| 6/9/2005 |
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The start of it all |
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This pic is from the Ebay auction for the body, which I won with a selling price of $108.96. The seller was A and D Guitar Company and was one of many such bodies they were selling on ebay at the time. After shipping and insurance, the total came to $132.16. |
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| 6/9/2005 |
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Sucker for redwood |
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I hate to say this body was an impulse buy, but it's somewhat true. I had been looking for another guitarra project, and this one popped up one day, the figured redwood and binding looks amazing, the price was right, and so I snapped it up. |
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| 6/9/2005 |
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Backside |
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As you can see in the pics, this guitar is made from a solid alder body with an ivaroid-bound curly redwood top. No holes had been drilled allowing complete control over the decision making process. The seller included a back plate for the control cavity. |
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| 6/14/2005 |
| Got it |
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Received the body and it was just
as described. This photo was taken in pretty bad light. It's
definitely in need of some sanding and prep work before finishing.
The bound edge is especially sharp, I'm going to have to check
out another guitar with binding to see how much to round it
off. |
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| 6/14/2005 |
| 1/4" Thick top |
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Top looks to be about 1/4"
thick, not too shabby. |
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| 6/14/2005 |
| Back with cavity cover |
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Here's the cavity cover. No holes
drilled. Good fit. Maybe I'll pull a Scott
French and do a magnetic cover. |
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| 6/22/2005 |
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Bought a neck |
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So, after looking at necks on Ebay, I had pretty much decided on an Allparts licensed Tele neck. They're supposedly made in Japan at the same factory as Japanese Fenders. My two favorite necks in the world are Japanese Fender necks, so thought I'd give it a shot. The big question will be the back profile, if it's beefy enough for my tastes. This one was a good enough deal at $150 (including Sperzel locking tuners, a nut, string trees, neck plate, and drilling for everything) that I could probably sell it all for a profit if it wasn't suitable for my tastes. |
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| 6/22/2005 |
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Body finishing supplies |
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So, based on the recommendation of Ranger-X , I found Deft brand nitrocellulose lacquer in 12oz spray cans at Woodcraft for $5.99 each. Just to be on the safe side I bought three cans of clear gloss, along with one can of lacquer sanding sealer. After shipping the total came to $31.95. I still need to buy some wet/dry sandpaper and possibly some dark brown gel stain for the alder backside of the body, but I don't think that'll be too expensive. Besides that, I've spent just over $300 and all I have left to purchase is a bridge and pickups/electronics. |
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| 6/24/2005 |
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Bridge purchase |
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Ebay is turning out to be a haven of good deals for this project. This is an Allparts bridge that according to the seller was purchased in 1992 and has been sitting in a parts box in its original sealed package ever since. I like the Allparts design because it offers modern tele features but the holes are drilled for vintage-style bridges, so should I decide to go to a vintage bridge, I won't have pesky modern bridge holes to cover. After shipping this was $29.50 for a bridge that sells for $70 on the Allparts site. |
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| 6/27/2005 |
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Got the neck and bridge |
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Finally I get an idea of what the finished product will look like. |
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