One last thing.

I forgot to mention the wiring scheme for my own guitar. I can't have a Tele with just normal wiring, now can I??? I'm thinking about 2 mini-toggle's, one being a phase switch, and the other being a direct-through mod. But I'm not sold on either one yet. I always have trouble making up my mind on that. My last Tele has been wired every way possible. It was my wiring guinea pig for many years, in fact. I might even do something totally bizarre. I have an idea floating around in my head, but I don't want to type it out. If I don't do it, people will think I'm a wimp for not doing it... But a man has got to know his limits, right? :P

One after the other!

So what's next after I finish my project? I've got a white Strat that's getting the Stressed Out Guitar treatment! Keep 'em coming, people!

Lots and lots of STUFF!

In addition to getting completely refinished, this baby is getting a complete electronics and hardware overhaul! It's going to have a new USA bent steel, 3-saddle bridge, Fender USA vintage tuners with extended bushings to make up for the larger hole size, a new cap, American Fender pickups and an Electrosocket jack plate with a Switchcraft jack! I also had to go with a black pickguard, which is the only logical choice on a black Tele, in my very humble opinion. This guitar is going to be dead sexy when she's done! Here's a shot of some of the hardware after it was finely sanded and rusted. Each piece has to be hand sanded before it gets dropped into my "special rusting potion". It takes some time, but the results are worth it, I think. 

Finish the finish, dangit!

And here she is in all of her blacked out glory! There are 2 scars on the front [you can see them in the photo] that I just barely sanded flush and then sprayed over again. If I was finishing this guitar without an aging job, they would be unacceptable. But since I'm going to beat it up, they're going to work to my advantage! When I'm done with it, you won't even know they're there. But all in all, I'm happy with the results. In about 2 days, it'll be ready to work on some more. Until then, I'm going to turn my attention to the neck. This might be the most violently Stressed Out Guitar that I've ever done, so I'm going to really work it over. I can't wait to finish with it! 

What I'm doing right now...

As mentioned below, right now I'm working on one of my very own guitars! Cool story behind this guy. My dearest friend in the world came by to see me at work at Guitar Center and saw this used white Tele hanging up around the tech counter. He said asked me what I thought of it, so I picked it up and checked it out. Everything seemed super solid, and it was from 2008, so that means that it had CTS pots and a USA quality switch on the inside. The models from 2008 [and the newer ones too, of course] also feature way nicer frets, and a 70's style logo with the serial number discreetly placed on the back of the headstock instead of all jumbled up on the front like the previous years of the MIM instruments. Some USA made Fender's featured that same headstock logo design in the late 70's all the way throughout most of the 80's. But yea, anyway... I told him the guitar was very cool and that it would definitely be worth a purchase, especially at the price that we had it at. So he bought it, along with a super badass bullet strap, and handed it to me and said, "Merry Christmas!". Yep. That dude bought me a GUITAR for Christmas!!! I was about to flip out with excitement! I felt guilty taking such an expensive gift, but he insisted. And I am forever grateful! :) So that brings us to where we are now. The original finish, as you can see here, is white. I like white, but it's not my favorite color. My favorite is black! And I sold my last black Tele, and miss it dearly. So with my buddy's kind permission, I am now refinishing it in black [lacquer, of course], and am doing a massive aging job on it! I just finished the "paint" part of it about an hour ago. I've got a lot more to do on it, but at least the hard and annoying part is over. When you don't have the correct facilities to do finish work, it becomes super time consuming. And working around mother nature is less than fun, too. 

 

Blogger exclusive '72 Deluxe "How It's Done" photo!

As promised on one of my first pots, I'm going to post the occasional Blogger exclusive, "How It's Done" entry, and this one will include a photo [as I'm sure most of them will]. Alrighty then... Miss Strange's fine '72 Deluxe had a super thick candy shell of a finish on it. One of the thickest I've ever seen. She complained about the neck being too sticky [and rightfully so], so I decided to un-sticky the entire guitar for her! This is obviously a mega-thick poly finish, and I didn't have time to refinish the entire guitar in lacquer [I was on a strict time constraint before she had to head back to Nashville with the guitar]. So I wanted to get this finish off fast, and have the surface ready for a hand-rubbed lacquer clear coat. So I stuck this little guy in my oven and let it bake! Mmm... "What's for dinner, grandma? Is it that yummy Telecaster soufle again?". I put the oven on its lowest setting, and roasted this sucker for about 10 minutes, keeping a very close eye on it. Once I started to see one tiny bubble on the finish, I knew it was done. I took it out quickly, then rushed it outside and sanded off the clear coat finish in no time flat. It basically just slides off at that point. And in addition to that, it really sinks in the actual black paint into the wood, making it look pitted and old. Like it's had a million gigs in the hottest hot and coldest cold. After a day of settling in, I was able to hand rub a smooth lacquer finish and buff it to a dull, aged shine. Then after that settled in for about 2 days, I was able to age it and all that fun stuff. Lauren really liked it, and I'm super glad she did. I thought it turned out really nice.

And another '72 Deluxe hits the bench!

This one was done for the wonderfully sweet, and incredibly talented, Lauren Strange. She's a Nashville musician, and is involved in a pop-country solo effort and an alt-rock band. She's an awesome guitar player, amazing singer, and a super talented song writer. I'm glad I got to do a Stressed Out Guitar for her before she gets famous! Her's is a black Fender '72 Deluxe Tele, and she wanted it beat up pretty nicely, and with heavy concentration on making the neck super playable. She hated the nasty poly gloss that was on there from the factory. I got rid of all that nasty crap and replaced it with a lacquer front, and bare back. Here are a few shots of the finished job. For the entire pictorial, mosey on over to my Facebook page!

 

That project in May that I was talking about...

Well, that huge project has come and gone, and it took forever. This bass belongs to a good friend of mine, so he was more than patient with me considering how freaking long it took. The bass was originally black, and he wanted it to be a cool vintage white. That definitely took some time to accomplish. And past the refin job, he also wanted a complete wiring overhaul to go along with his new digs. Here's a pretty sweet looking "before" and "after" shot.

 

Man, where have I been???

What's up, people? I've been absent from this thing for quite some time now. I've actually had quite a few projects over the past few months, and I'm even in the middle of two of them right now [one of which belongs to me]. I'm definitely going to start posting some stuff from now on. But let me at least show off a couple of things from the past few months. Let's start posting, suckas...