The Pawn Shop Telecaster Project

Post by **Avi** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:11 am

I'm finally finished working on my latest musical acquisition. It's a late 90's Fender Telecaster that I saw in a pawn shop. It was partially burned on the back and was coated in a rather unattractive dark green enamel. After many hours of sanding, staining, and cursing, I am proud to show you the finished project.

First, let's take a look at the Before pictures:

And here it is in it's new condition:

I sprayed PPG Automotive clear over the stain to protect it and stained the face of the headstock to match the body. The hardware is still original but I plan on replacing it all over time and putting a Bigsby floating tremolo on the bridge one day. The burn mark that used to be on the back now just looks like a darker part of the wood grain. The white pickguard looked horrible on it, so I decided to leave it off altogether so that more of the wood is showing.

Total cost of materials (including guitar): $120

Total labor: 10 hours

NicolA.exe · Post by **NicolA.exe** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:08 am

Do i remember or is it a misstake that u seem like to repair & polish instruments ? Very dark i can remember a similar topic such this to have read on the former Boxhat forum. Was it u or someone else ?

And do u put so much effort because u want to sell these instruments one day or are u seriously loving them like ur girlfriend ? If yes then u are a real instruments lover/collector.

Post by **Avi** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 11:16 am

I posted my jazz bass on Boxhat a while back. I refinished this one in the same manner.

I refinish these to match my personality, I guess. I don't like stock colors on instruments and I like to put some of my own sweat and blood into them. Only then am I truly comfortable playing and recording with them.

Post by **Daddyo** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:52 pm

Really nice looking finish!

I now have a real guitar myself, whereas had a pos I got for $5, now I have to learn how to play it! But it sure makes some cool sounds with FL studio & other effects.

Post by **Avi** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:55 pm

Do you have the Freeamp VST? That works well. It's a cabinet and foot pedal emulator for guitars.

Post by **data_ghost** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 4:28 am

nice guitar avi, looks nothing like what it was before. spiff work

PS its ma bday today WAHOO

NicolA.exe · Post by **NicolA.exe** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:48 am

Daddyo wrote:Really nice looking finish!

I now have a real guitar myself, whereas had a pos I got for $5, now I have to learn how to play it! But it sure makes some cool sounds with FL studio & other effects.

I recommend Guitarig 3.0 from NI or Amplitube & many other effects from Ik-mutimedia, that suit very well for Guitarplayers. Of course there are some freeware solutions but they are no Allrounder & most freeware plugins might be lesser Cpu-friendly. Not all but some.

NicolA.exe · Post by **NicolA.exe** » Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:49 am

data_ghost wrote:nice guitar avi, looks nothing like what it was before. spiff work

PS its ma bday today WAHOO

Ahaaa how old are u Gangsta ? We don't need to ask DaddyO. He is the oldest in our round.

And Avi & me seem to be on the same age.

Post by **TronFAQ** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:39 am

Nice work on the guitar, Avi! A total pf $120 plus 10 hours labor isn't too bad an investment. And it looks more expensive than that, now.

Happy Birthday, data_ghost! PDT_Armataz_01_34

Post by **data_ghost** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:59 pm

14!

1 year closer to independence!

Post by **Daddyo** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:40 pm

Happy birthday!

I've tried amplitube & guitar rig, i'm going to try freeamp.

Check out this guy playing a telecaster http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Br-RBr0m2c

I'm looking into this vsti but I have to hear it more since there's no demo http://www.line6.com/gearbox_plugin/download.html and I think you have to buy their hardware to go with it doh.

Here's a block of vsti's that sounded pretty good to me http://www.kvraudio.com/get/465.html, and made me stop thinking about amplitube & guitar rig.

What I really want to find is something that totally colors the sound with something more than just distortion/reverb/flanger/etc, like alot of the 80's "new wave" guitar, maybe even something like (I'm embarrassed to say) the guitar sound of flock of seagulls...ok close your eyes on this vid but listen to the guitar even though you can't really hear the full dynamics of it on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKciX1GSN3M

I'm learning a little piece at a time of mean streets into (best rock intro ever written!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykUgaR6kmSE, la cucaracha, la bamba, u2 stuff. I'm drivin at the moment to learn to play something!

Post by **Avi** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 2:45 pm

I have most of those VST's on the KVR site, and none of them really impress me. They all sound like a guitar being digitally distorted (also known as "crap").

There are things that change the sound completely to something more like a keyboard. The program that I used to make that weird bass solo on my old site was pretty trippy, but it's been so long that I used it that I forgot what it was called and can't find it in my library of VST's.

Post by **Avi** » Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:26 am

Last night I plugged my telecaster into my PC and started running it through different programs. I have this multi-FX VST that changes the input signal into up to 3 different wave forms, then adds 2 different effects to it (lo-pass, bit crush, etc.), and then puts a delay on it.

I was playing harmonics on the guitar, and they were coming out sounding like 8 bit Nintendo music. Then when I'd hit a low note, it would make this sick sounding "burp" and decay slowly into a bunch of square sounding bits.

It's just strange to hear these crazy robot sounds coming out of this beautiful piece of wood. I can't wait to release something using this method for people to hear. No one will believe that it's a guitar.