I always like Brian May's sound and I wanted a Red Special but I never had the cash to get a good one and I didn't want to settle for one that wasn't that good so I decided to make one... sort of.
I bought a '69 Telecaster Thinline body from an eBay seller. It was a reproduction with birdseye maple over mahogany. I bought a purpleheart wood neck from a different seller but that neck was junk so I replaced it with a Warmoth neck. It was ebony over bloodwood with stainless steel frets. I needed help with the Stetsbar bridge placement and the routing for the UK Adeson Brian May spec Burns Tri-Sonics so I took the guitar to SF Guitarworks in San Francisco.
They did a great job. They made me a pick guard and inlaid a six-pence in the upper bout. I put together a prototype to see what it was going to play and sound like. It turned out pretty good. I only used six slide switches and one pot for the prototype.
The guitar stayed in prototype mode for awhile and then I disassembled it to begin final finishing and wiring. I tried to do a tung oil finish. I sanded it down and dyed it amber but it occurred to me that a Red Special tribute guitar really needed to be red so I sanded it down again and dyed it red. I had problems with the tung oil finish and the project sat for a year or so.
I finally got off my butt and got busy. I stripped the tung oil and used poly. Since I had only stripped the top and dyed it red from the previous work, it left an amber dyed border around the maple cap that looked quite a bit like binding. I liked it so I kept it. I DID sand into the six pence and it had a bit of residual red dye but it is what it is.
I wired the new WD custom pick guard with six toggles and two pots. Three toggles for on/off and three toggles for phasing. The pots are 220k log just like the ones in the original Red Special and the cap is a Sprague .022 Black Beauty.
From top to bottom I have a bloodwood neck with ebony fingerboard and stainless steel frets, Kluson Revolution locking tuners, Earvana nut, '69 Telecaster Thinline maple over mahogany body, custom made WD pickguard, Adeson Brian May spec Burns TriSonic pups, Stetsbar bridge, strap locks.
Here's what I started with:
Prototype:
Refinish in amber:
Another refinish in tung oil:
Poly refinish:
Electronics:
I used a Tele jack plate instead of the first one I used but I didn't fill the holes and refinish because I'm lazy. Note the faux binding. Stetsbar bridge. I ordered another red abalone inlaid Tele knob but didn't have it when I took the picture. Kluson tuners.
I drilled for the strap lock pegs and I also found another red abalone Tele knob that I didn't know I had. Woot! Here's the finished product minus the waterslide decal. I have to research to find out if I need to do anything special to the headstock for the decal because I left the neck unfinished. I just sanded it down and used AAAAA steel wool to get it a nice texture.
My decal:
I bought a '69 Telecaster Thinline body from an eBay seller. It was a reproduction with birdseye maple over mahogany. I bought a purpleheart wood neck from a different seller but that neck was junk so I replaced it with a Warmoth neck. It was ebony over bloodwood with stainless steel frets. I needed help with the Stetsbar bridge placement and the routing for the UK Adeson Brian May spec Burns Tri-Sonics so I took the guitar to SF Guitarworks in San Francisco.
They did a great job. They made me a pick guard and inlaid a six-pence in the upper bout. I put together a prototype to see what it was going to play and sound like. It turned out pretty good. I only used six slide switches and one pot for the prototype.
The guitar stayed in prototype mode for awhile and then I disassembled it to begin final finishing and wiring. I tried to do a tung oil finish. I sanded it down and dyed it amber but it occurred to me that a Red Special tribute guitar really needed to be red so I sanded it down again and dyed it red. I had problems with the tung oil finish and the project sat for a year or so.
I finally got off my butt and got busy. I stripped the tung oil and used poly. Since I had only stripped the top and dyed it red from the previous work, it left an amber dyed border around the maple cap that looked quite a bit like binding. I liked it so I kept it. I DID sand into the six pence and it had a bit of residual red dye but it is what it is.
I wired the new WD custom pick guard with six toggles and two pots. Three toggles for on/off and three toggles for phasing. The pots are 220k log just like the ones in the original Red Special and the cap is a Sprague .022 Black Beauty.
From top to bottom I have a bloodwood neck with ebony fingerboard and stainless steel frets, Kluson Revolution locking tuners, Earvana nut, '69 Telecaster Thinline maple over mahogany body, custom made WD pickguard, Adeson Brian May spec Burns TriSonic pups, Stetsbar bridge, strap locks.
Here's what I started with:
Prototype:
Refinish in amber:
Another refinish in tung oil:
Poly refinish:
Electronics:
I used a Tele jack plate instead of the first one I used but I didn't fill the holes and refinish because I'm lazy. Note the faux binding. Stetsbar bridge. I ordered another red abalone inlaid Tele knob but didn't have it when I took the picture. Kluson tuners.
I drilled for the strap lock pegs and I also found another red abalone Tele knob that I didn't know I had. Woot! Here's the finished product minus the waterslide decal. I have to research to find out if I need to do anything special to the headstock for the decal because I left the neck unfinished. I just sanded it down and used AAAAA steel wool to get it a nice texture.
My decal:
