Custom Tele "One"

The Fender-style Custom Telecaster One is characterized by its typical Telecaster sound, generated by Alnico V single-coils. Its pastel pink finish gives the electric guitar a cool vintage look and a silky feel. With a carved, personalized body and a comfortable Stratocaster-style neck, it brings out the best of both worlds.

One — build photo
One — build photo
One — build photo
One — build photo
One — build photo
One — build photo
One — build photo
One — build photo

Specifications

About this project

First of all, let’s have a smooth start and discuss the terminology involved and what you might think this is all about. For me, it’s as simple as this: I just want to build guitars the way I want to. On this pretty basic site, I invite you to enjoy my very first Fender-style Custom Telecaster project. But what exactly is it? A Partscaster? A DIY guitar kit? Well, call it whatever you want, as one does not necessarily exclude the other. Now, let’s lean back a bit, crack open a long neck, and enjoy the story…

And this is how it starts, somewhere in the misty fogs of 2020. Come on, you know. To escape a seemingly never-ending state of boredom, I started doing things I hadn’t done before, at least not regularly. I’m sure you did the same at some point. It might involve the world-famous sport called ‘jogging,’ painting furniture, reading books, experimenting with alcohol, studying guitar, exploring streaming services, and so on. However, there was still something waiting for me to catch up with. My first playable guitar (a Godin G4000 from 1996) was successfully disassembled about fifteen years ago, but I subsequently failed to put it back together. At some point, I moved it back to the basement. I could defend myself here and now by pointing out that we’re talking about a tremolo bridge, three pickups, and tons of wires, which you wouldn’t find on most Telecasters. See? I’m just talking myself out of it here. By the time I went for it again and rearranged all those parts on my kitchen table, while evidently holding on to some refreshing beverage, the idea of doing this project came to life. The initial re-assembly job went fine, and after some minor repairs, which involved some exciting welding activities, it was more or less done. Okay, I disassembled it at least three more times, did a new paint job in a beautiful surf-mint finish, changed the body shape a bit by adopting the contours, and so on.

Thinking back, this was all about learning and making mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Knowing and having the certainty that I could handle a rather ‘complex’ guitar project enabled the next step. You can admire the result on this site. I was going to build a guitar from scratch.

There’s no voodoo magic about the building process; you can find everything you need on YouTube, in manufacturer manuals, or in tons of free online tutorials. Therefore, I won’t go into detail about screwdrivers, sanders (I used a Bosch PSM 100 A), or my woodworking experience (which was close to none). Being the proud owner of a white Fender Telecaster also helped ease the process a bit since I could look up how it was built and check the parts inventory. So I started building this guitar with mediocre expectations, mumbling to myself that I should at least make it work somehow and keep the number of flaws at a reasonable level. I mean, building a guitar that would look like one you could get in a shop was never an option here nor on the schedule at any point. By that time, my friends had already been documenting what I was up to. Thus, to be honest with you guys, this was one source of pressure and potential laughter. The turning point on this journey proved to be when I had finished the paint job and temporarily assembled the guitar on my couch. It was just to give it a brief preview, and it turned out way better than expected. It seemed like this project could go somewhere good, and yeah, I never looked back from that moment on.

So here it is.

Genuine Fender parts — One

Genuine Fender Parts

all over the place, yet only where it matters. Carefully selected, modified, assembled and set up to fit your playing style.

Colours & paint job — One

Colours & Paint Job

The body color is an elegant, vintage pastel pink with a smooth, skin-like matte finish. The structure of the mahogany wood shows its fibers right through the layers of paint. The color job includes a grounding or primer layer (grey), the covering color (pink), and a sealing layer of matte wood finish.

Personalized body shape — One

Personalized Body Shape

The modeled body comfortably fits the anatomy of your body and is shaped according to your playing style. Therefore, a sharper angle enables pleasant and frictionless forearm positioning. On the other hand, the body back is carved to fit your upper body.