Black Betty

[seeaxe]

Weighing in a 4.5kg, I am proud to announce the arrival of Black Betty, a very solid body electric inspired by one of the most enduring design icons of the 20th century, IMHO, the Telecaster.

This guitar is my sixth and is a right hander, made with r/h parts cannibalised from my earlier lefty Rimucaster, as I have now found proper l/h gold hardware for that. It’s also an attempt to get one of my guitars out there, to see if anyone else thinks they are any good. I’m going to loan this to people and see what suggestions for improvement I get back.

So, the specs are:
Body - Kwila
Neck and F/bd - Rock maple
Gold EVO frets (thanks Nick)
Paua fret position markers
Kent Armstrong pickups
Action and pick up heights all to 52 tele specs.
Pyramid strings


Aus has sent some of their weather over here today, so hope they are getting a bit of a break while we prop up the cyclones. Consequently, the pics are not very good as I cant get outside and (though I say so myself as shouldn't) they don't do it justice.

Front view

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The Headstock

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Rear view

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Dave Olds came round and tested it for me yesterday and all the switches and knobs did what they are supposed to so either I was lucky or my soldering has improved a lot. It sounds very Tele-like with heaps of twang!!!! from the bridge pick up. Not too surprising, I suppose but nice when things turn out like you planned.

As usual, I have learnt a few things in building this (or at least I hope I have learnt them)
1. The tele plans on the moonspruce website are pretty good – I would recommend them
2. Kwila is probably too heavy – it has good sustain but should probably be chambered for comfort.
3. Gold fret wire is cool but much harder than normal fretwire – it took me a week of evenings to level and dress the frets
4. The Stewmac diamond fret files make this job a lot quicker – they may be expensive but they are pretty good. Plus they got here from US in 2.5 days! Awesome, dudes. It actually took most of the week doing three frets a night to do half the board, then the rest were done in one night with the new file.
5. Don’t put the paua dots in until you are sure you have your fretboard properly radiused
6. Paua dots are quite easy to drill out! (I was expecting chips and chunks)
7. Paper labels under lacquer look naff – won’t do that again.

Having got this and the travel guitar sorted, I now have to decide what to do next. I might have a beer first.

Cheers and thanks for looking
Richard

[DarwinStrings]

Well, Bam Ba Lam! Not sure I have ever seen one with a zero fret, very tidy work Richard.

Jim

Someone please turn up the Tele!

[Luke]

Looks cool Richard well done, 4.5 kg should have some sustain!

[seeaxe]

Its 1 am - well past my bedtime - but I have just come back from a gig watching this Tele put through its paces by one of my son's mates. He classifies his band as country rock/surf something or other and the Tele was really good, had the perfect sound for the band. As of tonight its on permanant loan!

Its a really, really nice feeling to watch someone play something you have made and sound, well, awesome, if I do say so myself.

I'm a very happy camper.

[Allen]

Very nice Richard, and the instrument will really look the part in a surf, country rock band.

[kiwigeo]

Not a bad looking axe....pretty good for Auckland

[kiwigeo]

As of tonight its on permanant loan!

Translation - "dont be surprised if you never see this guitar ever again".

Most of my builds go on permanent loan to struggling musician friends and that's the last I see of them (both the musicians and the guitars).

[seeaxe]

Life is indeed cruel at times Martin. I hope to see this one again a few times.

Anyways, just to prove it actually happened...

[Kim]

The JPS teli looks ubber cool Richard, well done and good on you for being generous enough to give her the opportunity to be enjoyed by many as a working guitar in your son's band.

Bit concerned that it took so much work to level the evo wire. It is harder than standard, but not 'overly' so in my experience and is far softer than stainless. Must ask, are you hammering or pressing the frets?

Cheers

Kim

[seeaxe]

Kim and others, thanks for the kind words. Very rewarding to say the least.

As for the frets, I hammer them little suckers in there good!!

I fret my fretboards off the neck so I can really take to them with the irish screwdriver, then glue them on the neck once they are all trimmed up and bevelled nicely. I round the ends once they are levelled and crowned.

I level using a long piece of 1" by 1" aluminium tube section with 240 grit stuck on with DST. I tend to do a lot of levelling, as I like them really low on the board on an electric and these were jumbo frets. It occurred to me more than once that I had paid for expensive fretwire and was now busily filing it all off again!!

The other reason is that I am probably a bit heavy handed about the whole process, but the end result is OK.

I have thought about pressing and buying an arbour from Stewmac, but am pretty happy with banging them in and am trying to cut back a bit on the tool aquisition. I've got more tools than I need now, I think I would be better off learning how to improve using the ones I've got.

Cheers

[Nick]

Do you use a deadweight style hammer or a standard engineering hammer Richard? If you are hammering them in with a steel faced hammer, you are probably work hardening the fret hence the extra work to get them levelled & cleaned up. I shove them in with the Stewmac fret cauls (a worth while investment IMHO) & they don't end up too much harder to work than the Silver/Nickel, slightly harder granted but the only time I really notice this wire is harder is when I'm snipping them off to length with the side cutters. Did you notice that it doesn't clog your leveling file/s as much either

Congrats on having somebody play your axe publically too! It's a very satisfying feeling seeing other people enjoy the music coming out of one of your guitars!

[Kim]

I like to use fret cauls to press them in as well. If you have a reasonable sort of pedestal drill, you can use that in place of a press. This makes buying the cauls a good investment because they add to the functional purpose of that machine, take up little room, and allows a great deal of uniformity when the frets are being installed which goes a long way toward eliminating the need to spend time leveling.

If you want low frets, buy low profile wire to begin with and you will save a good deal of elbow grease. All that aside, that really is one nice looking guitar you've made there Richard.

Cheers

Kim

[seeaxe]

Wise words from two great builders - I will ponder the fret press cauls. After all, I have saved a small fortune by not buying Jeremys CNC machine...........
My drill press is a bit girly though.

[Lillian]

Richard if you drill press is too wimpy for the job, look for a arbor press, such as this one, but less expensive. The seller seem overly proud and possibly attached to this one. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ARBOR-PRESS-1-TO ... 1c1aed3b33

It's better to find one that has the ram already drilled. http://cgi.ebay.com/Palmgren-61051-AP05 ... 3eff6123ff