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Tales from my workbench


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1 minute ago, a.bandini said:

Thanks for the patient reply.    

Despite what in retrospect was a request which disproves the "There are no stupid questions." fallacy, your guitar truly is a gorgeous piece of art.  Nicely done.   

Totally not a stupid question! I appreciate your interest and thank you again. :)

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I love these type of pictorials! Appreciate the patience, dedication, talent it takes to build a guitar of that caliber! Beautiful!

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5 hours ago, duncans said:

I love these type of pictorials! Appreciate the patience, dedication, talent it takes to build a guitar of that caliber! Beautiful!

Thanks, I appreciate it!

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I broke out the good camera and took some snapshots. These show the detail much better. :)

YkAUirt.jpg


gmvrhC3.jpg


8BWoX3p.jpg


21yKSEA.jpg


wOG9Wuy.jpg


Rp49JMQ.jpg


pis6GSs.jpg


wOUdFUe.jpg


HhE4gY0.jpg


hhwSXzp.jpg


jOq1xeo.jpg


HeXb87J.jpg

 

Next project will be a trio of Telecasters. One for me, one for my brother and one for my dad. :) I'll post progress photos soon.

 

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1 minute ago, slingblader said:

I broke out the good camera and took some snapshots. These show the detail much better. :)

YkAUirt.jpg


gmvrhC3.jpg


8BWoX3p.jpg


21yKSEA.jpg


wOG9Wuy.jpg


Rp49JMQ.jpg


pis6GSs.jpg


wOUdFUe.jpg


HhE4gY0.jpg


hhwSXzp.jpg


jOq1xeo.jpg


HeXb87J.jpg

 

Next project will be a trio of Telecasters. One for me, one for my brother and one for my dad. :) I'll post progress photos soon.

 

I’ll say it again, that looks fantastic!  Very nice job, sir. 

Eagerly awaiting progress pics of the next project. Loves me some telecasters…

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5 minutes ago, Travis said:

I’ll say it again, that looks fantastic!  Very nice job, sir. 

Eagerly awaiting progress pics of the next project. Loves me some telecasters…

Thanks Travis! :) Yeah, I'm excited about the Telecasters. I've never owned one, so this will be new for me. 

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5 minutes ago, slingblader said:

Thanks Travis! :) Yeah, I'm excited about the Telecasters. I've never owned one, so this will be new for me. 

I built my partscaster Esquire without ever having owned a real Telecaster. Closest I had was a Hamer T51 for a short time. 

If I had your skills, I’d be building every second of free time I had. 

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19 minutes ago, Travis said:

I built my partscaster Esquire without ever having owned a real Telecaster. Closest I had was a Hamer T51 for a short time. 

If I had your skills, I’d be building every second of free time I had. 

Yeah, I try to build all the time. The problem that I have is running out of mad money for parts. Well that, and the wife yelling at me to get shit done around the house. :D

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8 minutes ago, slingblader said:

Yeah, I try to build all the time. The problem that I have is running out of mad money for parts. Well that, and the wife yelling at me to get shit done around the house. :D

image.gif

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Well, it's time for another project. This time it will be a trio of Telecasters. One for me, one for my brother and one for my dad. (dad doesn't know about this. :) ) The plan is for two of them to be tributes guitars to Buck Owens and Don Rich. One gold and the other silver metal flake. The finish for my dad's is still up in the air. Right now I'm planning for a classic butterscotch, but it may get the grand daddy red, silver and blue flag treatment. :D

Alder body blanks in progress. :)

ZfxL5t0.jpg


GJS6Ql1.jpg

9qDaxxQ.jpg

 

 

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10 hours ago, slingblader said:

Well, it's time for another project. This time it will be a trio of Telecasters. One for me, one for my brother and one for my dad. (dad doesn't know about this. :) ) The plan is for two of them to be tributes guitars to Buck Owens and Don Rich. One gold and the other silver metal flake. The finish for my dad's is still up in the air. Right now I'm planning for a classic butterscotch, but it may get the grand daddy red, silver and blue flag treatment. :D

Alder body blanks in progress. :)

ZfxL5t0.jpg


GJS6Ql1.jpg

9qDaxxQ.jpg

 

 

image.gif

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1 hour ago, Biz Prof said:

Hot damn!  Longtime fan of Buck and Don here, so this will be cool to watch unfold.

 

I'm excited to get started on these. My brother and I have been talking about this for a long time. I still have a lot of unanswered questions that need to be resolved. I want to stay as close as reasonably possible to mid-60's Fender specs... but I really want to use compensated saddles, for example.

There are some other details which are bothering me. I've not been able to find a pale gold metal flake that suits me. I have a couple standard gold flakes already here... but they're not an exact match. Then there is the binding on the gold Teles, which has the black and white checkerboard in it. I've searched extensively, and can't find it. It's smaller than the Rickenbacker checker pattern. The one company that makes something close charges $1.25 per inch... 

https://custominlay.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fcheckerboard-white-black-binding

... and on a double bound guitar, that just ain't gonna happen. So, I'm either going to have to figure out how to make it myself, or just settle for black binding. 

