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Project Tele Pics

Gordy01

By Gordy01
in Epiphone Electrics

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Gordy01

Gordy01

Posted
Posted

At long last, and with much ado, here's the finished guitar. I do want to again thank the

forum moderators for allowing me to post this on the site.

By the way, the GFS pickups sound great. Way better than I expected.

 

The first thing I would like to share is the lessons I've learned while doing this.

 

If you are considering doing a project like this, don't be as dumb as I was.

Order all, or as many of the parts as you can, right off the start. This will keep your shipping costs down.

I ordered as I could afford it, and spent over a hundred bucks on shipping because of multiple orders.

 

Make sure you are prepared to do some woodworking.

I had to shape the base of the neck, cut the headstock to a shape I liked, and rout the control, and bridge pickup cavities.

Also had to bore out the pre-drilled tuner holes.

 

If you are going to reshape the headstock, buy an unfinished neck.

I spent a lot of time mixing and trying various shades of Urethane and pigment, to match the color.

Finally came up with rubbing a very light coat of orange under the clear.

 

Have patience with yourself. It's easy to get in a hurry and make expensive mistakes.

 

Finally, be prepared to swear a bit!! No explanation required.

 

Here is the whole guitar.

 

WholeGuitar.jpg

 

Headstock Front

 

HeadstockFront.jpg

 

 

Control Plate and Bridge. Notice the White Pearl Inlay on the knobs.

 

ControlPlate.jpg

 

Body Front

 

BodyFront.jpg

 

And lastly, Body Rear

 

BodyRear.jpg

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Swoop

Swoop

Posted
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Looks excellent. I must say, I wasn't convinced on that finish for a Tele, but now I think it looks great. Now that I have successfully rewired my Firebird, I'm feeling reasonably confident at wiring things, and I do want a Tele, so perhaps something such as this will have to be my next task. Though I'm not sure on the woodwork, I really would have expected better than that.

 

Still, you've done a very nice job there Gord. I like the neck colour and grain. How are the frets? Are they finished well and level?

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brianh

brianh

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Nice work Gord, worth the wait. It's funny, because I'm in the middle of a MIM Tele upgrade and it looks like I ordered the same GFS pickguard and knobs, and probably the same 250kohm pots. (Great minds think alike.)

 

The pickups I'm putting in are the matched pair GFS Neovin Power Rock (http://store.guitarfetish.com/nemapa.html) What did you put in? Also like the roller string tree, I should have ordered that too. Of well, next time around.

 

One last thing - the 3-way GFS tele switch I bought seems like plastic junk - it's cheaply made and the top hat knob falls right off. I'm going to return it and reuse the old Mexican swictch instead - it's much better made. Did you have this issue?

 

Brian

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RSDx

RSDx

Posted
Posted
At long last' date=' and with much ado, here's the finished guitar. I do want to again thank the

forum moderators for allowing me to post this on the site.

By the way, the GFS pickups sound great. Way better than I expected.

 

[/quote']

 

NICE !!!! =D> Great job - enjoy it !!! :D/

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Gordy01

Gordy01

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Thanks to all who supported me along the way.

 

The pickups are the GFS Power Rock set. They are humbuckers, so you need 500 k pots.

They are pretty hot. Neck = 7.50. Bridge = 12.35. They have a nice warm sound, beautiful clean,

and nasty when you add a little overdrive.

 

Svet, your Tele is gorgeous also.The body binding sets it off nicely.

 

The neck is a bit chunky (.890 at the 1st fret) but not uncomfortable.

 

I will need to do a complete setup. The quickie setup I did after assembly revealed a high fret.

In general the neck is nice, and the frets were finished well, with no sharp edges.

 

In regards to a logo, I have something in mind. I will take a pic when it is done.

Might be a while.

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Gordy01

Gordy01

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I wish I could claim the work on the finish.

I only retouched the headstock after cutting it into a Tele shape.

The body and neck were pre-finished.

 

I'll have to go over my receipts to give you a good idea of the cost.

Soon. Many things to get caught up on.

 

For anyone who is new to the forum, I did a pictorial history of the assembly

and various problems along the way, with solutions to each problem.

Unfortunately this info was lost in a major forum crash a couple of weeks ago.

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Gordy01

Gordy01

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I know in my research I found quite a few sites that will sell finished bodies, with binding.

Very expensive. Seems to me they were about 180 plus another 200 or so

for finishing and another sum for binding. Just google guitar bodies.

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Gordy01

Gordy01

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I am in the process of a complete setup on the Tele, and

have determined that it will need fret leveling job.

I contacted GFS and they said they would expect a fret level to be part of

any kit guitar, or parts guitar. They also have a "Pro" level neck, which

is supposed to be a better quality for a few bucks more.

I'm fortunate to be able to do this myself, but for anyone considering

a similar project, please take this into consideration.

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