#5 Black Limba Tele#1 (Nov-Dec 2010)
In my quest for awesome tone, I came across a wood called Korina. It was a glorious wood, of golden luster, favored by the late 50s Gibson Flying V's, Explorers and Moderne's. The associated name for Korina was limba. I thought this was the same exact thing. It's close, but not exactly the same. Black Limba (Black Korina) could be riddled with wormholes, spalt lines, and non matching grain. What I found later was that I liked Black Limba more than a plain grey-ish tan white limba that Gibson used. Black limba had browns, blacks, purples, oranges, and the core grey-tan color. The grain varied so much that over the course of my builds, I had to rebuild my Black Korina Tele in favor for a more interesting grain pattern.
My first black limba tele again suffered from the fate of tear out, but this time inside the bottom horn. With three tear out in a row, and a growing lumber supply, I was ready to hang it all up. I corrected this build by pulling the cutaway back and giving the horn the super-Strat cutaway access. It appears as if I was still using a heavy round over for the Tele's.
It took me a bit to research what happened to this body as I knew this one sold locally. I think it originally was intended for a Russian bidder, but he wanted a different pickup configuration and I guess opted to not buy it. But I do recall selling it to a guy in Del Mar named Kevin (Ebay buyer, kmoraine).
#2-4. The trifecta (Apr 2010)
I bought one board of northern ash that made three bodies. I messed up on all three as this was my own build - no training wheels with cabinet makers looking over my shoulder. All three were built at the same time but really the Jazzmaster was sold unfinished first, then the Vellacaster was presented second, although delivered after the Vickcaster was presented.
The Jazzmaster
I screwed up on the roundover on the heel. Yep, it's not supposed to be that round there. Plus no belly cut, no pickup routes, no forearm relief. Man I sucked. And it was heavy so I was happy to offload it to an Ebay buyer. It sold in October 2010 to Antony Renverseau in France for a whopping $41 + shipping. Antony, I hope you finished off well!
Vick-caster (aka the 001) (Apr-Oct 2010).
As mentioned in my earlier blog, this was for my drummer Jason Vick who I played with in Divided By Zero (Ghoulspoon) and Brodeeva. On this tele I rounded the upper horn, only to shatter the strap pin area with tear out. I moved the template back and reshaped the upper horn. Body is routed for one tele pickup and control plate. Pickup is a Duncan Hot Rails and wired with three way toggle for coil tap and phase, with volume and tone. Neck is Mighty Might and hardware is Grover tuners and an unknown bridge.
Vellacaster (aka the 002) (Apr-Nov 2010)
As mentioned in my earlier blog, this was for my buddy Mike Vella. He was a fan of good guitars and rocking tones, and often dragged me out to concerts to see good bands like Wolfmother and Mike Ness. He was also my beer connoisseur buddy so I thought I'd return the favor with this gem. Mike's tele didn't suffer as bad of a fate as Jason's Esquire, but a sliver of wood was ripped off from the forearm area before the round over was added. The piece was glued back, sanded , and rounded over. Now it's hardly noticeable.
In this photo you can see it in the background being glued up.
At the end of the day, after being lacquered and dialed in, it came out to be an awesome Tele. Pickup is a Duncan 59 Tele wired for coil tap and a Duncan Designed humcancelling P90, with three way toggle, volume, and tone. Neck is Mighty Might and hardware is Fender (tuners and bridge).
Photo Courtesy of Mike Vella
#1. CCG Esquire(2006-2008?)
My number One. I never play it. It sits in a case under the bed. But it's my first, my last my everything. I'm kidding Barry White. This was the first Tele I built with Evan Smith and Phil Ebner at the CCG workshop. Crotch maple top with cocobolo and purple heart center top, over a thin walnut pinstripe veneer and alder core, backed by figured maple. Depending on how you look at the back figure, it can either look like a goat, or Homer Simpson. Neck is Mighty Might Strat neck - figured maple and rosewood; pickup is a Seymour Duncan P-Rails wired with Volume, Tone, 3-way toggle (Hum, Rail, P90); hardware is Wilkinson bridge (chopped) and Sperzel locking tuners with a Indian Rosewood control plate and Cocobolo knobs.
Stay tuned for Albers Guitars #6-10...
No comments:
Post a Comment