Here are a few reference pictures.

kG1BoQa.jpg


iaPENEy.jpg


76lnDVp.jpg

 

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45 minutes ago, slingblader said:

There are some other details which are bothering me. I've not been able to find a pale gold metal flake that suits me. I have a couple standard gold flakes already here... but they're not an exact match. Then there is the binding on the gold Teles, which has the black and white checkerboard in it. I've searched extensively, and can't find it. It's smaller than the Rickenbacker checker pattern. The one company that makes something close charges $1.25 per inch... 

https://custominlay.com/shop?olsPage=products%2Fcheckerboard-white-black-binding

Might want to keep tabs on TDPRI and the seemingly eternal threads on the matter.  Note that Steve Dikkers (who's done a LOT of these checker-bound builds and who did one for our own cmatthes) implies that source material for one of the two styles he uses is no longer available.   Check it out:  https://www.tdpri.com/threads/checkerboard-binding.1070787/page-2

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

Might want to keep tabs on TDPRI and the seemingly eternal threads on the matter.  Note that Steve Dikkers (who's done a LOT of these checker-bound builds and who did one for our own cmatthes) implies that source material for one of the two styles he uses is no longer available.   Check it out:  https://www.tdpri.com/threads/checkerboard-binding.1070787/page-2

 

 

Yeah, I've looked exhaustively through TDPRI saw the same thread. Rothko and Frost was the other company that had it, but now only has the crooked stuff, and no idea when the good stuff will come back in... and the Rickenbacker parts place doesn't have it anymore (theirs was too big anyway).  I think I may try to create some jigs and fixtures to make it. From what I can tell, the original is made up of 3 components; thin solid black binding edges with the black and white sandwiched in between. What I don't know is if they were pre-assembled, then heated and installed... or, were they applied in 3 stages? I can see potential pros and cons with both methods.

What I don't want to do is get myself into an analysis paralysis mode. I just need to make a decision and get on with it. :D

 

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6 minutes ago, slingblader said:

From what I can tell, the original is made up of 3 components; thin solid black binding edges with the black and white sandwiched in between. What I don't know is if they were pre-assembled, then heated and installed... or, were they applied in 3 stages? I can see potential pros and cons with both methods.

I might be mistaken about this, but I think Steve Dikkers actually built up that three-ply binding himself.  Have you tried posting a "Hey Buckocaster!" thread on TDPRI?  I don't think Dikkers reads/responds to PMs, so creating a new thread might be the easiest way to find out if he fabbed his and if so, how he did it. 

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7 minutes ago, Biz Prof said:

I might be mistaken about this, but I think Steve Dikkers actually built up that three-ply binding himself.  Have you tried posting a "Hey Buckocaster!" thread on TDPRI?  I don't think Dikkers reads/responds to PMs, so creating a new thread might be the easiest way to find out if he fabbed his and if so, how he did it. 

I may very well do that!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey everyone. I've just gotten a good start on my next project. Three Telecasters. One for myself, one for my brother and one for my dad. My brother and I have been kicking around this idea for quite a while now, and I'm finally getting around to it. :)

When I was a kid back in the late 60s and early 70s, my dad was a huge Buck Owens fan. Every Saturday morning I'd wake up to the sound of "Tiger by the Tail", or "Act Naturally" being played over dad's stereo system (on vinyl of course). We watched every episode of Hee Haw, which my brother and I claimed to dislike at the time. I have to say that it's probably one of the primary reasons that my brother and I both play.

The original idea was to build the famous 1960's metal flake Teles that Buck on Don played back in the day. One silver with black binding and one gold with checkerboard binding. Then we started thinking... Buck was also famous for his red, white and blue guitars (mostly acoustic), but he also had a few "flag" Teles. So, the plan at the moment is to make the third Tele; a red, white (silver metal flake) and blue guitar for my dad. My dad has no idea, by the way. So this should be a cool surprise for him.

The guitars will be built similar to 1960s specs, and as similar to the original Buck and Don Teles as I can, but I'm not going to sweat it if some details are wrong. In fact I'm intentionally changing a couple of things... like compensated saddles and an electrosocket jack.

I'm just hoping to get these completed before the holidays so that we can do a little pickin' and grinnin' at Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings this year. I think that would be pretty sweet.

Specifications (subject to change on a whim):

  • Alder body
  • 2 piece hard maple neck (figured maple for my brother and dad)
  • Maple fretboard (Figured maple for my brother and dad)
  • Gotoh (Kluson) Tuners
  • Bone nut
  • Fender bridge with Wilkinson compensated saddles
  • Fender '64 Tele pickups
  • Electrosocket jack
  • W/B/W pickguard
  • Guitar 1 - Silver metal flake with black binding
  • Guitar 2 - Gold metal flake with black/checkerboard/black binding (Maybe... I think... I hope. :) )
  • Guitar 3 - Silver metal flake with transparent red and blue flag stripes and white binding

Here are a couple of pictures of material prep to get things going. I'll post more later as this is pretty long-winded as it is. :D
dx6dZeO.jpg


SLLspX0.jpg

 

And of course, the inspiration. :)
qfVeJd2.jpg


9VDNM3w.jpg


lcpjyGe.jpg

I won't be doing any gold or brass hardware.. just nickel/chrome, white guard and binding on this one... and a maple board.
03yHb7r.jpg

 

More soon... Anyone know where I can get one of the suits? :D

 

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20 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Manuel is the man.  He has a store in Nashville with some pre-made clothing, and you can still get custom fitted and designed stage clothes from him. 

https://www.facebook.com/manuelcouture 

Damn! That guy can do it!

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Manuel was son in law to Nudie Cohn.  Nudie designed clothes.  Manuel did the sewing and fitting.  Marty Stuart has collected Nudie suits and the like which is how I learned Manuel's name.  Manuel has a store in Nashville that he goes to every day.  You can talk to him if you like.  There are other people working sewing machines, etc.  You can fill your closet with cool clothing and spend a year's pay in a day.  There are affordable items, though. 

 

Now, back to slingblader and his amazing guitar building skills. 

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