Finished product, my new Tele

[r9player]

Well besides the filing down of the Nut and setting the intonation I am all set.
The players ...
USA Custom Guitars Body and Neck
Body is Mahogany - Solid with a Wild Maple Lamtop this is one heavy piece of wood, feels about 8 to 9 lbs total.
Neck is birdseye maple with nickel frets a nice carve that starts out as a V and tapers to a U
Finish done by Roxy
Hardware all Callaham parts - Vintage Tele - it has knurled knobs which may seem out of place
Pick ups are Kinman Broadcaster Pick ups
and 1 Chromed pick up ring from Stew Mac.
The nut is a Tusq nut

The process:
Neck fit perfectly and holes were pre-drilled to make life easy.
Electronics fit perfectly
The one issue was the bridge. This body was predrilled for a different bridge, but I was able to fit this one on without too many issues. also the pick up cavity was just a hair too small so with a dremel tool got that all fixed up.
So there is 3 predrilled holes that are unused but you can't tell they are there because the bridge is over the top of it.

Had a nut but it was way too thick and high so .. file file file .. it fits now but it is still a little to high, also intonation on the saddle side hasn't been set yet.

Wiring was easy except that I switched around the wires to the output jack. Chris Kinman was of assistance here and got that fixed and now we have TONE.

Guitar is pretty quiet, haven't turned it up yet so no tone report so far.

Here are the gratuitous pics.

 

[Antero]

That's an awesome color!

 

[decay-o-caster]

Well that's right purty! And I'm a sucker for birdseye, too.

Congratulations, and I hope it plays and sounds as good as it looks!

 

[r9player]

This btw was my "template" I made this on the Virtual Guitar engine on the USA Custom Guitars website and that started me on getting the parts and making this guitar.

 

[r9player]

Finished the nut filing, action adjustment and intonation setup.
Can't say it is all perfect, but it turned out quite good.

The tone results?

The neck has that clean Glassy Tele sound vs. the crunch style sound. The bridge has good twang to it, the middle is a mix.
I set it up so I get more bridge mixed in when in mid (that does mean that bridge is a tat louder then neck)
It is actually not an overly powerful guitar (which you might've expected from a solid mahogany body and pick ups that come in at 7K)
but there is plenty of volume roll off/on to go from very glassy clean or twang clean to major crunch but not like a les paul where you go to "fuzz"
A very nice result.
I'll try and see if I have some time to record what it sounds like at some point.

 

[Wheels]

Hey Pai,

Really nice job. I've been toying around with building something for a while now, and this is just the motivation I needed.

Hope it sounds as good as it looks.

Wheels

 

[dookie]

Looks killer, Pai...

I like the chevron pattern on that quilt... Nice color too...

 

[big mike]

Nothing like a good tele! Nice Job.

 

[Lex Luthier]

I have a USACG Tele body and neck on order, all the guitars I've seen made from their stuff was pretty nice.

 

[r9player]

Recorded the Tele
This time from the Webber Z matcher's line out to Computer

Added a little reverb afterwards

Basically volume 1/2 then 3/4 and then full I generally like to play clean so Amp was set at about 50% with master full

Goes from neck to mid to bridge
I have it set up so the bridge mixes in more on mid so it is also naturally louder in bridge.

Site seems to be down at the moment but you can find the clip here.
USA Custom Tele Soundclip

 

[Kappy]

Wow...that's really purdy! Nice work.

 

[jpervin]

Haven't built a Tele from scratch, but I've swapped out the electronics on a few. I put Kent Armstrong P-90s in this one awhile ago, and now getting ready to swap them out for a set of GFS Retrotron Brooklyns.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/jpervin/3bf4def7.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v341/jpervin/c23d5515.jpg

If anyone's interested in a set of HB-size P-90s, email or PM me.

 

[Karmateria]

That birds eye neck looks great, love birds eye! Isn't it a little unstable though? I thought that a multi-piece neck was recommended for that variety of wood.

Karma

 

[Scott Peterson]

That's gorgeous man - love the birdseye contrasted with the blue. Nice!

 

[MusicGearGuys]

I agree with Scott. Simply gorgeous!

Gregory

 

[r9player]

As far as I am told Birdseye is more stable then highly flamed necks. Only time will tell of course.

 

[ABKB]

Congratulations r9, simply beautiful guitar! The link to the soundclip didnt work for me but I hope it sounds as sweet as it looks. But the real question is, are YOU happy with it?

 

[r9player]

I was very happy with the results. In the end I sold it to someone who is in a band and tours and he was really happy with it so that made me even more happy.