My Telecaster project

damonjewel

I bought this Squier standard on ebay for less than a hundred euros. it was a bit of a mess with wonky tuners, a terrible paintjob, a broken pickguard, and a badly fitted creme mounting plate at the neck pickup. However the neck was in excellent condition and the wiring was good too.



Ok so i stripped her down, and decided to do the body in Danish Oil. stripping and sanding was a swine but eventually got there. To apply the Danish oil you rub it on with a cloth along the grain and wait a few minutes and then wipe of the excess. let it dry then and repeat a good few times to build up the finish. the oil enhances the woods colour whilst also varnishing it too. It seemed a lot simpler than spraying and with the great weather last week I got on a dozen coats. The picture below is after 3 coats



I bought roto grip tuners and fitted them, they fitted perfectly to the holes already there so no reaming.



I wanted a humbucker in the Neck position and settled on the Seymour Duncan SH 2n Jazz humbucker. i bought a yellow pearl pickguard with a humbucker route.

For the Bridge I got the Seymour Duncan STL 3 quarter pounder. I bought a wilkinson bridge that is strung through the back with 3 saddles.

I fitted a Bigsby style tremolo too, I have always wanted to give one a go and thought this was a great opportunity. This is not a real Bigsby but as good as. This is why I bought the wilkinson bridge so I didn't have to notch the bridge. If anyone else attempts this, remember to set the intonation before fitting the Bigsby as its quite fiddly!

Anyhoo here is the finished product







It plays excellently, the pickups really suit my style, jazz, Blues, Classic Rock. The neck has plenty of bottom. The bridge pickup is beefy but still has the twang. The Bigsby I'm not so sure about. I'll need to master it but hey it looks good.

eoin5

Looks great! Are the strings sliding nicely through the holes at the end of the bridge when you use the bigsby?

damonjewel

eoin5 wrote: »

Looks great! Are the strings sliding nicely through the holes at the end of the bridge when you use the bigsby?

Very good question! just checked and the bend is more noticeable on the top strings, and it may be possible that the lower strings wrapping could be catching on the hole of the bridge and could be causing friction and hence less bend in pitch. The bigsby for me is just to give a shimmer to chords and notes and so it suits me for now. However it might be something that might need to be looked at and adjusted for a more even tremolo action.

Niice..I built one from a kit there last year..just a clear finish, bigsby, and frelin pickups...turned out nice too..but,ya, niice...

bad2dabone

Sweet work

Alanstrainor

Awesome stuff man.

It could be worth investing in a proper bigsby plate and bridge though. It should be relatively inexpensive, it will involve drilling some holes though.


I've got a bigsby on my Squire Telecaster and it has the above, it's obviously not meant for dive bombing, but i have very little tuning trouble on mine. And that's with stock tuners.

damonjewel

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Awesome stuff man.

It could be worth investing in a proper bigsby plate and bridge though. It should be relatively inexpensive, it will involve drilling some holes though.


I've got a bigsby on my Squire Telecaster and it has the above, it's obviously not meant for dive bombing, but i have very little tuning trouble on mine. And that's with stock tuners.

I had considered this option however I read on a few forums such as tdpri that the seymour duncan bridge pickup might not fit it. Also that shimming the neck might be needed for the vibramate bridge. For now its fine , I can shimmer the notes a la Neil Young which is really all I want from it.

Alanstrainor

damonjewel wrote: »

I had considered this option however I read on a few forums such as tdpri that the seymour duncan bridge pickup might not fit it. Also that shimming the neck might be needed for the vibramate bridge. For now its fine , I can shimmer the notes a la Neil Young which is really all I want from it.

If it ain't broke don't fix it:D.

Mine was straight forward, no neck shim was needed in the end, it was easy as pie really.

dannyluvsu

Fantastic lookin guitar man!

rcaz

With a careful setup you shouldn't need to shim the neck for the Jazzmaster bridge. What guage strings are you using?

damonjewel

I didn't need to shim, however it was a consideration for the various options that were available for fitting a bigsby.

