Mosstone Flame-caster Tele

[Mossman]

I never come up with an "official" name for my guitars until I'm about half-way through the build (or somebody else does ), but most of you should know what this build is about.

Body 1.jpg

I was hoping to get started on this project this past weekend, but a train derailment delayed the arrival of a couple of things I needed. I didn't have to agonize much over what kind of finish I want to do on this one. I have long admired the look of the Fender American Deluxe/American Elite (now called "American Ultra") Tele in Cherry Sunburst.

american deluxe tele.jpg

Not enough to drop $2,000 on one. That would be insane (I'll get back to that later). But I tucked it away as inspiration for a future build some day, and this body fits the bill. It doesn't have binding, but it has a 1/4" flame Maple top. Perfect for doing "faux binding", which I think is even better.

I've never done this before, so I did a lot of research and watched a lot of videos. There are a few different techniques. I've seen people do this without taping or masking the edge at all (I won't be using that technique!). Some just mask the edge with pin-striper's tape, while others paint sanding sealer around the edge to prevent the dye from penetrating the wood. I'm going to take a belt-and-suspenders approach, and use sanding sealer, but also cover the edge with tape when I start painting the burst. If the red dye seeps into the end-grain on the edge, there will be no amount of sanding that will get it out.

So I ordered a can of Mohawk sanding sealer:



This stuff is kinda spendy... $20 a can! I wasn't sure if I really needed it. I've got plenty of polyurethane around here (or just straight lacquer) that I imagine would do the same thing, but everybody I watched used sanding sealer for this, and often times when I decide to get clever and go off-script, it doesn't work out so well... Not every the time, mind you, but I don't want to take any chances with this.

And I got some vinyl 3M pin-striping tape:



Now I have to do a lot of sanding. The back and sides are kinda rough, but the top feels like it was sanded to 1000 grit. Super-smooth, with no scratch marks that I can find anywhere. But unfortunately, I'm going to have to sand it down again, because the other day I was test-fitting the hardware to make sure all the routs and bridge mounting holes were in the right place, and the wire from the pickup that was mounted on the bridge plate got snagged in the hole when I was removing it, and the bridge slipped out of my hand, leaving a very faint ding in the top. It's not deep. In fact, it's too faint to capture in a photo, but it's there, and it needs to be sanded out before I apply any dye.

I'm pretty eager to get started with this, so I'll have a progress update soon. Somebody mentioned in the "Sun King" build thread that they'd like to see a video of me doing a burst finish (I think it was @nomadh, but I might be mistaken), so I will be making a video document of this.

If anybody has any suggestions for a model name for this guitar, I'd be happy to hear them! All the ones I've come up with so far are stupid.

[tobijohn]

Oh boy, I'll be taking notes on this one. I'm a CSB addict and do not currently have a Tele with that finish and am tempted to eventually try it on a couple other models. The plain top is also quite enticing...

[sabasgr68]

Have no doubt that it´ll look - and perform - better than the $2K original!

Thread bookmarked!

[nomadh]

Love to see the process!

[BatUtilityBelt]

Nice flame! You might steam up a tiny ding instead of sanding it out. As for the name, maybe Suncaster?

[Mossman]

Oh boy, I'll be taking notes on this one. I'm a CSB addict and do not currently have a Tele with that finish and am tempted to eventually try it on a couple other models.

Yeah, I knew you'd like this finish choice... I half expected you to throw my: "there's enough CSB in the world" comment back at me.

I've always had a thing for Fender guitars with Gibson finishes. In fact my first go at a Tele with a P90 in the neck position was going to be Pelham Blue:

pb tele body.jpg

But the paint job got ganked on the back when I left it sitting on that thing overnight. It's a make-shift platform that I made from a paint can and a square of cardboard held on with packing tape. The paint reacted with the tape, and I never got around to repainting it.

The plain top is also quite enticing...

Dang it, I mean to post this Elite, instead (I prefer the look of Ash, myself):

american elite tele.jpeg

Have no doubt that it´ll look - and perform - better than the $2K original!

Thread bookmarked!

