Kit in Construction - Tele Thinline

[Little Jay]

Alright then!

I am going to build a kit guitar for a friend of mine. It won’t specifically be a jazz guitar project, as he doesn’t play jazz, but the kit is very nice:

[Little Jay]

This is a $170 kit from AliExpress and the wood is really good! The frets are done very good as well, my fret rocker detected only two frets protruding ever so little. The fretboard edges are even rolled! Neck feels very nice, good profile.

The hardware seems decent. Pickups…. we’ll have to hear them to know. The bridge saddles do look cheap, those are definitely a candidate for better replacements. Tuners seem decent although they have some play in the axes.

The wiring has to go - too flimsy to my taste. Nice push back wiring will be used. 3 way switch and mini pots actually feel really good.

Of course the nut needs work, looks pretty rough, but that’s no big deal.

All in all a very nice kit, especially for the money. So let the fun begin!

[JohanAbrandt]

This is a $170 kit from AliExpress and the wood is really good! The frets are done very good as well, my fret rocker detected only two frets protruding ever so little. The fretboard edges are even rolled! Neck feels very nice, good profile.

The hardware seems decent. Pickups…. we’ll have to hear them to know. The bridge saddles do look cheap, those are definitely a candidate for better replacements. Tuners seem decent although they have some play in the axes.

The wiring has to go - too flimsy to my taste. Nice push back wiring will be used. 3 way switch and mini pots actually feel really good.

Of course the nut needs work, looks pretty rough, but that’s no big deal.

All in all a very nice kit, especially for the money. So let the fun begin!

Looks really nice =)

I’d put a tele short bridge with 3 compensated brass saddles on it, but thats pretty much what I want on every solid body so I’m partial

[Little Jay]

I’d put a tele short bridge with 3 compensated brass saddles on it, but thats pretty much what I want on every solid body so I’m partial

Yes, I am considering that, but since the body is pre-drilled for this bridge I might as well try it first. I could fill the holes and re-drill, new bridge plate would cover the old holes since I do like the traditional 3 brass saddles on a tele (on my more traditional partscaster tele I used uncompensated ones and I don’t even notice any problems with intonation on that guitar).

But I’ll try this bridge first.

[Webby]

I'm already looking forward to seeing you put that kit together! Your last builds have been quite impressive!

[Little Jay]

I'm already looking forward to seeing you put that kit together! Your last builds have been quite impressive!

Thanks man!

Don’t know if I ever showed my ‘50ies inspired’ partscaster Tele here?

So here she is with two of my other builts:


All three supberb guitars that I love playing and get lots of praise from other guitarists that try them out

[hotpepper01]

Looks like a nice kit. Assembling such a kit is great fun, I tried it once. Veel plezier bij het bouwen !

[Liarspoker]

Why us Dutchies of a certain age play jazz.

I was born in The Netherlands but left when I was very young

Upon reading this thread I remember seeing Ome Willem on tv so I just had a quick Google.

You can see how we were subconsciously influenced to like jazz music



Ps Nice builds btw. Does anyone here know Guido from Tune Up in Haarlem?

[Little Jay]

It’s in the process of being finished now.

Nitro for the body:


Acrylic for the neck:

[Little Jay]

I think it will become a nice guitar



Nitro is hardening now, waiting to be polished.

[Little Jay]

Neck now has 5 layers of acrylic spray can varnish. Custom made logo (ordered from Rothko & Frost) is under some 3 layers. I did not stain the neck and the acrylic lacquer has very little colour of its own. Looks like a modern Fender neck. I have no idea how much darker/yellower it will get over time, but I’m guessing if it will darken/yellow it will take quite some time.

The acrylic spray can finish is the cheapest I could find (Spectrum Clear Varnish Gloss, about $3 for a can) but it works great! Dries fast and actually dries so smooth and shiny that I will hardly have to sand and polish at all.

[Little Jay]

Re-did the electronics with better wire. Cap and pots are fine, those cheap minipots feel very solid and have a nice smooth gradient. Same for the 3-way switch: feels very solid.

[Little Jay]

Tuners are installed:


And the serial number:

[citizenk74]

You do nice work, Mr. Cooper!

[Little Jay]

Putting everything together…. Just a rough setup so far: first I cut the nut slots, set neck relief with the trussrod (as straight as possible before buzz sets in), adjusted the saddles for string height and intonation, set the pickups to the right height. All of this with a set of .011 Daddario roundwounds (I would use Thomastik .011 flatwounds myself, but the future owner is not a jazzguitarist).




Man, I am utterly impressed by this $170 kit! It sounds great! The humbuckers sound warm and woody but not dull at all. Nice and round and robust….. how is that possible for unbranded cheapo’s???

Tuners will probably go out and get replaced by something better, they just feel too cheap with some hickups in the travel when your turn them (although they keep tuning well enough). But better tuners will lift the guitar to a higher level.

I think it will benefit from a slight fret level and the nut slots can be just a bit deeper but it already plays very well.

Already playing with the idea of building it again in reliced mocha brown for myself…….