NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

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NippleWrestler
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NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

Post by NippleWrestler »

I feel like I'm 95% there with this guy.

Start with the end:

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The beginning:

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It was a TradeMe purchase from a guy up north. Admittedly he set the stall out early, said it was mutilated, and that his ambition outweighed his skill in doing what he envisioned. However, there was a great deal more wrong than was mentioned, perhaps because they didn't even know that 4mm action isn't what you'd consider optimal. I brought this up and he mentioned it had been in the case for a long time as the last time he tried the action was so high he was turned off and put it back in the case... then a few years passed and it came to me.

Turns out the neck was bowed forwards by quite a bit. This led me down another avenue of repair. The truss rod was maxed out and the nut was stripped.

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No more threads, and impossible to tighten it anymore. I literally could not do it.

Short of buying a new neck I tried some alternative methods, thinking it was fucked already so if it became more fucked it's a bit moot.

Tension off, clamped in the opposite position:

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I left it like this for 3 days. Don't worry. There's big chunky leather pads between any metal and wood so the strings aren't actually touching the fingerboard.

This did help slightly. Maybe it freed it up enough so I could do the next thing: Get a new truss rod nut from Aussie Luthier Supplies.

I dropped some washers and a stainless bolt down the truss rod hole as well so instead of compressing maple fibres I was pushing on a harder surface while tightening the truss rod nut. This worked enough so that the truss rod could be tightened about 20% more before it ran out of thread. I'll call that a success as it means I can keep the original neck in a decent enough position (relief is right where I like it now) to not worry about it anymore.

Then I dressed the frets because that's fun. These were close to done. A lot of grooves, a lot of dead spots, a lot of flat/high/low spots. I'm thinking maybe the fingerboard itself had to do some acrobatics to compensate for the pressure it was under for years. Now they're rather nice even though vintage stuff has never really been my jam. I think all the wear on them over the years flattened them into a wider version of what they were.

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I made a new nut out of bone. The one it came with just slid right out and was about 2mm too low on the treble side anyway. Then got a new black pickguard. You probably can't tell but the last one was hacked to accommodate the HH layout. For some reason they used a humbucker ring in the neck and hacked out around it. I just bought one from ebay and there it is.

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However, the seller made some pleasant choices with the hardware: the body was routed for an HH layout (and a battery cavity). Reasonably clean work. The tuners were upgraded to Gotoh locking ones, there's strap locks on there, nice chunky metal knobs, and the bridge is a Gotoh one as well. It came with a set of Fishman Fluence Open Core pickups that I couldn't get out fast enough. They absolutely stink. It didn't help the wiring was very rough but either way, they went. They have this very annoying cocked wah sound I couldn't unhear and honestly there's pickups that sound better for 1/10 the price.

I remember the body being so dirty that while it was disassembled I put it in the sink and scrubbed it with a dish brush. I was getting nowhere with a cloth and some polish and I figured it was basically plastic so treated it like plastic. Amazingly that cleaned up like 90% of the gunk and left the guitar with a surprisingly nice colour, like I'd finally seen the candy apple red for the first time. Dinged and scratched sure, but it's very cool in a 50s throwback sorta way. My wife calls it the Christmas guitar since it's sparkly red.

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In there now is a set of alnico 2 humbuckers, new wiring with a push/pull on the tone pot for coil tapping and it's a brilliant little guitar that's come out the other side as something much better than it was, and I didn't have to buy a new neck.

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Re: NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

Post by robthemac »

Yikes, lot a work, Tez. Looking great though.
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Re: NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

Post by StratMatt »

Looks awesome. I vote you give it a Silverburst finish like the first photo.

Interesting about the Fishmans. I was tossing up between them and EMGs and read quite a few comments about the nasally mid spike they have. Alot of money to sound like a wah.
Loving it so far

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Re: NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

Post by NippleWrestler »

StratMatt wrote: Thu Dec 29, 2022 1:30 pm Looks awesome. I vote you give it a Silverburst finish like the first photo.

Interesting about the Fishmans. I was tossing up between them and EMGs and read quite a few comments about the nasally mid spike they have. Alot of money to sound like a wah.
I'll admit the feature set was attractive on paper, but I can't see the value when other pickups do better with less work and less expense. Luckily for me not everybody has figured out how much they suck so they went for a decent price on the used market.

And no way. This dinged up metallic red is cool af.

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Re: NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

Post by olegmcnoleg »

Really love that finish. I once had a Japanese Jerry Donahue Tele with that finish and binding. Nice!

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Re: NGD: A long time in the making. 1985 Tele.

Post by jeremyb »

Nice job Tez!!!
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