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  #1  
Old 05-08-2022, 08:29 PM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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Default I had fun building this one (Fiesta Red Tele)

Well after building various partscasters (Jaguar, Jazzmaster, and a Strat), I had to try my hand with a Tele. I've always wanted a Fiesta Red Tele. It's one of my all-time favorite colors, especially when paired with a dark fingerboard and matching headstock!!!

It took me a long time to find what I needed, mainly a pre-painted Fender body, and a neck with a matching headstock. I got the Fiesta Red Vintera Body from Stratosphere , and the matching Fiesta Red headstock USA neck from a dealer in Germany. The neck has an ebony fingerboard with pearl dots, medium jumbo frets, roller string tree, and Fender high ratio tuners.

I used Wolfetone pickups with a slightly hot bridge pickup (Tele B*tch), and a standard wind neck pickup (Tele cub). I didn't even know that Wolfe wound Tele pickups, but I'm sure glad I had him wind these. They sound great! As for the rest of the electronics, I used push-back cloth wire, PIO Emerson .047 cap, CTS close tolerance 250K pots, CRL switch, and a Switchcraft output jack.

For the bridge. I used Fender bullet brass compensated saddles that I pulled from an American Series Bridge, with a special Bridge Works bridge plate that has a notched flange, and it's drilled so that it can be top loaded (to reduce string tension). The body does have string ferrules for rear loading too. I'll try it both ways.

Because I've been playing Teles, and modding them since I was a kid, putting this one together and setting it up, was a breeze. The only problems that I ran into was a too tight neck pocket, as someone a Fender really gooped the Fiesta red paint into the pocket. I just made a little sanding block and sanded the inside edges until the neck fit perfect. Also the neck needed quite a bit of truss-rod adjustment The truss rod worked perfectly, and I got it dead straight. The frets didn't need any work at all. The nut slots were pre-cut on this neck, but I cleaned them up a bit. In a few days, after the neck gets used to being under tension, I will deepen the slots so fretted notes on the first fret are in tune. Right now they are slightly sharp, like most guitars that come from the factory. The guitar though is intonating perfectly at the 12th fret, and the string height is pretty close to where I like it. Also the neck is aligned perfectly, with great string spacing. and the strings are going right over the poles of the pickups.

Well I just got done putting it through the paces, and it sounds and plays great. I would have bought this one right off the rack! I got lucky! Anybody that's ever built a partscaster(s), knows that you take chances building these things, and there is no guarantee that the guitar will sound that great. Good, if you use decent parts, but really good to great, well that's where the luck comes in As I said earlier, the only thing I really need to do is slightly deepen the nut slots, although it already plays really good now. After I do that I will record a demo.

So here it is...

setting the neck flatness...


neck pocket sanding...


dialing in neck pickup height (you have to do that before installing pickguard), and check out the nice ebony board and shiny frets!...


Cool custom neck plate...


Fiesta Red headstock...


Voila, it's a guitar ( a good sounding and playing one at that)...


With it's fellow partscasters...


Last edited by rockabilly69; 06-17-2022 at 12:53 AM.
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  #2  
Old 05-09-2022, 03:52 AM
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Bob Womack Bob Womack is offline
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Looks like fun!!!

And we all know red sounds better.

Bob
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Old 05-09-2022, 04:06 AM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
Looks like fun!!!

And we all know red sounds better.

Bob
Agreed, and we both know that Bob...

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Old 05-09-2022, 08:43 AM
Chickee Chickee is offline
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Thanks so much for sharing this completed build with us Rocky! I just can’t get over the perfect family picture of your impeccable handiwork. We have spoken about that Jazzmaster before, and as great as the others are, that Jazzer is still my favorite of your builds. Although, I am very partial to painted headstock Fenders, and Fiesta Red is so historically iconic to Fender’s history I may be easily swayed!
Beautiful work.
fd
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Old 05-09-2022, 12:09 PM
Glennwillow Glennwillow is offline
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Man, Daniel!

What a great looking Tele!

Good for you! I will look forward to hearing that demo!

- Glenn
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Old 05-09-2022, 12:20 PM
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Very cool gotta love Red.
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  #7  
Old 05-09-2022, 11:49 PM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevWind View Post
Very cool gotta love Red.
Thanks and I do Kev...









Quote:
Originally Posted by Glennwillow View Post
Man, Daniel!

What a great looking Tele!

Good for you! I will look forward to hearing that demo!

- Glenn
Thanks Glenn, I'm liking it so far, but I'm sure I'll like it more when I feel the neck has settled in and I get the nut slots cut just a bit deeper. A few days at the most then a proper demo

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chickee View Post
Thanks so much for sharing this completed build with us Rocky! I just can’t get over the perfect family picture of your impeccable handiwork. We have spoken about that Jazzmaster before, and as great as the others are, that Jazzer is still my favorite of your builds. Although, I am very partial to painted headstock Fenders, and Fiesta Red is so historically iconic to Fender’s history I may be easily swayed!
Beautiful work.
fd
Thanks Frank, I know you love your Jazzmaster, and everytime someone talks about modding a Jazzmaster/Jaguar, I think of the Tonepros bridge that you put on your player model! I thought it would be nice to do a family shot as they were all here at my house

Last edited by rockabilly69; 05-10-2022 at 01:05 AM.
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Old 05-10-2022, 02:35 AM
Steel and wood Steel and wood is offline
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So, so good!
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Old 05-10-2022, 02:14 PM
Dru Edwards Dru Edwards is offline
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Another great parts-o-caster build! Looks like you have another great guitar in the lineup.

I bought a white MIM Strat body from Stratosphere back in 2007 for my partscaster build. They came up with a great concept about buying Fenders, tearing them down, and selling the parts.
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Old 05-10-2022, 04:07 PM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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Originally Posted by Steel and wood View Post
So, so good!
Thank You!
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  #11  
Old 05-10-2022, 04:09 PM
rockabilly69 rockabilly69 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dru Edwards View Post
Another great parts-o-caster build! Looks like you have another great guitar in the lineup.

I bought a white MIM Strat body from Stratosphere back in 2007 for my partscaster build. They came up with a great concept about buying Fenders, tearing them down, and selling the parts.
Thanks Dru, I agree Stratosphere is a good resource, it's where I got my Eric Johnson Strat body for my Strat build, and the Tele body.
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