Franken-Tele Rises Again!
Update: And here is the new incarnation of my Franken-Tele!
I am rebuilding my franken-tele again with new parts. I think this will be the 6th swapping of parts for this franken tele.
While the pine body was nice, it was a bit too twangy for me. I wanted a little deeper tone with less highs and more mids resonating in the guitar body; basically, a tele body without the tele sound.
So, I found a nice tele body made out of African mahogony. I mixed two colors of oil based wood stain (neither one was mahogony) and did two coats, and sanded with 600grit wetdry sand paper after both coats. Then I mixed a little of the oil based stain with some clear oil based satin polyurethane. That was brushed on in two thin coats, allowing for complete drying between coats, and again sanding with 600 grit wetdry sand paper after each coat. It came out beautiful. I used the same stains on a pine body and got a completely different result with the final color on mahogony.
If the electronics come out as nice as the body , this guitar will be amazing.
I have a Lindy Fralin humcancelling P-90 that was a little too deep in the neck, and better in middle pickup positions (but still too deep) from other guitar projects, so it will go in the bridge position, which should help to pull the mids up while dropping some lower frequencies. It should be just right.
I also have a Lindy Fralin Pure PAF that matches with the P-90. The Pure PAF is 8.5 k ohm, which is just a touch on the hot side for an alnico II PAF style pickup (perfect for this project). For some reason the Pure PAF is bit to bright in a bridge position, so it will go in the middle. That should take just a litttle of the brightness out, but not much. It should be just right.
And finally, I have a Lindy Fralin Strat Blues Special made for a middle position that I will put in the neck position. For my taste, that pickup was a tad bright in the middle, but I think it will sing in the neck position.
The three pickups are wired to a three way switch and each pickup will run individually with no blending of two pickups like you get with a five way switch and three pickups on a strat.
The guitar is just about done. I am waiting for the new custom cut pickguard from Warmoth Guitars, and some string furrels, for the through the body stringing. Then i put the strings on and take it for a spin.
Shout out to Lindy Fralin for the great pickups, and the friendly feedback and advice regarding mahogony tonewood.
I am rebuilding my franken-tele again with new parts. I think this will be the 6th swapping of parts for this franken tele.
While the pine body was nice, it was a bit too twangy for me. I wanted a little deeper tone with less highs and more mids resonating in the guitar body; basically, a tele body without the tele sound.
So, I found a nice tele body made out of African mahogony. I mixed two colors of oil based wood stain (neither one was mahogony) and did two coats, and sanded with 600grit wetdry sand paper after both coats. Then I mixed a little of the oil based stain with some clear oil based satin polyurethane. That was brushed on in two thin coats, allowing for complete drying between coats, and again sanding with 600 grit wetdry sand paper after each coat. It came out beautiful. I used the same stains on a pine body and got a completely different result with the final color on mahogony.
If the electronics come out as nice as the body , this guitar will be amazing.
I have a Lindy Fralin humcancelling P-90 that was a little too deep in the neck, and better in middle pickup positions (but still too deep) from other guitar projects, so it will go in the bridge position, which should help to pull the mids up while dropping some lower frequencies. It should be just right.
I also have a Lindy Fralin Pure PAF that matches with the P-90. The Pure PAF is 8.5 k ohm, which is just a touch on the hot side for an alnico II PAF style pickup (perfect for this project). For some reason the Pure PAF is bit to bright in a bridge position, so it will go in the middle. That should take just a litttle of the brightness out, but not much. It should be just right.
And finally, I have a Lindy Fralin Strat Blues Special made for a middle position that I will put in the neck position. For my taste, that pickup was a tad bright in the middle, but I think it will sing in the neck position.
The three pickups are wired to a three way switch and each pickup will run individually with no blending of two pickups like you get with a five way switch and three pickups on a strat.
The guitar is just about done. I am waiting for the new custom cut pickguard from Warmoth Guitars, and some string furrels, for the through the body stringing. Then i put the strings on and take it for a spin.
Shout out to Lindy Fralin for the great pickups, and the friendly feedback and advice regarding mahogony tonewood.
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