My Favorite Tele Partsocaster

[RustyChops]

Already put up a pic or two of this warhorse in the Telecaster thread, but it was the best working self-assembled guitar I ever cobbled together from parts, out of a half dozen attempts to get under factory guitar prices:

It started when a great local Santa Cruz, CA player and friend Billy Edgell:

gave me a used ash first series Fender CS reissue Nocaster body. Somebody had covered it in thick ugly orange goop of some kind.
I chemically stripped off the goop, then lightly sanded the body, which I then used some pickled oak stain to lighten, then antiqued with some Ace Hrdwr patio furniture stuff, then shot with Deft lacquer:


The first neck (I wore out) was a used Fernandes Strat neck. When it needed a fret job I bought an aftermarket MIM FMIC neck with a rosewood board (that I never bonded with), before finally ordering a Warmoth Fat neck.

Sounded great with Fender CS Nocaster pickups (slightly “woolier” sound than ‘52 RI pickups).

This guitar then became my main grab for all kinds of local bar type gigs, for about a dozen years of the 46 years I lived in Santa Cruz.
For the occasional orchestra pit type jobs I’d use it, or a Jazzmaster, along with called for banjo, ukulele, etc. whatever the book called for.

 

[soulman]

Beautiful work Rusty. Very similar to the clone of my CS Nocaster than was created out of a 2006 Nashville Deluxe body and neck. Most people couldn't tell the two apart. After that I had a few friends ask me to build Teles and Esquires for them out of parts. There's probably nothing easier to build/assemble than a Tele. Leo made certain of that from the get go. Here's pics of a couple of those I built.


The one above has an interesting story attached. I was building it for myself and looking for another of my favorite necks to buy for it. But it had a very light Paulownia body I wasn't all that hot about so I stuck up a CL add for it figuring I'd sell the loaded body for enough to buy the Fender neck I wanted then start over with an alder or ash body and different pickups.

One Sunday morning I get a response from someone who wants to buy it and his email says he's Eddie Van Halen's guitar tech. Now I'm thinking what kind of BS is this and that the guy was just another scammer. So I pull up Van Halen's tour schedule and sure enough they're playing Red Rocks the following night. The guy shows up later that day. He's legit and with him he has two of the most gorgeous flamed maple necks I've ever seen. Someone from Fender had given them to him at the NAMM show and he needed bodies for them. The necks fit perfectly so he bought the body. He also showed me some of his hand built guitars. The guy had some real talent. They were beautiful.

But since he was stuck out on the road he just wanted to pick up a couple of bodies for those necks so he could flip them fast. Too bad I didn't have a second one laying around or I could've sold two, LOL. Over the years I've met some pretty nice people selling locally and had few problems or no shows. Maybe I'm just lucky that way. But this particular sale was memorable. I got some pretty good inside dope on the band and some of their internal squabbles as well. All said and done it was an interesting experience.

 

[3bolt79]

Beautiful work Rusty. Very similar to the clone of my CS Nocaster than was created out of a 2006 Nashville Deluxe body and neck. Most people couldn't tell the two apart. After that I had a few friends ask me to build Teles and Esquires for them out of parts. There's probably nothing easier to build/assemble than a Tele. Leo made certain of that from the get go. Here's pics of a couple of those I built.
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The one above has an interesting story attached. I was building it for myself and looking for another of my favorite necks to buy for it. But it had a very light Paulownia body I wasn't all that hot about so I stuck up a CL add for it figuring I'd sell the loaded body for enough to buy the Fender neck I wanted then start over with an alder or ash body and different pickups.

One Sunday morning I get a response from someone who wants to buy it and his email says he's Eddie Van Halen's guitar tech. Now I'm thinking what kind of BS is this and that the guy was just another scammer. So I pull up Van Halen's tour schedule and sure enough they're playing Red Rocks the following night. The guy shows up later that day. He's legit and with him he has two of the most gorgeous flamed maple necks I've ever seen. Someone from Fender had given them to him at the NAMM show and he needed bodies for them. The necks fit perfectly so he bought the body. He also showed me some of his hand built guitars. The guy had some real talent. They were beautiful.

But since he was stuck out on the road he just wanted to pick up a couple of bodies for those necks so he could flip them fast. Too bad I didn't have a second one laying around or I could've sold two, LOL. Over the years I've met some pretty nice people selling locally and had few problems or no shows. Maybe I'm just lucky that way. But this particular sale was memorable. I got some pretty good inside dope on the band and some of their internal squabbles as well. All said and done it was an interesting experience.

I had a bad experience with EVH when I met him. As the guy is dead, I won't be telling what happened with him in a thread. I have too much respect for his son Wolf. But if you wanna know about it PM me.

 

[JonKerr]

Nice work. For me, Teles are the best starting point for a Partscaster. I’m not a Strat guy at all. Not really Fender guy for that matter. But a Tele is a great place to start to make things different. I have two that I’ve built and ended up keeping. A thinline that I put Phatcat P90s in. This particular kit had a 12” radius fretboard that was a welcome addition being a Gibson/Epiphone guy.



Then I built another one with a wenge neck I found on Facebook marketplace. I did my first belly carve, deleted the neck plate, and put SD Hotrails in it. I actually hated the hotrail in the bridge so that’s now a SD Little ‘59. So much better. The color is an automotive paint. Candy plum purple over a metallic silver base. It was my first gloss paint job. Not really satisfied with how much it orange peeled. But a friend of mine who’s an incredible luthier and builder gave me a bunch of advice how to keep that from happening and how to fix it if it does happen.

 

[Robb]

I only built one tele style guitar, must be somewhere hidden in a dark corner full of dust.

 

[soulman]

I only built one tele style guitar, must be somewhere hidden in a dark corner full of dust.

Well pull that puppy out and play it. It's gotta be pretty lonesome hiding in that corner.

 

[VictorB]

Here’s mine. Roadworn body with a 90s USA neck.

Noiseless Fender Strat pickup in the neck (like Gilmour’s Tele) and a Duncan Gilly in the bridge.

 

[RustyChops]

Looks right.

 

[Robb]

Nice guitars guys !

 

[PeteR]

My favourite 'Tele-style' guitars:
no need to work on them, they came this way....