Chris Pile wrote:
So many questions....
(1) Is that purfling on the side of the neck, or did you build it up with layers of veneer? It looks sharp.
(1) Is that purfling on the side of the neck, or did you build it up with layers of veneer? It looks sharp.
3 layers of veneer, walnut/maple/walnut. I either thinned the neck blank, or the fret board (can't remember which) a little more than what I wanted, plus the fret board was a similar species as the neck but very obviously different, I needed something to differentiate between the two. Seemed like an elegant solution to kill two birds with one stone.
Chris Pile wrote:
(2) I like your pickguard shape. Can I steal it?
Absolutely! Want me to send you a tracing?Chris Pile wrote:
(3) Nice recovery on the maple inlay - what stains did you use?
The black Ash body was a waterbased stain sanded back a bit (Saman.) The burst was three colors of waterbased dye (color FX). Black, Red, and the transition was red and black mixed together. I just rubbed till it looked cool. The maple inlay wasn't a perfect fit, I was able to fill some of the gaps with ebony pore filler. But around the horn it was a little ugly, so I just cut a channel and inlaid a strip of ebony, it works in a cool way to definitively end the red.
Chris Pile wrote:
(4) Did you use the same pickups on all 3 Teles?
Yeah, Lindy Fralin Stock Tele pickups. The hardware is all identical too. On the burst I wiped all the nickel down with liquid gun blue. So other than the woods I used, and the inconsistencies in my neck carving they are as identical as I could make them.
Chris Pile wrote:
(5) What did you use for inlays on the maple neck?
Finishing nails
Chris Pile wrote:
(6) What's with the triangle on the peghead at the first tuning machine?
My logo is a triangle, with a stylized S for Searl Guitars. I thought about using my logo, but these guitars are as telecaster as I could make them. There's little that's original to me in the design. So I didn't really want to put my name on them. But a headstock with nothing on it looks unfinished. So the triangles a nod to me, takes the place of what we're used to seeing when we look at that headstock, and is kind of cool. It's also tied to the rest of the guitar in a way. Walnut on the maple neck guitar to match the walnut body. Rosewood on the white one, to match the rosewood fretboard. And walnut again on the burst to match the walnut fretboard.