Friday I went and looked at a guitar that was posted on CL. It was dirt cheap, so I wasn't expecting much. I was pretty much right on. It was a kit guitar that had been put together rather poorly. The paint was done well, but the electronics were shoddy, and the bridge overlapped the pickguard, warping it. The neck was really great, though, so I tossed out an offer that the guy accepted.

When my wife heard that I had picked up another guitar she said "Well, let's see it." Errrmmmm....

Well.....



Since I was going to have to redo work on this, I decided to redo EVERYTHING. First step is getting the old paint stripped off. The body appears to be ash, but is multiple pieces. The grains are matched well enough, but not enough that I'm going to do a transparent or burst finish.

First thing up is to get the body cleaned up and ready for paint, then I'll order a new bridge to fit to it.

Man! You are my hero!!!! Please let me see the finished product and keep posting the work in progress; that is such a cool thing to do.

Definitely. I've always sort of wanted a red telecaster...so I believe that's the treatment this will get.

Wow, that thing looks like a mess! Good luck on that. Let us know how it goes.

I've been wanting to get a new guitar myself lately... Been itching to give the kids some lessons.

The paint was pretty thick. There are some strange residue spots left after stripping, almost like lacquer, but the chemical strippers will just not touch it. Careful sanding cleans it up...but now I need more sandpaper. Ah well.

The matching on the grain of the pieces is close enough that I may just consider a semi transparent finish, but still not decided. I found a place in town that will drill the body for string through to the tune of $35. Since, for some reason, this is a key feature of Telecasters in my mind, I'm going to go for it.

As for teaching the kids to play, hard to go wrong with a Squier Mini. Both of my kids have one. The most recent I picked up at a yard sale for $3. I had to replace the springs for the pickups and fish the output jack out of the body, but with strings on it's a great little guitar.

Body is nearly stripped and getting ready for final sanding. Ordered a new bridge today. I've found a local shop that will drill the body to be string-through (true Telecaster, in my mind) for $35. I'll post the next pictures when I fit the bridge.

yay! Can't wait to see more pics!

How goes the work? Any updates (must include pics...that's a given I am sure)?

I sent it to the shop to have the body drilled to be string through. When I get it back (should be next Saturday) I should be able to show picks with the hardware mocked up on the sanded body. After that...I'll have to wait for it to warm up enough to paint.

Think I've found my pickups. Friend who runs a guitar store has a set of D.Allen Hot 50s. Since I was going to call up Dave anyway and get pickups from him, this is fortunate.

Well, here's the guitar with the bridge in place. I need to work the neck pocket a little more, and then it's time to break it all down and paint the guitar. Still not sold on a color. If I go red (or black) I can use the pick guard I have. If I got white I'd need to get a new one. It's a matter of about $20, so I could go either way, really.

Setback. I was doing a test fit of parts before I took everything apart and began painting. I noticed the bridge didn't seem to line up correctly and started measuring. Sure enough, when the bridge was installed it was positioned so that the low E string rides the edge of the neck. It would be unplayable in this configuration. So Saturday I need to take it back to the shop that did the work and see what they want to do to make it right. I can't see how the body is usable at this point. The holes for the strings would have to be completely filled and moved, which I'm not sure is feasible.

Yeah, my face when I saw was more like and then

But I think even if this body is done for I should be able to acquire another and not take myself too far over budget.

OK, body has been made serviceable. This weekend I'll do pore sealing, then it's time for actual paint.

On a side note. I believe I've found the body for my next project.

Should we call you Burke or Hare?

I had to use Google to get the reference.


It's fair.


Probably won't be able to update much about the guitar for a bit. I've decided to paint in nitro, which means long cure times.

That's great!

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Really need to get around to painting this sucker...

I dunno. I like the wood grain look, personally. Slap a few coats of bar epoxy on that and it'll be one sharp axe.