MichaelW
Well-known member
Ok so here's a pic....it's a Tele, and it's got P90's. Nuff said, the rest is TL;DR in you're interested
TL;DR.....
So this project started out as a bit of an experiment. I don't have a lot of experience routing pickup cavities or more correctly, "over-routing" pickup cavities.
So I think it was during the Memorial Day sale, I bought an inexpensive GuitarFetish XPG body that was routed for Filtertrons. My plan was to over-route them to P90's as the width is "supposed to be" the same. I figured if I totally screwed the pooch it wouldn't be too painful. I think I paid $90 shipped for the body.
Also, as one who has a strong character defect of not taking responsibility for his own actions....I'm gonna blame this project on @Harry Klippton who posted a pic of his P90 Les Paul and @thewintersoldier who posted a pic of his Tele....on the same day! I have a weakness for both tele's and P90's....so this turned into a mashup of both. (Ok, so seriously I was inspired by a Nash Tele w/P90's I saw on Reverb but I don't have $2300 to drop on it at the moment) Harry and Chris are off the hook
So first off, the GFS XPG body. I was actually very pleasantly surprised how well made it is. I was kinda expecting a typical asian made body glopped with tons of finish. Turns out it's a very resonant, lightweight piece of Poplar and a very thin polyurethane finish that was very well painted. The shape, radii, etc are all spot on for a USA spec Tele body. I would say it's AT LEAST as good as the aftermarket Fender Mexican bodies that you can get, for about 1/3rd the price. I was so impressed that I ordered an alder Strat body in Candy Apple Red for a future project. Neck pockets are perfectly cut. No, it's not a Warmoth, but it's pretty darn nice. I'd be proud to rock it on any build and put the money saved into pickups.
My over-route worked out well and only a tiny bit of edge of the original route showing.
So with that success I went ahead and ordered the rest of the parts for the build.
I went with the Lollar P90's. I have to admit I'm a huge Lollar fanboy....there's not much Jason makes that I don't like. I've got his pickups in my Tele's, my Strat and also in my Eastman. For this project, I went with the "50's Wind" for the neck and Standard wind for the bridge.
For the neck I decided to use an ALLPARTS TRO-C neck. I read a rumor (on TGP so it MUST be true, right??!!!) that Bill Nash uses Allparts necks as his base for his builds. I absolutely LOVE the neck on my Nash Tele and the spec's seem to match the Allparts TRO-C so I took a chance and ordered it.
It's a nice neck but it needed some work. Again, not a Warmoth but it came with a nice rosewood slab fingerboard with some nice figuring.
For the bridge I decided to cut my own "Shorty" since I wasn't quite sure how an off the shelf one would fit with the P90. Turns out I could have used a regular shorty but I already got this one. It's a Fender branded "vintage style" bridge plate with no saddles. I cut it down to fit with a hacksaw then filed and sanded the edges.
I decided to shield the cavities with shielding paint. I've never used the MG nickel paint before. I was surprised it wasn't black. But it does the job nicely.
Onto the fingerboard....the rosewood needed some sanding, and I usually do that with a razor blade. I also like to "roll" my fingerboard edges which I also do with a razor blade, then hit it with some micro mesh.
You can see that the fret ends need some work as well, which I'll get to later. Continued in next post.......
TL;DR.....
So this project started out as a bit of an experiment. I don't have a lot of experience routing pickup cavities or more correctly, "over-routing" pickup cavities.
So I think it was during the Memorial Day sale, I bought an inexpensive GuitarFetish XPG body that was routed for Filtertrons. My plan was to over-route them to P90's as the width is "supposed to be" the same. I figured if I totally screwed the pooch it wouldn't be too painful. I think I paid $90 shipped for the body.
Also, as one who has a strong character defect of not taking responsibility for his own actions....I'm gonna blame this project on @Harry Klippton who posted a pic of his P90 Les Paul and @thewintersoldier who posted a pic of his Tele....on the same day! I have a weakness for both tele's and P90's....so this turned into a mashup of both. (Ok, so seriously I was inspired by a Nash Tele w/P90's I saw on Reverb but I don't have $2300 to drop on it at the moment) Harry and Chris are off the hook
So first off, the GFS XPG body. I was actually very pleasantly surprised how well made it is. I was kinda expecting a typical asian made body glopped with tons of finish. Turns out it's a very resonant, lightweight piece of Poplar and a very thin polyurethane finish that was very well painted. The shape, radii, etc are all spot on for a USA spec Tele body. I would say it's AT LEAST as good as the aftermarket Fender Mexican bodies that you can get, for about 1/3rd the price. I was so impressed that I ordered an alder Strat body in Candy Apple Red for a future project. Neck pockets are perfectly cut. No, it's not a Warmoth, but it's pretty darn nice. I'd be proud to rock it on any build and put the money saved into pickups.
My over-route worked out well and only a tiny bit of edge of the original route showing.
So with that success I went ahead and ordered the rest of the parts for the build.
I went with the Lollar P90's. I have to admit I'm a huge Lollar fanboy....there's not much Jason makes that I don't like. I've got his pickups in my Tele's, my Strat and also in my Eastman. For this project, I went with the "50's Wind" for the neck and Standard wind for the bridge.
For the neck I decided to use an ALLPARTS TRO-C neck. I read a rumor (on TGP so it MUST be true, right??!!!
) that Bill Nash uses Allparts necks as his base for his builds. I absolutely LOVE the neck on my Nash Tele and the spec's seem to match the Allparts TRO-C so I took a chance and ordered it.
It's a nice neck but it needed some work. Again, not a Warmoth but it came with a nice rosewood slab fingerboard with some nice figuring.
For the bridge I decided to cut my own "Shorty" since I wasn't quite sure how an off the shelf one would fit with the P90. Turns out I could have used a regular shorty but I already got this one. It's a Fender branded "vintage style" bridge plate with no saddles. I cut it down to fit with a hacksaw then filed and sanded the edges.
I decided to shield the cavities with shielding paint. I've never used the MG nickel paint before. I was surprised it wasn't black. But it does the job nicely.
Onto the fingerboard....the rosewood needed some sanding, and I usually do that with a razor blade. I also like to "roll" my fingerboard edges which I also do with a razor blade, then hit it with some micro mesh.
You can see that the fret ends need some work as well, which I'll get to later. Continued in next post.......
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