a very.... VERY late Christmas present

Today's project started oddly enough as a Christmas present for my Father ... *last* year. Well, in all fairness it started out as a Strat project. I cut the body, painted it, wet sanded and buffed it quite a while ago but it sat and waited for some money and time to finish the rest (neck, misc parts). As it sat Dad started to borrow my Telecaster from time to time. That slowly became all the time and I hadn't seen the guitar in months! Finally I decided if I was going to get my Tele back I should probably build one for Dad. So here's what we came up with.


Here is what I started with today. Alder body that I cut, AllParts "TMO-V" neck. The color is ReRanch "Coral". This is actually run from one of my earlier CNC programs but over all the fit is excellent. Mostly the tweaks came in regards to the way I drill the string through holes on the CNC now.
The body after wet sanding.
One thing I was very excited about was this is the first time I got to try the new buffing station I built. I don't know why I waited this long to build one, this is the ONLY way to go! Here is Dad doing some buffing work.
Look at that shine!
Buffed headstock! That buffer makes those maple necks feel so nice.
Now... pretty much every picture shows someone else working but I insist, I DID work on this guitar today! I just end up taking pictures of everyone else! Dad doing a final hand buff.
Wowzers.... the buffing station might officially be my new favorite tool!

Now that the body was polished, I fitted the neck and tuners and moved on to wiring the control plate.
Pretty standard stuff here, 250k pots, CST 3 way and a .047 PIO cap.
Drilling the pickguard and control plate holes.
Bam! Dad trying out the finished product! I spent quite a bit of time doing the final setup, setting the neck angle, action, filing the nut ect. I told Dad to play the guitar for a week then come back over and we'll make any final tweaks to the action then.
Our Tele's
Now normally this would be where I'd post some nice photo's of the completed guitar. The problem is it came off my bench, right into the house for Dad to try then right into a case to go home and play!! I guess I'll have to get better pictures next week!!

I can wait though, I'd be anxious to play it too! The final specs are:
2pc Alder body
RR "Coral" with Sherwin Williams clear Nitrocellouse Lacquer
Joe Barden Bridge
ToneRider "Vintage" tele pups with a .047 PIO cap
Kluson Deluxe tuners

So far right off the bench it sounds fantastic! The bottom is very, VERY tight and its got good ... spunk for lack of a better word. I'll mess around with pickup heights and get it completely dialed over the next week. The arm-scale says this guy checks in right around 7 pounds.