The Photo-Web-O-Caster

[photoweborama]

I've renamed it again so here is the start..

Fezz sent the body up and is it ever nice.
All I'm waiting for is the pickups and the neck..
It's looking good.. Real good!

[BlueFrogs]

Looks like you'll be twangin' in no time! :)

How about the PhotoFezzOCaster?

[photoweborama]

Ok.. Here we go to start!!!

[Tele-Bob]

I must admit to having my eye on that piece too. I'm glad you got it PWR. I'm sure you'll make it into something real nice.

[photoweborama]

Thanks TB, I like the threaded bridge saddles that Fezz suggested, but I'm not sure on the Tele knobs. Before they came in from Jim in Texas, I had black Strat knobs on it, and I have to admit, they looked really good.

I know the MW Tele has amp knobs on it, but they look odd to me. The skirt is too big, and the shaft part is too thin.

[Skip]

man that looks great...won't be long and you'll be putting down some Tele lead lines!

[fezz parka]

Looking good! :yay

Can't wait to see the neck from Curtis on there...

[sabby]

Yer almost there, man. I'm betting jealous all over again. Damn Tele envy,... :lol

[photoweborama]

Well it's getting closer.. Butnut sent the pickups; the body is ready for the pickups. All parts are on it, put the Shaller strap locks on it yesterday and tapped the string ferrules in..

Curtis is sending the neck so I may have it ready for my little gig next Wednesday. Maybe not.. We will see. If not, I'll take my FMT Strat.

I'm curious to see how this is going to sound with the 4-way switch.

CAR does not look bad, but it does not look anything like Butnut's Candy paint jobs. I thought CAR was brighter, but it has a gold base, which darkens the red. If you think of it more as a metallic Wine Red, you delude yourself. I like it as CAR or metallic Wine Red. :)

[skywriter900]

very cool guitar ..hey mark my photo cd showed up today thank ya thank ya..............

[photoweborama]

Glad the CD made it.. I guess the mail is slow.. No, wait, my wife mailed it Monday.. That's not bad.. I've been mailing so much stuff, I forget what went out on what day..

[photoweborama]

Got the pickups from Butnut and a Tortise pickguard. Thats going to be the one with black strat knobs instead of the Tele knobs.

[butnut]

Glad they made it...now get soldering man. Have fun. Yeah, black Strat knobs are kool, but my65pan knobs are kooler...hehe

[photoweborama]

I decided not to used the back strat knobs. They looked great when the control plate was on my desk, but on the guitar, the just looked to stubby...

[jim in texas]

Mark

if you don't like the knobs, pick something else and I'll swap them out.

[photoweborama]

The knobs are ok Jim. What I'm going to do is buy some black shrink tube that will fit the knobs and shrink them on them to give them a custom look.

Black Strat knobs did not look as good as I though they would when I actually put them on the body.

The pickups are installed. I used the Fender 4-way diagram. I tried to use the Guitar Electronics diagram, but I just could not get it to work. I know I must have done something wrong.

The Fender diagram was much simpler. The only thing that was difficult was that I don't like where the positions end up. Not a big problem. I can live with it. It works and I can hear the difference between the parallel and series positions.

All I need is the neck, and I'm set.

[photoweborama]

Curtis shipped the neck today.. The suspense is driving me crazy..
Chuck is sending me the string tree, but I have a cheap one to get by with until it gets here...

[photoweborama]

I just sold my black Stratocaster.. The first one I ever owned..
MiM on ebay.. sold for $300.00 too!

That just paid for the tele neck and all the smaller parts I needed to buy to finish the project, Plus a Gameboy SP for my son.

When the neck comes in, I'll post the finished photos!

[chuckocaster]

lookin good. i'll get that tree off to ya soon.

[fezz parka]

Oh man... So all you need to do to GACAR (god-awful candy apple red) is switch to a tortoise guard and a rosewood neck! Go Mark!:yay

[Skip]

tis going to be a beauty! Rosewood neck - yes I have one on my Tele and I like it allot! (but then I would also like a maple one allot too :)

[photoweborama]

Thanks Fezz and Skip.. Yep, the neck is rosewood. Scheduled to arrive tomorrow!!!!!!

And officially THIS Tele is now "Metallic Wine Red". :hee

I think we need to have Butnut paint it a REAL CAR and send it to fender as an example of how to do it.

[BlueFrogs]

Coming along nicely there Mark! :)

[butnut]

hehe, doing kandy apple red is tricky, there is actually a CARsurvivors club on the Reranch forum... just a thin coat too many will really darken the tone...kandy violet even trickier.
I got the TFF CD today, man, those pics look scarey...the detail is nuts. Thanks.

[photoweborama]

Did you notice back side... a bit of smoothing there... Otherwise I did very little touch up on any of the photos. Only dust.

Well the neck is in Sacramento.. I'm sure it will make it today.. Well I hope so! It did not hit sac until 5am.. I hope that is enought time to get it on the truck.

[Bongolation]

Well the neck is in Sacramento.. I'm sure it will make it today.. Well I hope so! It did not hit sac until 5am.. I hope that is enought time to get it on the truck.

Somebody at UPS told me that if the stuff was in the terminal by 0500, it would go out, but we'll see. The "out for delivery" info typically doesn't show up on the trace until after the package is delivered.

Normally, I'm seeing "Two-Day" stuff sit in an air-freight shed out at Mather for three to four days, if the weekend gets hit just right.

[photoweborama]

It should make it today; it says it's out for delivery... I hope to finish it tonight and it will take a day or two to settle in. Every part on it has not been on it before and will take a little time to seat. Like the string ferrules, and the bridge. The neck in the neck pocket, etc...

[curtisstetka]

Oh man! That is some exciting stuff. I know you're going to dig that neck, Mark. I can't wait to see the finished product!

[photoweborama]

The neck got here fine. Looks beautiful. but I knew I forgot something.
Neck plate and screws.. Oh well. I'll get them tomorrow..

[cooltone]

Mark, that tortoise guard on red looks so classy. I never would have thought it would work. The neck w/ rosewood with that combo will be outrageous!! Great job.!!

[photoweborama]

It's DONE!!!
No way I could wait when there was a Guitar Center open.
Only $5.00 for a neck plate and screws.

AND while I was there I got one of those once in a blue moon deals.

Used MiM Strat in perfect shape.. $150.00. It's on hold until 2/17.
But of course, it will be on eBay after I work a little magic on it.

I'll try to squeeze a candid shot of it off. Nothing really good till later.

It still is settling in, but so for it's really nice!!!

[BlueFrogs]

Cool deal Mark!! Can't wait to see the finished product. :)

[fezz parka]

Let's see it!

[Skip]

what those guys said - and let's hear it too! OK?

[photoweborama]

Ok, here are a couple of snap shots. Please excuse the "out of character" photos...

Also, the last two Jam Zone jams I did on this guitar.

Thank you again to Fezz, Butnut, Jim in Texas and CurtisStetka for helping me so much with this project.

It turned out awesome!
I can't ask for a better Tele. Great body, the neck is perfect. The neck is identical to the AmSer Tele I sold, except it does not have staggered tuners.

The pickups sound great, lots of twang, and the neck pickup has TONS of bass.

The threaded bridge is perfect. The strings stay in place, and the intonation is almost perfect. Only two strings are a bit off, and it's less than a cent.

And the 4-way switch is fantastic. Shows you how different Teles are from Strats. I had series switching on my Strat, but it sounded muddy and did not sound good until you added a lot of gain. Very little highs. A Tele in series has tons of highs, and it sounds great clean or dirty!

[butnut]

Looks great man. Glad the pups are workin' for ya too. I knew you'd come back to the Tele...they all do! hehe

[jim in texas]

Mark

You've got some awesome stuff coming from your camera and your workbench......plus it just keeps coming.

Good job.............

[curtisstetka]

Looks fantastic, Mark. I'm really glad that neck worked out for your project. Hopefully you'll get a lot more use out of it than I did.

[photoweborama]

This tele has great vibe; I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it was because so many helped me with it, but it just feels right.

My last tele, even though my wife gave it to me, it just did not feel right.. Maybe it was the modern bridge, I'm not sure.. You know what I mean when a guitar has that right feel.

Maybe it’s the new neck. I find the American necks to be just a bit wider than the Mexican ones. I have an American bridge on my MiM, so it's not string spacing. The neck is just thinner on the MiM's.

[Tele-Bob]

Nice piece. Even better that you like it so much!