I have posted some of my other guitar build stuff here so I thought I would share this.

I always wanted a Fender Broadcaster, which was the precursor to the Telecaster. They're very rare and very expensive - the only one I could find for sale was $40,000.00 and I'm not ready to sell my 60 Les Paul Standard to buy one!

I bought a badly damaged ash table (or table top) at a flea market for $7.00. The table looked to be from the 1940s - which was good because the Broadcaster was made in 1950ish.

I made some templates using my 1963 Custom Telecaster and came up with this:



There was a knot, so I made sure it was on the back



Next, I made some stain. I wanted the dings to look like they went through multiple finishes - Fullerplast - so I did multiple coats, wiping between each.







Next, I mixed up some of my aging juice which makes it the old time butterscotch color instead of crayola yellow:





Now, a little wear to simulate the age:

The trick to not making something look fake is to think it out.

See how the finish looks like it has been worn from someone's palm touching the cutaway?



And also the light clean wear (that matches on front and back - where someone's leg would be while seated.



Some light discoloration where a strap would have been and some wear where an arm was:



A couple dings from when it was placed wrong on a stage over the years:

Next, I cut myself a pickguard out of a sheet of Bakelite.





That needed a touch of wear, so I looked at where my real Tele had worn and looked at where my fingers rest when I play:











Last, I needed a decal. Some scans from a book and some Adobe Illustrator gave me this:

You are nothing short of amazing, Noah.

She's a beaut!

Very very cool...

Holy Sh*t that is amazing!
I bow to your craftsmanship.

I have a question about the decal.
How did you convert your scan to a working decal?

I have a really old Tobias bass that was stripped and lost its logo.
It is my main gigging bass.
Mike doesn't have decals and doesn't care about it, but I want to honor his name when I gig with it.
Any advice?

Some water slide decal paper and a inkjet printer should do the trick. Just don't dip the entire decal in water - the ink won't hold up. Use a wet sponge and apply it to the back of the paper only! Once the paper has become wet enough the decal will slide off...Good Luck

Good work,

Thanks for posting. Always enjoy your craftsmanship.

Rich

Thanks guys!

As for the decal - DP has it down.

If you need some inkjet decal paper (it's kind of pricey) I can send you a sheet.

One thing I do is reverse the image so that I can use a little (VERY LITTLE) water (more like a slightly damp rag) to pull it off the paper.

There was a great pic tutorial of how to do the decal thing and I have it saved on a work computer but try to find and post...
niiiiiiiccceee work!
S