[bRian]

Here's a pic of my Tele. Allparts 2 piece ash body, Allparts TMNF-V neck, Fender Ping vintage tuners, Wilkinson compensated bridge, Kinman Avn-48's, and micro-tilt adjustment. This is my 3rd Telecaster and my favorite weighing in at just over 7lbs.

 

[nine]

That looks really great. I love that finish.

 

[gerald guerrero]

Nice!!very nice!

 

[torndownunit]

Hey Brian, if you don't mind me asking, what did the total cost of building that come to? I have thought about building my own Tele several times, and that one has a feature set pretty close to what I would want.

 

[axestronomer]

Nice guitar! You did a great job

!:food-smiley-004:

 

[bRian]

My parts list came to roughly $900 plus the shipping, all toll it was roughly $1050. A 2 piece painted ash body from AllParts was $399 at the time but the factory screwed up on the dyes and guitarpartsresource bought them up and sold them for $199US. The original color was supposed to be butterscotch. At $200 off I'll take it. Got the neck from a guy on the TDPRI forum, Rob DeStefano for $179US; he's a distributor for AllParts, great guy to deal with. Scrounged some parts of a friend, another Tele addict, tuners, knobs, pickguard screws. Bought the Kinmans new locally, I think they were around $275 and tx. Got the used pickguard off a guy on the TDP. I found the Wilkinson Compensated bridge on ebay for $34US as well as the neck plate, string tree, and strap buttons.

 

[torndownunit]

Brian, I have spoke with Rob many times. He's helped me with amp advice before. As you said, great guy.

What size frets does that neck you have got?

I'd love to find a neck that had the thickness of a 52' RI, but with a 9.5 radius and med. jumbo frets.

 

[bRian]

Vintage frets on my neck. I wonder what size frets are on the TMNF-Fat?

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

That looks great! Thanks for posting the info on the cost. I myself have also wondered what it would cost me to put together a partscaster.

 

[Scottone]

Nice job.

How do you like the Wilkinson bridge....I am thinking of getting one as an upgrade to my MIM thiinline.

 

[bRian]

I've had the Wilkinson bridge on for a year now and found it a little easier to set the intonation. I have a friend that actually fine tunes my guitars for me, I can get it to 90% but he gets it spot on, he thought it was a pretty decent bridge.

With regards to cost of a partsocaster or a Strat for that matter, it is a little higher than most would expect BUT you are putting together a guitar that suits you. Even if you bought a used MIM or MIA you would probably want to swap pickups at the very least. For myself, I wanted a maple neck with vintage tint, an ash body, noiseless pickups, vintage looks, and light weight. Around here I couldn't find such a guitar at a reasonable cost. 9 out of 10 American Tele's I've seen come through the store are boat anchors and to buy a MIM and upgrade the pickups, and bridge you are getting close to my build price and still have the pale looking neck and a fairly heavy guitar. The best guitar that I found was a 52 RI. The weight on the one that I found was about 8 lbs, the finish, neck, pickups and weight were spot on but the price was $1899 plus tax. A great guitar but too pricey for an amateur. So when I sat down and added up the cost of the parts to get me close to this guitar I found it could be done for half the price.

 

[LaRSin]

Looks a lot Like 1973 Tele

 

[valen]

Does the neck have any flame or birdseye maple in it ?

 

[Yerffej]

pretty sharp. great colour matchup

 

[bRian]

LaRSin, I had a black single ply guard on it initially and thought it looked more 70's than a 52 Tele, so I swapped it for the mint green guard. Your's is a beauty, a couple of friends of mine have early 70's Tele, one is maple looks like yours while the other is blonde with a rosewood neck. Both are lightweight with Kinmans. Valen, nope no flame or birdseye in the neck.