Kyle's Functional Tele - EG TEL 20

If you compare this to our Telecaster 2 (EG TEL 20) you will see vast differences. Kyle spent a lot of time and effort converting this DIY Guitar Kit into exactly what he wanted. I thought i'd rather let Kyle explain in his own words how he got this beauty to look the way she does:

"I wanted a functional telecaster style that was purpose built for “go” not for “show”.
 Firstly I filled out the excess cavities by cutting the cavity shapes out of alder, fitted them to the body with dells and cold lime. I sanded them down and filled the gaps with wood filler.
 I figured the guitar would look a little too plain, so I decided to fit a potentiometer for volume control, but still wanted to keep the guitar flush, so I made sure my wiring was sound, and sealed the unit in.


All the cabling is heavier duty and separated (no common ground), all grounds are separate and sealed off 100% for minimal impedance/noise. 
I expanded the bridge cavity for a hum-bucker and sealed in the excess cavity by fitting a piece of wood with a dell and cold lime and flushing it out with wood filler.
 Things got really tricky after I fitted the tune-o-matic bridge. I wanted through-body strings in a v-shape. To make sure the holes line-up nicely on the front and back and almost f’d the whole project when my drill-press popped a bit, luckily everything lined up 100%.


The body was very grainy which needed 4 rounds of priming and flatting.
I opted for a colour called oil rubbed aged bronze, which flips from reds to greys to black in a satin finish.

I fitted a Seymour Duncan Black Winter hum-bucker and re-fitted all the wiring to make sure the only sound coming from the guitar was from the strings. Added extra ground/common wiring to be extra sure that there would be no interference whatsoever.
 At first I thought this would be a filthy sounding beast meant for the pits of hell, but it delivers clean cripy highs and brutal lows that I could never imagine, even when tuned from drop A to standard E. The sound from this beast is unbelievably versatile and is almost unrivalled in my arsenal of a half a dozen other ‘big brand’ guitars.



Thanks again for the kit. Looking forward to building my next one soon."

 

                

                

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