Boston-kit based Telecaster

Last year I had bought two Vintage guitars (by Wilkinson), which are of acceptable quality, mainly because of the Wilkinson hardware that is used (you will find them both on this website).

I had plans to also buy a Vintage Telecaster on-line from the UK.

Looking around on the internet I found out that for very little money you can buy complete building kits for several types of guitars, including the Telecaster. I immediately felt challenged to buy one at Mainmusic.nl and see if I would be able to build a reasonably good Telecaster based on this kit. My plan was to equip this guitar with the very same Wilkinson pickups and hardware that are used in the Vintage telecasters. I bought the pickups online in the UK (Guitarworld) and the bridge, electronics, pickguard etc. I bought in the Netherlands at Customworldguitarparts. I decided not to use any of the standard hardware that came with the kit. First thing I did after receiving the kit, was fitting the pieces together, and to see what it would look like, and how much adjustments I would have to perform, to make this a playable guitar. Neck and body fitted very tight, but ok. I mounted the bridge in the pre-drilled holes and put some strings on the guitar. I found out that the nut was too high, that would need some adjusting, but that the neck (although not the slimmest one I ever had in my hands) seemed to be ok. All this gave me confidence that this project could be a success.

After taking everything apart again I started shaping the headstock and finish the neck. On the internet I found an example of the right shape which I used as an example. For the finish I used a clear satin finish. I don't like the sticky feeling of a high gloss finish on the neck.

After finishing the neck, it was time to fit all the new hardware to the guitar. I precisely measured the right distance to fit the new Wilkinson compensated bridge together with the new pickguard and the control plate. I had to re-drill several holes to make everything fit right.

With all the new stuff on it, I began to have a good idea of what my telecaster was going to look like.

I liked it!

My son (Niels) had helped me to design my own logo which I later on could print on a decall, to apply on the headstock.

Again I put a set of strings on the guitar to see if I had put everything on the right place. Especially the bridge had to be perfectly in line with the neck and on the right distance.

I had also adjusted the nut by first removing it from the neck, and than rasp off the bottom of the nut bit by bit, until the height was ok.

After that it was time to take everything apart again!

Because now it was time to finish the body.

Looking at the guitar I wanted to keep the color as natural as possible because that would match really nice with the brown metallic pickguard.

I decided to give the top a light white stain (beits in dutch) and finish it with a high gloss lacquer.

Doing that I thought that it would be nice to slightly stain the sides and back a little darker, but so that you could still see the wood grain.

I did this using children's water paint, which I mixed with a lot of water. After drying it gave the wood a nice brown tint.

I also finished this with the same high gloss lacquer. Looks great don´t it?

Then off cause to make it all work I had to finish the electronics. Not too difficult you might say, bat it can have a massive impact on the sound of your guitar. I threw away the standard pots and three-way switch, and bought quality stuff. On the internet I found the wiring plans for the Telecaster, and decided to give mine a ´standard´ setup. After a few difficulties due to a failing volume pot and a wrong tone pot (I used a logarithmic one, instead of a linear one) it all turned out just right. The tone pot is a 250K linear pot, and the volume pot is a 500K log pot. The three-way switch is a Fender switch.

An then, is was the moment of truth!!!!

How would my Telecaster play, and what would it sound like?

I must say, the sound is great. It has the real Telecaster sound.

It still needed some adjusting of the truss-rod, and the bridge saddles and off cause everything had to sett-in by playing it.

I am very proud of having built my own Telecaster, based on a Boston kit but improved by using better quality hardware and electronics.

I hope it has inspired you to try something like this.

The fun about it is, that you now have a guitar by your own specific design, making it unique in the world!

And now, with some sound: