Vintage Yellow Telecaster

The idea for this build really started 6 months before the first bit of wood was cut. In a passing comment, my brother mentioned how cool yellow telecasters are. As his birthday quickly approached, I figured another guitar build would be easier for me than perusing Amazon for something he probably wouldn’t even want.

This guitar was the first time where a clear goal was pictured from the start: a vintage yellow tele. Because of the bright yellow color, it was also a perfect opportunity to test out lacquer spraying. After all, a vintage guitar should be a bit beat-up, right? (more on that below)

Specifications

25.5” scale length
2 piece cherry body finished with yellow-tinted lacquer
Mahogany neck (I’d call this a very chunky D-shape profile) finished with gloss lacquer
Pau Ferro fingerboard with 1/4” pearl dots
StewMac medium/high fret wire
Hardware

Overall, this guitar was a huge step up from previous builds. The neck is much easier to play (still room for improvement here) and the frets are a huge step up too (still had some fret seating issues, later builds have used a fret press). The finished product appears much more thought out, likely due to the hardware choice of a full Fender Road Worn set.

This guitar marked a few major firsts:

First time carving a mahogany neck
First time shooting a lacquer finish (and it shows)
First guitar given as a gift (you’re welcome Ry)

Several learnings came from this build, mainly around the finish. I’m lucky I was going for a vintage beat-up look from the start, the finish left plenty to be desired. The yellow spray lacquer finish was a solid 1 out of 5 stars from any closer than 6 feet. I sprayed it on the ground on elevated blocks which lead to dried drips around the back and didn’t wait long enough between coats. Also, there’s a few areas where I revealed the primer by sanding too far. Learnings for the future:

Patience with the lacquer
Proper placement in a spray-booth with a neck pocket mount to keep the body elevated and rotating
Don’t use a sharpie pen to design headstock logos
Just leave the truss rod adjustment at the nut instead of through the 22nd fret.
Patience lacquer