Thanks, Sabas... I almost went off on a mini-rant about that in my opening post. I never really knew the specs of Fender's top-of-the-line guitars, because I never planned on buying one. I just always thought the CSB Elites/Ultras looked pretty, but that's not enough to make me want to spend a pile of money on a guitar. In the process of generating inspiration for this project, I got curious and went on the Fender website to see just what the "Ultra" Telecaster offers for your hard-earned $2,000, and I was somewhat appalled by how insubstantial the differences are between the Ultra, and the Professional II. For the extra $400 you basically get binding and Noiseless pickups (which everybody seems to hate). Oh, and a belly-cut, and another contour that doesn't make any ergonomic sense to me:



You know, I don't play the dusty frets that often, but when I do, my hand is usually over the top of the guitar, not on the back. How would your fingers even reach the frets with your hand in that position? They couldn't put the contour on the front because of the pickguard, so I guess they figured a useless contour is better than none at all?

That's what they call "added value" kids!

I know the Telecaster is the pickup truck of guitars, and there's not a whole lot you can do to fancify it, but for $2k, I expect at least a figured top, and maybe some exotic woods... I like Ash, but that doesn't qualify as exotic to me. And I thought Fender said they were going to stop using Ash because it's becoming endangered?? Give us some Walnut, or Bubinga for crying out sakes. An ebony fretboard, maybe? Bound neck? Nitro finish? For that kind of money, they should be leaning more towards Suhr, than a standard model with a few cosmetic enhancements. And it should have some more tricks than just a series/parallel S-1 switch. I don't have an opinion about Noiseless pickups, because I've never tried them, but I think they should probably put more popular pickups in them. I guess they would have to be special and exclusive to the Ultra models, though.

Oh, and if you have $2,400 burning a hole in your pocket for the tippity-top guitar that Fender offers, there's the "Ultra Luxe", which is the same as the Ultra, except it has stainless steel frets and only comes in two finishes.

I don't think I'll ever buy another Fender guitar in my life, and apart from the occasional salty remark, I don't get too worked up about over-priced guitars, but I think a slab-of-wood, CNC'd, bolt-on guitar shouldn't cost any more than say, $1,500. And that's for the very top model.

Looks like I went and made a rant about it after all.

[/rant]

[tobijohn]

Dang it, I mean to post this Elite, instead (I prefer the look of Ash, myself):


american elite tele.jpeg

That's it, right there! That's EXACTLY what I want....

[Mossman]

Nice flame! You might steam up a tiny ding instead of sanding it out. As for the name, maybe Suncaster?

It won't take much to sand it out. It's barely even visible. I had to search the surface of the body for like 10 minutes just to find it again. I should probably raise the grain and sand it down again anyway. I know the grain has been raised and sanded at least once, but I like to raise the grain twice before I stain, just to be on the safe side.

[Mossman]

Dang it, I mean to post this Elite, instead (I prefer the look of Ash, myself):


american elite tele.jpeg

That's it, right there! That's EXACTLY what I want....

Well, you'll have to find a used one, because the Ultra replaced the Elite, and the only bursts that the Ultra comes in anymore are "Ultraburst" (which is kinds nice, actually, but it's just another 3TS):



And the (ugh) "Mochaburst" finish (who is this for?):



Oh, and it'll have to be righty, too, because Fender doesn't think you deserve their best guitars.

[tobijohn]

Well, you'll have to find a used one, because the Ultra replaced the Elite, and the only bursts that the Ultra comes in anymore are "Ultraburst" (which is kinds nice, actually, but it's just another 3TS)...Oh, and it'll have to be righty, too, because Fender doesn't think you deserve their best guitars.

Na, I don't need a Fender, I'm now just going to keep an eye out for an unfinished ash plain top body...

[Mossman]

As for the name, maybe Suncaster?

I almost forgot to respond to that...

"Suncaster" is a good suggestion. I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature. I also thought about dubbing this one "Sun King" and naming the Strat something else. Since the finish didn't come out exactly as planned, I get more of a "fire" vibe than a "sun" vibe when I look at it. It wouldn't be the first time I gave a guitar a name that was intended for a different guitar. That Pelham Blue Tele above was going to be the "Titan-90", but I thought the baritone deserved that name more. I'm still open to other options, though. It doesn't even really have to be related to the color, or the way it looks.

[BatUtilityBelt]

I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature.

