using just Red Mahogany. A mix of Vintage Amber and Red Mahogany (maybe 70/30) would have been much better! The flame would have have been more subtle, but this would have allowed much more of the Amber colour to come to the fore in the centre of the burst. On the plus side, the Tru-Oil has soaked into the grain and enhanced the chatoyance nicely.

I am especially happy with the back of the guitar. No chatoyance here, but the pores of the mahogany filled very nicely with Timbermate and the Vintage Amber / Red Mahogany burst is more pronounced. Yes the burst could have been better, but all in all it came up nicely.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the build is progressing. The mahogany body should sound really good with the GFS 52' professional series pickups I've bought for it, and the custom perloid pickguard also looks the business.

A couple more coats of Tru-Oil and I'll be ready to start wet sanding.

Flamed Telecaster: Bursting!

Today, with the trace dye completely dry, I sanded the Flamed Telecaster back with 360 and 400 grits on the orbital sander. I was in constant fear of sanding through the veneer, but thankfully I got it done without that particular catastrophe striking again.

After sanding it was time to apply the burst. I started with a weak mix of Vintage Amber Colortone dye and applied this over the whole top. I followed this up with a much darker strength Vintage Amber to help pop the grain even further. With the amber on. I started to create a burst around the edge with more Red Mahogany, alternating between Mahogany, clean and Amber rags until I was pretty satisfied with the results.

 And then it was the back's turn. I pore filled the mahogany body with a slurry of Walnut Timbermate and sanded back with 400 grit. I then applied a layer of Vintage Amber dye all over the back and sides (to match the front) and then proceeded to burst again with Red Mahogany. I made sure I got plenty of Red Mahogany on the sides to provide an even transition between the cap and the back burst.

What do you think? I reckon it's pretty sweet. The flame maple has come up a treat and there is a good deal of chatoyance to be seen. Will be even more once some coats of Tru-Oil go on. The edge could probably do with a little more red mahogany, but overall I'm stoked with the results. This is the first burst I have ever done, and my message to those out there considering trying it? GO FOR IT. It isn't as hard as you might think. If I can do it, then anyone can.

Flamed Telecaster: Trace Dye

As I was worried about sanding through this flamed maple cap, I decided to get the trace-dye on their as soon as physically possible to minimize the amount of material required to be taken off it. So after sanding the cap lightly with 360 grit, on went the Red Mahogany Colortone dye. The dye went on evenly, and surprisingly there doesn't appear to be any glue spots at all!

I've gotta say, I really love this Red Mahogany colour - I never knew it looked so damn good! It's going to look awesome under the Vintage Amber and on the mahogany back and sides.

Next job: sand the top down to 400 grit (thereby taking much of the trace-dye off again) and continue sanding the rest of the the mahogany body. With the body sanded to 400 grit I will be able to fill the pores with Walnut Timbermate - the next big task!

Flamed Telecaster: Test-Fit Completed

While I'm waiting for coats of gloss white to dry on my Stone Roses Tribute build, I thought I'd get a start on my first ever Telecaster build. It's a kit that I ordered directly from China through aliexpress.com, and although there is no binding around the top (a source of some consternation on my part) it should be a great build.

The mockup went together without incident. There was a little bit of work required to get the scratchplate to fit around the heel of the neck, but with my trusty nut files this was easily overcome. Although the scratchplate is a 3rd party addition to the kit (I liked the idea of white pearloid), the plain white scratchplate that came with the kit suffered from the same issue.

I'm planning to finish this guy in a combination of Colortone dyes and Tru-oil, with a final gloss coat of clear acrylic. The flame maple top will be dyed Vintage Amber, with the figure popped with Mahogany Red. To this I am planning to add a Mahogany Red burst around the edges, and I'm hoping this will help hide the edge join between the mahogany and the maple cap.

I've never done a burst before so this will be a first for me. I'm very excited to get started on it, but first there's sanding through 600 grit and filling the mahogany body with Walnut Timbermate. Fun times!!

Flamed Telecaster: Unboxing

On a whim, about a month ago I ordered a Telecaster kit from a wholly unknown Chinese supplier (Zimbo J&W International) advertising on Alibaba. I chose this kit and this supplier in particular, because a) not only was the price good, but b) because they accepted Paypal! Woohoo! The price was so good that I thought 'what the hell' and placed the order basically to see what the result would be! My original specifications were a little different from the advertisement, but Betsy the nice Chinese lady I dealt with was very patient and cooperative in meeting my every request. This is what we eventually agreed on:

• Mahogany body.
• Maple neck and fretboard.
• Flame maple veneer with white binding.
• Pickup routing as per traditional Telecaster with a small route at the neck.
• Bolt on neck.
• All hardware including pickups etc.

The kit arrived today and I gotta say I'm pretty happy with the quality. The mahogany looks great, as does the figure in the maple top. It will look lovely with some Colortone dye!

You may have noticed that there is, however, one issue with the kit as delivered - the binding around the top has been missed. This is a pretty large omission as it happens, not in a monetary sense (it was only a $5USD addition to the overall price) but in regards to the look of the finished guitar. Hmmm.. oh well, it could have been worse right? I've emailed Betsy so maybe I can get some credit for it or something, but that remains to be seen.

Even with this oversight I'm pretty excited about this build. I've never owned a Telecaster before, but I have always wanted one.  Anyway, the next step for this bad boy is a test fit of all the hardware. I have already ordered a Premium 4-way Telecaster Wiring Harness from Stewmac and 1952 Tele Professional Series pickups from Guitar Fetish - both of which I have very high hopes for!