Replacement Ready

Last year I blogged about Old #8 coming home - the gold tele that had been sold years ago and then stolen from my friend Phil, only to turn up on CraigsList for me to buy and recycle into a great demo guitar for the shop. Phil had found a body and neck on eBay last November and dropped them off at my shop to get his tele level back up where it should be.

Skipping the cop chases and car crashes, I had some knee trouble, allergy trouble, throat trouble and trouble in general getting this project moving. My bad.

I got Pat Wilkins of Wilkins Guitars to do the fantastic tint and finish of the body and fretboard, David Sprowl of Stringwalker Lutherie to do the fret crown, level and polish, and installed a set of custom No Caster pickups from Thomas N of Cream T Pickups in Norway.

The guitar came out great - I called Phil today and I hope he can't pick it up for a week so I can play it more. The neck is cocobollo with a maple fretboard and the body is hefty mahogany with a figured maple bookmatched cap. A Gibson style 3 way toggle switch for the pickup selection, and a volume knob, the secret tonebender tone circuit is tucked away in the control cavity. Schaller sealed tuners and vintage round nickel stringtrees top off the neck.

Here's some pics of the finished product.