When i ordered this i grossly miscalculated my heater-less garage and the northern winter so i have pretty much effectively put this whole thing on hold until the nice weather rolls around i really have no choice, i don't really want to be sanding and spraying shit in my basement. It really sucks to look at that box in my music room everyday knowing i could be doing something constructive. It may not be the most quality kit and my experience with a build is non existent, but it was 150 bucks, Matt was super accommodating of my requests i am sort of aching for new guitar all that adds up to just do it!
Most of you know about this but for the history books i'm going to type it all out again.
the goal here is get two birds stoned at once,
A: have my first sorta telecaster
B: Have a proper left handed body guitar but also have it strung righty cause that is how i currently do it.
I originally set out to get a Mosrite kit but between the one place i found being unaccommodating of my seemingly outlandish requests and some more thought in how i go about writing my original material i like the idea of a tele better. It just seemed like the next logical guitar for me to own. In the end, i ended up talking to Matt at Solo Music Gear based out of Ontario Canada and we chatted about what i wanted and he seemed pretty excited and really accommodating at the notion of making my requested modifications and we did the deal.
So far on this journey i haven't got passed the unboxing and sanding my pieces of practice basswood when weather permits. Not having a heated garage sucks. I am still really excited to do this i just physically cannot work much in my deep freeze of a work area.
So for reference here are the pictures:
As it arrived from Canada Post, freshly trampled and ready for a quality build.
As it was packaged for transit
The body, four pieces of basswood, some black binding you will see later.
Output Rout
Closer look at the binding
The headstock.
I am personally not a fan of fender head stocks. I think they appear pretty wimpy, but as i age i find myself more concerned with the sound of an instrument than how it looks. But i still think they look kinda of wimpy. It is what it is. it's a whatever really. I have a guy on the west coast that has a CNC machine and i am brainstorming ideas for some sort of inlay or name on the head stock. I'm not there yet. I'll figure it out eventually.
The fretboard.
I think maybe Matt got a bit of glue on here when was flipping the nut for me, it sucks, but nothing an sos pad and very light scuffing can't fix.
The flipped nut. nothing special but it is flipped and i didn't have to do it.
Looking down on the flipped nut.
I suspect for proper sound transfer i am going to have to fill in that gap with something. It's been recommended that i use a bit of glue and saw dust and just inject it in there.
The hardwear
not sure why i am posting pictures of this stuff as 90% of it will be swapped out for something else. I am replacing the pick ups with something from the McNelly Pick Ups catalog. I'll find some much nicer tuning keys as well. these feel pretty chintzy to be honest. this is going ot be a forever guitar for me i don't mind upgrading all this stuff to more top shelf kind of bits and pieces. I am not knocking Matt or Solo, though, the kit was 155 CAD dollars. I wasn't expecting to see Grover tuners in the unboxing. I'm happy with it.
That is that for now. I've just been sort of reading up on finishing and all that stuff over the winter just waiting for spring to roll around to jump into this. I suppose i could use the big heated shop at work to tinker on it but i kind of want to have a beer or four while i work on it and we can't have beer in the shop. Kind of a bummer.
In terms of cosmetics so i can get a feel for different ways of finishing, i am going to do a solid color top, i am currently trying to decide between a vintage color like Pelham blue, sonic blue, sea foam green or maybe even a grey? I saw a pretty dope looking grey tele in a guitar center while out and about with Greg one day. It looks simple clean and still kind of classic. Then stain the sides back and neck a darker brown color. matte satin gloss finish on the neck. I got enough bass wood to try out all color and dye combinations, try out various finishing techniques and stuff like that. I am sure it all sounds unnecessary but it is how my brain chooses to do things.
And of course update all the hardware. I'm even going to try and get as Canadian as i possibly can and see if i can replace most if not all screws with stainless steel Robertson head screws
lol. thats the goal. So this is the start, i just need the weather to come around or some nice money fairy to drop off enough for my to insulate and heat my workshop
more to come as it unfolds i reckon. And a picture of my mutt that somehow made it's way into my tele folder?
after dropping a jar of the smoked oak on the floor and decided and go for a 15km bike ride after cleaning that mess up. To my surprise when i got back the differences were becoming more apparent. Albeit very subtle. I did see a difference. I like both. But i am really leaning towards the smoked oak. 
