Hey !
It's been quite a journey to get there but the guitar is finished !!
It actually is since 2 months but I kept swinging necks on it.
So !
I'm a bit disappointed with my pickguard idea that didn't work...at all
I know a woman who does embroidery. It's art, really. She told me she was ok to embroid a small sheet, with a flower pattern, to put it under a clear pickguard. As I wrote an article on her activity that helps her a lot she wanted to help me with this project. But she didn't know what a Tele pickguard really was...and when she realized that she told me it was a 500 € job...ok, I obviously said no !
A pitty, she does incredible things.
From then I went from a clear pickguard with multiple trials under, to a homemade brass pickguard, to you name it...to a black one.
Keep it simple.
That is my point with this guitar. I had so much ideas about making it unique. But then I've plugged the guitar.
Shocked I was !! Big time !!!
Let me try to explain (I'm already having a hard time trying to explain it in french...it will be difficult in english
)
When I've plugged the guitar it was like all of my musical culture, that I've heard and love for all this years, jumped out of my strings and fingers. Like it wasn't me, but the sum of my musical culture. Which is "me" in a sense, but not compared to the musical culture I've built myself by playing "weird" 60s / 70s guitars, and offsets...not mainstream guitars I mean. Which leads to a not mainstream sound. By mainstream I mean popular I guess. In a good way.
This Tele makes me play differently, and instantly (Yep it's esoteric!). I dont recognize myself as a guitar player, but I recognize what I here. It feels home and safe.
Which lead me to keep it simple after a lot of consideration : a black pickguard and a regular neck pickup.
This Cavalier neck pickup is insane by the way. I love it as hard as I love the bridge pickup.
This '74 bridge pickup is
. This one especially made me play very differently.
Does this ^^ make any sense to someone?
It does to me, even if I can't really explain this with clarity.
Anyway, to be concrete now, it took me a massive load of hours to finish this body. It's not perfect, far from it, but it's fine by me. I've used olive oil to make it shine. And it worked perfectly.
Now, my biggest issue is the neck. I don't know what's right.
The maple one is finally a tad too big for mys tastes. The frets are too big too.
So I've taken the neck off my '67 PartCoronado and 1 - it looks damned fine, 2 - this was my first idea, and 3 - it feels like home. But I loose a bit of the overall magic...as I don't fight this neck (which is my favorite 25.5 Fender neck).
I think the guitar will stay that way.
Which means I have to find another vintage Coronado neck for the Coronado
!
Enough taking, pics :
She was like that once, before :
And now (with the Xmas tree...no cats around sadly) :
I'll try to take better pics with a real camera...as soon as the sun pops !
And she was like that with the maple neck :
Seeing those again, I very much much much prefer the look of the Tele with the Coronado neck. As the overall feeling that guitar gives me.
To conclude, it took me a loooong time to complete it, but it was so worth it.
I'm completly in love with that guitar, with how she looks and what she makes me feel and play.
Even if it's "just" a Telecaster, a mainstream guitar.
It's also a good lesson learned
.