Or you could cheat it a bit and go with Solarcaster. I love naming guitars.

[Mossman]

I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature.

Or you could cheat it a bit and go with Solarcaster. I love naming guitars.

I could go psychedelic... You're old enough to remember "Orange Sunshine", right?

[tobijohn]

Na, I don't need a Fender, I'm now just going to keep an eye out for an unfinished ash plain top body...

FWIW, I just checked out the prices for either a lefty swamp ash or alder (another pretty grain) body at Precision and BYOB and as W.C. Fields would say, "Godrey Daniel, Mother of Pearl!" They ain't cheap and I seem to recall that at least one of the many SX Telecaster models had a body made of one or the other. If that's the case, I might already have one and as much as I shudder at the thought of stripping poly, it's an option...

[BatUtilityBelt]

Or you could cheat it a bit and go with Solarcaster. I love naming guitars.

I could go psychedelic... You're old enough to remember "Orange Sunshine", right?

Had to google that one, but

[Rollin Hand]

As for the name, maybe Suncaster?

I almost forgot to respond to that...

"Suncaster" is a good suggestion. I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature. I also thought about dubbing this one "Sun King" and naming the Strat something else. Since the finish didn't come out exactly as planned, I get more of a "fire" vibe than a "sun" vibe when I look at it. It wouldn't be the first time I gave a guitar a name that was intended for a different guitar. That Pelham Blue Tele above was going to be the "Titan-90", but I thought the baritone deserved that name more. I'm still open to other options, though. It doesn't even really have to be related to the color, or the way it looks.

Tequila Sunrise?

[Mossman]

As for the name, maybe Suncaster?

I almost forgot to respond to that...

"Suncaster" is a good suggestion. I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature. I also thought about dubbing this one "Sun King" and naming the Strat something else. Since the finish didn't come out exactly as planned, I get more of a "fire" vibe than a "sun" vibe when I look at it. It wouldn't be the first time I gave a guitar a name that was intended for a different guitar. That Pelham Blue Tele above was going to be the "Titan-90", but I thought the baritone deserved that name more. I'm still open to other options, though. It doesn't even really have to be related to the color, or the way it looks.

Tequila Sunrise?

Well, as a recovering alcoholic, I don't know if that would be appropriate...

[tobijohn]

Just name it "Bob" and move on...

[Mossman]

Just name it "Bob" and move on...

[ID10t]

I almost forgot to respond to that...

"Suncaster" is a good suggestion. I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature. I also thought about dubbing this one "Sun King" and naming the Strat something else. Since the finish didn't come out exactly as planned, I get more of a "fire" vibe than a "sun" vibe when I look at it. It wouldn't be the first time I gave a guitar a name that was intended for a different guitar. That Pelham Blue Tele above was going to be the "Titan-90", but I thought the baritone deserved that name more. I'm still open to other options, though. It doesn't even really have to be related to the color, or the way it looks.

Tequila Sunrise?

Well, as a recovering alcoholic, I don't know if that would be appropriate...

Virgin Sunrise

[Rollin Hand]

I almost forgot to respond to that...

"Suncaster" is a good suggestion. I considered that name, but after naming the Strat the "Sun King" I thought maybe I should avoid another sun reference in the nomenclature. I also thought about dubbing this one "Sun King" and naming the Strat something else. Since the finish didn't come out exactly as planned, I get more of a "fire" vibe than a "sun" vibe when I look at it. It wouldn't be the first time I gave a guitar a name that was intended for a different guitar. That Pelham Blue Tele above was going to be the "Titan-90", but I thought the baritone deserved that name more. I'm still open to other options, though. It doesn't even really have to be related to the color, or the way it looks.

Tequila Sunrise?

Well, as a recovering alcoholic, I don't know if that would be appropriate...

Apologies.

Tele Savalas.

[Mossman]

Tequila Sunrise?

Well, as a recovering alcoholic, I don't know if that would be appropriate...

Apologies.

Tele Savalas.

Clever.

[Mossman]

slack caster.jpg

[Mossman]

Ok, I decided for sure that I'm not going to use that flamey neck for this build. I was trying to talk myself into it, but there's no getting around that the fit isn't that great, and I don't want to engage in any fixes, like shimming the walls of the neck pocket to make it right. That's something you do to fix a cheap beater. I want this to be right from the start. And as I previously mentioned, I'd prefer a Maple fretboard for this over Rosewood.

