Guys, if you haven't got the patience to take a moment and read about the story of this guitar, this is not a guitar for you. It isn't about Guitarbuild's awesome bodies or Fender spec'd necks like Hosco or Allparts. I'm writting this text the 5th May 2020, and the very first picture I have from this project is from the 19th May 2019, so about a year ago, before moving to my actual address.
At the time I was already doing some great stuff, and I realised that I hadn't done anything for myself. After that I ended up doing my Jazz Bass, that took a lot of time to finish too, color change, etc., but that's another story. I was still using a small airbrush to do my nitro finishes, and I'd spend like 3 hours to paint a body, or something like that. Jizzz!
So it all began when I bought my 2nd or 3rd Thomann Strat DIY kit for someone that was on a tight budget, because the bodies were awful, but the necks we're very good actually. The only pain in the b*** was to cut the headstock shape. There I was, unpacking my kit, and instead of a Strat neck, they sent me a Single Cut Les Paul type neck instead! OK... Well, they were absolutely great, sent me a new neck right away - that's why I buy almost every piece of hardware from them until today - but I'm a guy that doesn't like to throw away things when there's a chance that something good can come out of it.
Wow, a 24.75" length scale neck... what about now? Well, what about a guitar for me?! Low budget, still good quality. So I bought one of those mahogany Thinline Tele bodies in China, 74 Euros by the way, because I just couldn' use a traditional Tele body with the usual bridge drilling already made, in order to respect the scale and place the bridge where it should be.
Aligning from here, mesuring from there, reading forums and so on, and this thing finally started to take place and getting somewhere. There was just one thing I regret; I had bought Grover V98N uncovered machine heads, but there wasn't enough space to mount them in the right position, so they're backwards, but that's OK. Göldo hardtail bridge, all-Göldo electronics, A and B 500k pots, EL5PL 5-way switch for humbucker coil split, Kluson jack socket in a vintage cup type jack plate, Cabronita customized pickguard, '72 style knobs, and Vanson humbuckers, '59 Alnico V PAF on the bridge and '57 Alnico II PAF on the neck. HEY the wires are all there, including Ground, but you'll have to do the soldering, don't say I didn't warned you.
Talking about those, it took a while to know how the heck was I going to install those in direct mount!! I finished up buying humbucker base plates that were mounted underneath them so I could still adjust the height with the side screws. I whole afternoon to figure that out! Oh, and a curved neck joint too, so the access would be the nicest possible, and it works people!
The project took weeks, when I had some spare time between the garden where I was working at at that time, and the other bodies and projects I was selling on internet. But I was so happy with it, I really was. It had this Fender Parallel Universe vibe to it.
Then, the Jazz Bass came along and the Thinline Tele started to have less attention from me. Summer of 2019 arrived, I quitted my job at the garden to do relics almost full time, we moved, my personal guitars were packed along with the Thinline Tele, and it's not until April 2020, last month, that it was unpacked. A customer and friend of mine told me I should do something about my photos, because they weren't giving my work much value, and this Tele was the first thing I photographed after doing a small background at home to take my pictures. I stringed it after that, I took new photos, and on this last Sunday, May 3rd, I set it up, leveled the frets, tuned the octaves, worked the nut as low as it can get - by the way, change the Harley Benton 9" strings, they were used just to do the setup without spending much - and... do you know what I'm positively sure you'll like? You may be thinking: "-OK, this guy's just trying to sell a chinese body and an Harley Benton neck like it was worth a million bucks.", but honestly, this is one of the smoothest action guitars I have ever built, and I have just finished the Candy Apple Red Telecaster which is awesome to play! Still, I prefer this one.
Believe it or not, a baby can do the F chord on it. The low E string is a little bit higher than 2mm at the 12th fret, the A and D strings about 2mm, and the G, B and high E are at 1.8mm, no buzzing, that goes without saying. This will be the only one of it's kind. I can do similar with a Tele neck, but don't ask me to use a 24.75" neck again on a Telecaster body, too much work!
Here's the evolution of it in the pictures below. Cheers!
