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Walnut Telecaster

Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 1:53 pm
by HNB
I found this walnut body cheap on ebay and thought it would be fun. It was like $60. It is probably seven or eight pieces of wood pancaked and such, but looks pretty enough to me and I had some spare parts not being used.

ImageIMG_20200905_180849 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200905_180832 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I used some putty on the back to help fill in those seams.

ImageIMG_20200905_181838 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Then I got to work sanding it. With 300 grit it started to almost sand it to a polish. Never seen that with wood before. It was really cool. I guess that is because walnut is such a hard wood.

ImageIMG_20200906_145320 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I tried out a new painting method where I mix one scoop oil poly with one scoop mineral oil to thin it and wipe it on. It is like water thin so the wood sucks it up. Also because it is so thin, there is no wipe marks to sand out.

Image2020-09-06_04-03-48 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

It also dries in like 10-30minutes to do another coat. I think I ended up doing five coats or so? Since walnut is so hard it was mostly just to darken it and make it more glossy. Then I loaded parts on. Seymour duncan pickups and old school cloth wiring and such.

ImageIMG_20200918_135917 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Going to use a different guard than this, but it will have a Costello vibe.

ImageIMG_20200918_141850 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

The neck is a WD one that I made a custom decal for and installed Gotoh tuners. :)

ImageIMG_20200916_093157 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200918_141645 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200918_141655 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Re: Walnut Telecaster

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 5:41 pm
by HNB
All done. Only thing that sort of bugs me is the neck pickup is wood mounted and the guard is for guard mounted, but it is pretty minor really. ;) Pickups sound good. It is heavy, but since it is a tele size body, it isn't too bad. The neck is a soft "V" on the back. I need a string tree, but otherwise all done. :D

ImageIMG_20200930_182245 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200930_182255 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200930_182259 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200930_182323 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

ImageIMG_20200930_182330 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Re: Walnut Telecaster

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 7:54 pm
by mediocreplayer
Very nice! I call dibs on this when you sell it. It will make a good beater companion when I want to keep my Walnut Jag safe.

Re: Walnut Telecaster

Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:13 pm
by Veitchy
Man that looks great - a tad more refined look for a Telecaster. So much walnut content lately. Hope the trend keeps up.

Re: Walnut Telecaster

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 11:57 am
by paul56
Nice Tele, but why can't you mount the neck pickup to the guard? Couple of screws and springs and you're golden.

Re: Walnut Telecaster

Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:59 pm
by HNB
The holes in the pickup were smaller than traditional screw mounting holes and I don't have the right drill size to drill them out. :)