Thread: Burl top Telecaster

Man..look at all these luthiers coming out of the woodwork

mmm very tasty
wher'd you get that burl??
looks like one i was perving on a couple weeks ago
i use colortone waterbased lacquer from stewmac - you'll get a way better finish

looks lke a walnut neck??
what are you glueing the top to??
consider making it a chambered body

you could fill with stained timbermate water based woodfiller from bunnies - use feast and watson stains

i have done a few teles it is a great way to start - once your hooked on teles your finished

personally i reckon the tele is the ultimate electric guitar

That's the stuff from eBay that I've been looking at as well - Did you have any problems getting it through customs? I e-mailed them about it, for referred to the department of forestry or some such. They have some beautiful wood, really really good priced Flamed/Quilted Maple and few nice Spalted pieces too.

Feast And Watson is the stuff I got for dying my fretboards, haven't really given it a proper go yet. For this sort of project would you use the stuff watered down Ray?

Originally Posted by AwDeOh

Feast And Watson is the stuff I got for dying my fretboards, haven't really given it a proper go yet. For this sort of project would you use the stuff watered down Ray?

i wouldnt stain that burl thats for sure
staining raw wood is very tricky so i havent tried doing it on a guitar.
i use the F&W stains as shader in lacquer or to stain woodfiller....i guess if you was gonna stain it a mix of water and stain may be easier to spread evenly....thats the trick to staining getting it on even.....i've made some nice bits of wood look pretty tacky with stain and had to sand it off so i tend to avoid it

Originally Posted by old_picker

mmm very tasty
wher'd you get that burl??
looks like one i was perving on a couple weeks ago

Hi Old Picker Guy,
eBay seller "Fraser Valley Fine Woods"

Originally Posted by old_picker

i use colortone waterbased lacquer from stewmac - you'll get a way better finish

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

Originally Posted by old_picker

looks lke a walnut neck??
what are you glueing the top to??
consider making it a chambered body

This is the neck:



Inlaid rosewood over maple.

Top is going on a piece of this:



An old hoop pine table top, 42mm thick.

I will try a chambered thinline Tele next, if this one works.

Originally Posted by old_picker

you could fill with stained timbermate water based woodfiller from bunnies - use feast and watson stains

I have some Timbermate filler in ebony, I wasn't sure if it would be OK for this application. I guess I'd have to spray some sealer on first.

Originally Posted by old_picker

i have done a few teles it is a great way to start - once your hooked on teles your finished

personally i reckon the tele is the ultimate electric guitar

You'll get no argument from me on that.

I started with a bought 1990 Made In Japan TL67-SPL.
Then, built a partscaster out of pre-finished bits.
Started on this preformed body.



And now the burl-top.

I've never tried anything like this, so I hope it doesn't end in tears.

yeah seal it first
that neck is something else - drool - i thought there was a rule about p0rn on this forum

ive wanted to make a hoop pine tele for a while - cant get it in melbourne - you'll get a few bodies outa that table top

Originally Posted by AwDeOh

That's the stuff from eBay that I've been looking at as well - Did you have any problems getting it through customs? ..........

None at all. US$39 postage.

Any more tips guys?

On a cap like that, i would use a plain clear Nitro finish.
Why add color, when the timber has enough of it!. The golden figure on that cap will pop with a coat of Nitro!.
Go clear, keep it simple...
My 2 cents

Hi Deano,

I had never planed on anything but a clear finish.

The question about dyes came form another poster.

I am more concerned with filling the voids.

A lot of people have said to use the timbermate filler, but in some tests that I've done it seems to take AGES to set in deeper holes and doesn't fill the very small holes well. It pulls out of the small holes with sanding.
I would like to try the StewMac "Slow-setting black" epoxy as a sealer/filler but can't find a supplier in Aus.

There was a "how to" web page that had a burl like mine.
They used a black epoxy, forced it into all the voids with a plastic scraper, then sanded back to bare timber leaving all the tiny (and large) voids filled with epoxy.
From there they went the usual clear sealer, clear filler, clear top-coat route.

Help?

I have used coloured epoxy to fill engravings in pens. What I did was mix up Araldite, and mix in acrylic paint to the correct colour. You could try doing that with black paint. If I were you I would experiment first though, just to make sure it works. You may need several applications on deep voids.

Peter

kiwigeo uses zpoxy as a filler on his accoustics - hopefully he will chime in with a local supplier - aparrently its widely used by builders - never used it myself though

Originally Posted by old_picker

kiwigeo uses zpoxy as a filler on his accoustics - hopefully he will chime in with a local supplier - aparrently its widely used by builders - never used it myself though

Thanks,

A bit of web research shows that looks like the stuff I want.

"Spread with a plastic scraper" said one of the sites.
There is a supplier close to me "Arms Model It" at Redcliffe. I'll give them a ring.

........

Rang them. "Tint with enamel paints"

Get some epoxy from a boat chandlers, get some photocopier toner, mix the two together - black epoxy. The good thing about epoxy is that you can mix all sorts of crap with it. You can go for expensive microspheres as a thickener or glue powder for glueing applications, or flour, hell I once used cocoa powder to thicken and colour tint. Looked just like a cocolate crackle, but crunchier - nice dark brown epoxy tho.

The guitar finish I'm leaning towards these days is Ubeaut hard shellac, you can spray it on and it comes up a treat. Nice and hard, easy to repair.