I ran into a bit of a dilemma, though. My go-to for necks is usually Allparts from the Stratosphere, but all the Maple necks have the "FAT", '50s profile (.97" at the first fret) and I just can't deal with that. I'm also not interested in having any more guitars with the truss-rod access at the heel of the neck, which is what you get from Allparts, unless it's a '70s-style neck with the fat Strat headstock, and I didn't want that either. Not that they had any. The selection was not as broad as it usually is (no surprise).

The other two options for licensed necks were Might Mite:



and WD:



I've always thought of Mighty Mite necks as "less-than" for some reason, but I couldn't really remember why. I reasoned that StewMac is selling them, so they can't be that bad, right? I liked the look of the tint on the Mighty Mite neck, and I also liked the fact that the fretboard extension for the 22nd fret doesn't stick out too far, and it doesn't end in sharp right angles like a lot of extended fretboards do. That always bugs me, and often times, I take a Dremel to it to round off the corners... But most of all, it has truss rod access at the headstock. Still, I felt uneasy about pulling the trigger, so I did a search for reviews of Mighty Mite necks, and it seems like 8 out of 10 people hate them, and the rest either got lucky, or don't care.

Common complaints are: sharp fret ends, uneven frets, cheap fret-wire, bad finishes, poor workmanship, terrible plastic nut. And I don't mean the necks could have some of these issues. I mean they had all of these issues in the vast majority of reviews/forum posts that I read. So I backed the hell off of that and got the WD neck instead. The neck I used for the baritone is from WD and it's top-shelf. Every bit as good as an Allparts neck. The fretwork and overall build quality is immaculate. I didn't have to file a single fret, or fret end, and I got it set up with just a minuscule adjustment to the truss rod (which is also at the headstock). My misgivings with this neck were that it's already got a satin finish on it and it looks pretty white. I may have to sand off the finish to tint the neck... including the fretboard, which I'm not particularly jazzed about. The other thing I didn't like was that it does have one of those long, square fretboard extensions, but that's not really much of an issue.

I also realized that there were a few odd parts that I needed for this build, like a jack socket, and a control plate (the one I was going to use has some scratches on it, and I like the guitars I build to look brand new when they're done), and a few other small things. I also needed some A4 and A5 magnets, so I went on over to Philadelphia Luther Tools (have you seen how much StewMac charges for magnets??). PLT offers free shipping on orders over $50 so picked up a few other things while I was there. Honestly, I don't even know what StewMac is good for anymore. Their stuff is overpriced, and their predatory shipping rates compel me take items out of my cart, not put more stuff in. The last thing I bought from StewMac was a Jazzmaster vibrato for the Eclipse. I wanted a vibrato that had the locking mechanism, but didn't say "Fender" on it, and StewMac was the only option for that. The Fender vibrato was actually cheaper. Imagine paying more money for a product because it doesn't have a name brand on it!

[Mossman]

Ok, I raised the grain again and sanded everything up to 800 grit. The small mark I made on the top disappeared (I think wetting down the top helped, as I couldn't find it before I even started sanding, but I had a slightly worse issue to deal with on the back. There were a couple of... scrapes (they were too wide to call them scratches) staring from the left lower bout, with the longest one continuing across the string-through holes.



It was like that when I got it. I guess somebody must have slid this body across something in the workshop. No matter though... My semi-orbital sander made short work of that.

After the body was sanded to my satisfaction, I masked around the perimeter of the top with vinyl tape:

binding masked.jpg

I was going to mask the top, too, so that you could see a thin line of "binding" all around the body when you looked at it straight on (like real binding), but it was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. The corner radius is pretty tight and I found it impossible to consistently position the tape exactly before the fall-off the radius and make the outline even all the way around. After my second attempt, I decided to just brush on the sanding sealer (I was going to spray it), and whatever sealer makes its way onto the top, I'll just sand off with a sanding block. Here it is after three coats:

binding sealer.jpg

I'm going to give it a couple more coats, then I'll sand off the excess, and it'll be ready for the burst!