Again tdpri had done my homework for me on the bigsby

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaster-discussion-forum/209393-culmination-all-my-bigsby-research.html

As for strings I am using 10's ernie ball slinky's

IVRZ

Looks terriffic man, well done. How much difficulty did you have stripping it and what method(s) did you use. Im thinking of stripping a great squire tele i have as its a particularly diarrhetic shade of green. Dont know wheather to scrape, melt, burn, dissolve etc and what to use.
Love to hear yours, if it sounds as good as it looks then......:)

damonjewel

IVRZ wrote: »

Looks terriffic man, well done. How much difficulty did you have stripping it and what method(s) did you use. Im thinking of stripping a great squire tele i have as its a particularly diarrhetic shade of green. Dont know wheather to scrape, melt, burn, dissolve etc and what to use.
Love to hear yours, if it sounds as good as it looks then......:)

I used a chefs blowtorch and scraper, the torch is nice and easy to use. Do bit by bit, I mean only a couple of inches at a time and get the paint as it starts to bubble and then go at it with your scraper. Dont over use the torch as it will crystalise the paint and it becomes even more tougher to remove. It will take you an afternoon, and if you are working indoors get yourself a mask as the fumes can be a bit much too.

After I got the heavy stuff off I got a palm sander and took of the rest of the paintwork off. when you are down to the wood use a light sand paper, working with the grain, I gave it an extra fine finish using 0000 gauge steelwool.

Its tough going but very rewarding. Also a good tip before paintining is to get twine and string it through one of the holes from the neck bolts and you can then hang the body for painting.

IVRZ

Great stuff DJ thanks a million, might be back to you with some more questions if i get stuck! All the best:)

PMI

Well done nice work

damonjewel

IVRZ wrote: »

Great stuff DJ thanks a million, might be back to you with some more questions if i get stuck! All the best:)

Feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to share my experience. Also thanks to all the appreciation and thanks from all posters, it has given me real encouragement to take on some more projects.

IVRZ

Im redoing the back of a neck. Ive sanded it to the wood. How do you think Danish Oil would be for a finish on it given the feel of what you did on the body? Too sticky maybe for a neck? It looks so nice

damonjewel

IVRZ wrote: »

Im redoing the back of a neck. Ive sanded it to the wood. How do you think Danish Oil would be for a finish on it given the feel of what you did on the body? Too sticky maybe for a neck? It looks so nice

I shouldn't think it would be too sticky, I have just done a quick test of how it would feel by rubbing the inside of my thumb and forefinger along the body of my tele and it feels smooth and I might try it myself in the future. Just remember to wipe off all the access soon after you apply the oil to keep it as even as possible. A good rub with a fine gauge steel wool in between coats should have it as smooth as silk.

I should think that if you felt that there was too much resistance from the back of the neck and stopping your hand flowing freely over it you could always have it clear varnished or lacquered whilst keeping the original finish of the oil coming through.

Gaspode

That's a really nice job and the Bigsby looks great on it, well done.

IVRZ

thanks DJ ill try that out. Didnt realise i could varnish over the oil.

damonjewel

IVRZ wrote: »

thanks DJ ill try that out. Didnt realise i could varnish over the oil.

The oil itself seems to have a varnish within it. Giving it a nice clean finish. i used Rustins Danish oil. From wiki

Danish oil is a wood finishing oil, made of either Tung oil or Polymerized Linseed oil.
Danish oil is a hard drying oil which provides a tough, water-resistant finish. It can be used as a finish, or as a primer or sealer on bare wood before applying paint or varnish.
When used, Danish oil provides a satin finish and provides coverage of approx 12.5 sq. m/l (600 sq. ft./gallon) and is usually applied over a course of three coats by brush or cloth, leaving around 6-24 hours between coats, depending on the mixture being used and the wood being treated.

bad2dabone

damonjewel wrote: »

Feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to share my experience. Also thanks to all the appreciation and thanks from all posters, it has given me real encouragement to take on some more projects.

I've got an old squier strat that i'm going to do a number on thanks to this thread, so cheers to you for inspiring others