Flamed Telecaster: She's All Done.

Well the flamed telecaster is finally complete. I probably could have waited another couple of weeks for the Acrylic Clear to cure, but I never was very patient. In a month or so I'll give her another polish and that will be that. The hardware went on easily and without incident, and the wiring was a snap -  almost as easy as wiring a Strat.

 

I  still have to do a full fret-level and re-crown before this baby is completely done. I started to do it, but I wasn't able to immediately straighten out the fretboard for levelling. I've given the truss-rod a bit of a turn so I'll wait a few days to see if it straightens out. Even without the fret-level, the neck plays pretty nicely, and the GFS Professional Series 52 Vintage Pickups sound pretty sweet! She's now officially a 'Vintage' series ;). I've never owned a Telecaster before, and I'm really liking how it plays!

Flamed Telecaster: Spraying Acrylic Clear Coats

A really amazing day today. It was a long hard road to get there, but I finally managed to get 3 reasonable coats of acrylic clear on my flamed telecaster build. It took quite a bit of trial and error to get the spray gun dialled in. At first the weather here in Holgate was too humid (I think). To help overcome this issue I added a water trap to the bottom of the gun. Next, the clear was drying the instant it hit the wood (like sandpaper). The reason was too much pressure and too little fluid. To help overcome this issue I added a pressure regulator to the bottom of the gun, reduced it to about 18psi and increased the fluid control. The resulting gun setup looks like this:

It's some kind of supercharged hot-rod affair! With the gun now ready and dialled in (I hoped), it was time to get on and spray. Retiring to my high-tech spray booth (a saw horse outside the garage) I was able to lay down 3 nicely wet coats; waiting 15 minutes in between for the coats to tack off.

Thankfully, a friend of mine recommended a good quality Sundstrom mask to keep the fumes out of my lungs. It worked unbelievably well and I would highly recommend them to anyone. The end result of the spraying was pretty good for my very first attempt. There is a bit of orange peel, (I'll deal with that later), but some decent coverage has been laid down. I'm planning to sand this flat before applying 3 more finishing coats tomorrow.

The good news from today's success is that it seems acrylic clear can definitely be sprayed over Tru-Oil without any ill effects (or so it seems). This is great news for those of us that like to use Tru-Oil to enhance the chatoyence of the figured timber before adding the clear coats over the top. Roll-on the buffing and admiring!!

Flamed Telecaster & Surf Monster Telecaster Decals

I received my vinyl telecaster headstock decals today from Andy at City Signs & Print in Port Lincoln SA. As usual they look freakin awesome! If you need any vinyl decals made, give Andy a call or email him on citysigns@internode.on.net. You wont be disappointed!

I bunged them on both my current telecaster builds and was able to get a top coat of Wudtone natural neck finish on over the top. Only 2-3 more top coats to go and both necks will be ready for fret levelling. Two telecaster builds in parallel? Priceless..!

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!