'74 Telecaster restoration project - DONE !!

[Veitchy]

How are you going to deal with the round heel on the Deluxe neck vs. the flat heel of the body and pickguard?

A mate had a 70s/deluxe headstock on a 50's style body. He used to cram joints into the gap...

[raphaël]

How are you going to deal with the round heel on the Deluxe neck vs. the flat heel of the body and pickguard?

Do you mean the gap ?
If so, my answer is : so be it
I was already ok about that with the coronado neck i wanted to put in that square neck pocket in the first place, so it doesn't really matter.
But i have to confess that I didn't know tele deluxe necks were rounded heeled
That they basically were strat necks...But as i said, it doesn't matter, as I was already prepared.

[bfulgham]

I originally wanted a 60s Coronado neck, but as none showed up I couldn't wait anymore. But patience is a vertue and I should have wait because some finally came up for sale.

Where did you find them? I’m looking for a neck to reattach to a ‘67 Coronado! Can’t find one anywhere.

[raphaël]

SUCCESS !!!!!!!

Not a victory yet, but a success indeed : my natural Tele body is in a good way to have its black binding.
I've spent countless HOURS to chip the glittery black coat off, then I've spent COUNTLESS hours to sand what was remaining down, then I've spent COUNTLESS hours to shape it with a precision scalpel, sanded it down again, then reshape, then more sanding
At several points during this year of sanding ( No, I didn't do it all this time) I've almost gave up, saying to myself there might be a big no point on doing this at all because I wasn't sure my idea would actually work in the end.
But it did, and I'm beyond happiness.
It's not done at all, just the front of the body, and an area on the side, just to see how good it would look when done.

Pics now !!
But keep in mind it's still a work in progress, not that neat, but in a good way :

FROM HERE :






TO HERE :



AND THEN HERE !!!!! :





Cool huh?

Now I have to finish this work. But the goal makes it painless.
And I have all the parts to get it done.
Can't wait !

A question :
I've never polyshed a guitar, how do I do it?

And my special pickguard project might actually not work, too cost prohibitive...will see. I'll explain later what I have in mind, and what is my backup idea. Which is actually not so bad.

Cheers !!

[raphaël]

Hey !

It's been quite a journey to get there but the guitar is finished !!
It actually is since 2 months but I kept swinging necks on it.

So !
I'm a bit disappointed with my pickguard idea that didn't work...at all
I know a woman who does embroidery. It's art, really. She told me she was ok to embroid a small sheet, with a flower pattern, to put it under a clear pickguard. As I wrote an article on her activity that helps her a lot she wanted to help me with this project. But she didn't know what a Tele pickguard really was...and when she realized that she told me it was a 500 € job...ok, I obviously said no !
A pitty, she does incredible things.

From then I went from a clear pickguard with multiple trials under, to a homemade brass pickguard, to you name it...to a black one.
Keep it simple.

That is my point with this guitar. I had so much ideas about making it unique. But then I've plugged the guitar.
Shocked I was !! Big time !!!
Let me try to explain (I'm already having a hard time trying to explain it in french...it will be difficult in english )
When I've plugged the guitar it was like all of my musical culture, that I've heard and love for all this years, jumped out of my strings and fingers. Like it wasn't me, but the sum of my musical culture. Which is "me" in a sense, but not compared to the musical culture I've built myself by playing "weird" 60s / 70s guitars, and offsets...not mainstream guitars I mean. Which leads to a not mainstream sound. By mainstream I mean popular I guess. In a good way.
This Tele makes me play differently, and instantly (Yep it's esoteric!). I dont recognize myself as a guitar player, but I recognize what I here. It feels home and safe.

Which lead me to keep it simple after a lot of consideration : a black pickguard and a regular neck pickup.
This Cavalier neck pickup is insane by the way. I love it as hard as I love the bridge pickup.
This '74 bridge pickup is . This one especially made me play very differently.

Does this ^^ make any sense to someone?
It does to me, even if I can't really explain this with clarity.

Anyway, to be concrete now, it took me a massive load of hours to finish this body. It's not perfect, far from it, but it's fine by me. I've used olive oil to make it shine. And it worked perfectly.

Now, my biggest issue is the neck. I don't know what's right.
The maple one is finally a tad too big for mys tastes. The frets are too big too.
So I've taken the neck off my '67 PartCoronado and 1 - it looks damned fine, 2 - this was my first idea, and 3 - it feels like home. But I loose a bit of the overall magic...as I don't fight this neck (which is my favorite 25.5 Fender neck).

I think the guitar will stay that way.
Which means I have to find another vintage Coronado neck for the Coronado !

Enough taking, pics :

She was like that once, before :


And now (with the Xmas tree...no cats around sadly) :



I'll try to take better pics with a real camera...as soon as the sun pops !



And she was like that with the maple neck :



Seeing those again, I very much much much prefer the look of the Tele with the Coronado neck. As the overall feeling that guitar gives me.

To conclude, it took me a loooong time to complete it, but it was so worth it.
I'm completly in love with that guitar, with how she looks and what she makes me feel and play.
Even if it's "just" a Telecaster, a mainstream guitar.
It's also a good lesson learned .

[raphaël]

I've traded my Tele Deluxe neck and a violin to this wonderful '66 Coronado I neck. I'm so happy it worked out.
I much refer the look of this one on the Tele, and the fretboard is darker than my B&B one (the pics don't do it justice. It's very dark).
The profile is a bit chunkier but it's very ok. I feel it is the neck that needed to go on that guitar.
So that my B&B can go back on my Corondo...when the body will return from refin !!!
Anyway,
Here it is.



Next will just be a 1 ply black pickguard and it'll be it !

[Maggieo]

Gorgeous!!!

[Telliot]

Love that neck on this Tele, great job!

[Shadoweclipse13]

That is really cool!!!

[raphaël]

Your comments are much appreciated as some of you are known here as famous tele lovers, and have great specimens.
So thank you very much

[PorkyPrimeCut]

Wow!! I missed this one!

It's really classy looking with that binding & the Coronado neck!
Great to see other fans of Tele bodies with non-Tele headstocks

[raphaël]

Thanks !
The more I see my guitar the more I'm telling myself the Coronado headstock fits the Tele much better than the regular one.
To my taste obviously

[pakhan]

It looks fabulous, congrats on a job well done!

[smjenkins]

Coronado necks are having a bit of a moment around OSG. This is a trend that I can get behind. Awesome work restoring the body and the neck just works perfectly on this guitar. Nice work!