# The Shiny Telecaster



## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Earlier in the year, me and my lad (16) were sat watching a guitar riffs programme on TV. Brian May appeared saying how his dad made him his first guitar to which my lad sarcastically said that i never made him a guitar, so i replied that i never made him perm his hair like Brian May either.

Now he has a Epiphone SG which we bought years back and this year he saved up and bought a very nice PRS SE-245.

He's been banging on about his next guitar being a Fender Telecaster (he likes stoptails), so with a massive thanks for Jem for his inspiring thread here - http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=345266 - i thought i'd have a go at this myself.

Telecasters seem to go for a lot of money on Ebay, so i took a chance and bought a battered, but well loved Fender Squier Tele on Ebay and drove to reading to pick up this -




























First off was the sticker removal, loads of glue remover and a razor blade!



















Then the sanding started










There were chips round the edge, so i decided to sand a curve to the edges to remove the chips and give it a smooth edge.










Then out with the Isopon P38!










Using Halfords car paints, i started to build up the filler primer.










Guide Coat










Followed by lots of sanding and some more filling. I also wanted a traditional round jack socket rather than the square plate on the Squier.



















Then to start work on the neck




























Time to start layering up the Arctic White paint...




























Now for the personal touch (a mate of mine has some water transfer paper)...



















Serial No 










The body painted with clear lacquer, dried, and of course polished!










Wired up with different pickups, earthed and earthed cavities.










New Super Slinky Cobalts 










And all back together with new black hardware...





































I bought a black curly Brian May style wig, wrapped it up and for Christmas Day and made him open that first and put it on before he could open his guitar. He came over quite emotional and has hardly put the the guitar down since.

As a keep sake, I also made up a photo album from one of these online make your own places -



















I guess if anything ever happens to me he will now have something personal to keep. Only trouble is that i need to find something to do for my other lad. lol.

Big thanks to Jem for his original post and giving me the inspiration and confidence to make someone really happy. :thumb:


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## muzzer (Feb 13, 2011)

That is a way cool present and kudos to you for listening to your lad, then going out and doing what he said you never did. That is quite a turn around there, you've done yourself proud there :thumb:


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## Kimo (Jun 7, 2013)

Awesome 

Got mine back out for the first time in 5/6 years and it was still in tune 

Going to polish it back up and give it a wax :lol:


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

I've thought about doing this but the telecaster's I looked at even the squiers were silly money. Looks great just one quick question, What did you mean by earthing the cavities. Also did you get frets redressed and are those new machine heads?

Anyway the guitar looks great and I like the photobook of the build as well. Hope you both enjoy it!


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## Fox5150 (Oct 13, 2014)

That's brilliant. I love seeing guitar builds and what you've done for your son there he'll treasure forever. Thanks for sharing!


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## SBM (Jul 4, 2013)

Speechless - this is incredible in every way. Inspiring and I bet your son is extremely proud to have such a wonderful dad. One unforgettable and unique gift. Kudos indeed sir!:thumb::argie:

Ben


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

tmitch45 said:


> I've thought about doing this but the telecaster's I looked at even the squiers were silly money. Looks great just one quick question, What did you mean by earthing the cavities. Also did you get frets redressed and are those new machine heads?
> 
> Anyway the guitar looks great and I like the photobook of the build as well. Hope you both enjoy it!


It took several weeks of eBaying to find one. Most seemed to go for a around £80/100 or more in reasonable condition. The other problem was location, one had to be reasonably near as most were collection only and i didn't want a snapped neck turning up in the post. This one appeared on Ebay and looked a right state, but i had a few email exchanges with the owner, he was passionate about it, I agreed £50 (more than i really wanted to pay, but it was worth it after i had stripped it back) and paid cash on collection. The guitar is straight and plays really well and that was what mattered. It is also the Affinity series, so the neck is slightly thinner and suits my lads hands and playing style.

I bought all new hardware off eBay but from proper shops that are also on ebay.

One thing i learned was that powder coated bridges and control plates don't work!

