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refinishing partscaster tele

exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
edited December 2010 in Musicians and Gearheads
a preview of what i've been doing for a couple of weeks.

body

headstock

back of headstock

mock up with parts

all i'm left with is buffing the face of the headstock and the body but i'm waiting a couple of weeks at least for the finish to harden. this was all done with hardware store level stuff so it's not perfect by any means but i'm happy with it. both body and neck came finished but through various incidents and accidents, i decided to strip both and refinish. i've always wanted a sonic blue guitar and luckily rustoleum makes a "sky blue" that is pretty much a dead ringer for fender sonic blue. i'm using a spray poly clearcoat that slightly ambers it to a nice aged colour... slightly green.

going to also lightly relic the hardware to match the brushed nickel of the bigsby. the only other fake relicing is that most of the finish has been taken off the back of the neck but that was for feel only.
Post edited by Unknown User on

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    SidnumSidnum Posts: 674
    Good job! I always like seeing projects like this. I've been wanting to build a bass from scratch for a long time now.
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    All Those YesterdaysAll Those Yesterdays Posts: 2,723
    Hard to see in the picture but is it going to be a pain to set the intonation with the bigsby on it? Access to the saddle screws? Just curious, I know my buddy has a Japanese Tele with the Bigsby and it's near impossible to gain access. Not planned out at all on Fenders part. He ended up switching to a allen head and cut a allen wrench down to size to make it work. Still just irritating!

    I actually always had a thing for Fenders Lake Placid Blue back in the day.

    Also thanks for showing another project near completion. You successfully continue to make me feel lazy, will all my half completely projects.

    Shoot I just finally got the Gretsch 5222 going with the external speaker jack, multi-point PT and negative feedback loop bypass. You helped me pick the transformer for that years ago. Oh and I finally replaced the tuners on the ES-125... Wow two items in a year, I'm out of control...

    Crap I'm lazy....
    E. Lansing-98 Columbus-00,03,10 Detroit-00,03 (1&2),06, 14 Cleveland-03,06,10 Toledo-04, Grand Rapids-04,06 London-05, Toronto-05, Indianapolis 10, East Troy (1&2) 11, Chicago 13, Detroit 14

    https://www.facebook.com/aghostwritersapology/
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    All Those YesterdaysAll Those Yesterdays Posts: 2,723
    All Those Yesterdays wrote:
    Hard to see in the picture but is it going to be a pain to set the intonation with the bigsby on it? Access to the saddle screws? Just curious, I know my buddy has a Japanese Tele with the Bigsby and it's near impossible to gain access. Not planned out at all on Fenders part. He ended up switching to a allen head and cut a allen wrench down to size to make it work. Still just irritating!

    I actually always had a thing for Fenders Lake Placid Blue back in the day.

    Also thanks for showing another project near completion. You successfully continue to make me feel lazy, will all my half completely projects.

    Shoot I just finally got the Gretsch 5222 going with the external speaker jack, multi-point PT and negative feedback loop bypass. You helped me pick the transformer for that years ago. Oh and I finally replaced the tuners on the ES-125... Wow two items in a year, I'm out of control...

    Crap I'm lazy....


    By the way in no way do I mean anything offensive to you in my original question. I was just wondering if you addressed it at all. That's all. After posting it dawned on me that this could be interpreted very badly. Nothing but Mad respect for you, your projects and your music.
    E. Lansing-98 Columbus-00,03,10 Detroit-00,03 (1&2),06, 14 Cleveland-03,06,10 Toledo-04, Grand Rapids-04,06 London-05, Toronto-05, Indianapolis 10, East Troy (1&2) 11, Chicago 13, Detroit 14

    https://www.facebook.com/aghostwritersapology/
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    exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    you're absolutely right about intonation access. it needs a little right-angle screw-driver. modifying an allen key is also a great option (i asked for a dremel for christmas). until i can find one it's a matter of stringing it conventionally, setting the intonation and then restringing through the bigsby which is a waste of strings obviously.

    when i assemble it, i will eyeball the intonation using my other tele as reference. then put the bigsby on. it's a pain because the intonation has to be destroyed to remove the screwed holding the bridge to the body.

    with the fenders that have the bigsby with the jazzmaster type bridge, access should just be a matter of reversing the bridge such that the screwheads are on the pickup side rather than the bridge side. sometimes the typical gibson type TOM bridge has the same problem.
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    All Those YesterdaysAll Those Yesterdays Posts: 2,723
    I remember seeing a Fender Custom shop relic Tele with a Bigsby on it, And for some reason I believe it had a different saddle set up, that took care of the problem. We are talking 5 years ago, so things are a bit foggy.

    Good luck on the build and keep us posted as always.
    E. Lansing-98 Columbus-00,03,10 Detroit-00,03 (1&2),06, 14 Cleveland-03,06,10 Toledo-04, Grand Rapids-04,06 London-05, Toronto-05, Indianapolis 10, East Troy (1&2) 11, Chicago 13, Detroit 14

    https://www.facebook.com/aghostwritersapology/
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    keeponrockinkeeponrockin Posts: 7,446
    I said it on facebook but again, that thing looks awesome.
    Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
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    exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    thanks again.

    i managed to screw up the headstock... again... so i've had to redo it. third time is the charm i hope. gives me a chance to design a better decal anyway.

    lesson learned, any time i've even approached not having patience, something goes wrong. the body now has a big tag with "jan 20" on it to remind me not to touch the freaking thing.
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    gimmesometruth27gimmesometruth27 St. Fuckin Louis Posts: 22,179
    wow ex, that guitar looks awesome. nice work! :clap:
    There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.- Hemingway

    "Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
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    exhaustedexhausted Posts: 6,638
    yet another failed attempt at the headstock..... :cry:

    redoing the whole neck. this time, just tung oil except for the headstock which will still be painted to match the body.
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