My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Fatty

New member
Yep.. I got my Tele from Aaron (Blueline) on Thursday this past week. It looks and sounds AWESOME. I still can't believe how fat the bridge pickup sounds (an exceptional feat for a tele bridge pickup). The "bordeaux cherry" color and the gold hardware compliment each other extremely well.. a very classy looking guitar, if I do say so myself.

The neck is nice and chunky, and very fast (hand carved and oiled). The 25" scale seems to allow me to do some faster runs, as my hand doesnt have to move quite as far to reach the fret. The extra reinforcement behind the headstock joint is a real confidence booster.. i feel like I can really PLAY it without having to worry.

I took it to band practice today, as it's final "test". Everyone was really impressed at how it sounded nice and fat, but still very articulate.

I mainly use just the bridge for the quicker distorted stuff, but for the clean stuff I'm really digging the piezo pickup + the coil tapped neck and the bridge. Sounds like a really deep acoustic.

It's obviously going to take me a while to discover all the different tones that can be had (17 total :saeek: , plus variances in tone knob and volume knob settings, plus the blend control for the piezo. ) One of these day's I'm going to have to try the stereo jack out (acoustic piezo on one side, regular pickups on the other).

Aaron sent me a CD with no less than 149 digital pictures of my guitar at different stages of the construction process.. A VERY cool add-on. Eventually, I think I'll create a website with all the pics on it. I also received specific instructions as to how to use my guitar (in my case, they were definately needed with all my different controls.).

For those of you unfamiliar with the specs of the guitar, here they are:

Deep bolt-in rosewood neck with rosewood fretboard, 25" scale.
6130 "Medium Jumbo" Dunlop fretwire
Chambered Tele-style mahogany with wild maple cap, Ric-style F-Hole.
"Bordeaux Cherry" naturally bound top, natural back, hand-oiled neck.
Graph-tech nut and saddles.
Graph-tech GHOST piezo system with mid-dark blend pot and stereo output jack.
Seymour Duncan zebra '59 in neck (with push-pull coil tap), Seymour Duncan Five-Two for Tele in bridge.


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Body in the sunlight, showing the natural binding.

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Body in the sunlight.

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Back of the body in the sunlight.

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Signed and dated truss rod cover.

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Guitar in the case before shipping.

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Guitar body in the sunlight.

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Guitar before being strung up.

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The reinforced headstock volute.

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A personal note on the back of the control cavity cover.

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A complete wiring nightmare. :alcoholic :saeek: Sorry about that, Aaron.. you're a better man than I. :smack:
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Alex,

That guitar is absolutely beautiful congratulations on getting such a great looking guitar and also to Aaron (Blueline) for making that. I have to say that when I am ready, probably early next year I will be asking him to do something for me. I love all the personal touches that he has done for you. Let us know how you get on with the guitar in the forthcoming days, weeks, months.

Norman
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Glad it fared so well at practice and i'm thrilled you're enjoying its tone and feel.

Thanks for everything Alex

Can't wait for your next one...

Cheers

Aaron
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

wow!

i wish i had the money to get my own but i'm determined to get an amp first.

nice work blueline
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Wow....She's gorgeous! Almost as good lookin as my ole lady buddy! LOL Congrats on your really nice Tele...

John
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Woah...that's gorgeous dude! What kind of strap buttons are those?
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Oh man! You make me sick :32: That is a nice guitar :dance:
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Wow, that looks great, nice job Aaron. That wiring alone is a work of art. If I didn't just pick up two guitars in two months, I'd have you build me something. Somewhere down the road, I'm going to have something custom built, and I'll definitely keep you in mind. Do you stick with typical Fender/Gibson style bodies, or can you make just about anything? I'd love to have a guitar similar to the red '59 Bo Diddley Gretsch model that Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top has...http://www.lowpft.com/stl0303.jpg

Alex, I would definitely be interested in seeing some of the pics from the building process when you get them posted.

Ryan
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

great job- a very distinctive and unique take on a tele!

nice concept, nice wood, and nice execution ... the stereo option is kinda intriguing .. no doubt, you could play a whole gig with one guitar and surprise some folks with the piezo. (I'm trying a Seth in the neck of my tele, but I find the output overwhelms the bridge JD in mine.)

I'm assuming that the "case before shipping" shipping pic shows the finished intonation, since some of the other bridge shots look "off" a bit :)

I've often wondered why Blueline is so low-key around here, but I'll leave that to him! :D

and, Fatty, PM me if you want a gear page on my site ;)

Peace
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Hey guys, thanks for all the kind words

as for the strap buttons - they're dunlop flushmounts - i use them because i like the clean look and it guarantees that anyone who plays your work of art must use straplocks

as for my designs - i typicall don't do teles, and i don't do gibsons
i typicall do my own double cutaway, single cutaway, and flat top double cutaway

i used ot have pics but a dell laptop misshap cleaned me almost clean out
i have some singlecutway pics which most of you have seen and some double cutaway pics on the way soon
i pretty much did the tele design because Alex is such a nice guy and I really wanted to get him exaclty what he was looking for

as to my lowkeyness - I try not to hawk my wares too much because i'm really conscerned about being seen as some sort of guitar pimp. So i much rather have the work come to me. but, i do like to chime in on threads and help where i can

i hope Jeremy posts a pic of his new guitar (the other forum guitar i just finished)
that one's a singlecuatay

thanks for everything guys

cheers
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Thanks for all the kind words guys... Aaron definately hooked it up. I'll probably have another one in the works from him as soon as I can scrape up enough. ;)

And I'll definately post an online chronology of the Tele's construction. It's really cool to see the different stages of construction. (there were some pics on the CD even I hadn't seen before)
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

THAT IS SIMPLY AWESOME!!!!

i can't wait for Aaron to build me a tele in a few months!!!

if anyone is wanting a guitar built...at least talk to Aaron (blueline) and johnjohn about it...let's keep it in the family people... :burnout:
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

Its funny, how many posts have the word "wow" in them. :laugh2:

I'll just add my post to the list . . . Wow! That thing is gorgeous.
(Alex, now I know why you didn't need that 2-wire zebra 59.) ;)

And Blueline; I've been thinking alot lately about that great tip you gave me for making a guitar body. I now have a little better insight into the man who gave it to me. Beautiful work. Go ahead and push your wares here. I can't imagine how anyone could mind. ;)
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

wow. wow. wow.


my god that is beautiful. it looks just as well as any guitar out there, that are custom made..... amazing work.

i cant wait for you to be on the map in a few years as a top manufacturer.
 
Re: My Tele is complete! (LOTS OF PICS)

A damn good looking axe!!! That is beautiful work Blueline and I'm sure it plays even better than it looks! I'm envious Alex.
 
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