Thanks, that is a very kind offer, I will PM you.

like your workbench too. Never thought of using mixer faders this way!

After finishing the Gretsch I got back into this one.

I'm building some fake PRS Singlecuts next but this needs to be finished first:)

Now that my Gretsch project is complete I decided to come back to this one.

Today I did the following:

1- Found some period correct screws for the bridge and pickguard.

Now a lot of people will tell you ways to pre-age screws and that is not a good idea because chemicals can weaken them.

I do is just look through the jars of screws that I have saved until I find the correct type. In this case, I was looking for some older flat head screws.

It took about 10 minutes and several jars, but I came up with 4 for the bridge and 5 small ones for the pickguard.

Next, I did a little looking at my original 63 Custom Telecaster as well as some photos of older Teles online.

What I realized was that the old bridges are usually in pretty good shape.

I knocked the shine off this one behind the pickup and used some aging paste that I make to give it a light patina. Next, I added a tiny bit of wear on the top - where someone would have rested their palm and on the back - where a screwdriver may have dinged it up a couple times.

Nothing insane.

I smoothed it out a little and added some more 'patina' after these pics, but you get the idea:





Here is how it looks so far. I am pretty pleased because I have under $50.00 into the project and it's looking good.

I'm working on the neck starting tomorrow evening and it should be done in a few days. It takes about 2 hours to make a Fender neck and fret/finish it.

You can see that the bridge is not screwed all the way down because I will have to remove it to install the pickup in the bridge.

One issue I did run into was the ash body is HARD. I actually was drilling another pilot hole for the bridge screws when I snapped my bit in the hole!

Getting it out was a PITA but I did have to enlarge the hole a bit. Luckily for me this is hidden by the bridge and all the screws tighten as they should.

All in all I think this one looks really authentic. Plus all the wood, screws and bakelite parts are made from old material, so not only will this (hopefully) help the sound, it is a green project.

This post is a continuation of the one before - but this is on a new page so go back one to see the steps leading up to this:

The following pictures show how to age the maple fretboard which is easy to do.







The bridge now has an authentic Broadcaster serial number (1330) - my bday is 330 btw - in the correct font, location and size.



Coming together - bad light



Bad light - plus I need to do the clear and finish up the detail work but you get the idea.



First coat of final finish:

Finally adding the decal - Guitar Center trade in here we come:)

Noah-

Seeing that Gretch hanging next to your Broadcaster brings tears to my eyes.

Unreal.

You are insipring me to get my flippin' studio build finished so I can finally build my fretless 5.

Great job.

Thanks!

Next I'm building some PRS Singlecut copies:)

All done except for the pickups and I have to do a tiny bit more work on the nut, but I'm going to do that once the pickups are in and I do the setup.

I ended up making the saddles from a brass rod and a tap and die set I borrowed. I'm new to it, but I did manage to make three of them.

All of the screws in the guitar are old flat heads that I found by searching through my 7 or 8 tons of old screws and fasteners.

Unplugged this guitar is LOUD. It has a shimmering quality that I would like to attribute to the bridge, but I think it's from the solid old growth timber I used on this build.

The body is at least from the late 1940s (maybe older). The neck is from about 1948 or 49 because that is when the school where I got these bleachers was built.

I am now 100% convinced of this and all my builds from now on are going to be from old reclaimed wood.

You play this thing unplugged (obviously as there are no pickups) and you can feel the vibrations right through it - almost like when you play an acoustic. My 63 is like this to a degree as well. I just didn't expect it on a new build.

So far, I have about $200.00 into this. I just need to put strap buttons and pickups in.

I took an old cap out of a junked bakelite radio.