This was the original plan, all black hardware -










However, when I plugged it in it buzzed like mad. After lots of reading, I discovered that the Telecaster uses a basic grounding system and the control plate, bridge and strings all form part of it. So i cleaned up the original bridge and plate, used that and most of the buzzing stopped. I'm kind of please it went that way, as it looks more original with a chrome plate and control panel plate too.

Due to the single coils, Telecasters have a certain amount of buzz. Higher end models have the cavities earthed to reduce buzz. I did this with cavity shielding paint, which is a conductive paint you just brush into the cavities. I also used a copper strip which came in the kit to help earth the bridge.



















One lesson i learned was to not unsolder the pups at the pup end, but at the switch. They have a thin copper wire on them which i knackered on one of them, also knackered the other one by cleaning it. I bought some 2nd hand genuine Fender pups off ebay so was kind of a result.

Paint was probably the most expensive part, surprising how much you need to build up the layers!










The frets are maple so are lacquered. I cleaned all the frets, but lightly sanded the last two as they were filthy. Then relacquered. The back of the neck had several coats.

Total cost is difficult to say, didn't add it up and spending £10 here and there it doesn't feel like you are really spending, but i would guess circa £200, maybe a bit less, in all including the guitar. The good things is that it is unique and in a way priceless to my lad.



Fox5150 said:


> That's brilliant. I love seeing guitar builds and what you've done for your son there he'll treasure forever. Thanks for sharing!


Thanks. Only problem is, my missus has told me i need to do something for my other son now! :lol:



SBM said:


> Speechless - this is incredible in every way. Inspiring and I bet your son is extremely proud to have such a wonderful dad. One unforgettable and unique gift. Kudos indeed sir!:thumb::argie:
> 
> Ben


Cheers for your kind words. I'm chuffed that he actually really likes it, not just the thought, but the way it plays etc. He's not touched his PRS since Christmas day!


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## tmitch45 (Jul 29, 2006)

Thanks for the reply Shiny and all the useful information! I can see where you were going with the black hardware but I think it looks good as it is in silver. I'm going to keep a look out on ebay for some cheap telecasters!


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## Guitarjon (Jul 13, 2012)

Great job! Thats a nice tele. I used to love my old beaten up, battered tele. I did sell it on quite battered for 80 pounds too. 

I do have a soft spot for white guitars but I like gold hardwear. The black does look great though, nice contrast. Always fancied building/refurbishing a guitar myself but never really found the time.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Cheers chaps.

Funnily enough, when i was trying to extract what he wanted, you know, the old "so if you ever saved enough money to by a Telecaster, what colour would it be...?", he wanted white with either black or gold hardware. Then he umm'd and aaah'd and said black. Gold is nice, but maybe a bit blingy for him.

I also bought him an official Fender black strap with a white Fender logo, looks great with the guitar.

Finding time to do it was one thing, but finding time to do it in _secret_ was another thing entirely! Luckily i have a garage, so i was disappearing down there for 10 minutes in the evening or on a Wednesday afternoon before he got home from school. I also had to keep him out of the garage as the guitar was hanging up for weeks!


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

And here it/he is in action last night...


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## Bustanut (Jun 11, 2011)

Fantastic story and write up. I can understand how he got a bit emotional getting the present along with the book and wig. Thanks for posting this, really made me smile. Also might inspire me to refurb my old Aria that Ive had since my 15th birthday (am now 42).


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## Guitarjon (Jul 13, 2012)

Got a nice tone to it that! What amp is he using it through?


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Cheers John. It's through a Laney amp we got when we bought his bass guitar. He's got a little Line6, but the Laney sounds so much nicer when he's playing a clean sound.


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## Guitarjon (Jul 13, 2012)

Cool, is it a valver? Sounds like it could be.


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## Shiny (Apr 23, 2007)

Nah, just a normal amp. It's an RB3, bought second hand from Anderons, although it was lovely condition. I think we paid either £60 or £80 for it, so it was a bargain.

Has a lovely clear sound. We were looking at new with a budget of £120ish, and the difference in between the second hand Laney and new amps at twice the price was night and day.


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

Awesome stuff!


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